Mr. Green lives in a village. He has a few farms and is the richest there. And he has pigs, chickens, cows and sheep. He works in the fields with some workers, and his wife had to do all the housework at home. So she is very busy and asks her husband to employ( 雇) a girl to help her, but he doesn't agree.

    "There are so many chickens, dear," said the woman one day. "I can't look after them at all."

    "That's easy," said Mr. green." There's Mr. Black's farm outside our enclosing walls (围墙).We'd better make a few holes in the walls and the chickens will go to his farm through them and eat his vegetables."

    And soon Mr. Black found it. He told Mr. Green and his wife about it. They promised they would stop their chickens doing it but they didn't keep their promise at all. Mr. Black thought for a while and found a way. He put nearly 20 eggs near the holes one afternoon. And that evening, when Mrs. Black was counting her chickens, she called out on her farm, "Oh, I'm lucky today! I've found twenty eggs on my farms."

    Of course, Mrs. Green saw it herself. And the next morning Mr. Black found all the holes had been stopped up(堵死).

    As a volunteer teacher, I traveled a long way to a small village school in Longzhou, Guangxi. On my way there, I thought about the village, the school, and the children there. However, my heart sank when I arrived there. It wasn't what I expected. It didn't look like a school at all! The school had only three rooms, one for Grades 1, 2 and 3, and the other for Grades 4, 5 and 6. There was a third one for me.

    The children welcomed me warmly on my first day. They asked me a lot of questions, and I told them stories about myself and my life in Beijing. The next day, I gave them a test to find out their level（水平）. To my surprise, though the test was very easy, over half of the students couldn't pass it. I knew they needed me.

    I was busy preparing lessons, reading test papers every night. I enjoyed teaching these lovely and hard-working children, and I could see that they were making progress with my help. I have also learned a lot from them. I understand their lives better, and we are now good friends.

    I have worked in Longzhou for a year now. I'm happy, and the experience has been very useful for me. I love the small village and the children. In fact, I would like to continue working here.

    Maria lived near a forest. She often played with the animals in the forest. They were all her friends.

    One day, Maria walked into the forest to play with her animal friends. But to her surprise, the forest was very quiet and the animals weren't there! Maria hurried back to tell her parents. Her parents returned to the forest with Maria. The forest was still very quiet. But Maria's father noticed a little monkey behind a big tree.  The monkey was dying! They tried to save it. But the monkey was too weak. Before it died, the monkey told them the truth(真相)：a ghost(魔鬼)wanted to get the forest, so he asked all the animals to go away.

    Maria and her parents were very angry. They decided to drive the ghost away. They asked their friends and neighbors to help them. The ghost was strong but the people were stronger. At last, the ghost left and the animals returned to the forest happily.

    On a farm lived a father and a son. The father always got up early and read books by the stove. One morning, the son came up to him and said, "Dad, I read books at night but forget most of them the next morning. What's the good of reading?"

    The father didn't reply to his question at once. He passed him a basket that was used to carry coal. He said, "Get some water from the river with the basket and then I'll tell you the answer."

    The son felt surprised but he did as his father said. He tried many times but every time the water leaked (漏掉) from the basket.

    An hour later, the son came back with the empty basket and told his father it was impossible to hold water with the basket. The father said with a smile, "Yes, you are right, my son. The basket can't hold water. But did you notice the basket was different? "The son found the dirty basket had become clean. The father continued, "Reading is like holding water with the basket. Although we can't remember all we read, we have changed while reading."