My Family Is Very Poor
    A little boy comes to a new city. His name is Peter. Of course（当然）, he lives with his mother and father. His family is very rich（富裕的）. They have a driver（司机） and a lot of servants（仆人）.
    Peter is going to a new school. On the first day his parents say to him, "peter, be modest（谦虚的）at your new school. Don't say we are rich. "And Peter says, "Yes, Dad, mom. ”
    So Peter goes to school. He sees his new teacher. And he sits down with the other children. The teacher says. “Good morning，children. The first exercise today is a composition（作文）. The topic（题目） of the composition is "My Family".So every child writes a composition. This is Peter's composition:
  “My name is Peter. My family is very poor（贫穷）. Both my father and my mother are very poor. Our driver is very poor and all the servants are poor…”

Our village carpenter（木匠）, John Hill, came one day and made a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I got home that evening, John was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill（账单）for his job.

My wife said to me quietly, “That's his ninth cup of tea today.” But she said in a loud voice, “It's a beautiful table, dear, isn't it?” “I'll decide about that when I see the bill,” I said. John laughed and gave me his bill for the work. I read:

One dining table                        10^th November, 2011

      Cost of wood                  ＄17.00

      Paint                         ＄1.50

      Work, 8 hours(＄1 an hour)       ＄8.00

      Total                         ＄36.50  

When I was looking at the bill, John said, “It's been a fine day, hasn't it? Quite sunny.”

“Yes,” I said. “I'm glad it's only the 10^th of November.”

“Me, too,” said John, “you wait—it will be a lot colder by the end of the month.”

“Yes, colder—and more expensive! Dining tables will be ＄20 more expensive on November 30^th, won't they, John?”

John looked hard at me for half a minute. Was there a little smile in his two blue eyes? I gave his bill back to him.

“If it's not too much trouble, John,” I said, “please add it up again. You can forget the date…”

I paid him ＄26.50 and he was happy to get it.

    Hello, I am a box. I am big and I am green. I have many things. Look! This is a pencil box. It's white. It's Jack's. He likes white very much. What are in the pencil box? Three pens are in it. What is that? It's an orange. It's Linda's. Oranges are her favorite fruit. Some baseballs are in me, too. They are John's and Mary's. They lost them on the playground. Whose keys are these? They are Anna's. She lost them in the library. A boy found them. You can see an English book in me, too. Whose book is it? I don't know. Who am I? I am the Lost and Found box.

    Henry is nine years old. It is half a kilometer from his home to school, so he goes to school on foot every day. He usually gets home at five in the afternoon.

    It was Thursday, and he came home one hour late. When he came home, his mother asked him, “Why are you late, Henry?”

    “My math teacher Mr. Smith is very angry (生气的）with me and asks you to go to his office tomorrow.”

    “Why does Mr. Smith ask me to go to his office?” his mother asked. “He asked us a question and no one could answer it, but I could.”

    “What a clever boy! Then what was his question?” his mother asked with a big smile.

    “His question was ‘Who put some ice-cream on my chair and made my trousers dirty? "said Henry.

    On a Wednesday night, a young man was playing the guitar at the underground station. Some people stopped and put some money into his hat.

    The next day, the young man came to the underground station again. There was a large piece of paper next to his hat. It said，"Last night, a kind man named Chris put something important into my hat. Please come to get it back soon."

    About half an hour later, an old man came and the young man said，"Yes, I knew you would come back."

    "What did you lose？"asked the young man. "$800，000，"answered the old man.

    Then the young man took out a check(支票)and gave it back to the old man. The old man was so happy and thanked the young guitar player.

    One afternoon, Kate and her brother, Bob, went out to play. Kate was eight, and Bob was ten. "Let's go to the bridge and we can see fish in the river," said Kate.

    "I don't know..." Bob said. "Mum told us, 'Don't go on the bridge.' She said it's dangerous."

    Kate said, "I am not afraid. Are you?" They walked onto the bridge and began looking for fish in the river. The bridge was a train bridge. Trains went over the bridge three times a day.

    The children were standing in the middle of the bridge when they heard a loud noise. "A train is coming!" Bob shouted. "Run!" He ran to the end of the bridge. He was safe.

    Kate ran, too, but she fell. The train was coming fast. Kate ran towards Bob. She fell again right on the train tracks (铁轨). There was no time to leave. She had to lie down between the tracks. A few seconds later, the train went over the girl, but she was not hurt at all. She stood up and said to Bob, "Don't tell Mum! Don't tell Mum!"

    At last their mother found out about the story. She was angry because they went on the bridge. But she was happy that Kate was all right.