Sometime ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it repaired, as there are a lot of antique (古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception.  I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

    The second shop, though a little more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth. I realized that my approach must be wrong so I decided to try another way. I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind.  I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair? Twenty pounds," I said. "OK. I'll give you twenty pounds for it,"he said. "It's got a slightly broken leg," I added. "Yes, I saw that.  It's nothing," the shopkeeper replied.

    Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell after the repair is done.""I'll buy it," I said.  "What do you mean? You've just sold it to me," the man asked in surprise.  "Yes, I know. But I've changed my mind.  I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it." "You must be crazy," he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. He shouted, "I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair." "You're right,"I said, "And what would you have said if I had walked in and asked you to repair my chair?" "I wouldn't have agreed to do it. We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble.  But I'll repair this for you.  Five pounds will be the cost,"the man answered. He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

In ancient China, a woman told the best stories. She married to the emperor (皇帝). Sadly, one day, this woman became ill and died. Everyone thought the emperor would soon find another favorite among his wives, but the emperor was very sad. He spent more and more time in his garden, and less and less time caring for the needs of his people. Everyone in the kingdom was worried.

One day, a priest (牧师) passed when some children were playing with their dolls. The dolls made dancing shadows on the wall. This gave the priest an idea. He knew the stories the emperor's wife used to tell. What if he could bring those stories to life?

    The priest made a puppet (木偶) out of bits of clay (黏土). He painted the puppet to look somewhat like the emperor's wife. When the puppet was finished, the priest silently walked into the emperor's garden, carrying his puppet, a candle and a curtain. He placed the curtain near the emperor's chair. He placed his candle, his puppet and himself behind the curtain. He waited for the emperor to appear.

The emperor did not even notice the curtain at first. The dancing shadow drew his eyes. As the priest moved the puppet behind the curtain, he told wonderful stories as the emperor's wife. It seemed as if his wife was spending time with him. The emperor was no longer sad. At the end of each busy day, the emperor went into his garden to visit his shadow wife and hear her stories once again. That is how shadow puppets first began.

    Once, some fish lived in a pond. One evening, some fishermen passed by the pond and saw the fish. "This pond is full of fish!" They told each other excitedly. "We must come back tomorrow morning and catch them!" they said.

    When the oldest fish heard this, he was troubled. He called the other fish together and said," Did you hear what the fishermen said? We must leave this pond at once. The fishermen will return tomorrow and kill us all!" The second oldest fish agreed. But the youngest fish laughed.  He said," We have lived in this pond all our lives, and no fisherman has ever come here. Why should these men return? I am not going anywhere-my luck will keep me safe."

    The oldest fish left the pond that evening with his family. The second oldest fish saw the fishermen coming the next morning and left the pond with all his family at once. The youngest fish didn't want to leave even then.

    The fishermen caught and killed all the fish left in the pond.

    The first fish that saw trouble ahead and acted before it arrived and the fish who acted as soon as trouble came-both survived. But the fish that only depended on luck and did nothing at all died. It is also the same in life.

    My interest in cooking started when I was 11, partly thanks to my mother. She didn't really like cooking and when she did cook. I didn't like her food. Once I was watching something about cooking on TV and I thought I could do this, so I went to the bookstore and looked for the biggest cookbook I could find.

    During a year, I had made most of its recipes (食谱) and was ready for a bigger challenger (挑战). I wanted to create my own dishes and I started cooking for more people than just my family. To my happiness, my parents allowed me to build a test kitchen. I did much cooking test my dishes in it and my skill became better and better. Now as a teen chef (主厨). I have cooked in top-class restaurants around the country. I am not doing it for money, but because I love cooking.

    Now I know that when you stop caring whether you will be famous or do well, your happiness will come to you.

    Roald Dahl was one of the most successful writers of children's books. He sold millions of books all over the world. Many of his books have been made into films and videos. He is so famous that there is even a Roald Dahl Museum you can visit.

    Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales, Britain. His father was rich but he died when Roald was very young. Roald and his mother lived a hard life. He had to leave school and went to Africa where he worked for an oil company.

    In 1939, Roald became a pilot, but he had a bad accident. It made him limp(瘸的)for the rest of his life. After this, Roald went to America where he wrote a story about his experience as a pilot. It was so good that it was put in a magazine.

    Roald married an American film star. They bought a house in England and had five children. From 1960 to 1965, ：Theo, one of his children, was hit by a taxi and was seriously hurt. Oliva, one of Roald's daughters, died of a strange illness. Soon after this, his wife also had a serious illness. It took her years to get completely better.

    Gradually Roald became more and more successful. He always did his writing in an old shed(棚)at the back of his house. He always sat in the same old armchair with a wooden board on his lap.

    "One of the nice things about being a writer," he once said, "is that all you need is what you've got in your head and a pencil and a bit of paper."

    In 1983 Roald won a big prize for his book The BFG. During his life, Roald wrote many famous books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox.

    After he died in 1990, Roald left money to help people with serious illness and those with problems with reading and writing.