B

    Many years ago in Japan, a farmer and his wife had three children, two boys and a girl. The boys helped their parents on the farm. The girl was small and weak. She was often ill. She spent her time drawing cats. Her parents didn't like her, so they took her to the temple ( 寺庙 ) .

    In the temple the girl drew cats all day long. The other people in the temple tried to stop her, but she didn't listen. So they asked the girl to leave the temple.

    The girl came to a town. She didn't have any money, so she had to stay in an empty house outside the town. Inside the house, there was only a mat (垫子 ) on the floor, a light near the window, and a large paper screen ( 屏风 ) . The girl drew some cats on the paper screen. She drew cats of every kind. When the screen was full of cats, she lay down on the mat and went to sleep.

    The next morning, when the girl woke up, she was very surprised - there was a very large dead mouse in the middle of the house! People in the town said, "The girl's cat drawings came to life ( 复活 ) at night. They saved the girl from the large mouse."

    The girl left the town and went on her way. Everywhere she went, people wanted to buy her cat drawings. Soon, she became one of the most famous artists in Japan. When you visit Japan, you might be able to see one of her pictures.

    We often hear stories of animals rescuing people .But now someone has managed to return the favor .

The event took place one snowy January morning Thomas Smith was walking his dog, Jack, in the park." As I was walking, I just saw Jack running onto the ice towards the ducks in the middle, and then he fell into the water and couldn't climb out, "said Smith. He realized he had no choice but to try and save his dog." someone else told me the lake was only one - meter deep, but it was at least twice that. I had to break my way through the 6- cm ice. Finally, I got Jack by the neck, and pulled him out. I don't think I have ever felt so cold by the time we got back to dry land. And when we got there, everyone was asking if Jack was okay—— no one was particularly worried, about me!"

    A neighbor, Julie Brown, saw it all happen."The dog went onto an icy lake. All of a sudden, it started to go under. There were crowds of people around, and they were all shouting and screaming. Before I knew it, the owner Smith was in the water forcing his way through the ice. I can't begin to imagine how cold it was. Everyone was very nervous, but he was as cool as a cucumber — he just crawled back out, put the dog on its lead, and went home."

    Many regard him as a hero, but Mr. Smith is quite laid- back about it."Most dog owners are the same as me.They would do what I did without a second thought. But in the future, I'm going to make sure he's on lead near any ice ponds,

    Pets are members of our family. Would you do the same for them?

    Who were your best friends five years ago? Is there anyone you would really like to see again? In 1999, Julie Pankhurst, a computer programmer from London, was thinking about her past-and especially the people she used to go to school with.

    Julie looked on the Internet for a website to help her find her old school friends. But there was nothing. So Julie and her husband, Steve, started their own website. They called it Friends Reunited.

    The site grew slowly at first, but soon they received their first "thank you" email. The man wrote, "Thank you so much. Using your website, I found an old friend from thirty years ago！"Julie and Steve were very excited about this and continued to improve their website. By the end of 2000, there were 3,000 members.

    The next year was really hard work for the couple.

    In January, a national radio station mentioned their website. Their membership doubled in one week! People were talking about the website all over the country, and it became a full-time job for Julie and Steve. In a year, they had four million members!

    Now, over fifteen million people in lots of different countries use Friends Reunited to find old school friends, work colleagues and neighbors. Some of the stories which people tell Julie and Steve are amazing. For example, David Webster lost his memory in a car crash. He used the website to find old school friends, and they helped him remember his past.

    Julie's simple idea gave us a national obsession（痴迷）-getting in touch with old friends and hearing their news. And it made her and Steve very rich in 2005, they sold Friends Reunited for ￡120 million!

    As the first report of the accident came in, Burton was sitting in his office on tile top floor of the building, Immediately, realizing the seriousness of the whole incident, he moved to a ground floor room with a small waiting-room to look into the matter himself, leaving his second in-command to take over all other cases.

    He interviewed the first witness almost at once, making sure that every thing was done that could be done to put him at his ease. However, the witness was obviously nervous and Burton took great pains to go over what he said thoroughly, choosing and checking each word carefully and taking the man's statement down himself. The witness had called the police, and he'd waited until the ambulances began to arrive then. When the first police car arrived on the scene, he'd been asked to report to the station which was what he had done.

    Burton explained that regrettably it would be necessary for him to go to court because of the serious nature of the disaster. More he could not say at present. He'd be grateful if the man could keep in touch with the police.

    When he had gone, Burton put his head in his hands and considered before asking for the next witness. The man couldn't be regarded as a hundred percent witness because he had been behind a wall when the explosion occurred. But in spite of his nerves, Burton had the impression that he was reliable, not afraid of incriminating himself to it and a fairly accurate observer.

    Well, there would be other accounts and no doubt all these would be slotted into place like a jigsaw and the whole picture would become clear. He raised his bead and pressed the buzzer on his desk.

    "Next witness, please." he said.

    Clark and Dale were staying in the same room in hospital. Clark was so sick that he could not even move his body. He had to spend all his time lying on his back. Dale could sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon. His bed was next to the room's only window.

    Over time, Clark and Dale became good friends. Every afternoon, Dale would look out of the room's only window, describing the scenery outside for his friend. He told Clark about the flowers in a park outside the window, the people walking by, the green trees beside the roads—anything that might interest a man.

    On morning, when a nurse came only to check the two men, she found that Dale had died in his sleep. As soon as the room seemed tidy again. Clark asked if he could move to the bed next to the window so that he could look out of the window himself. The nurse agreed. Slowly, he could take his first look at the world outside. To his surprise, he could see nothing but a blank wall of another building.

    The nurse explained that Dale had been blind. He had never seen anything outside the window at all—but he described beautiful scenes to help his friend better.