Many years ago， there lived a very rich man who wanted to do something good for the people of his town. But first he wanted to find out if they deserved(值得)his help. So he put a very large stone in the middle of the main road into the town. Then he stood behind a tree waiting and watching.

Soon an old man came along with his cow. “Who put this stone in the center of the road?” said the old man， but he didn't try to move the stone away. He passed around the stone with some difficulties and continued on his way. Another man came along and did the same thing；then another came and another. All of them complained about the stone in the center of the road but nobody tried to move it.

Late in the afternoon a young man came along. He saw the stone and said, “It will be dark at night. Some people will come along later in the dark and will fall over the stone and get hurt.” The young man then began to move the stone. He pushed and pulled and tried everything he could to move it out of the road. But to his surprise， under the stone he found a bag full of money and this message, “This money is for the person who moves this stone from the road. The person deserves help.”

    A man liked shooting arrows (箭). He studied it very hard for years. He thought he did it best and it was time for him to go out into the world.

One day when he walked through a forest, he saw a target (靶子) on a tree, with an arrow right in the center. He went on and found more and more trees with targets and arrows in the center. He was so surprised at this. He wanted to know who did it.

    Soon he came to a farmhouse. An old man told him that he could find the person he wanted by the river. When he got there, he saw a little girl playing with her dog on the bank.

“Are you the person who shoots the arrows?” he asked the girl.

“Yes, that's me,” she replied.

“But how can you do that?” he wondered.

    “That's easy,” said the girl happily. “First shoot an arrow.” Then draw a target.”

    The BFG 《圆梦巨人》is a new film. It is about the Big Friendly Giant (巨人). He lives with nine other bad giants in Giant Country. Every night the nine bad giants eat people, but the BFG doesn't. He only eats vegetables and collects dreams (收集梦想) for children.

    One day, the BFG meets a nice girl in London. Her name is Sophie. She is 10 years old. Sophie has no parents, so he takes her back to his home. Sophie is not happy at first. She wants to run away. But when she gets to know the BFG, they become (成为) good friends. They have fun in the giants' world.

    But other giants soon know about Sophie and they want to eat children in London. Sophie and the BFG find the Queen of England (英国女王) and tell(告诉) her about this danger. At last, the Queen, Sophie and the BFG beat (打败) the bad giants.

    Charles Dickens was an English writer. He was born in 1812. He created some of the world's best-known characters and many readers think he is the most important writer of the Victorian era (1837-1901). Some of his famous novels are Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Most people in his novels lived in London.

    In 1824, Dickens' father went to prison(监狱) because he couldn't pay money to someone. In those days, a man's wife and young children went to prison with him. Charles was 12, so he left school to work in the prison. Life was hard, and a lot of children worked in those days. Dickens' own experience helped him to write about poor children without a mother or father. Dickens' success began with the publication (出版) of The Pickwick Papers in 1836. And his book Oliver Twist is about a boy without father. Important people were more interested in the problems of poor people after reading Dickens' books.

    Dickens' novels are often very long and he wrote them in different parts for a newspaper each week. His novels have a lot of exciting and sad things in them. He wanted his readers to buy the newspaper every week. And the readers wanted to finish the story! Dickens' novels are popular because many of his stories are about social(社会的) problems and family life. Dickens was successful in writing and he has been praised by other writers for his style and characters.

    Many years ago, when I was fresh out of school and working in Denver, I was driving to my parents' home in Missouri for Christmas. I stopped at a gas station(加油站) about 50 miles from Oklahoma City, where I was planning to stop and visit a friend. While I was standing in line at the cash register(收款台), I said hello to an older couple who were also paying for gas.

    I took off, but had gone only a few" miles when black smoke poured from the back of my car. I stopped and wondered what I should do. A car pulled up behind me. It was the couple I had spoken to at the gas station. They said they would take me to my friend's. We chatted on the way into the city, and when I got out of the car, the husband gave me his business card.

    I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note for helping me. Soon afterward, I received a Christmas present from them. Their note that came with it said that helping me had made their holidays meaningful.

    Years later, I drove to a meeting in a nearby town in the morning. In late afternoon I returned to my car and found that I'd left the lights on all day, and the battery(电池) was dead. Then I noticed that the Friendly Ford dealership a shop selling cars was right next door. I walked over and found two salesmen in the showroom.

    "Just how friendly is Friendly Ford?" I asked and explained my trouble. They quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it. They would accept no payment, so when I got home, I wrote them wrote to say thanks. I received a letter back from one of the salesmen. No one had ever taken the time to write him and say thank you, and it meant a lot, he said.

    "Thank you" two powerful words. They're easy to say and mean so much.