Three travelers, Allan, Carl and Paul were sitting on the chairs in a train station. They were waiting for a train that was late.

      To pass the time, they began talking to each other.

      At first, they talked about the weather and their work. Then Paul said, “Tell me-what would you most like to do if your doctor tells you that you have only three months to live?"

      The other two men thought about this for a while, then Carl spoke.

      "Well," he said, "if I have only three months to live, I'll take all my money out of the bank and go to foreign countries for holidays with my best friend, Erik. I'd like to travel to the places in the world as many as possible. And I'll stay at the best hotels and then eat the best food. I think I'll have a wonderful time."

      "That's very interesting." Paul said. With these words, he turned to the other man, saying, "And what about you?"

"I'll tell you a secret," Allan said. "I always want to be a racing driver. So if I have only three months to live, the first thing I'd like to do is to sell my house. With the money I'll buy the fastest car in the world. Maybe I can enter all the big motor races. " Then he laughed, "I might even end up with (以......而告终) a world champion."

      "Now it's your turn," Allan went on. "If your doctor tells you the bad news, what would you most like to do?"

        "Oh," said Paul with a smile. "I'll go and see another doctor."

    Every year on my birthday since I was 11, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card ever came with it. Calls to the flower shop were not helpful at all. After some time I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and was just pleased with the beautiful flower, in soft pink paper.

I couldn't stop imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments werespent daydreaming(幻想 )about the sender. My mother encouraged these daydreams. She'd ask me if I had been especially kind to someone. Perhaps it was one of my classmates Perhaps it was the old man who I once helped. As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy that I had met.

    A month before my high school graduation(毕业), my father died. I was so sad that I became completely uninterested in my coming graduation dance, and I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. My mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss (过) any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia: lovely, strong and perfect.

    My mother died ten years after I was married. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

    Whenever there's a terrible storm, there are plenty of sad stories. Many people lost their houses, their cars and their pets. But sometimes these stories have happy endings too.

    A family in New Jersey, US, had a cat named Vivien. She is very smart. She could even draw with her wet paws on the floor. They all love her very much. When hurricane (飓风) Sandy hit America in October, they moved to a safer place-13km away from home. Sadly Vivien went missing. The whole family were worried about her. They put up posters on the Internet to look for her. All the nine family members searched wherever they thought she could stay, but they didn't find it. The family thought Vivien was gone forever.

    But six months later, Vivien showed up at their house, according to Yahoo News. They considered her return as a wonder. No one can be sure where Vivien was for all that time.

    Many animals are good at finding their way home. People usually say that dogs and cats find their way home through using their sense of smell.

    But that doesn't explain how Vivien found her way back. Hurricane Sandy blew away the normal smells of home.

    "I wish she could talk," said her owner.

Alice in Wonderland

Chapter 2

    Alice was not hurt, so she jumped to her feet in a moment. She looked up, and found the White Rabbit was still in sight. She was close behind it when she turned the comer, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen. She found herself in a long, low hall.

    There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked.

    Alice walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

    Suddenly, she came upon a little three-legged table. There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall.

    But, alas! Either the locks were too large, or the key was too small. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before and behind it was a little door.

    She tried the little golden key in the lock, and she was pleased to find it fitted!

    Victor's hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That's right-stamps.

    Victor's favourite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition. It was very hard to find.

    He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.

    "Don't worry. Never give up," his father said to him. If you have enough patience, you'll find it one day.

    "I hope so," Victor said

    Victor also liked writing. He had a penfriend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor's penfriend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip's mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father. "You see," his father said. "You did find your stamp. So it's good to have two things in life."

    "What are they?" Victor asked.

    "Friends and patience," he answered.