Alan, a boy from India went to study in the UK two years ago. He found a part-time job in a restaurant. Many British students also worked there. Their job was washing the dishes. It was an easy job, but the boss said, "You must wash every dish seven times." At first, Alan was careful. The boss was happy with him. After one month, he found that the boss didn't check very often. He thought there was no difference between five times and seven times. So he just washed five times. He worked very fast. The boss was even happier. One day, a British student asked him why he could wash so fast. Alan told him the secret. The British student was surprised but didn't say anything. A few days later he told the boss about it. The boss fired (解雇) Alan.

    Alan went to other restaurants, but all of them said, "Go away! You are not honest. We don't need you." Alan was sad because he could do nothing.

A

    Yao Ming is a very good basketball player in the world. He is 25 years old. He was born in Shanghai, but he lives in the USA with his parents now. Yao Ming is quite tall. But he isn't so strong. He was in the Rockets Team after he left (离开)China. He plays very well in the NBA. Many people come to his match(比赛) in America. Lots of Chinese young men watch the matches on TV. Yao Ming wants to be a superstar one day.

    Tina woke up at midnight. She looked out of her window and saw a yellow light in the sky. It suddenly dived towards the ground. She heard a noise and saw a red light.

    The next morning, Tina mentioned it to her brother Tom. "I'm sure something landed in the forest near the hills as I heard a loud noise last night" she said, "Let's go there and have a look after school."

    At 6 p.m., Tina and Tom reached the forest. They heard some voices speaking a strange language, so they hid behind some gees and kept quiet. Then they saw an alien! It was tall, with a round head and a silver body. It was standing next to a long spaceship.

    The children were frightened. Suddenly, another alien appeared from the trees in front of them. It discovered them and made a terrible noise! The children ran away in fear.

    The next morning, Tina and Tom told their parents about the strange aliens. "They were very ugly. They had some hair, but they didn't have any feathers." said Tina.

    "There was something written on the spaceship," said Tom. "It looked like this. I wonder what it means." He drew some lines on a piece of paper.

    But Dad said, "Since no one else saw these aliens. I refuse to believe you. Now go to school!"

    The children opened their wings and flew to school together.

    Dad looked at the piece of paper with the strange marks on it. "It looks strange," he said, as he looked at the word "EARTH".

    I'm a Russian student. Last year I came to China for a holiday. It took me 8 hours to arrive in Beijing by plane. It was 11pm when I arrived at the airport. I was tired and wanted to find a hotel.

    The airport was big and black. I didn't know where a hotel was. I saw a Chinese girl in front of me. I studied a little Chinese before, but I couldn't speak well. I spoke to her in Chinese. She couldn't understand me. I asked again and again. At last, she understood. She asked me in Russian, "Are you from Russia?" She could speak Russian well. She told me where the nearest hotel was and sent me to the hotel. What a friendly girl she was!