I'm a Chinese boy. My name is Zhao Ming. I am in No. 34 Middle School. I am in Class 1.My English teacher is Mr. Wang. My Chinese teacher is Miss Wu. They（他们） are good teachers. I love them. I have a good friend. His name is Tom. He is an English boy. I love him, too.

    I never saw my father home from work late or ill, nor did I ever see my father take a “night out with the boys.” He had no hobbies but just take care of his family.

    For 22 years, since I left home for college, my father called me every Sunday at 9:00am. He was interested in my life--how my family was doing. The calls even came when he and my mother in Australia, England or Florida.   

    Nine years ago when I bought my first house, my father, 67 years old, spent eight hours for three days, painting my house. He would not allow me to pay someone to have it done. All he asked was a glass of iced tea, and that I hold a paintbrush for him and talk to him. But I was too busy, and I could not take the time to hold the paintbrush, or talk to my father. 

    Five years ago, my 71-year-old father spent five hours putting together a swing set(秋千) for my daughter. Again, all he asked was that I get him a glass of iced tea, and talk to him. But again, I had laundry(要洗的衣服) to do, and the house to clean. The morning on Sunday, January 16, 1996, my father telephoned me as usual, this time he had seemed to have forgotten something we had discussed the week before .I had to get to church, and I cut the conversation short. 

    The call came at 4:40 a.m. That day my father was sent to hospital in Florida. I got on a plane immediately, and I vowed (发誓)that when I arrived, I would make up for the lost time, and have a nice long talk with him and really get to know him. I arrived in Florida at 1:00 a.m. but my father had passed away at 9:12 p.m. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or time to wait for me. 

    In the years since his death I have learnt much about my father and even more about myself. As a father, he never asked me for anything but my time. Now he has all my attention, every single day. 

    Once Effendi had a joke with the Prime Minister (宰相). He said that the Minister would die the next day. The next day, the Minister fell to the ground from the horse and really died. When the king learned this, he got angry and sent his men to catch Effendi at once.

    When Effendi was brought to him, the king shouted angrily, “Effendi, since you knew when my Minister would die, you must know the date of your own death. Say it out, or you'll die today.” Effendi looked at the king for a while. Then he answered, “But how can I know？I'll die two days earlier than you.” The king was afraid that if he killed Effendi, he himself would die after that. He thought he must keep Effendi alive as long as possible, so he let Effendi go.

    Hi! I'm Maria. I have two boys. Tom is three years old and Tim is one year old. My family moved into an apartment a few months ago. Our house is on the second floor. But our neighbour downstairs complains at least once a day and we have got her note, saying "Please stop running and jumping on the floor."

    Since then, I have to do everything to keep the boys busy or out of the apartment during the day, but this can't stop my kids from making noise. They are just children under the age of four. Now the lady downstairs often bangs the walls when my boys run and jump in the rooms.

    However, she often plays movies loudly late at night. The noise wakes up my children at night and makes them cry.

    At the same time, we have another problem. The person on the third floor often walks too hard and wakes up my boys at 5:30 a.m. , but I think we have to face it.

    Usually my boys are sleeping from about 8:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. the next day. At least they don't annoy the neighbour downstairs during the hours.

    Tom is ten years old. He loves watching TV. But for one year, he didn't watch TV at all. What was the reason? Tom's parents said they would give him $600 if he didn't watch TV for a year. Tom's parents thought he watched TV too much.

    One day his mother read a story in a newspaper about a boy who didn't watch TV for a year. She showed the story to Tom. Tom liked the idea. He turned off the TV right away, and said," It doesn't trouble me not to watch TV. I just want the money. "At first, Tom's parents were very happy. Tom read books and newspapers, played outside, and played computer games, but soon he got bored.

    Every evening, he asked his parents." What are we doing tonight?" Sometimes his mother and father wished he would watch TV just for one evening. Tom always said," No, it would cost me money!" Finally the year was over, Then Tom started watching his favorite TV shows all day again. Tom got the money from his parents. What did he plan to do with the $600?"I want to buy myself a TV set!" he said.

    A poor man worked for a rich man. The rich man made the poor man work all day, but didn't give him enough food. So the poor man often felt hungry.

    One day, when the poor man was having breakfast, the rich man came in and said to the poor man, "It's very troublesome to come back for the other meals. So I want you to have your breakfast, lunch and dinner together now before you go to the fields. ""How can I eat three meals at breakfast time?" the poor man thought but he said, "All right. He finished his meals and went out. Two hours later, the rich man went out for a walk, he saw the poor man sleeping under a tree. He was very angry and said, "Why don't you work in the fields?" The poor man sat up and said with a smile," I've already had my dinner and you know very well that after dinner it is time to go to sleep."