Once there was a man and a woman. They had been married for more than 60 years. They kept no secrets from each other except that the old woman had a shoe box under her bed. She told her husband never to open or ask about it.

For all these years， he had never thought about the box. But one day the old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would never get better.

The woman said it was time that he should know what was in the box. The old man took the shoe box to his wife's bedside.

When he opened it， he found two beautiful doilies(装饰小垫) and some money. The money was $25,000.

“When we got married，”she said,“my grandmother told me that the secret of a happy family was never to fight. She told me if every time I got angry with you， I should just keep quiet and crochet(编织) one doily.”

The old man was so moved because only two doilies were in the box. He thought she had only been angry with him twice in all those years.

“My dear，”he said， but what about all the money？ Where did it all come from？”

“Oh，”she said，“that's the money I made from selling the doilies. So far， I have sold 2,500 doilies.”

A

      A month ago, the Greens went along the coast and finally got to Daytona beach (代托纳海滩) to spend their holiday. It was 200 miles away from their home in Florida. They took their pet cat with them. The cat got frightened because of some noise during the holiday. Then it ran away. The Greens looked for their pet for a long time,but they didn't find it. They had to leave for home. In fact, the cat traveled for a long time and got back to Florida after it was lost.

     Luckily, a woman called Sarah in Florida found the cat in her garden.The cat was too weak to make a sound, lying there only. When the pet doctor examined the cat and found a chip (芯片) inside the cat's body. And there was all kinds of information about the cat in the chip. Sarah knew that the Greens were the owner of the cat. Sarah took it home and looked after it quite well. The cat became better after a few days.

     Sarah wanted to sent the cat back to the Greens. However, how did the cat get home far away from 200 miles? Maybe only the cat itself knew it.

      Carol studies at Roosevelt High School. She is having a hard time passing exams. She has no interest in her homework, so she seldom finishes it on time.

     But there is one lesson she is doing well in. It is history. Carol always hands in her history homework on time. She respects the history teacher Mr Aragon. Carol feels that Mr Aragon treats her more than just a student. She feels other teachers look down on her.

      Carol's mother Maria told Mr Aragon that Carol wasn't doing well in her other lessons. Mr Aragon was surprised to learn that. "She is such a smart girl," he told Maria. Mr Aragon told Maria that he would talk to her daughter.

Carol felt embarrassed when Mr Aragon talked to her about the problems she was having in other lessons. But later Carol understood that Mr Aragon just wanted to help her. Mr Aragon and Carol had a discussion about what she could do to improve her marks in other lessons. They made a list of ways to help her to complete her homework on time, including setting a timetable for homework, cutting down some boring after-school activities, and having a friend help her with the homework. Carol decided to try these ways out to see which one would work best for her.

    Anna is a 17-year-old exchange student(交换生) from Russia({俄罗斯). She is now studying art in a university(大学) in France. She's going to stay in France for a year and then she will go back to Russia. Anna comes to France because she thinks Paris is the best place for her to study art. She is now staying with the Black family. She helps Mrs Black do some housework every evening and goes to French classes every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.

    Everything in Paris is new to her. She finds things are quite different from those in Moscow. There are many big shopping malls here, but many things are really expensive. It's also expensive to have a meal in a restaurant or go to the cinema. Now Anna has got used to(习惯于) many things, but she cannot get used to the breakfast in France. "They eat so much in the morning," she often says. "How can you face all that food so early in the day?"

    An Irish priest (牧师) loved going fishing. It was his favourite hobby. However, the weather was so bad this year that he didn't have a chance to go fishing.

    It was very strange that the weather was good every Sunday. But Sunday was the day when he had to go to work. The coming Sunday was good again according to the weather report, so he called another priest and told him that he lost his voice and was in bed with the fever. He asked him to take over his work.

    The priest drove fifty miles to a river so that no one would find him. An angel in Heaven was keeping watch and saw what the priest was doing. He reported it to God. He thought God would do something about it.

    With the first throw of us line, a huge fish bit down the fish food. For over an hour the priest was busy running up and down the river bank to fight the fish. In the end, he landed the large size fish. It was a world record — a Salmon (鲑鱼).

    The angel did not know what was happening and asked God, “Why did you let him catch that huge fish? I thought you were going to teach him a lesson." God replied, "I did. Who do you think he's going to tell?"