Long ago, a farmer, hard-working, had a wonderful olive orchard(橄榄园). Unluckily, his three sons cared less about his olive orchard. They couldn't wait to be wealthy in a short time.

    When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, "My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

    The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden, but he would tell them nothing more.

    After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold. Since they did not know where it was, they agreed to begin in a line at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.

    They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. The three sons were disappointed to have all their work for nothing.

    The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given. When it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.

    And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, "There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."

    One day when Jack was walking in the park, he saw a woman, who lived a few miles away, sitting on a bench(长凳) with a dog beside her. The dog was looking up at the woman.

    Jack walked up to the woman and said, "Hello, Sue, how are you? May I sit and talk with you for a while?" "Of course, please sit down," Sue said. Jack sat down next to Sue on the bench, and they talked quietly together. The dog continued to look up at Sue, as if waiting to be fed.

    "That's a nice dog, isn't he?" Jack said, pointing(指着) at the animal.

    "Yes, he is. He's handsome. He's a bit of a mixture(杂交品种), but that's not a bad thing. He's strong and healthy."

    "And hungry," Jack said. "He hasn't taken his eyes off you. He thinks you've got some food for him."

    "That's true," Sue said. "But I haven't."

    They both laughed and then Jack said, "Does your dog bite?"

    "No," Sue said, "He's never bitten anyone. He's always gentle and friendly."

    Hearing this, Jack decided to hold out his hand and touched the animal's head. Suddenly it jumped up and bit him.

    "Hey!" Jack shouted. "You said your dog didn't bite."

    Sue answered in surprise, "Yeah, I did. But this is not my dog. Mine's at home."

The sun is shining and the birds are singing around. On such a 1 morning, a UFO lands in a forest. A boy called Bill is just watching it behind a tree. 

Suddenly, a tall alien* comes out of the UFO. He wears a silver suit and starts picking up 2 . One by one, he takes photos of them with a camera. When he finishes, he puts the flowers into a large box.

The alien thinks he sees something move and asks, "Is anybody there?" Bill doesn't answer. 

The alien 3 the looker and sees the boy behind the trees. "Oh, there is someone. Hello!" the alien says, "It's all right. You can come closer." 

"What are you doing?" Bill asks. 

"I'm 4 flowers," the alien says.

"Flowers? For what?" asks Bill.

"I'm going to take them back to my planet*," says the alien. 

"Aren't there any flowers on 5 ?" asks Bill.

"No, our planet doesn't have flowers for a long time." The alien says 6 , "We have too much litter, we cut down too many trees, 7 now it's like a desert*. There is almost no water any more. All of the flowers and trees that lived on our planet are gone." 

"That's terrible," says Jim "Is anyone doing 8 about it?" 

"Yes ... That's 9 I'm here and we want to find plants from other planets. We use them to learn about water. I believe someday water will come back to our planet." 

"Wow," Bill said. "What's the name of your planet?"

It's called Rozul," the alien says, "Long ago, it was very beautiful. If we work hard, someday Rozul will be 10 again." And then the alien goes back to the UFO. Bill says goodbye as the UFO slowly goes up into the air and flies away.

"Jobie Nymble from Class 3 Grade 9 wins the first prize in the girls' 100-meter hurdles!" crowd cheered.

"Next is the city match. Here we come!" Jobie said to her green training shoes. They looked of dirty but she didn't care. They were her lucky shoes and she treasured them. She expected to take the gold next Saturday with the shoes on. Jobie trained with excitement all week long. At track practice, she jumped over those hurdles faster than she'd ever done before.

The day before the match was her teammate Marisol's birthday at Hidden Park. Jobie put on favorite clothes and her lucky training shoes. The birthday party was crowded and there she saw the BIGGES Tslide (滑梯) she had ever seen. Without thinking twice, Jobie took off her shoes and ran toward the slide. She tried the slide again and again. When it was finally time to go home, she went back to the place where she'd left her shoes. As she eyed the area from a distance, a sense of dread set in. The closer she got, the faster her heart beat. When she reached the place, her heart stopped. Her lucky shoes disappeared. Jobie's teammates helped her search the park. No lucky shoes. "Goodbye, gold," Jobie cried.

The next day, the best teams got together at Hidden Park. Soon it was time for girls' 100-meter hurdles. Jobie's teammates cheered her up as she slowly walked to the starting line, her feet getting wet in her new shoes.

Runners were ready now. Jobie had just raised her eyes and something familiar on the bleacher (看台) caught her eyes. Her shoes! Someone must have found them and put them there.

In a flash, Jobie was off. She set fully focus on her lucky shoes as she cleared hurdle after hurdle. Closer and closer she got. Just one more hurdle and— "Number 52, Jobie Nymble, takes the gold for Riverside School," said the speaker.

Jobie picked up her lucky shoes and rushed to her teammates. Marisol cried out, "Jobie, you broke a record for the hurdles!" Then she added, "Lucky you."

"Lucky me?" Jobie questioned at first. Then, after a minute, she looked down at her feet and smiled. No lucky shoes. Smiling with joy, Jobie said to herself, "Lucky Me."

A student walks into the teacher's office with his heavy schoolbag slowly and looks worried. "What's happening?" the teacher asks. He tells a lot of small things that make him really unhappy. Then the teacher stops working and decides to do something to help the little boy.

He asks the student to get a glass of water and some salt* from a box. The teacher asks the student to put the salt into the glass of water and drink it.

"How does it taste*?"the teacher asks.

"It doesn't taste good."the student answers.

The teacher doesn't say anything else, but asks the student to get the same amount* of salt and go with the teacher to a nearby lake.

"Put the salt into the lake,"the teacher says. The student does what the teacher says.

"Now, taste the water from the lake,"the teacher says.

The student gets some water from the lake with his hands and tastes, the teacher asks,"How does it taste?"

"Fresh and a bit sweet,"the student answers quickly.

"Do you taste the salt?"the teacher asks.

"No,"the student shakes his head.

The teacher sits beside the student,"The pain* of life is just like salt—no more, no less.

However, how salty it tastes depends* on the container* you put the pain in."

"How do you feel now?"asks the teacher.

The student looks at the teacher with a big smile. He feels much better now.

"Thank you for giving me such a lesson. I think I will never forget the taste of them and learn to be a lake."