An old man was fishing on the bank of a river. A child came to see him fishing. The old man was really good at fishing and it didn't take long for him to catch a full basket of fish. The old man saw that the child was very cute, and he wanted to give her a whole basket of fish. But the child shook her head.

    The old man was surprised and asked, "Why don't you want the fish?"

    The child answered, "I want the fishing rod(竿)in your hands."

    The old man asked, "Why do you want the rod?"

    "It doesn't take long to eat all the fish in a basket. But if I have the fishing rod, I can go fishing by myself and I won't be afraid of not having any more fish to eat."

    I think you will certainly say that the child is very smart. Wrong! If she doesn't know how to fish, she can not have fish to eat, even though she has the fishing rod. It's useless to only have a fishing rod. Fishing skills are the most important, not the fishing rod.

    Too many people think that if they have a "fishing rod" in their life, they will no longer fear(害怕)the wind and rain. They are just like the child, who thought that if she had a fishing rod, she would have fish to eat.

    There are two mice. They are called Bill and Paul. They are good friends. One mouse lives in the country; the other mouse lives in the city. On a sunny day they meet in the street.

Paul: Hi, Bill! Have a look at my house in the country. I'm sure you can enjoy yourself.

Bill: I'd love to. But I hear that the food is not delicious, and your house is not good. Is it so?

Paul: No, that's not true. Go and see!

Then Bill goes to the countryside with Paul.

Bill: Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have better food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city.

Paul: Thanks! Maybe you are right. I'll visit your house one day.

____days later Paul goes to Bill's house in the city. The house is big and beautiful. They are sitting in the sitting-room, having a big dinner comfortably. Suddenly, there a great noise.

Bill: Run! Run! The cat is coming!

Paul: Oh, no! It's terrible! Both the house and the food are nice, but I do not like living in the city. I enjoy living in my hole in the field, for it is nice to be poor but happy than to be rich but afraid.

丹尼今天不小心把书包弄丢了。在学校，朋友们把自己的文具借给了他。丹尼是这样说的：

    The pencil is green. It's not mine. It's my friend Kevin's. The eraser is not Kevin's. It's Sally's. She has three erasers. The red pen is Millie's. The ruler is Millie's, too. The blue notebook is not Millie's. It's John's. What's mine? The key is. It's not in my schoolbag. It's in my jacket. Thank you, Kevin, Sally, Millie and John.

    In the state of Qin (秦国), there was a man called Shang Yang (商鞅). He was a statesman (政治家) and worked out many reforms(改革) for the state, like paying more attention to farming and giving rewards (报酬) to soldiers who were successful when at war.

    But these reforms were not easily carried out (执行) at first. Most people didn't trust Shang

    Yang. In order to solve this problem, Shang Yang came up wiIh an idea. He put a thin wooden pole at the south gate of the Qin capital. Many people came to see him and the pole.

    Then, in front of the crowd, Shang Yang said loudly, "The man who takes this pole to the north gate will get 10 gold pieces."

    It was a sample job and the reward was so large. However, some time passed and no one stepped forward. They all thought Shang Yang was making a joke.

    Hearing no answer, Shang Yang stepped forward and said, "The reward now goes to 50 gold pieces."

    This reward was unbelievably large. Finally, a man from the crowd came forward. He put the pole on his shoulders and walked to the north gate. True to his word, Shang Yang gave the man 50 gold pieces.

    After that, the people of Qin were all talking about what Shang Yang did about the pole. They believed he was a man of his word. So when Shang Yang began carrying out his reforms, the people followed him.

    Under these great reforms, Qin grew stronger and stronger. Al last, Qin made all the seven states into one empire (帝国).

    One day, as a Chinese teacher walked into his classroom, he heard Tom Andrews whisper to another boy, "Here comes the teacher. I'm sure the silly donkey is going to talk about putting in commas(送号). "The teacher said nothing but decided to teach him a good lesson. Now the teacher began his class, and talked about putting in commas, and explained how important they could be. " I'll give you an example, "said the teacher. He wrote on the blackboard the sentence: "Tom Andrews says the Chinese teacher is a foolish donkey. " The class laughed and looked at Tom, Tom looked red and he thought the Chinese teacher also knew English well. " Now, "said the teacher, "Let me show you how important commas are. He put two commas into the sentence and it was. Tom Andrews, says the teacher, is a foolish donkey. " Only at that time Tom knew the importance of commas and felt terribly sorry for his words.