There was once a man who couldn't sleep well because he was afraid that there was a stranger under his bed. He thought that as soon as he went to sleep, the stranger would come out from the bed and rob him. He was worried that the stranger might even kill him!

    Every night, after he got into bed, the man had to get up again and looked under the bed. There was never anyone there, but as soon as he got back into bed, he had to get up and looked under the bed again. This went on for hours until at last he fell asleep from exhaustion.

    The time came for the man to get married. He didn't tell his wife about his fears but she soon found out because he kept her awake all night.

  “You must go to see a doctor,” she told him. “He will make you become well. You won't have such silly fear again.”

    The man did as his wife told him. He told the doctor his problem, and the doctor said, “You can be well again, but it will take about two years. You must come and see me three times a week. The cost for each visit will be $75.”

    The next day the man called the doctor and said, “I won't need to visit you again. I'm well now.”

    The doctor was surprised. “How?” he asked. “Who made you get well?”

  “My wife did,” the man said. “When I told her how much I would have to pay you, she cut the legs off the bed.”

Jane Goodall is a famous scientist. For more than 40 years, Goodall lived mostly in Tanzania in East Africa, studying chimpanzees.

    As a young child, Jane Goodall was interested in animals. She grew up in the English countryside and was always climbing trees or riding horses.

When Jane was 23, she got a chance to go to Africa even though she had never been to college，she got a job with a famous scientist named Louis Leakey.

One day Louis Leakey said he needed a volunteer. He needed someone to go to a lake in Tanzania to study a kind of chimpanzees. Jane was excited.

    On July 16,1960, she began her exploration（探索）. At first, the chimpanzees ran away from Jane. But with time passing，they got used to her being around.

    Every day，Jane would follow the chimpanzees，taking notes on their behavior. She learned many new things about chimpanzees. She watched how a chimpanzee made a tool. She learned how some chimpanzees became good leaders. She watched how mother chimpanzees raised their children. She watched animals get angry and get upset. She wrote everything down so others would understand animals as she did. She learned that if you pay really close attention to animals，you will understand what they are “saying”.

  Yesterday Peter felt very sorry because he forgot (忘记) to say “Happy Birthday” to his uncle . So he wrote a letter to his uncle : “My dear uncle, I'm very sorry because I forgot your birthday. But to teach me a lesson, you'd better (最好) forget my birthday on Tuesday, tomorrow.”

Cordia Harrington owns three McDonald's restaurants in Illinois. Being a single mom, she is very successful. Now let's talk about her story.

    Ray Charles，a black singer and pianist of the USA．He had won 12 Grammy Awards （格莱美奖） and performed at 10，000 concerts around the world．Many musicians called him simply"the Genius"（天才）．

    Ray Charles was born into a poor family，without a father．When he was 5 years old，his younger brother died，and around the same time，Charles started to lose his sight．By the age of 7he was completely blind．He had already been learning the piano for a year，and when he went blind，his mother knew this would be the only way he would make any money in the future．All his life，Charles remembered her saying："Do it right，or don't do it at all．"

    Later he went to a school for blind and deaf children．There the teachers also encouraged him to study music．Sadly，while he was still at school，his mother died．He left school and in the early 1950s Charles organized a group of players．He sang，played the piano and wrote music．

    He made many classical CDs with famous artists such as Elton John and the Beatles．

    In 2003 a film of his life Ray was made．The part of Charles was played by a younger actor and musician called Jamie Foxx．The film director brought Foxx to meet Charles．After they had been playing together for two hours，Charles，then aged 73，jumped up and said："He's the one…he can do it．"A year later Charles died aged 74．The film of his life has been as popular as his songs and means that the memory of Charles'music will live on．

    When I was a child, I was a tomboy(假小子). I had a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. My brothers were two and four years older than I. We often played games together.

    Once, my brothers and I fell in love with playing a game called "stealing horses". Then my parents decided to buy my brothers guns. These were not "real" guns. Because I was a girl, I didn't get a gun. They shot and shot at everything with their new guns. I tried to "fight" them with my bow and arrows (弓和箭). But I was still in the poor position without a gun.

    One day while I was hiding behind a wall, looking out toward the fields, I felt a terrible blow to my right eye. I looked up just in time to see my brother lower his gun. Both brothers rushed to my side. My eye felt great pain and I covered it with my hand. "If you tell that to Mummy," they said, "We will get a whipping(鞭打) from Daddy. You don't want that to happen, do you?" I did not. "Here is a piece of wire(电线)," said the older brother, picking it up from the floor, "Say you stepped on one end of it and the other flew up and hit you." "Yes," I said. To be honest, I didn't want them to be punished. So I did as my brothers told me to do.

    A week after the "accident" my parents took me to see a doctor. Finally I knew my brothers were worried about my eye, so they told our parents what had happened and asked them to take me to see a doctor.