In today's society, everyone seems very busy every day. We fee l our time is valuable and needs to be used well. We need cheap meal ideas that can help us save time and money and still offer a healthy dinner to us and our family.

    The fast food makers know we have little time and don't pay attention to what we eat after a long day at work. So they often offer us cheap food that requires(需要) no cooking or cleaning, and only a short time to pick up.

    But eating so much fast food will cause body fatness and fast food is not nutritious(有营养的), so it's not the best choice. There are some very cheap meal ideas that take almost no time to prepare and will make coming home for a good meal more enjoyable.

    The first cheap meal idea is one dish including meat, rice, and also some cabbages, carrots or tomatoes. This is not only a cheap meal idea, but also it is fast because it can be made in only 20 minutes.

    You can quickly make some pancakes and scrambled eggs for the family in about half an hour. If you think it is strange to eat breakfast food for dinner, consider how the same foods give you what you need to go through a whole day.

    Another cheap meal idea to try is a “macaroni(通心粉) and cheese with meat” dish, which is the fastest, only takes around 15 minutes to cook.

    If you are interested in these cheap meal ideas, you're welcome to visit our website for details. When you fix one of these or other cheap meal ideas at home, you are taking time out of your busy day to treat yourself and your family in a special way.

    In the UK, bus journeys are very common. Buses are often convenient(便利的) for the people who live or work in the city centre. Passengers can avoid heavy traffic and do not have to pay for the parking. However, taking the bus is just a necessary but boring part of life: They get on the bus, pay for it and sit down or find a place to stand when it is crowded. Everyone seems sad and bored.

    In Latin America, however, bus trips can be wonderful. For a start, films are showed on the buses between cities for passengers to have fun along the journeys. Local buses do not show films, but drivers usually turn on the radio and it can be great for passengers to listen to songs and get relaxed.

    Even better than films and music are the sights and sounds on the buses. Local buses always go to parts of the town that passengers would not visit by themselves. There passengers can see shops that they have never heard about. And they can also see other cultures of the town from the windows of the buses.

    Besides, passengers' luggage(行李) is also interesting. It is common to see a happy dog's head getting out of somebody's bag or a lovely chicken "speaking cheerfully" under somebody's arm. Once on a bus in Peru, a farmer even tied a sheep to the top of the bus. It was quite surprising.

    In all, taking the bus in Latin America is really fun and unforgettable.

What were they doing?

    There was a little boy with a bad temper(脾气). His father gave him some nails(钉子)to drive into the fence(栅栏)when he lost his temper.

    The first day the boy drove 37 nails into the fence. Then it began to become less. He found it was easier to control his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

    Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to control his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

    The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but you look at the fence. It will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar(伤痕)just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound(伤口)is still there. A verbal(言语)wound is as bad as a physical one. It is important to practise self-control.

    Here are two old stories from Chinese history. The Chinese people have told them for many years.

    One is a story about Cao Cao's son, a clever boy named Cao Chong. One day, Cao Caogot a huge elephant from Sun Quan and he wanted to know the weight of it. Because there wasn't a scale large enough, some soldiers advised him to(A)it up. But Cao Cao didn't want to kill the elephant. Just then, Cao Chong came up with a great idea. He asked some soldiers to lead the elephant onto about. As the heavy animal walked onto it, the boat went lower into the water. After Cao Chong drew a line on the side of the boat to mark how low it went, the elephant was taken off the boat. (B)The boat was filed with rocks until the water reached the line on the boat. Cao Chong then weighed the rocks. The rocks and the elephant were of the same weight. (C)曹操对他的儿子生常满意。

    The other story is about a wise man named ZhugeLiang. He was asked to make 100, 000 arrows (箭)within 10days. He told (D) his soldiers to fill 20 large boats with many straw men. In the early morning of the third day, the soldiers said the boats towards the camps of Cao Cao's army on the other side of the river. They shouted and boat their drums loud. When Cao Cao's soldiers heard the sounds, they thought they were (E)attack. However, they could not see through the thick tog on the river. Cao Caoordered his soldiers to shoot arrows towards the sounds of the drums and the shouting. Zhuge Liang got enough arrows and then sailed back successfully.