The crowd at the airport rushed forward. The passengers had been waiting for a couple of hours for an airport worker to open the door leading to the plane outside. No one was in a good mood. An old man got stuck in the middle of the rush, He fell down and his head hit the hard floor. B1ood came out of his head. He appeared to be unconscious. Everyone rushed past him, except for Dana. She called for help.

 A minute later, a young airport worker showed up. Hardly looking at the old man, she told Dana to get on her plane. She said the old man would be okay, and walked away.

 Dana cried for help. Another airport worker appeared. He told Dana to get on the plane. Dana said that she was not moving until an ambulance(救护车) arrived. The worker said her plane would leave without her. Dana said that she didn't care.

 An ambulance with a doctor and a nurse finally arrived. They put him into the ambulance and drove off.

On her way out to the plane, which was still refueling(加油), Dana saw the worker who didn't care about the old man at the very beginning. The worker said, “You're lucky the plane didn't leave without you.”

 “The plane?” Dana asked.“Who cares about the plane? How could you be so cold? That was an old man; he could have been your grandfather! How would you like it if everyone just stepped over your grandfather and went on their way?”

    Would you believe that the first outstanding deaf teacher in America was a Frenchman? His name was Laurent Clerc. He became a friend of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and together they founded America's first school for the deaf.

    Laurent Clerc was born in a small village near Lyons, France, on December 26, 1785. When he was one year old, he fell into a fire, losing both his hearing and his sense of smell.

    At 12, Laurent entered the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris where he did well in his studies. After he graduated, the school asked him to stay on as an assistant teacher.

    Meanwhile, in America, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was studying to be a minister. He was very concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for the deaf. Therefore, in 1815, Gallaudet sailed to London, England to seek ideas on how to teach deaf people. While he was there, he met a French educator of the deaf who invited him to go to Paris to spend three months learning at the Royal Institution for the Deaf, the school where Laurent Clerc was teaching. Gallaudet accepted the offer. The two worked and studied well together. When the time came for Gallaudet to return, he asked Clerc to come with him. Clerc accepted on one condition: that he would stay in America only a short time.

    The two men set sail on June 18, 1816. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean took 52 days; however, Clerc and Gallaudet put the time to good use. Clerc studied English, and Gallaudet studied sign language. They discussed the school for the deaf which they planned to open. On the long trip, they had many conversations about education and deafness. The year after they arrived, they founded a school for the deaf in Harford, Connecticut.

At the school, Clerc led a busy life. He taught signs to Principal Gallaudet; he taught the pupils; and he taught hearing men who came to the school to study deaf education.

    In 1819, Clerc married Eliza Crocker Boardman, one of his pupils. They had six children. He retired from teaching in 1858. Although he had intended to return to France, he never did. He died on July 18, 1869 in the United States.

    About five hundred years ago, an earthquake happened in a small village. Luckily for them, nothing was destroyed and no one was hurt. But a huge stone fell from a nearby mountain and stopped in the middle of the road.

    When the earthquake stopped, many people came to the road and saw the stone. Some of the strongest men tried to lift the stone out of the road. But they couldn't move it. They tried to push it but failed. They tried to pull it with ropes but nothing worked.

    "Well," they said sadly, "there's nothing we can do about it. We'll have to change the way."

    At this time a boy about 12 years old said, "I think I can help you to move the stone away."

    "You?" they shouted. "What are you talking about?" The men all laughed at the boy.

    The next morning, some people came into the road. One of them shouted, "The stone is gone." More people ran out to see what had happened. It was true. The stone wasn't on the road any longer. It wasn't even near the road.

    The boy walked over to where the stone had been and said, "I buried it."

    The people looked rather surprised. "You see," he said, "I dug a deep hole next to the stone and I dug a small incline (斜坡) up to the stone and the stone rolled (滚) down into the hole itself. Then I covered it with earth."

    The villagers shouted, "Clever boy! Clever boy!" And some of them said, "Why didn't we think out this good idea?"

    Mr. Smith works in an office . He's very busy and has no time to have a good rest . Every evening , when he comes back from his office , he's always tired and wants to go to bed early . But his wife often has a lot of interesting things to tell him after dinner . She doesn't stop talking before she goes to sleep .

    One day the man felt terrible and couldn't go to work . He decided to go to see a doctor . And Mrs. Smith went to the hospital with him . Before her husband asked the doctor what was wrong with him , the woman told the doctor all and the doctor understood why . He wrote out a prescription（处方）. And when Mrs. Smith brought the medicine（药物）to the doctor , the doctor said to her , “ The bottle of medicine is for your husband and the sleeping pills（药片）are for you . ” “ For me ? ” the woman said in surprise “ I'm fine . I don't need any medicine ! ” “ I don't think so , madam ” , said the doctor . “ They are sleeping pills . Your husband will soon be all right if you take them . ”

    Mr. and Mrs. Black opened a small restaurant. In order to attract (吸引) customers, they put a notice in front of the restaurant that said "Meals on the House for Three Days."

    A foreign student who didn't know much English happened to pass by the restaurant on the second day. It was lunch time and he felt very hungry. "Well, here is a restaurant. I am going to have something to eat."

    He walked towards the restaurant when he saw the notice. "American people are really strange. They even eat dinners on their houses. But how can I get up to the top of the house?" he said to himself.

    He looked around and found a ladder against a tree nearby. He started climbing up. But as he reached the top，he heard someone shouting at him.

    "Hey, what are you doing up there?" Mr. Black shouted at him. Next to him was a policeman.

    "Doesn't your notice say? "Meals on the House for Three Days'? Is it just a joke?" the foreign student answered.

    On hearing this, both Mr. Black and the policeman laughed. "Do you know what ON THE HOUSE means? Look it up in the dictionary," the policeman said.