Tom is ten years old. He loves watching TV. But for one year, he didn't watch TV at all. What was the reason? Tom's parents said they would give him $600 if he didn't watch TV for a year. Tom's parents thought he watched TV too much.

    One day his mother read a story in a newspaper about a boy who didn't watch TV for a year. She showed the story to Tom. Tom liked the idea. He turned off the TV right away, and said," It doesn't trouble me not to watch TV. I just want the money. "At first, Tom's parents were very happy. Tom read books and newspapers, played outside, and played computer games, but soon he got bored.

    Every evening, he asked his parents." What are we doing tonight?" Sometimes his mother and father wished he would watch TV just for one evening. Tom always said," No, it would cost me money!" Finally the year was over, Then Tom started watching his favorite TV shows all day again. Tom got the money from his parents. What did he plan to do with the $600?"I want to buy myself a TV set!" he said.

    Paulina Cortes is a teacher in San Jose, California. One day, she handed out masks (面罩) to farm workers in Lodi. She volunteered to do this because the air quality (空气质量) is still poor after a big fire.

    "I just got home and feel really tired now. Today I spent my day in Lodi handing out masks to farm workers," she wrote on the Internet. "I raised some money. Then I drove through San Jose and all the way to Salinas to buy enough masks I needed. This is important. The story here isn't that I handed out masks; it's that there are hundreds of people who are working in dangerous environments with no protection (防护). And no one even knows about it."

    Paulina also put some photos on the Internet, and they were picked up by the news. Many people were surprised at the news, and they knew what happened to those farm workers for the first time.

    The next day, Paulina added, "I traveled through Lodi and Stockton not just to hand out masks, but to help the farm workers understand the pollution. In Lodi yesterday the workers were picking fruit in such dangerous environments. None of them even knew this. Not too far from our homes, hundreds of people are working in these environments. I will buy more masks and send them to a Stockton farm worker. He helped me hand out masks yesterday."

    Thank you, Paulina, for caring and trying to make a difference.

    A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”

I usually find a seat and start reading or sending messages to my friends. Like everyone else, I try not to look at or talk to any people on the train. Then, twenty 1 later, I get off. In fact, my home trip is 2 special. 

But last Tuesday was quite different. I was looking out of the window3 the train suddenly stopped. After five minutes, I found people starting to get a bit 4 . Fifteen minutes later, the announcement(公告) 5 , "Dear passengers, we are sorry we have to 6 two more hours. A train just broke down in front of us. "

There was a loud sigh throughout the train, but soon something 7 happened: All strangers(陌生人) started talking to each other. At first, everyone 8 complained(抱怨) about the trains. Then people started talking about something else. I also began talking to a man 9 work. After that, I walked down the train and 10 to meet a woman who had been a student learning medicine at my school before. 

A young woman took her guitar and soon the people around her were singing along. When enjoying the 11 , we heard a boy crying for help, and the woman from my school jumped into 12 , We found she was a doctor, and when she came back, we 13 her as a hero. 

Then, after two hours, we started 14 again. "Hooray!" Everyone got excited and laughed. 

I took the train again on Wednesday, but 15 of my new "friends" were there. Although people were good, they weren't as friendly as the people the day before. I'll never forget the special experience that day. 

I'm Mark，a student in New York. Let me introduce our Friday food to you. In America，Friday nights are pizza nights for most families. That's the last workday before the weekend. Everyone is quite relaxed and wants to enjoy the weekend as early as possible. Parents don't want to spend （花费） too much time cooking on Friday，so they buy pizzas. 

My parents go to Pizza Hut on York Street to buy pizza s every Friday. We kids all love cheese pizzas. Mom and Dad buy two cheese pizzas for us. They don't like cheese pizzas. Both of them love meat. They often buy chicken pizzas for themselves. Sometimes they'd like to try beef or fish for a change. The next week they go back to chicken. 

Every Friday，the kitchen table is full of pizza boxes after dinner. It's our job to clean the table. We need to put all the boxes in the big bin（垃圾桶） in front of the house. We play" rock，paper，scissors（石头剪刀布游戏）"to see who does the job. I never have good luck. It's always me. 

But when the weekend comes，I become very lucky. I am always the winner of the family activities. I really enjoy my family life.