This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts（花生）, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice: let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

    Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

    Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

    Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly(坚决地): No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I should have a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster's office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year when the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.

    The Kings lived in a small house in New York with their child. Sometimes Mr. King came back from work very late. When his wife and the child were asleep, he opened the front door of his house with his key and came in very quietly.

    But one night when he was coming home late, he lost his key. So when he reached his home, he rang the bell. Nothing happened. He rang it again. Again nothing happened. Nobody moved inside the house. Mr. King knocked at the bedroom window. He spoke to his wife, he shouted, but she didn't wake up. At last he stopped and thought for a minute. Then he began to speak like a small child. "Mother," he said, "I want to go to the toilet." He spoke quietly, but at once, Mrs. King woke up. Then he spoke to her, and she opened the door for him.

    One day, the Earth was very sick. He felt so bad that an earthquake happened. After the earthquake, it rained every day. Then the Sun told him to go to the hospital.

    The Moon looked at the Earth and said, "Look! Your skin should be the blue sea and the green land, but it is turning more and more yellow… "

    "It is the desert," the Earth said.

    The Moon put on her glasses and looked at him carefully. She saw that some people were cutting down trees near the desert.

    "I'll make these trees into chairs and beds. I'm going to get married in a few days," a young man said happily.

    "I want to make a wonderful piece of art with this tree," an artist with long hair said.

    "I'm too poor and I have a big family. I need to sell these trees to make money," an old man said while cutting down the small trees.

    "Winter is coming! I need more wood to make my house warmer," an old woman said.

    At that moment, a truck came with giant machines. A group of men got off the truck.  They began to cut down the trees with the machines quickly. Soon, all the trees disappeared and the truck took them away.

    The Earth began to cry. The Moon was too surprised to do anything. The desert laughed at the Earth, "Ha! Ha! You have nothing to do with me!"

    Thirty years ago I worked in a company. My job was to sell the cars. I was young and strong and I had been to most parts of the world and I spent one fifth of my time in the trains or planes. I liked such a life and sometimes I called myself "traveler".

    But one day I got into trouble. It was a cold morning. It blew heavily and the ground was covered with thick snow outside. I was still in bed though it was nine. I finished a long journey the day before and decided to have a good rest. Suddenly the telephone rang and my manager told me to fly to New York to take part in an important meeting. I had to get up and after a quick breakfast I hurried to the airport. The taxi went slowly and I missed the first flight. I had to take the next one. It meant I would wait for nearly five hours in the waiting-room. But five hours later a passenger said the information showed there was a bomb(炸弹) in our plane and the policemen were looking for it. And another five hours passed and most passengers lost their patience before we were allowed to get on the plane. At the entrance each passenger and their baggage(行李) had to be examined. A young man who seemed a soldier shouted at the policemen at the entrance, "If I had a gun in my baggage, I would shoot you two hours ago!"

    Tom was a fat boy when he was ten. He liked watching TV very much. He watched TV at least 5 hours every day. Wherever(无论哪里) he went, he would be late.

    One day, he found a pair of special glasses in his post-box(邮箱). He also found a message saying, "With these you can see time."

    The boy decided to have a try. He put the glasses on, looked at his brother, a tall and thin boy, and saw a big box of flowers on top of his head. And it wasn't just his brother. When he looked at his parents, he also saw the flowers. The three boxes were very large and the flowers were very beautiful. Then, he looked at himself from the mirror. He saw the flowers, too. But his flowers went to the mouth of the television. Its mouth was big. His flowers became fewer and fewer.

    At last, he learned that watching TV was a waste of time. He could learn nothing from it. He decided he would never again let the television eat his time.