H. G. Wells lived from 1866 to 1946. He wrote many famous stories. He was best at writing stories about the future. One story is called The Time Machine. Here is the story.

    More than 100 years ago, there was an English scientist and inventor living in London. One day, four friends went to his house for dinner. The inventor was not there. Feeling hungry, they started dinner without him. Then they heard a sound. A few moments later, the inventor came in, looking dirty.

    He told his friends that he built a time machine. He could travel into the future.

    The inventor went thousands of years in the future. He met people called the Eloi. They were smaller than him. They had no machines. Growing fruit and vegetables was all that they did. They had no hobbies. Only one girl, Weena, spoke to him.

    Four days later, he met other people called Morlocks. They lived underground. They caught Eloi people and ate them! The inventor wanted to fight against the Morlocks. The Eloi didn't want to help him, not even the strong men. He tried to fight against the Morlocks. At last, Weena went underground with him. Unfortunately, Weena died.

    After that, he got in his time machine. He came back to his time. Seeing the future made him sad. The people in the future were worse. They were not clever.

    His friends didn't think it was a real story. But they never saw him again. Maybe he went to save the future.

A Trip to the Forest

    One day Bob took two of his friends into the mountains. They put up their tents and then rode off to a forest to see how the trees were growing.

    In the afternoon when they were about ten kilometers from their camp（营地）, it started to snow. More and more snow fell. Soon Bob could hardly see his hands before his face. He could not find the road. Bob knew there were two roads. One road went to the camp, and the other went to his house. But all was white snow. Everything was the same. How could he take his friends back to the camp?

    Bob had an idea. The horses! Let the horses take them back! But what would happen if the horses took the road to his house? That would be a trip of thirty-five kilometers in such cold weather!

    It was getting late. They rode on and on. At last the horses stopped. Where were they?

    None of them could tell. John looked around. What was that under the tree? It was one of their tents!

    In ancient times, there was a king who loved flowers, His palace was always decorated with beautiful orchids (兰花) and other flowers. As the king grew older, he knew that one day he would have to give up his throne (王位). So he had to find someone to rule the country.

    The other day, the king had an idea. He asked his servants to travel to every part of the country and give every citizen a single orchid seed (种子), He then announced that the person who grew the most beautiful orchid would take his throne.

    Everyone in the country then got their own seed. One young man named David was especially excited about the news, because he had experience in growing flowers himself.

    David planted his seed in a pot and put it in a place where it would get lots of sunlight. He watched it carefully every day. But as hard as he tried, his flower simply would not grow.

    Finally, it was time for everyone to give their flowers to the king. David took his empty pot to the palace. "Your Majesty (尊敬的陛下), I am sorry to say that I could not grow an orchid, But I hope you can see that I tried my best," he said.

    The king was moved by David's honesty. Although he did not choose David as the new king, he gave David a job as a royal court judge (法官).He believed that David's honesty would make him the right person to make sure the justice (公正) in the country.

    What do we do when we go camping? First, we make a plan. We take food, clothing, a knife, and things for cooking and eating. We take things to keep us away from(远离)insects(昆虫) and the sun.

    Then we put everything into the car and we drive to the woods(森林). We look for a place for campers(露营者) and we look for a good place for our tent(帐篷). The place should have a lot of moving air. This will keep some insects away. High land with water on both sides of it is good. Then we put up our tent. We put everything into the tent, and we are ready for fun. We can swim in the lake, walk in the woods, climb a mountain, row a boat, or go fishing.

    In the evening we come back to the tent, and we build a big fire because it can keep the insects away. We sit around the fire and talk. We may tell interesting stories or we may sing songs.

    At night we lie down on the grass. We can look up at the stars. It is a busy day, so we try to go to sleep early.

    Everything is dark. Everything is quiet. We hope we won't hear music from the radio in the next tent. We hope it won't rain.

    Doctor Carl was a very busy man. He always worked hard. He often forgot his families' birthdays. Yesterday afternoon he remembered(记得) it was his wife's(妻子的)birthday. He loved his wife. He wanted to give her a present. On his way home from hospital, he bought some beautiful flowers in a shop. When doctor Carl got home, he gave his wife the flowers and said, "Happy birthday to you, dear!" "It's April 20th today. I remembered your birthday this year. " Mrs. Carl laughed and said, "My birthday was the day before yesterday, but thank you all the same. Better late than never!"