"Listen carefully to what I say," the time traveler said, "I shall tell you something that you will not agree."  

 "Why will we not agree?" I asked.

 "Because the science and mathematics you know are not correct,"  he said. "You believe there are only three dimensions(三维空间)-length, breadth(宽) and thickness." 

 "There is nothing to argue with that, " the youngest member of our little group said.

 "Exactly!"  the time traveler answered, "But there is also a fourth dimension - time."   

 "We all know about time, " another member of the group said. "Time passed."

 "I do not agree,"  the time traveler said, "Length, breadth and thickness do not pass. They stay in the same place in space.  We move about them. I can prove that time is the same. It does not pass. We move in time the same way that we move in breadth, length and thickness."

 None of us believed the time traveler, and we argued with him for many hours.

 "If we could travel back in time,"  the scientist said, "We could do things to change the future." 

 "If we could travel forward in time," the doctor(博士) said, "we could do things that change our present." 

 The time traveler smiled, "It is clear," he said, "that there is only one way I can show you that I am right. We must do an experiment. Please wait here." 

 He left the room and soon returned, carrying what looked like a clock.

 "This is a model of a time machine. It took me two years to make it," the time traveler said. "I want all of you to understand that when I start the machine, it will immediately travel in time and disappear from the present." 

 He turned to the youngest of all. "Give me your hand," he said.

 The young man put out his hand. The time traveler took it and placed it on the machine. Immediately, there was a sudden wind, and the little machine disappeared.

 I was certain this was not a trick, but the doctor was not so sure.

 "Are you asking us to believe," he said, "that the machine is now in a different time?" 

 "Certainly! In my laboratory, a full-size machine is almost complete. As soon as it is complete, I shall send myself on a journey through time. Would you like to see my machine?"

 "Are you serious about this?" the doctor asked.

 "I have never been more serious about anything," the time traveler said, "Come." 

We followed him to his laboratory. There, we saw the actual machine, not quite complete, but large enough for a man to sit in.

    Gordon Hewitt, a mean (吝啬的) person who used to read his paper in his car to save electricity, died last week. He has left behind ￡250, 000 in the bank after a lifetime of saving.

    When you first saw Mr. Hewitt, you might think that he was poor: he wore his old coat, his trousers didn't fit well and his shoes were worn out. He sold newspapers on the streets.

In fact, he had a quarter-of-a-million pounds in at least 20 savings. He married twice and lived in the same house all his life. His money was left to six different people.

   60-year-old neighbor Jean Buckley remembers Mr. Hewitt's mean ways of life, “He used to sit in his Robin reading a newspaper with the light on so that he didn't have to turn the light on in his house. He would walk miles to find somewhere warm, even through the rain. ”

    68-year-old neighbor David Cheeseman said, “I have known him for over 50 years and he was always strange and funny in his manner. I told him many times to look after himself and have heat in his house. He just laughed. He wouldn't spend a penny unless he had to. He went to every church to sit in the warm, have a cup of tea or meal. He had a dryer(烘干机)in his house but never used it. He washed clothes and put them on even they were wet. He said it cost money to use the dryer. ”

    Some years ago on a hot summer day in South Florida a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming lake behind his house.

In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind his shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam towards the middles of the lake, an alligator(鳄鱼) was swimming towards the shore.

    His mother in the house was looking out the window and saw the two as they got closer and closer. In extreme fear, she ran towards the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. It was too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him.

    From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched(夺取) his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war(拔河). The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate. A farmer happened to drive by, took aim and shot the alligator.

    After weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. The newspaper reporter asked if he would show him his scars(伤疤). The boy lifted his legs, then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. T have them because my mum wouldn't let go."

    Some scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, some wounds are because love has refused to let go.

    Mr. Black decided to know more about the different jobs of his students' parents. But some of students were laughing as he talked with Mary. Betty shouted, "Mary's father is a garbageman!"Then everybody in the class laughed out loud. Mary felt her face tum red.

    "Be quiet! Stop laughing!"Mr. Black said," It is difficult but useful to be a garbageman. We should all be thankful to Mary's father."

    Mary's father came to walk her home from school as usual, but she didn't run up to him the way she always did. When they got back home, Mary went to her room and cried for a long time. Her father came into her room, "What happened? Why are you so sad?"

    Mary told her father what happened and looked at him sadly. He didn't seem angry or hurt, "Well." He said," They are right. Being a garbageman is a dirty job. Tomorrow's Saturday. Come to work with me, Mary."

    Mary wrinkled her nose because of the bad smell. "Don't worry. In five minutes you won't smell a thing." said her father.

    Everybody there was working hard, and they seemed to have a good time. Mary's father handed her a pair of gloves and told her to get the little plastic bags and throw them into the truck.

    It was fun, but also hard work. At last, no more garbage was left and Mary felt very proud and happy.

    "Garbage makes us uncomfortable and unhealthy but when we clear it away, everything is nice and clean. You can make yourself happy only by making others happy."

    Mary gave her dirty, smelly garbageman daddy a big kiss because she regarded him as an unselfish man. Now whenever someone asks Mary what her daddy does, she says, "He is a garbageman! Everyone makes garbage, but my daddy takes it away!"

    I stood in the doorway, watching my older brother carefully putting clothes into his bag. I coughed uneasily. Finally 1 that I was there, Rocky turned towards me with a sad smile.

    "I'm leaving tomorrow," he said.

    "I know." My 2 was almost a whisper (低声). I was 3 with myself for being so weak, but I wasn't about to cry.

    "My flight is early, but there is still enough time to the airport," he said. Seeing the 4 look on my face, he quickly added, "I promise I won't leave without saying goodbye."

    I tried to say 5, but I didn't. It's always 6 to keep quiet if you're about to cry. "You promised you wouldn't cry," he said to me, thinking that I was close to 7.

    I remember the day he taught me how to ride a bike. At first I thought he was always right behind me, holding the seat to keep me from 8. I was happy with this, but he knew he couldn't hold me up all my life. He told me that one day he would have to let go.

    His coughing stopped my thinking. What was left to say? How could I say goodbye to the person who taught me everything?

    The next morning I 9, looked at my alarm clock, and realized he had left hours ago. We never even said goodbye.

    Goodbye, Rocky! 10 he may have been many miles away, I knew he heard me, even if it was only an answer in his heart.

    Once there was a boy who was afraid of the dark. He thought that when it was dark his bedroom was full of monsters. But there came a time when he was too old to be allowed to keep sleeping with the light on.

    The first night he was so frightened that he couldn't fall asleep because he kept thinking about the monsters in his room. So he got up and went over to his wardrobe to get a torch. But when he opened the wardrobe door he came face to face with a monster, and he let out the loudest scream(尖叫)in the world.

    However, the monster didn't jump out to eat him as the boy had always imagined. To the boy's surprise, the monster took a few steps backward, grabbed(抓挠)its hair and started crying！The monster cried for so long that the boy's shock and fear slowly went away. He calmed the monster down as much as he could, and started talking to him, asking him why he was crying and what he was doing there.

    The monster told him he lived in the wardrobe, but almost never went out, because he was afraid of the boy. When the boy asked him why, the monster told him the boy's face with two eyes, ears and a nose seemed to him the strangest thing he'd ever seen. The boy felt exactly the same way about the monster who had a huge head with many mouths and a lot of hair.

    The two of them talked so much that they became quite friendly, and they realized that both of them had bee afraid of the same thing:t he unknown. To lose their fear, they had to get to know each other.