Sometime ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it repaired, as there are a lot of antique (古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception.  I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

    The second shop, though a little more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth. I realized that my approach must be wrong so I decided to try another way. I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind.  I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair? Twenty pounds," I said. "OK. I'll give you twenty pounds for it,"he said. "It's got a slightly broken leg," I added. "Yes, I saw that.  It's nothing," the shopkeeper replied.

    Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell after the repair is done.""I'll buy it," I said.  "What do you mean? You've just sold it to me," the man asked in surprise.  "Yes, I know. But I've changed my mind.  I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it." "You must be crazy," he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. He shouted, "I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair." "You're right,"I said, "And what would you have said if I had walked in and asked you to repair my chair?" "I wouldn't have agreed to do it. We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble.  But I'll repair this for you.  Five pounds will be the cost,"the man answered. He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

    One day a dentist was starting his morning work. Suddenly a man ran in. His face was red and he could only say "Quick! Quick!" The dentist thought he must be very ill. His assistant helped to make the poor man sit in a chair. The dentist gave the man some medicine to make him sleep. Then, he looked into the man's mouth and pulled out all the bad teeth. As soon as the man woke up, he said in a low voice, "Quick, doctor, quick."

    "It's all right now," the dentist told him, "It's over."

    "You don't understand," said the man, "I came to tell you your house is on fire."

    The ocean is no longer a safe place for many creatures. For many years, 1 activities such as polluting and overfishing(过度捕捞) have made it 2 for many creatures to live in it. In 2015, Chile, a country in South America, tried to 3 that. It created the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park. It is the 4 ocean reserve in North or South America. It is about 115,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean. That's about the 5 of the state of Arizona, USA.

    No 6 or any other kind of harmful human activity will be 7 in the waters in that area. That's good news for the sea creatures that live in that part of the Pacific Ocean. The area is 8 to many unusual creatures not found anywhere else in the world.

    2015 was a big year for protecting the world's oceans. In total, more than one million square miles of ocean were 9 protected in the year.

    Liesbeth van der Meer is a scientist at Oceana, a group working to 10 the oceans. She said Chile's new reserve was a great victory(胜利) for the world's oceans.