Captain（船长）Nemo invited me and my friends to go hunting with him in the forests of Crespo Island. I asked him why he was so interested in Crespo Island. “I thought you preferred the sea to being on land.”

    “I do,” replied the captain. “But these forests are under the sea.”

After going through a door, we were about ten meters under the water. The light from the sun reached us. Everything looked very colourful. We were going deeper and deeper. At 100 meters deep, we could see quite well, and Captain Nemo stopped and pointed to some dark shapes. This was the forest. The “trees” in the forest were giant seaweed, and all their “branches” were vertical（垂直的）.We could not stop looking at them. Fish swam around the branches like birds in a forest.

    Suddenly, I saw a large sea spider about a meter tall. It was going to attack me. Captain Nemo's man killed it with his gun, but it reminded me that the sea could be as dangerous as it was beautiful. When we reached 150 meters, it was dark. The sun's light could not reach this depth（深度）. We turned our lights. We could see about 20 meters around us. Finally, we found Crespo Island—where a steep rock wall rose in front of us.

    We could go no further, so we walked back toward the Nautilus. Suddenly, Captain Nemo stopped and shot an animal with his gun, it was a beautiful and rare sea otter. At last, we could see the Nautilus. Several large sharks swam over us. Luckily they didn't see us. We re-entered the Nautilus safely. I was tired but amazed by what I had seen.

    Ashima was a girl from a poor family. She was very beautiful and very good at singing and dancing. A lot of young men liked her. But Ashima was in love with Ahei, a brave (勇敢的) and smart young man.

    One day, Ashima met Azhi, the son of a very rich family in the village. Azhi wanted Ashima to marry (嫁) him. But Ashima said she only loved Ahei.

    When the weather got cold, Ahei had to leave the village to work in a very far place. After Ahei left, Azhi kidnapped Ashima, took her home and asked her to marry him. Ashima still said no.

    When Ahei heard about this, he rode his horse back quickly. When he got to Azhi's house, Azhi said he had to win a song competition before he could get in. Ahei sang for three days and three nights and won the competition at last. He went into Azhi's house.

    Azhi asked Ahei to stay one night in his house and said he would let Ahei and Ashima leave the next morning. At night, Azhi put three tigers into Ahei's room. But Ahei killed them. Finally he could take Ashima home.

    When Ashima and Ahei were walking by a river, Azhi made the river flood (泛滥), Ashima fell into the river.  ▲  

    Ashima became river stones (石头), Later when Ahei missed Ashima, he w0uld face the stones and call out Ashima's name and talk to her He always heard an echo (回声). In this way, Ahei lived with A shima forever.

    Humoody was born in Iraq. When he was two years old, his face was badly hurt and he couldn't see any more. He came to the United States to get medical care and now lives with an American family in Washington State.

    Humoody quickly learned to use a cane(手杖) to get around. He also started clicking(使发出咔哒声),sensing objects by listening for echoes (回声). To help Humoody develop this skill, his family found him an

echolocation(回声定位_) teacher, Juan Ruiz. Ruiz is also blind and he has been echolocating for many years." Even someone who's not blind can try it," he says. Stand facing a wall a couple of feet away. Make some noise by clicking or talking out loud. Listen carefully. Now walk a little closer to the wall and keep making your noise. Can you hear how it changes as the wall gets nearer?

    Experiment with how your voice or clicks sound in different parts of your home. "Every room has a different sound to it," Ruiz says.

    How does the sound of a kitchen or bathroom compare to the sound of a carpeted(铺有地毯的) room? What about a long hallway? The differences you hear are the same kinds of clues(线索) that blind people listen to. With lots of practice, their brains have learned to get information from these clues.

    Humoody has never let being blind slow him down. Learning how to echolocate is helping him get around more easily and safely, especially in places where he can't take his cane, like the football field.

    It was already the middle of April but there was not a raindrop in sight. Danny stood in his backyard alone looking at the 1 landscape(园林) in front of him. He could see nothing but sand and clear blue sky. "Even the cactus(仙人掌) is starting to 2," said Danny to himself as he bent down to take a good 3.

    All of a sudden, when he was walking back to his house, he heard the sound of thunder(打雷). He stopped and looked up 4. He was wild with joy to see that the 5 rain had finally come. Danny quickly ran towards the cabin next to his house, where he stored his rain barrels(桶). He was going to capture every single drop of rain to 6 the vegetable garden in his backyard. In the desert, rain is as 7 as gold. It had rained for almost seven days. The cactus looked much 8 than before. Snakes popped their heads from out of their holes and birds sang happily in the 9.

    Living in deserts can be very 10, especially when there is no source of water. However, life went on for Danny and all the desert creatures for another season, thanks to the spring rains.