An elephant and a monkey were arguing (争论).

    “Look, how big and strong I am!” The elephant said.

    The monkey didn't agree, “Look, how fast I can run and climb! Can you?”

    At last they asked a clever tiger, “Which is better—to be strong or to be quick?”

    The tiger said, “Go across the river and pick the fruit on that tree for me, then I can tell.”

    So they went to the river, but the water ran fast and the monkey was afraid.

    “Get on my back,” said the elephant proudly (自豪地), “I shall carry you.”

    Soon they crossed the river. There stood the tree. But the fruit was too high for the elephant to reach. He tried to pull the tree down, but failed.

    “Don't worry.” The monkey climbed quickly up the tree, and picked the fruit.

    Then they came back and gave the tiger the fruit. “Which is better — to be strong or to be quick?”

    The tiger smiled, “Both of you could not get the fruit alone. It took both the elephant's strength and the monkey's quickness to get it.”

    Joe Smith is a singer. He and his wife like traveling a lot. Every year they visit a small town called Gum Tree in January and July and they sing for people there.

    One summer, they went there by train again. On the first day, they planned to go hiking in the mountains, but it rained a lot. So they decided to go to the only cinema in town and watch a movie there.

    There were only nine people in the cinema hall. When people saw the Smiths, they started to clap(鼓掌). Joe was excited and said to his wife, "Aha, I cannot believe people here all know me and they are friendlier than I "thought. They must like my songs."

    Then a young man said to them, "Thanks for your coming! The cinema shows the movie only after ten people buy the tickets. There're eleven now, so the movie will be on soon."

    A crow, having stolen a piece of cheese, held it firmly in her mouth and stood in a tree. A fox, who was very hungry, took the following ways to get the cheese for himself.

    "How handsome is the crow!" he said. "How beautiful is her shape and how fair her feather! Oh, if her voice were only equal to her beauty, she might rightly be called the queen of birds!"

    This he said in a soft voice. The crow, anxious to show that her voice was equal to her other attractions, made a loud caw, and dropped the cheese.

    The fox caught it as it fell. "My good crow," said he," your voice is all right, but your brain is not good."

It was the last day of the school year. The classroom was filled with excitement. When our teacher, Mr. Johnson, walked in, holding a CD player, everyone's face lit up with a smile. We knew that this wasn't going to be another normal day, but a special one.

"Please calm down and sit," said Mr. Johnson, "I'm glad everyone's here for the final reading test of the year." When everyone cried, Mr. Johnson laughed, saying it was just a joke. Then he reminded us that we still had a job to do. "You need to clean out your desks and put all your things into your backpacks," he added gently.

As we began our task, Mr. Johnson turned on the CD player. The lively music made the room feel like a party. Some of us started singing along with the music, and others were dancing around their desks while they were cleaning them out. Even Mr. Johnson showed us a few dance steps, making everyone laugh heartily. After we finished cleaning, someone asked, "When is break time?" Mr. Johnson took out some balls and started playing with them. Suddenly, he let the balls drop and said, "Break time starts... now!"

Just as we were about to rush out, our headmaster, Mrs. Miller, appeared at the door. "Mr. Johnson!" She cried out. A moment of silence fell over the room as we thought, "Mr. Johnson might be in trouble." However, to our surprise, Mrs. Miller couldn't help but laugh at the sight and left us to enjoy our break.

During break time, Mr. Johnson surprised us with another treat. He went to the cafe and came back with ice creams for everyone. We all cheered for him!

As we walked back to the classroom, we passed Mrs. Miller's office. Someone joked, "Don't play with the ice creams, Mr. Johnson!" We all laughed together.

The seven- year- old boy Kevin likes cars. He reads about cars in magazines 1 he watches shows(表演) about cars on TV.

 He asks his parents," Could you buy me a 2 ?"" No," says Kevin's mom." You are too 3 and you can't drive a car now."" No," says Kevin's dad."A car is very 4 and we don't have so much money to buy one for you."

 Kevin is very sad. He wants a fast orange sports car! He tries to 5 one! He reads books about cars. He goes to the car factory(工厂) and watches the 6 make the cars.

 Finally, he starts making his car! He tells his parents about 7 . They say it's too hard.

8 two months, Kevin asks his parents to see his car. They are excited! It is beautiful ! It is 9 ! It is a big toy sports car! Kevin can sit in it and drive!

 Kevin's parents are 10 happy. Kevin's dad says,"I was sure you can do it!" Kevin smiles and drives away.