When was the last time you saw three men running down a forest trail（小径）in the rain wearing flip-flops（拖鞋）？That's what my friend Brandon, Josh and I were doing last autumn. We were looking for a waterfall（瀑布）.We didn't have much time to get to the waterfall and back, so we were running. We were wearing flip-flops to prevent our shoes getting dirty.

    It was raining, but lightly. It kept us cool as we climbed over giant stones and through a shallow（浅的）stream. We followed red arrows（箭头）and crossed that stream several times, walking on toward the promised waterfall. Time was not on our side, however, and we were forced to turn around. As we started back, we looked at the shallow stream we had just crossed. Where did this rushing river come from? That was when we realized a flash flood was around!

    In the few minutes the water rose at a fast speed. Now there were no big stones to be seen-only what looked like lumps（隆起）covered with rushing water. We had no choice but to move our way back carefully in the rushing water -in flip-flops. We had crossed the stream not once or twice, but six times in search of a waterfall that we never even reached!

    With most of the crossings, we needed each other's help if we didn't want to be washed away by water. Wet all over, we felt relaxed after we made the last crossing.

    "My dad always told me to keep off a river when travelling in the rain." Josh said as we hurried back down the path.

    "Why didn't you tell us that earlier?" I laughed.

    "Would it have made a difference?" came the reply.

    He had a point.

C

    When Matty Sallin，34，was working on a degree in art and technology at New York University，he got interesting homework in electronics class．He decided to create an alarm clock(闹钟)．

    "Everybody has to deal with these every day，and they are really unpleasant!"he says．He asked different people what they would like to wake up to instead of a noisy alarm．A lot of them said，"The smell of bacon(培根肉)"．

    So Sallin and two classmates invented a new kind of alarm clock：a wooden box with a pig face and a digital clock that uses the smell of cooking bacon instead of the sound to wake someone up．He explains．"There's no danger of burning，because I built it carefully．It uses halogen light bulbs(卤素灯)instead of a fire for cooking and turns off automatically after ten minutes．Yes,the clock itself can do it．Just a few easy steps are needed to set the alarm．"

    "What you do is to put some frozen bacon in the night before and set the alarm，"says Sallin．

    "If you set the alarm for 8：00,it will turn on at 7：50 and slow cook for ten minutes under the halogen bulbs．"he says，Then the bulbs turn off and a fan blows the smell out through the nose of the pig．

    "So instead of an alarm，  ▲，"says Sallin．"Then you can open the door on the side and pull the bacon out and eat it．"

    When Sallin was a kid，he spent a lot of time making drawing of inventions．"I wanted to make an lift in my backyard and a special tree house．"he says．"But I never really thought I'd be called an inventor!"

    Sallin got an A in the class and went on to other things—but people continue to hear about his invention and email him every day asking where they can buy his alarm clock．

    Long long ago, there was a spider. She found a beautiful farm. She liked the farm and decided to live there forever.
    One day, the spider caught a little bug. When the spider ate it, the bug said, “If you let me go, I will tell you an important thing. The thing will save your life.” The spider stopped and listened.
    The little bug said, “You'd better get out of the farm. The harvest is coming! If you stay here, you will be killed by the farmer's machine.”
    But the spider didn't listen to the bug and ate it for lunch. The next day when she was sleeping, the farmer came to have a harvest. The spider was killed by the machine.

Information Card

I am Susan. My favourite place is a farm. My father buys the farm. Every summer holiday my friends and I go to the farm. We enjoy our time there. 

The farm has a big house. It has six rooms and a big kitchen. In the living room there is a beautiful fireplace (壁炉), so we feel warm. Around the house there are flowers and trees. The trees are big and very old. They look very green in summer. I feel cool under the trees. Many birds' songs make me feel happy. 

My favourite time about the farm is the night. I enjoy looking at the stars. I spend a lot of time after dinner talking with my parents. We often sit outside the house under the beautiful sky and tell old stories.