A young man from a village called Nawalapitiya married a young woman from Maiyuwa, a small village. They lived with the man's big family-his parents, his brothers, their wives and children.  The family kept an elephant, in which the woman soon took a great interest. Every day she fed it with fruit and sugar.

    Three months later, having quarreled with her husband, the woman went back to her parents' home. Soon the elephant refused to eat and work.  It appeared to be ill and heartbroken. One morning after several weeks the animal disappeared from the house.

    It went to the woman's home. On seeing her, the elephant waved its trunk and touched her with it. The young woman was so moved by the act of the animal. So she went back to her husband's home.

    Thirty years ago I worked in a company. My job was to sell the cars. I was young and strong and I had been to most parts of the world and I spent one fifth of my time in the trains or planes. I liked such a life and sometimes I called myself "traveler".

    But one day I got into trouble. It was a cold morning. It blew heavily and the ground was covered with thick snow outside. I was still in bed though it was nine. I finished a long journey the day before and decided to have a good rest. Suddenly the telephone rang and my manager told me to fly to New York to take part in an important meeting. I had to get up and after a quick breakfast I hurried to the airport. The taxi went slowly and I missed the first flight. I had to take the next one. It meant I would wait for nearly five hours in the waiting-room. But five hours later a passenger said the information showed there was a bomb(炸弹) in our plane and the policemen were looking for it. And another five hours passed and most passengers lost their patience before we were allowed to get on the plane. At the entrance each passenger and their baggage(行李) had to be examined. A young man who seemed a soldier shouted at the policemen at the entrance, "If I had a gun in my baggage, I would shoot you two hours ago!"

    About twenty of us had been fortunate enough to receive invitations to a film-studio(影棚) to take part in a crowd- scene. Although our "act" would last only for a short time, we could see quite a number of interesting things.

    We all stood at the far end of the studio as workmen prepared the scene, setting up trees at the edge of a winding path. Very soon, bright lights were turned on and the big movie-camera was wheeled into position. The director shouted something to the camera operator and then went to speak to the two famous actors nearby. Since it was hot in the studio, it came as a surprise to us to see one of the actors put on a heavy overcoat and start walking along the path. A big fan began blowing tiny white feathers down on him, and soon the trees were covered in "snow". Two more fans were turned on, and a "strong wind" blew through the trees. The picture looked so real that it made us feel cold.

    The next scene was a complete contrast(对比). The way it was filmed was quite unusual. Pictures taken on an island in the Pacific were shown on a glass screen. An actor and actress stood in front of the scene so that they looked as if they were at the water's edge on an island. By a simple trick like this, palm trees, sandy beaches, and blue, clear skies had been brought into the studio!

    Since it was our turn next, we were left wondering what scene would be prepared for us. For a full three minutes in our lives we would be experiencing the excitement of being film "stars"!

    My cousin Tom likes candy(糖果)very much. He always asks for candy. My aunt doesn't want him to have so much candy. She doesn't think it's healthy. It's Tom's fifth birthday. His parents buy him some food, fruit and some interesting things. But they don't buy candy for him. Tom isn't happy.

    "I want to have some candy, Mum." Tom says

    "I'm really sorry. We don't have candy. And I don't think it is good for you."

    "I like candy. I want some." Tom says.

    "OK, you can have some. But you can't have it today.

    "When can I have it?"

    "Your uncle's wedding(婚礼)is on February 2nd. You can have some."

    "OK" Tom is very happy and asks, "Mum, when is your wedding?"

In a hanfu show in Changsha, Hunan, 20 models in beautiful hanfu won many people's hearts. They looked like they walked out of old Chinese paintings. The 20 sets of hanfu are a recreation(再现)of clothing in Yongle Palace murals (壁画). Zhang Zening made these clothes. 

Zhang Zening is from Nanjing. When she got to know about hanfu, she fell in love with it. She has great interest in hanfu. But Zhang found that some styles she liked were not available on the market. So she started to learn to design(设计) hanfu herself. 

In 2015, Zhang started to teach herself how to recreate hanfu. Zhang visited cities, studied museum murals and looked for information online to learn more about hanfu. Eight years later, Zhang recreated over 50 sets of hanfu from different times. She got ideas from murals in places like Yongle Palace in Shanxi, Fahai Temple in Beijing, Dunhuang in Gansu, and from paintings by Tang Bohu. 

The work is not     ▲     because Zhang always tries to make the clothes the same as those in murals and paintings. It takes about a month to recreate each hanfu set. In Zhang's eyes, recreating hanfu is not just about making a piece of clothing; it's also about learning about traditional Chinese culture. It helps her understand people from earlier times. Zhang finds it exciting to learn about the traditional culture. 

I was lonely when I was in high school because I went to a new school far away from my home. In the beginning, some naughty students often laughed at me because of my poor English, so I always tried to avoid them.

Soon I went to university. I was a poor student and I only had $20 for two weeks. I had to hide the truth carefully because I was afraid to be laughed at again. I ate little every day. One day, Joe, a classmate of mine, invited me to help him cook and then shared the completed dishes with him. Since I was not familiar（熟悉）with him, I refused him at first. But after some consideration, I decided to go. I used to cook at home, and I thought I could do it, but I was still full of worry. If he didn't like my cooking, what should I do? Later, it turned out to be a success. Then Joe wished me to make it a daily routine. It went like this. He did the shopping and I did the cooking. And then I stayed to have dinner with him.

It was not until graduation that I knew the whole story. Joe discovered my situation two years ago. In order not to hurt my pride, he came up with this idea just to make it much easier for me. When I cooked the last meal for him, I ordered a big cake and said to him with tears, "My dear friend, you and your help really brighten my college life. I'll never forget that."