B

    Alice was now in a long dark room with doors all round the walls, and she could not see the white rabbit anywhere.

    She tried to open the doors, but they were all locked (上了锁的). "How will I get out again?" she thought sadly. Then she saw a little glass table with three legs, and on the top of it was a very small gold key. Alice quickly took the key and tried it in all the doors, but she couldn't open any.

    Then she saw another door.The door was only forty centimetres high. The little gold key unlocked this door easily, but Alice couldn't get through it—she was much too big. So she lay on the floor and looked through the open door into a beautiful garden with green trees and bright flowers.

    "I'd like to be out there—not in this dark room. Why can't I get smaller?" It was already a very strange day, and Alice was beginning to think that anything was possible.

    After a while she locked the door again, got up and went back to the glass table. She put the key down and then she saw a little bottle on the table. Round the neck of the bottle was a piece of paper with the words "DRINK ME" in large letters.

    "It can be dangerous to drink the liquid(液体) in the bottle," she said. "What will it do to me?" She drank a little bit very slowly. The taste was very nice and very soon Alice finished the bottle.

    "I think I'm getting smaller and smaller every second, " she said. "And now, " she said happily, "I can get through the little door into that beautiful garden."

    She ran at once to the door. Then she remembered that the little gold key was back on the glass table. She ran back to the table for it, but she was now much too small! The key was high above her, on the top of the table. She tried very hard to climb up the table leg, but she couldn't do it.

    At last, tired and unhappy, she got angry with herself. Soon she saw a little glass box near her on the floor. She opened it, and found a very small cake with the words "EAT ME" on it.

    Nothing could surprise Alice now.

A

    When I was a little kid, a father was like the light in the fridge. Every house had one, but no one really knew what either of them did when the door was shut.

    My dad left the house every morning and always seemed glad to see every one again at night. He opened the jar of pickles when no one else at home could. He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go into the basement by himself. 

    Whenever it rained, he got into the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription(处方) filled. He set mousetraps. He cut back the roses so the thorns(刺) wouldn't hurt you when you came to the front door. He oiled my roller skates, and they went faster. When I got my bike, he ran alongside me for at least a thousand miles until I got the hang of it. He signed all my report and cards. He took a lot of pictures, but was never in them. He tightened up Mother's sagging(松垂的) clothesline every week or so.

I was afraid of everyone else's father, but not my own. 

    Whenever I played house(玩过家家), the mother doll had a lot to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, "I'm going off to work now," and threw him under the bed.

    When I was nine years old, my father didn't get up one morning and go to work, he went to the hospital and died the next day. 

    There were a lot of people in the house who brought all kinds of good food and cakes. We had never had so much company before. 

    He never did anything; I didn't know his leaving would hurt so much.

    Twenty-two-year-old Timothy Doner from New York City has been able to speak 23 different languages, including some rare African ones.

    Timothy began his foreign language education at the age of 13. Attracted by in Israeli(以色列) musical band. Timothy listened to their album every morning. A month Later, he kept about 20 of their songs in his mind, though he didn't know what the Hebrew(希伯来语) words mean. But once he learned the translation. it was like he had a dictionary in his head.

    Then Timothy moved on to Arabic (阿拉伯语) which he studied every morning by reading newspapers with a dictionary and by talking to street vendors (小贩). After that he learned Persian, then Russian, then Mandarin... and about twenty others and developed a crazy low for languages.

    Now, Timothy is still teaching himself new languages. With the help of language books and word-learning Apps on his iPhone. He can master a language in a few weeks or months.

    What has Timothy got from learning so many languages? "By learning languages, you are learning a lot more. You are learning about culture, everything from cooking to TV，poetry and whatever it may be. That helps you better understand the language,” he said.

    We never forget when Perronet came to us. It was on a spring afternoon. We never knew who drowned Perronet, but David pulled him out of the water and saved his life, People sometimes asked us what kind of dog he was, but we never knew, except that he was the nicest possible kind. Mother said we could not afford him because of the tax(税) and his keep. The tax was five shillings(先令), but it was nearly a year before the time when it must be paid. At last, we decided that all three of us would give up sugar toward saving the cost of his keep. It was the hardest for David because he was fond of sweet things, but then, he was fond of Perronet. So we all gave up sugar, and Perronet was allowed to remain.

    We were very happy that summer. The boys were especially happy. The only thing that vexed me was Perronet's tax money, for months and months went on and we didn't save it. One day, I found David alone with Perronet in his arms. He was crying, and feeding Perronet with cake. I can't bear to see boys cry. I begged of David to stop, and told him I should certainly think of something.

    One day, we were all in school. The schoolmaster told us that there was to be a flower show for the school children this year, and that an old gentleman would give prizes to the best arranged wild flowers. There was to be a first prize of five shillings, and a second prize of a half crown, for the best collection of wild flowers, with their names upon them. I squeezed(挤) David's arm, and whispered, "Five shillings!"

    I thought I could never get my lessons that day, for all day I was thinking about Perronet's tax money. At night, I said to them, "Look here! I'll make a collection of flowers. You two can make a collection of mosses(苔藓). There are ten kinds of mosses by the river, and we have names of our own for them." The boys agreed. Richard made me a box. We put wet sand at the bottom, then feather moss, and into that I stuck the flowers. I got all the flowers and all the grasses ready and printed the names on pieces of cardboard, to stick in with them. I didn't like it when it was done, but Richard praised it and that cheered me. I thought their mosses were beautiful.

    The day of the flower show was very hot. When we reached the tent, it was filled with grown-up people. It was very hard work getting about and trying to see the stands with flowers. We kept seeing tickets with "First Prize" and "Second Prize". It made me feel sick with heat and anxiety, to think of them. We had walked slowly all round the tent. We had seen all the cucumbers, onions, lettuce, grapes, long potatoes, round potatoes and everything else. At last we saw my collection! It had a label on it, marked "First Prize", and next to it came the boy's moss, marked "Second Prize". We cried "Perronet is paid for!"