Big Bear was Skinny Rabbit's friend and neighbor. Big Bear's birthday came and Skinny Rabbit sent him a hammock(吊床). Two trees grew in the space between the friends' houses. Skinny Rabbit and Big Bear tied the hammock between them. Big Bear climbed into the hammock.

    “How does it feel?" Skinny Rabbit asked.

    “Just wonderful!" Big Bear said. "But do you see how the sun shines through the branches (树枝), Skinny Rabbit?"

      "I do. It shines straight onto the hammock," Skinny Rabbit said. "I have an idea."    He put his beach umbrella beside the hammock. "How's that?" he asked.

    "It's almost perfect, Skinny Rabbit," said Big Bear. "Soft music would be nice for someone sleeping in a hammock."

    Skinny Rabbit went back into the house and came out with a radio. He tuned it to a station. The station was playing music.

    "Enjoy your sleep, Big Bear," said Skinny Rabbit. "I'll go and clean up the lunch dishes."    "Wait a minute! I thought of something else."    "What is it now?" asked Skinny Rabbit wearily

    "This hammock needs a friend to share with, Will you join me, Skinny Rabbit? Afterward we can do the dishes together."  

Skinny Rabbit said happily, "What a fine idea, Big Bear."

    One day, an 11-year-old girl asked her dad, "What are you going to get me for my 15th birthday?" The father replied, "Don't worry about that we still have plenty of time."

    But on a day after her 14th birthday, she passed out (昏倒)and was rushed to the hospital. The family learned that the girl had a serious heart disease and that she might die. At night, she asked her dad, "Daddy, have they told you that I am going to die?" The father replied, "No, you will live as long as anyone else." She wondered and asked, "How can you be sure?" He smiled to her and said, "I just know it."

    After the girl turned 15, she had a heart transplant(心脏移植手术). After she came back from the hospital, she found a letter on her bed. It said, "My dearest daughter, one day you asked me what I would give you for your 15th birthday. I wasn't sure then. But now you know that my present to you is my heart." The father had given his heart to his daughter.

    Parents are selfless(无私的). They even make great sacrifices to make their children grow up happily. Keep this in mind when you feel angry toward your parents. Always, they're just doing what they think best for you.

On Jayne's {#blank#}1{#/blank#}（twelve） birthday, she called to tell me that she would come to visit me. This morning, she kept sending me {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（message） on her way to our house in Virginia, the US. 

"Grandma, can you put some snow in the fridge? That way, I can feel snow {#blank#}3{#/blank#} I get there, "she wrote. In the past 12 years, Jayne had lived with her parents in the south of Georgia, the US, so she had never seen snow before. 

"Yes, I will, " I wrote. "There is still some snow on the ground in the yard. " And I sent her a few photos of it. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, the weather report brought me bad news. It said. the weather would be sunny at noon. This made me {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（feel） worried. 

In the afternoon, they{#blank#}6{#/blank#}（final） arrived. Jayne got out of the car first. She didn't even have time to hug us. She ran into the yard and put {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（she） hands in the snow. She looked so excited. It was great that the sun didn't come out that day. 

"Grandma, the weather is so cold, but I enjoy playing {#blank#}8{#/blank#} snow, " Jayne said. Then she started to build a snowman. After working for a while, a lovely snowman {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（finish）. At last, she put her hat on its head. It looked nicer and {#blank#}10{#/blank#}（smart）. She kept playing outside until her hands got wet and cold. 

Watching her playing in the snow made me realize that small things can also make us happy. 

A lot of animals travel from one place to another. We call this migration. 

In Africa, large animals, like elephants and zebras, migrate to find food and water. They usually follow the same ways every year. 

A lot of birds migrate to find food and better weather, too. They are usually birds that eat insects. They spend the summer in northern Europe, because there are lots of insects there. In the winter there aren't any insects, so the birds fly south to southern Europe and Africa. 

Some insects migrate, too. In North America, millions of monarch butterflies fly south to spend the winter in Mexico, California and Florida, where it's warmer. They travel 50-65 km each day and they travel about 1,125 km. 

Some fish migrate to breed (繁殖). Salmon (鲑鱼) can swim over 20,000 km in their life. They are born in rivers in Ireland, Scotland and other places in northern Europe. The young fish swim down the river to the sea and into the Atlantic Ocean. They live in the ocean until they are adults. Then they return to the river where they were born. They lay their eggs in the river and then they usually die. Salmon do this, because their eggs are safer in the river. Other fish can't eat them. 

Arctic terns (北极燕鸥) travel the furthest when they migrate. They spend the summer in the Arctic, but when winter comes they fly to the Antarctic, because it's summer there. The next year they fly back to the Arctic again. In one year these small birds travel 36, 000km from one end of the earth to the other and back again. Nobody knows how they do it.

This weekend is my 9th birthday. My mom books me a pony-riding (骑小马) party. The party lasts for 2 hours. It is from 8:30 am to 10:30 am, but Mom and I will get there half an hour earlier to set the table. We little kids can take turns to ride the ponies, but only ten kids can ride the ponies. I have so many friends that I have to think hard about whom to invite to the party. At the party, each of us can have a ten-minute ride. After each ride, there's a two-minute break. There are three ponies at the party, Dash, Poppy and Dotti, but only Dash and Poppy are for riding. We can brush Dotti's long white hair and give him some carrots, but we can't ride him. He's getting very old and can't carry us any more.

Mom gets lots of food, fruit and drinks for us. On the day of the party, the kids waiting for their tums can have something to eat and drink. There's a garden in the paddock (马场). Mom says the horse owner (主人) hides some small toys in different places in the garden. We can go to look for them. If we find them, we can take them home. How exciting! I can't wait to have the birthday party!

Here is the story of a special plant. Because of this plant, the population at that time increased a lot. 

Long ago, there was a man named Chen Zhenlong and he was born in Fujian. Then he went to Luzon island for work. There were many waterways to Luzon, So he took a boat to get there. In Luzon, Chen found that the local people ate sweet potatoes, and they could easily plant them. He wanted to bring the sweet potatoes back to his hometown, because they might change the situation of the food shortage(短缺). But it was not an easy thing. Chen was learning how to grow sweet potatoes while he was thinking about how to bring them back. One day he put a potatoes vine(藤) into the absorbent rope(吸水绳) and then brought it back to his hometown. After getting home , Chen began to plant sweet potatoes and finally he was successful. 

The weather was bad in Fujian and many people didn' t have enough food. Chen told the government that the sweet potatoes could help people. So the government let people plant sweet potatoes. After that, the sweet potatoes became a common plant in China. At that time, 85% of the people depended on sweet potatoes for food. People then had enough food and the population increased quickly.