On May 12, a big earthquake in China hit Wenchuan, Sichuan. Buildings fell down and the city was destroyed. A lot of people lost their lives.

    Premier Wen Jiabao got on a plane to Chengdu 尽快地. He was leading rescue (救援) work there.

    During the earthquake, many school buildings fell down. Students were buried. But they didn't give up hope. Many got out with help. Here are some stories about the brave students.

    Jiang Dejia and Liao Li are both students from Shifang Yinghua Middle School in Deyang. They were buried in the school rubble(碎砖) for two days. Jiang and Liao didn't know each other before the earthquake. But they kept each other going during the two scary days. They were both rescued later.

    A Junior 1 girl called Deng Qingqing from Shifang Yinghua Middle School was buried under the rubble. She was cold and hungry. But the brave girl had a flashlight (手电筒). She used it to help her read books.

    Li Anning, 16, is from Beichuan Middle School. She and her classmates sang songs under the rubble to comfort each other. The PLA soldiers and policemen were trying to find people alive in the rubble.Helicopters (直升机) airdropped food, water and medicine. Medical teams went to the quake­ hit areas. People outside Sichuan were also offering money, blood and other things to help.

Jim went to school to study history, but when he finished his first year, he didn't pass the exam and the teacher said to him, “You have to leave school.”

When the boy's father heard this news, he was much worried. He came to the school to see the teacher. He found the teacher in the office and asked the teacher to let Jim go on with his studies the next year.

“He is a good boy. He always does well in history,” said Jim's father, “and if you let him pass the exam this time, he will do better next year and pass the exam.”

 “No, no, that's impossible!” answered the teacher, “Last month I asked him when Napoleon（拿破仑）died and he didn't know.”

“Please sir, give him another chance.” said Jim's father, “You know we don't have any newspapers in our house, so nobody in our family knew that Mr. Napoleon was ill.”

    It was Tom's birthday, and he was five years old. He got quite a lot of presents from his family. His grandpa gave him a beautiful big drum(鼓). Of all the presents, Tom liked his drum best. He made terrible noise with it, but his mother didn't mind. His father was working in the daytime and Tom was in bed when he got home in the evening. So he didn't hear the noise. But one of his neighbors didn't like the noise. So one morning she took a knife and went to Tom's house when he was hitting his drum. She said to him, “Hello, Tom, do you know there is something very nice inside your drum? Here is a knife. Open the drum and let's find it.”

    Jerry worked in an office in the city. He worked very hard and really looked forward to(期待) his vacation. He usually went to the seaside, but one day he saw an ad(广告) in a newspaper.

    "Enjoy country life. Spend a few weeks at William Farm. Good food, fresh air, horse riding, walking, fishing…"

    "This sounds like a good idea," he thought. "I'll spend a month at William Farm. I'll go horse riding, walking and fishing. It'll be different from the seaside." Four days later, he returned home.

    "What's wrong with William Farm?" his friend Jack asked him. "Don't you enjoy your country life?"

    "Country life was fine," Jerry said. "But there was another problem."

    "Oh, what problem?" Jack was very surprised.

    "Well, the first day I was there, a sheep died, and we had roast(烤) mutton for dinner."

    "Fresh meat is the best."

    "I know, but on the second day a cow died, and we had roast beef for dinner."

    "Lucky you!"

    "You don't understand," Jerry said, "On the third day a pig died, and we had roast pork for dinner."

    "Wow, a different roast every day!" said Jack.

    "Let me finish." Jerry said, "On the fourth day a farmer died and I didn't want to stay there for dinner."

    Angelo Casimiro made something new at the age of fifteen.

    Casimiro made a device(装置）. It can charge（给……充电）your cellphone as you walk! When you run, jump or walk, a pair of discs(唱片）inside the shoes can produce electricity. It can be used to charge your phone or any other devices with a USB port!

    People have to move a lot if they use the device to charge. Those who like travelling in the wild will love it. It takes about eight hours' jogging to charge a lithium-ion（锂离子）battery and two hours' playing basketball will only give the cellphone about 10 minutes' charge.

    A device called SolePower is a kind of insole（鞋垫）that can produce electricity. SolePower is like Casimiro's device, but it can fully charge a cellphone after over a four-kilometre walk. So there's a lot for Casimiro to do to make his invention（发明）better.

    Anyway, Casimiro's device is quite good. After all, his invention started something new, right?