Alice in Wonderland Chapter 2

    Alice was not hurt, so she jumped to her feet in a moment. She looked up, and found the White Rabbit was still in sight. She was close behind it when she turned the comer, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen. She found herself in a long, low hall.

    There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked.

    Alice walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

    Suddenly, she came upon a little three-legged table. There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall.

    But, alas! Either the locks were too large, or the key was too small. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before and behind it was a little door.

    She tried the little golden key in the lock, and she was pleased to find it fitted!

    People have told stories about Robin Hood for over 700 years. Nobody knows if he was a real person or an invented character. In the legends, Robin was extremely smart and humorous, he helped strangers, and later his kindness paid off.

    The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood was just a young man, who was good at archery (射箭术). One day he was walking through Sherwood Forest, a royal hunting forest near Nottingham in England. There he got into trouble with a group of men. Among them, he killed the cousin of the Sheriff (郡长) of Nottingham. Robin became a legendary outlaw, and soon the leader of one hundred outlaws, known as his "Merry Men".

    Robin and his "Merry Men" always looked for rich people and asked them to their camp in Sherwood Forest. When they arrived, Robin gave them a good meal and played music for them. Then he took their gold away to help the poor. Robin became most famous for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor."

    The Sheriff of Nottingham was Robin's greatest enemy. He was cruel and treated the poor badly. It was his job to keep the woods safe and to make sure that nobody stole the king's deer. He hated Robin because Robin was an outlaw. But most of all, he hated Robin because everyone else loved him. The Sheriff of Nottingham kept trying to catch Robin Hood and his "Merry Men", but never succeeded.

Once upon a time, there was a man who kept several sheep. One morning, the man found that one of his sheep was missing. It turned out that, during the night, a wolf stole his sheep through a hole in the sheep pen (羊圈).

His neighbor suggested to him, "You should mend the hole right away." But the man said, "The sheep is already lost. So I don't need to mend it."

The next morning, he found that another sheep was missing, too. Once again, the wolf stole the sheep through the same hole. The man regretted not taking the neighbor's advice.

So he mended the hole at once.

From then on, no more sheep was stolen by the wolf. It is never too late to mend.

It was late afternoon. The shade(阴凉处) came around to the front of the house,1 it was not too hot. My brother Tommy and I decided to do some drawing there.

Tommy drew a picture2 shade. He said," It helps me feel cool."I looked at my hot sun picture and planned to try to draw 3 in Tommy's way.

Then I saw our friends Mario and Katie walking to us, They stopped and looked at our pictures, Mario 4 at Tommy's picture and asked," What's this?"

" Shade," Tommy answered. Mario looked at the picture for a few 5 , and then picked up the blue chalk(粉笔). When he finished 6 , he told us," Do you know7 it is? It's cool water!" Tommy and I liked his picture. Then, Katie jumped up and took the white chalk.

" Watch this, Joe," she said to 8 and started to draw," It's snow. Now we can dream we' re in winter."

" Good idea! Then we can make some snowballs and 9 snowman,"I said. We looked at each other and laughed. The pictures seemed 10 the weather cool.

2023 was the Year of the Rabbit. Children felt very surprised and they couldn't believe their eyes when they 1 Liu Ping make a lifelike rabbit in just one minute. 

 Liu Ping was a(an)2 from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. She began blowing sugar figures(糖人) fifteen 3 ago. She understood the children's feelings because she was also4 when she watched her grandfather do the same thing. At that time, she thought her grandfather 5 a magician. She showed her interest and6 in making sugar figures at the early age. Liu Ping could make easy shapes with syrup(糖浆) when she was only six years old. After she finished high school, her family decided to 7 their hometown— Hegang. They moved to Harbin to have a8 life. Her grandfather wanted her to get a good job in a factory, but she 9 had the dream of doing magic like him. 10 , the grandfather agreed to take her on as his student. She spent three years learning the folk art and later opened three 11 in Harbin. People could buy many kinds of sugar figures there. 

"As far as I know, lots of people don't want to do this job. 12 people are good at blowing sugar figures. " she said. "It's really difficult to make something new and popular in such traditional art. 13 I' ll never stop and I must keep trying. "

 Every month, Liu Ping and other folk artists visit schools in Harbin to teach14 about the art. She said, "We are15 to know that more and more children love this kind of folk art. For me, making sugar figures is not just a childhood memory. It also brings me great happiness. It's my duty to make more people understand the meaning and the beauty of the traditional art. "