Jack is in bed. Mr. Smith sits beside him.

    “What kind of day do you have today?” Mr. Smith asks.

    “It is a bad day for me,” Jack answers. “I have a fight with Tom. Then the teacher calls you and tells you about it, right?”

    “Yes , part(部分) of the day is bad,” Mr. Smith says. But there are good parts, too. Now it is time to go to sleep. So tell me the best thing to you today.

    Jack is happy and he says, “After school, I go swimming. I make a new friend in the swimming pool.”

“I am happy you have a good time,” Mr. Smith says. “Think about it before you go to sleep. Now I'm going to turn off the light(关灯). Have a nice dream!”

    “Good night, Dad,” Jack says.

    Every night Mr. Smith and Jack have a talk like this.

    Every night Jack answers the same question, “What is the best thing to you today?

    Every night Jack goes to sleep thinking about the best thing. It's really a good way to end(结束) a day.”

    We got to another planet and we were on our way back to the earth.

    Suddenly, a UFO appeared and it made our spacecraft land on another planet. On the planet, a very strange-looking alien met us. He took my friends and me to see its master. All the aliens had four eyes, two heads and six legs. They had a white body and no hair.

    The planet looked like a prison (监狱). We were scared and they gave us some food. No one ate the food.

    The next day, they gave us a long list of things to do, but we couldn't understand them at all. They put us in a small room. After that, they did experiments(试验)on us. A few of us died and they put the rest of us back into the room.

    One day, the alien who brought us to our room forgot to lock the door, so we ran away. Soon we flew back to the earth in our spacecraft.

We told people about our experience but no one believed us! After that, I never go into space again.

    "This one's for you," Sergeat(警官)Barstow shouted and left quickly through the back door. I was a little puzzled. I looked out of a window of the Ashfordly Police Station and saw an elderly woman come into the building.

    "Good morning, Madam," I said.

    "Good morning," she said pleasantly." You're new, aren't you?"

    "Yes, Madam."

    "It's about that man who's been annoying me," she said." I've been here about him before."

    "Could I have your name and address, please?"

    "Miss Fraser. Josephine Fraser. I live at 43 Prince Terrace. Now, can you please do something about Jackson?"

    "What's he done, Miss Fraser?"

    "Done? He's thrown garbage all over my stairs again. He must be stopped."

    "Where does he live?"

    "Next door, Number 41," she said.

    "I'll go and see later and warn him off, Miss Fraser."

    "I would be most grateful."  With that she left.

    Half an hour later, I reached Prince Terrace. No. 41 was in a bad state of repair. I knocked. No reply. I entered. The place was deserted. I wondered if the Jackson was a tramp(流浪者). Anyway, it seemed he had left, possibly because of Miss Fraser's threatening police action. I decided to visit her.

    I knocked on her door and it was opened almost immediately." Ah!" she said gladly." You're just in time for coffee." I followed her inside. Miss Fraser told me more about her battle with Jackson. But when I asked specific questions, it clearly showed that she had never seen Jackson. Finally, I managed to leave.

    Sergeant Barstow smiled kindly as I returned." Nick, did you kick(踢出) Jackson, out of that house?"

    "Jackson" I cried." Who is he?"

    "There is no Jackson," he said." Miss Fraser is lonely and she likes company. We always let the new young men deal with Miss Fraser. It gives her deep satisfaction. That's what we are here for, isn't it to satisfy the public?"

    John is thirteen now. He began to study in a middle school two years ago. His home is in a village and it's nearly five kilometres away from the school. He has to get up early in the morning. After quick breakfast he has to run to school and get there on time. His father hopes to borrow some money to buy a bike for him, but John knows his mother is always ill and that his father spends much money on medicine. He doesn't agree with his father and keeps running there every day. Now he's very strong. He is never late for class and his teachers often praise him.

    Last week there was a sports meeting in his school. John ran faster than any other boy in the boys' 800—metre race, 1, 500—metre race and 3, 000—metre race. The whole school knew him. He was happy. He told his grandma about the good news as soon as he got home.

    "I broke two school records today, Granny, "called out the boy.

    To his surprise, the old woman wasn't happy. She thought for a while and I'm sorry to hear that. But we have no money to pay for them, you know!

    One morning, Emma discovered that her classroom had changed. She found that the desks were no longer in rows, but pushed together to make eight bigger desks. She was so excited about it for the first two days that she couldn't listen to the teachers carefully. But soon she and her classmates got used to this new classroom arrangement(安排). "Now our class is quieter," said Emma. "What's more, we can come up with our own ideas and learn more through discussion. It's a better way to study."

    David liked it, too. "Group members first discuss, "he said, "and then show to the whole class. It encourages us greatly. "This was part of a reform (改革) at David's school. The school made this reform because they wanted to offer students easier ways to study and more chances to discuss. "Our school hopes to improve students' abilities to study by themselves and work in groups." said Linda, an English teacher.

However, the reform has demanded(要求) more from teachers. Now they have only 15 minutes to give a lesson that would have been taught in 40 minutes before. It is difficult to teach in such a short time. The teachers have to find better ways to teach more effectively(有效地).

    "The reform demands more, but I'm sure it is helpful." added Linda.