Jane is only four years o1d and she doesn't go to school. But she is very clever and learns a lot from her grandpa—an old teacher. One day, Jane's mother, Mrs John takes her to a party. The guests（客人）all praise（表扬）a rich woman's son. Mrs John asks him a few questions, but his answers are wrong. Jane begins to laugh.

    The rich woman is angry.  She te11s her friend—a teacher to ask Jane some questions, but the little girl answers all. Then she asks, "There are three birds in a tree. How many will be left（被留下）if I kill（杀死）one?”

    “One” answers Jane. “You're wrong!” calls out the rich woman. “All of them will fly away”,“Do you think a dead（死的）bird can fly?”asks the little girl.

    The guests begin to 1augh and the woman's face turns red.

    It's Sunday. Children don't go to school on Sundays. But Kate gets up early in the morning. “It's my birthday. I'm eight years old today.” she thinks, “Where are Dad and Mum? I want to know what they can give me for my birthday.”

    Her father and mother are not at home. They are going shopping. And now they are talking about what to buy for Kate.

—Dad: How about the doll? It looks nice. I think Kate would like the doll.

—Mom: I don't think so. She is not a little girl. I think she likes a new dress. Girls often like new dresses very much.

—Dad: But she has a few new dresses and some new blouses. Oh, I think she must be very happy to have a box of colorful pencils and some picture books. Do you think so?

— Mom: Yes. Let's go over there and buy them.

    Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown are teachers. But they teach in different schools. Every day Mrs. Brown goes home early. Mr. Brown's school is not near their home. He goes home late. Mr. Brown likes Chinese. He often goes to Chinese classes. One day he has a friendly talk with a Chinese student and goes home very late.

    He opens the door and says, "Sorry, my dear. I am too late today, but I…" Mrs. Brown is not in the room. "That's strange（奇怪）. She likes watching TV. She doesn't like going out in the evening. But where is she now?" Mr. Brown looks here and there. Then he sees a note on the table. It says "Don't make any excuse this time. I am going out to see my friends. Don't wait for me. "

    It was summertime. Donna walked into the classroom." Good afternoon, everybody!" That was a joke Donna told every day. Usually the class started with only two or three students in the classroom, and then the other students came as the minutes went by.

    Donna knew that the students didn't like studying English. The head teacher had told her the reason. The students thought English was confusing.

    Donna waited until all the students were sitting in their seats. She smiled and said," Okay, well. Let's get started. Please turn to Page 36. Today we're studying participles as adjectives（分词作形容词）. Students often feel confused when they learn about the present and past participles, so we need to practice a lot. Today, we're just going to practice using present participles as adjectives." Donna looked at all the blank faces around the classroom. Then she wrote two sentences on the blackboard.

    "The present participle tells us what kind of emotion the subject（主语）is causing. For example, when we say 'grammar is boring', we mean that the subject—grammar — causes an emotion of boredom. If we say, 'The movie is interesting', we are saying that the movie causes an emotion of interest. Any questions so far? Is anyone confused?"

    The classroom was quiet. Donna knew it would take some time for everyone to understand what she was talking about. After a while, Donna got a little excited because she saw looks of understanding on some of the students' faces.

    Frank was clever, but he never liked to work hard. He often said to his friends, "If you work hard, you will make a lot of money, but it is not so good. I want easy work and a lot of money. That's the most interesting thing in the world. "So he could only be a thief. But he still thought it was too much work, so he only told his friends what to do and got money from them.

    One day, Frank sent one of his friends to a very large and beautiful house. He told him to get money from that rich family. It was evening, and a man and a girl were in the room. They were playing a duet(二重奏)on a piano. Then the thief came into the house.

    When he returned, Frank asked him what he had got. But he said, "I didn't take anything. That family can't have much money. You know, two people were playing on the same piano there. They did not have money to buy another piano."

    When someone shouts at you or says something that can hurt you, how will you feel and what will you do? Last week, I learned an important life lesson from a taxi driver.

    Last Tuesday, I called a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane(车道)when suddenly a black car jumped out. My driver quickly stopped his car and almost hit the other car! The driver of the other car turned his head around and started shouting at us! My driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I mean, in a really friendly way.

    So I asked, "Why did you just do that? That driver almost hit your car and sent us to the hospital!" However, he said, "Many people are like garbage trucks（垃圾车）. They run around full of garbage一all kinds of bad feelings. As their garbage adds up, they need a place to dump （倾倒）it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people."

    His words touched me a lot. Since then, I have started to see "garbage trucks" everywhere. I see the load(负载)they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my taxi driver, I just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.