He was an old manwho fished alone in a small boat on the sea and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish, the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone with another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty. The sail looked like the flag of failure forever.

      The old man was thin with deep wrinkles (皱纹) in the back of his neck. His face was terribly brown because of the strong sunlight on the sea every day and his hands had the deep scars (伤疤) from dealing with heavy fish on the lines. But none of these scars were fresh. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful.

      “Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from the sea. “I could go with you again. We've made some money.”

        The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

      “No,” the old man said. “You're with a lucky boat. Stay with them.”

      “But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.”

      “I remember,” the old man said.

     “It was papa who made me leave. I am a boy and I must follow him.”

     “I know,” the old man said. “It is quite normal.”

       "He hasn't mush faith(信心)"                       

     “No,” the old man said. “But we have. Haven't we?”

     “Yes,” the boy said. “Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace?”

    “Why not?” the old man said “Between fishermen.”

    Mr Smith had a week's holiday, so he said, "I'm going to see the sea by train." He put on his best clothes, took a small bag, went to the railway station and got onto the train. He wore a beautiful hat, and he often put his head out of the window during the trip and looked at the beautiful scenery. But suddenly the wind pulled his hat off.

    Mr Smith took his old bag and threw it out of the window quickly too. The others in the train laughed. "Is your bag going to bring back your beautiful hat?" they asked.

    "N0," Mr Smith answered, "but there is no name or address in my hat, and there's a name and an address on the bag. If someone finds both of them, he or she will send me the bag and the hat.''

    There is a hiking trail (远足小径) near Sara's home. The trail begins at the foot of the mountain and leads all the way to the top. One day, Sara and her father planned to go on a hike. Sara had packed lunches earlier that morning. Her lather filled their backpacks with other things and they set out!

    As they started up the trail, Sara's father pointed out many different plants along the trail. He showed Sara the difference between the leaves of an aspen tree and a spruce tree. Sara was glad that her father knew so much! She always learned something whenever they went on a hike.

    "Look over there," Sara said in a low voice. They had just turned a comer on the mountain trail. Lying in the grass next to the trail was a small baby deer(鹿). It looked at them with wide eyes, but it did not move.

    "Where is its mother?" Sara asked. "Do you think we should stay here and watch it?"

    "That's a good idea," answered her dad. "We must not go any closer, though." As they sat down and unpacked their lunch, Sara asked her dad why they couldn't go any closer to the deer. He explained that sometimes, if the mother smelled humans too close to her baby, she would be too afraid to come back. Sara and her father agreed that they would wait for the mother to come back, but that they would not get too close to the deer.

    Soon a larger deer walked slowly up to the baby deer. The mother and baby ran quickly down the trail.

    Sara and her father packed up their things and continued up the mountain. They knew that the deer was now safe.

    I used to think courtesy (礼貌) was a thing of the past. However, I changed my mind when I met a courteous man.

    Last Saturday, I went to a cafe with my daughters. It was crowded with the usual loud crowd and we had to climb up the stairs to find an empty table. After enjoying coffee and snacks, we were ready to come down the stairs, where the narrow space made climbing down only possible in a single line, with hardly any space for another person to either climb up or come down.

    Just as I was in the middle of my descent (下去), a man got to the main entrance (入口) of the cafe which was right in front of the staircase. I was sure I would be pushed by the man who would want to go up in a hurry. Anyway, I kept coming down as fast as I could. My daughters were already down, looking up at me worriedly, hoping I would get down before the stranger went up the stairs.

    Nearly getting down, I noticed the man still standing near the door. Later, I passed him at the entrance door which he kept holding open. I looked back thinking he was still at the door, deciding whether to go in or find another less crowded place. However, I saw him going up the stairs, two at a time.

    I told my daughters about it and all of us felt bad for we did not even thank the courteous gentleman.