My friend, Dick, has a large police dog. Its name is Jack. Every Saturday afternoon Dick takes Jack for a long walk in the park. Jack likes these long walks very much.

    One Saturday afternoon, a young man came to visit my friend. He stayed a long time. He talked and talked. Soon it was time for my friend to take Jack for a walk. But the man was still there. Jack became very worried. He walked around the room several times and then sat down in front of the man and looked at him. But the man kept talking. Finally Jack couldn't stand it anymore. He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later. He sat down again in front of the man, but this time he held the man's hat in his mouth.

    Eric and Doris King Turner are packing their bags for New Zealand. They're busy deciding what to pack and what to leave behind in Britain and are making plans to extend their new home in Nelson. Doris is looking forward to getting the garden into shape and Eric has his heart set on a spot of fly fishing. The difference is that Eric is 102, Doris is 87. Eric thinks he's Britain's oldest emigrant.

    In January next year Eric King Turner and his wife of 12 years will wave goodbye to their neighbors, and set sail from Southampton on the voyage of a lifetime. The ocean liner(远洋客轮)Saga Rose will take six weeks to get to Auckland and the couple are expecting a red-carpet welcome from family.

    Doris was born in New Zealand but gave up her homeland when the couple met and married in the late 1990s. But New Zealand is close to both their hearts and the attraction of family and friends, and the good fishing helped to persuade them to move.

    Doris, who has five children and nine grandchildren, supported her husband's application to settle in New Zealand. The paperwork took five months. Eric says." We not only had to produce a marriage certificate(证书)but we had to produce evidence that we were in a long and stable relationship! "He also said he was not asked about his age but had to show that he could support himself financially(财政上)in New Zealand.

    "I like New Zealand. The way of life is very much the same as it is here but it is not so crowded. "His wife has always been" a little bit homesick" but has never complained. Now the couple are in the middle of the task of sorting out possessions and selling their flat.

    Jim is a young farmer. He was once put into prison(监狱).

    One day, he got a letter from his mother. "I'm so worried about our farm, "she wrote." It's time to plant potatoes. I can't dig(挖)all the fields(田地)by myself."

    Jim read the letter and became sad. "What can I do?" he thought. Then he had a good idea. He wrote to his mother, "Don't dig the fields. There is much money in the earth. Don't plant potatoes until I come home."

    Some days later, Jim got another letter from his mother. It said, "Two days ago, about ten men came to our farm and dug all the fields. I can't understand it. It seemed that they were looking for something. What should I do?"

    Jim smiled when he read his mother's letter. He wrote a letter to his mother at once. It was very short. Guess what it would say.

    Long ago, Bluebird's feathers were the colour of dust. She did not like her ugly colour. She was attracted by the colour of the lake near her home. It was as blue as the sky after a storm. Bluebird wanted to be the colour of that beautiful lake very much. Flapping her wings one morning, Bluebird flew from her tree to the blue lake. Then she bathed in the water three times. After each bath, she sang, "Blue water. Still water. I went in. I am blue." Bluebird repeated this every morning. On the third day, she came out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers.

    Now Coyote was a trickster(骗子)—and hungry too. He stayed behind Bluebird's tree for a long time every day and watched her go to the lake. He pretended(伪装)to be interested in everything she did. He wanted Bluebird for lunch, but he was afraid of the blue water. On the third morning, Coyote saw Bluebird come out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers. Impressed, he sat next to Bluebird's tree and waited for her. When she returned, he asked, "How did you get blue feathers? I want to be blue like the mountains too." Bluebird didn't believe Coyote, but she taught him how to bathe three times each morning and how to sing her song. Coyote did what she said, and after three days of bathing in the lake, his white fur turned deep blue.

    Convinced(确信的)that blue fur was even more beautiful than blue feathers, Coyote forgot all about being hungry. He ran as fast as he could to the top of the hill. Standing on his back legs, he raised his front legs off the ground and howled. But Coyote slipped(滑倒)and rolled down the hill. He couldn't stop himself, and the dust and dirt covered his new blue fur. He rolled and rolled until he hit into Bluebird's tree heavily. No matter how much he tried, foolish Coyote could not shake the dust from his fur. And so the fur of all coyotes had the dull colour of dust to this very day.