Earl was looking at the wall outside the pub（酒馆）. The pub's name, The Old Swan, was on the wall. Next to the name was a wooden ship's wheel and in the middle of the wheel was the name of a ship, HMS Swan. The wheel was old, Earl could tell.

   The next morning, Earl asked to see Tony Thatcher. The Old Swan was Tony's pub. He took Earl to his office while Candy had a coffee outside by the river. Earl said he could give Tony a lot of money for the ship's wheel. He told Tony that Benjamin Cooper, his grandfather, went to America on the ship HMS Swan. But Tony said no at first. After all, the wheel was very old and it was part of the pub's past.

    "You can think of the past, Mr. Thatcher - can I call you Tony? - or you can think of today. And with the money, Tony, you can buy a good car. Maybe a new Jaguar? And, as I've told you, the wheel is part of my family's past too. So you could say it's going back home, in a way. So, what do you say?"

   A month later, Earl and Candy were smiling as they looked at the wall of their house in Houston, Texas. Earl thought to himself that, at last, he had a piece of his family's past. He was happy.

    In Portsmouth, Tony Thatcher was happy, too. He was putting his new Jaguar into his large garage（车库）. He was careful not to drive into any of the six ship's wheels in the garage. A friend of his made the wheels for him. They were just like the one that Earl bought. And there was another wheel on the outside wall of The Old Swan now. Old or new - Tony thought there was no way that a tourist could ever know which was which. Never in a hundred years.

    The Hunger Games is a book by an American author Suzanne Collins. It came out in 2008 and has sold millions of copies. You can buy it in 26 different languages.

    The story happens in the future, after the destruction（毁灭）of North America. There are twelve poor districts governed（统治）by the rich Capitol.

    The Capitol organizes the Hunger Games every year. One boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 in each of the twelve districts are chosen to fight. Only one person will live. The whole country must watch the games on television.

    The story is about Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl. Her younger sister, Prim, is chosen, but Katniss volunteers to go instead. She has to fight with a boy named Peeta.

    Where did the idea for The Hunger Games come from? One night in 2003, Suzanne Collins was watching TV. At that time, there was a war between the US and lraq. The only programs she could find on TV were "reality" programs and news about the war. Suzanne says that the two things started to mix together in her head and she had the idea for The Hunger Games.

    Some parents in the US have complained about the violence（暴力）in the book. But Suzanne says she is very worried about how much violence we see on TV nowadays. Suzanne is also worried about the amount of reality TV we watch." We put too much of our lives on TV, "she says." And we care less for people because of this." She says that writing about death and violence in the story was the hardest thing for her to do and she hopes it will make people think about what they watch in the future.

    Have you ever watched old movies? If so, maybe you have known Carole Lombard (卡罗尔·隆巴德). She was a famous actress in the 1930s. She died when she was only 34. In her short life, she made 70 movies.

    In 1921, when she was only thirteen years old, a movie director saw her in the street. He decided to put her in a movie. The movie was one of the last silent movies. She acted well enough to win the hearts of many people. At the age of 16, she left school to act. In 1926, an accident happened to her. The accident left scars on her face, but she didn't give up. She continued to act.

    Later, she married Clark Gable that was an actor. He was the great love in her life. They lived happily together.

    Spider-Man is one of the most famous comic book heroes of all time. He was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditka and was first introduced to the world in the pages of Marvel comic books.

    Spider- Man's story is the story of Peter Parker, a boy who has lost his parents and lives with his aunt and uncle. Peter is a shy, quiet boy wearing glasses and has few friends. One day, on a high school class trip to a science lab, he gets bitten by a special spider. Soon Peter realizes he has amazing powers. He is as strong and quick as a spider and also has a type of sixth sense, He no longer needs his glasses and he can use his super power to fly through the city streets!

    Remembering the sentence "With great power comes great responsibility." that his Uncle Ben has told him, Peter decides to use his powers to fight enemies who do cruel things to people. And so Spider-Man is born.

    Life is not easy for Peter even though he is a superhero. He is in love with Mary Jane but cannot tell her about his amazing powers. Besides his best friend Harry hates Spider-Man! Peter is also short of money and time. He has to sell photos of Spider-Man (himself) to a newspaper and he keeps losing his other jobs because he's so busy saving people! Yet he has to fight different kind's cruel enemies.

    There was once a rich man who loved his little boy very much. He wanted to try his best to please him. So, he gave him a horse to ride, beautiful rooms to live in, pictures, books, toys and everything that money could buy. But for all days, the little boy was still unhappy. He wore a frown(皱眉) wherever he went. He always wished for something he did not have. The man didn't know how to make his son happy.

    One day, a magician came to the man and said to him, "I can make your son happy and turn his frowns into smiles, but you must pay me a great price for telling him the secret.

    "All right," said the man. "No matter what you ask for, I'll give you." The magician took the boy into a secret room. He wrote something on a piece of paper, and then gave it to the boy. There on the paper came the words: Do one kind thing for someone every day. The boy followed the advice and became one of the happiest boys.

    Only those who stop thinking about their own happiness can be truly happy.