A man came to a restaurant one evening to have a meal. The restaurant owner struck up a conversation with him and learned that he was saving money to bring his family to the city for a chance at a better life. He had recently arrived in the city and found work at a nearby scrap metal (废弃金属) site. This meal at the restaurant was going to be his only meal of the day, and he could only afford to spend a few cents. Touched by his story, the restaurant owner took his order, informing him that it would cost 50 cents.

Several years passed, and the man continued to visit the restaurant every evening to have his one meal of the day and chat with the restaurant owner, who always encouraged him and asked about family, and how his plans were going.

Finally, one evening, the man arrived at the restaurant with a happy smile on his face. He had bought an average-sized house in a good neighborhood with a good school for his boys, and he had just sent for his family to join him in the city. The restaurant owner was overjoyed for him and congratulated him．The man then mentioned that he wanted to spend an entire 5 dollars on his meal for celebration that evenin. The restaurant owner agreed that it was well-deserved (应得的), prepared his meal, put it in a box and sent him on his way home.

However, when the man got home and opened his meal package, he was shocked to find the same type of food he had been eating every day for the past six years. He felt deeply disappointed because he had been looking forward to a big and tasty meal to celebrate his big achievement. He was mad at the restaurant owner and felt robbed (掠夺) of his money and his celebration. He felt he had been cheated by his very good friend.

Adam, 8, and Peter, 10, played at the seaside with their mom every day. Every single day, they would come across an old man who would sit quietly on a chair, watching the waves.

One day, the brothers approached him. For some reason, the old man who always avoided people started a long conversation with the two boys and introduced himself as Walter Bridgeton. After a while, Peter finally asked the question they had been longing to ask: “Sir, why do you sit out here every day?”

“Well, I have been waiting here for my brother, James, for 10 years. We were in the army together and then were sent to different countries. This happened a long time ago. When we last saw each other, we promised to meet right here, where we used to walk with our mother,” the old man explained.

“How do you know he’s still coming?” Adam asked.

“That’s the thing. I don’t know. They gave me his army dog tags(军籍身份牌), but they never found him. He is still missing,” he said. The old man patted the boys’ heads and said, “Look after your brother, boys.”

The boys enjoyed his company ever since that day, and they were also surprised to know they lived near each other. Deeply moved by Walter’s story, the brothers decided to use social media to spread it, hoping to find his brother. One day, they went to the beach to tell him about what they did, but didn’t find him at his usual spot. “Something must have happened. Let’s go to his house now,” Peter said.

I was sitting in my office in an animal clinic when a young family rushed in. The father held a dying dog packed in a bloody towel in his arms. He was followed by a young boy carrying a big cat and crying as if his little heart was completely broken. The mother followed, comforting the boy. The cat simply looked at everyone with no interest and remained calm, lying on the boy's shoulder.

The nurse sent the father and what he held into the examining rooms. As the mother, the boy and the cat settled down on the seats in the waiting room, I couldn't help asking what this was all about. I thought that the pet in the bloody towel must have been hit by a car. In fact, it was one of the most unusual and heartwarming stories I had ever heard.

The cat lying on the boy's shoulder, named Tom, was the first pet of the family and now was an old guy of 12 years old. They had rescued him as an abandoned kitten. He was atypical cat, self-centred and quite independent, but very gentle.

Then, a year before this incident, Scotty, a puppy, came to the family as a gift from the boy's grandparents. The family was at first fearful about how Tom would accept the newcomer, but a strange thing happened. The old cat looked at the dog as if he were a long lost little brother. He absolutely liked the little guy. He allowed the puppy to chew his tail. He played for hours with him as if the dog were his own personal pet.

The family loved the two pets very much, taking videos of the pair together, and impressed by the way the old cat and the young dog were connected. The family lived near the hill. Tom and Scotty were kept indoors at night because there were wolves searching for small pets for meals at night.

Nobody had ever thought there would be a problem in daylight, however.

Tom, seeing Scotty caught by the wolf, jumped from the upper bedroom balcony (阳台)and onto the wolf's head.

I bought Jude as a tiny puppy after my previous dog died in a horrible incident. My heart was just broken and it was only having Jude that brought me back round from that pain. He was a lovely and happy pet.

For the first time in years, our whole family had gone on holiday together. It was only for four days but it meant my dog Jude was going to be looked after by someone outside the family. I was a bit nervous about it. After struggling for several days, I eventually booked him into a home boarding place in Belfast. I was worried about him the moment he was dropped off, because he had never been in kennels before.

The emotions we have gone through in the last few days have been awful. Jude was used to the comforts of a home and he had never been on his own before. Thus, I was worried about him at the bottom of my heart. Then unfortunately, the accident happened.

We went away on Monday, July 11, and he was missing on the 12th after being left in an exercise area. But it was on Thursday that I was told he had gone though I messaged the kennels every day to see how he was.

The moment we got home, we went looking for him but we didn’t know the area. My daughters Karla and Leanne took a tent and camped out to keep looking for Jude and they con-firmed a number of sightings of him. There were leaflet drops, drones put up and ground searches and posters. Social media was flooded with his photo and we got news of lots of sightings which helped. On Sunday night, my grandson Caidon who is nine, his mum Ashleigh and their dog Bonnie, went with us to the location of a reported sighting by a kind man and there Jude was.

As soon as Jude heard his friend Bonnie? he ran straight to him.

Jude suffered an injury to his right paw (爪) and some weight loss.

I watched my dad scowl (绷着脸) as he listened to the voice coming through the telephone receiver. I heard him say, “Yes, Miss Beisner,” and “I understand what you’re saying, Miss Beisner. I appreciate you sharing this information. We’ll see what we can do about the situation. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.”

Miss Beisner was my first-grade teacher, and I loved her. I thought she felt the same about me, but now I was beginning to wonder. The tone of Dad’s voice, the redness in his cheeks, and his repeated clenching. And unclenching of fists made it pretty clear. This was not a warm and fuzzy good news-from-the-teacher call.

As I was deciding whether I should lock myself in my bedroom for the rest of my life or run away from home, Dad hung up the phone. “Jacquie, come here and sit down. We need to talk.”

Uh-oh. When Dad said, “We need to talk,” it meant he needed to talk, and I needed to listen.

I shuffled (拖着脚走) over to the well-worn brown chair in the corner of the living room, plopped down, and waited to hear the nature of my crime.

Dad told me that Miss Beisner thought I was bright but not working up to my ability. She said I had strong verbal skills but weak study habits. Translation: I never closed my mouth, and I seldom opened a book. Apparently, my failure to memorize the addition facts, or even attempt to, was more than she was willing to put up with. Hence, the telephone call.

Dad ended our one-way conversation with a verbal outline for his plan of attack. Bubbles, our Toy Manchester Terrier, was going to teach me math. Silently, I thought, No way is any dumb dog going to teach me how to add, not even our beloved Bubbles. Out loud, I said, “How?”

Dad summoned Bubbles from her bed near the stove and commanded her to sit. “Bubbles,” Dad said, “how much is five plus three?” Bubbles let out eight loud, crisp barks.

I was incredulous (满腹狐疑的). I couldn’t understand how a dog could add, and I was more than a little embarrassed by the fact that the family dog was smarter than me.

Paragraph 1: After that, I threw myself into math with newfound determination.

Paragraph 2: One day, I asked Dad whether Bubbles really knew how to add.