【推荐1】Finances (经济) were low for many months after the Strike (罢工) .Mama decided to rent (出租) the front room Mr. Hyde called in answer to the "Roomer for Rent" sign in the window.

Mr. Hyde didn’t seem to have any regular hours of business, but he always spoke pleasantly(愉快地) to the children, and whenever he passed Mama in the hall he bowed (鞠躬) to her.

Only Aunt Jenny disagreed "When," she asked, "is he going to pay his rent?”

"ls hard,” Mama said, "to ask. Surely he will pay soon."

When the rainy weather came, Mama worried that Mr. Hyde's room was cold in the evenings, so she had Papa invite him into the warm kitchen to sit with us. Christine, Nels, and I did our homework under the big lamp, and Papa and Mr. Hyde smoked by the stove. Mams worked quietly at the sink

Mr. Hyde advised Nels on his high-school courses and sometimes helped him with his Latin. Nels became interested, his grades improved, and he stopped begging Papa to let him quit school and go to work. After we finished our schoolwork and Mama had settled down in the rocking chair with her mending, Mr. Hyde would tell us of his travels and adventures.

One night he began to read Dickens to us. Soon it became an accepted fact that after our homework was done, Mr. Hyde would bring down one of his bocks and read aloud. And strange new worlds were opened to us. After David Copperfield 《大卫科波菲尔》 and The Old Curiosity Shop《老古玩店》, Mr. Hyde gave us Shakespeare (莎士比亚). He had a fine deep voice and sounded as we imagined a great actor would sound.

Even when the warm weather came, we children don't beg to go out in the evenings to play. I think Mama was glad; she never liked us running the streets.

"I must go," he told Mama. "I shall leave the books for Nels and the Children. Here is my check for all I owe(欠) you, madam. and my sincere thanks for your hospitality(热情好客).” We were sorry to see Mr. Hyde leave, but it was with great excitement that we brought his books out to the kitchen. There were so many of them!

It was too bad that Aunt Jenny was still there when Mr. Kruper came. He was angry. “That man Hyde was a crook (骗子) !” he shouted. "Look at this check he gave me It's no good! The bank people tell me he cashed them all over the neighbourhood."

Aunt Jenny's triumphant (得意的) nod said as plainly as word—I told you so. Mama looked around at all of us. Her eyes rested longest on Nels. "Read," she told him, "read to us from Ivanhoe 《艾凡赫》.

【推荐2】One night I received a Facebook message from Laura, a former classmate. “Hey Steve,” she said, “I know you’ve always been an animal lover. I’ve just had a baby and I can’t keep my mini pig.”

Being fond of animals, I knew I wanted the pig. I just had to figure out how to make it happen. I lived in a two-bedroom single-level house in Georgetwon, Ontario. It’s tough to bring a pig back to the house I share with two dogs, two cats, and my lifelong partner.

But I was not letting that pig go. So I told Laura I’d take the animal. When I got home with the pig, I hid her in the bedroom, and began to prepare a dinner for Alisha — her favourite bacon cheeseburgers. It’s better to make her happy before introducing the new member to her.

When I led her to the bedroom and showed her the surprise, Alisha stood in the doorway like a statue. It took her a few seconds to know what I had done. She complained about my unreasonable action. She insisted there was no more room in the house.

I knew I was wrong, but I hoped I could smooth things over. Soon enough, the lovely pig did the smoothing for me. Never had we felt such joy as she brought to us. We got her a name “Esther”.

Esther’s arrival changed our lives. A few weeks later, we decided to stop eating bacon. We figured it was our turn to try to change the world for other animals. A few months later, we moved to a farm where we cared for abandoned animals — so far, six rabbits, six goats, two sheep, one horse, three cows and three chickens.