Mr Robin(知更鸟) has his house in a tree. His four baby robins live in it. They grow very ________. Soon the house is too little for them.

“It is time for you to ________,” says Mr Robin.

“Oh, we can not fly,” say the baby robins.

“You can, if you ________,” says Mr Robin.

A robin tries. He flies into a tree.

“Oh, how ________!” says the little robin. “I like to fly. See you go!”

Then the other robins try.

In a little ________ they can all fly.

The robins can fly, ________ they can not sing.

Mr Robin says to them, “Come, little robins, it is time for you to ________.”

“No, Dad, we can not sing.”

“You can, if you try. ________ the other birds sing. Look at the pretty flowers and the ________ sky. Then you will want to sing. Hear me sing to you. Now sing for me.”

One little robin sings.

Then they all sing.

A little girl comes by. “Wow, hear the birds sing!” she says. “How ________ they are!”

The swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it a nice thing

And a child can do

Up in the air and over the wall,

I can see so wide (宽广的).

River and trees and sheep and all

Over the countryside...

I look down on the garden so green

Down on the roof (屋顶) so brown...

Up in the air I go flying again

Up in the air and down!

It’s a sunny morning. It’s warm but not hot. Jack sees an old man with a black umbrella walking on the street.

Jack is very curious(好奇的). So he asks the old man, “Hello. Would you tell me why you bring the umbrella?”

The old man answers, “My legs are not strong. If I take a walking stick, people will say, ‘How poor the man is!’ I don’t like this. So I take an umbrella to help me. When people see I’m walking with an umbrella on a fine day, they will only say, ‘How foolish(愚蠢的) the man is!’”

Most people buy a lot of gifts just before Christmas. But some people think we buy too much. They start a special day called Buy Nothing Day. They don’t want anyone to go shopping that day.

Buy Nothing Day is November 29. It’s 25 days before Christmas. It’s after Thanksgiving and often the first day of Christmas shopping. At this time, we see ads in newspapers and on TV telling us to “buy, buy, buy!”

The idea for Buy Nothing Day started in British Columbia(哥伦比亚). Now people all over the world celebrate Buy Nothing Day. In California(加利福尼亚), parents and children get together to read stories, sing songs, and paint pictures. The children talk about why they don’t need a lot of toys. This year, in England, people dress up to tell people that we buy too much.

In New Mexico(新墨西哥州), high school students want to tell other students about Buy Nothing Day. They organize a spaghetti(意大利细面) dinner to give people information about Buy Nothing Day. They ask restaurants in the neighborhood to donate the food. They make posters and talk to other students about it. The dinner is a big success, and many students agree not to buy anything on November 29. The students at high school like the idea of this new tradition. Next year, they want to have another dinner to tell more people about Buy Nothing Day!

A king becomes old. He knows it is time to choose (选择) a new king. He says to all the young people in his country, “I will give each of you a seed (种子). Plant it and bring it back here one year later. Show me your plants,     46    . ”

A boy named Peter gets a seed, too. He looks after it carefully.     47    . A year later, Peter has to take his empty (空的) box to the palace. Others all take beautiful plants there.     48    .

The king gets to the palace and looks around. When he finds there is nothing in Peter’s box,     49     and says to them,“One year ago, I gave everyone a seed. In fact (事实上), all the seeds can’t grow. But all of you, except (除了) Peter, brings me beautiful plants. Peter is the only one with the honesty (诚实) to bring me such a box.     50    !”