Charlie was a rich boy who had more toys than you could imagine. His family always bought him something different

Once one of his uncles found a fine horse and sent it to him. Charlie was very excited and soon learned to ride it. And then he went here and there on his horse. However, he treated the horse as badly as all his toys. Soon it started looking weak（虚弱的）and sick. For the first time Charlie became truly worried, but he didn’t know what to do.

One day, he saw a girl riding a horse. She looked very poor, but the horse seemed happy and looked great. Charlie quietly followed them through a forest. Along the way, he found that she never hit the horse but he himself always did that. Then they came to the horse’s house. There the girl fed and watered her horse. Then she carefully groomed（梳洗）it. Charlie was surprised. He never did any of those things for his horse and he suddenly seemed to understand something. He asked the girl for help and then he learned how to look after his horse.

As a result, Charlie gave up asking for new toys. To thank the girl, he gave her some of his own toys. He only kept a few toys he really liked. He learned how to repair and care for the toys, so he could really enjoy playing with them.

Here is the story of a drop in the bucket (九牛一毛).

During the Han Dynasty, there was a historian (史官) named Sima Qian. One day, the emperor (皇帝) received a message from northern China. It said that the general (将军) Li Ling had given in (投降) to the enemy. The emperor was very angry with Li Ling. But Sima Qian didn’t say a word.

The emperor asked Sima Qian what he thought about the matter. He answered, “The enemy has 30,000 soldiers, but Li has only 5,000 men. He has been fighting hard for more than ten days. Li only gave in because they had run out of food. I believe he is waiting for another chance to attack.”

When the emperor heard his words, he got even angrier. He sentenced Sima Qian to castration (宫刑). Sima Qian felt so humiliated (受辱的) that he once wanted to kill himself. But in a letter to his friend, he wrote, "If I were to die now, it would be like one of nine cows losing one hair. I don’t want to die like a nobody. I will first finish the history book that I am writing."

Later, Sima Qian did finish the book, Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》). It became one of the most famous books ever written in China.

These years people show all kinds of things on the Internet—good food, nice clothes, wonderful vacations and so on. Now showing the number of steps（步）is becoming popular too. Why?

People are finding it important to be in good health. To keep healthy, many people go to work on foot. When they start walking, they open the step counter app（计步程序）in their phones to record（记录）how many steps they walk that day. After a day’s walk, some people show the number on WeChat or Weibo. This can make them learn from each other and keep exercising.

“This helps me to exercise much and keep a good habit,” Miss Liu said. “I can also talk about how to keep healthy with my friends on WeChat. We are in the same group to encourage each other to keep exercising.”

Mr. Wu likes to exercise. But in the past he was kind of lazy and didn’t want to exercise every day. “After I use the step counter app, everything is different. It’s great to exercise with my friends. Sometimes there are prizes（奖品）for those who walk more steps. I really like it,” he said.

Walking is a relaxing and useful way to exercise. Both the old and the young like it. Recording the steps helps people develop a good habit of walking and showing the number can make people more interested in walking. But don’t take the number too seriously.

Albert Einstein is a world famous physical scientist. But do you know that actually there are many     61     (interest) stories about him?

One afternoon, Einstein was     62     (walk) home from work, while 12-year-old girl was walking home from school. They were soon walking side by side.     63     (冠词) girl looked at him surprisedly from time to time.

“Pardon me,” the girl said. “but you look just like Albert Einstein.” “That’s because I am Albert Einstein!” Einstein said.

“I don’t believe you,” the girl said, “Everyone     64     (know) that Einstein is a genius (天才).     65     (连词) you’re wearing your sweater backwards (反了), so you can’t be very clever.

Einstein began to laugh, “You’re the     66     (one) person to be so honest with me,” he said to the girl. “It’s a pleasure to hear someone     67     (tell) me the truth about my look.”

After that day, the girl often went to visit Einstein’s house by     68     (her) after school. One afternoon, the girl’s mother went to visit Einstein. She asked him why he spent so much time with her daughter.

“It’s easy to explain our friendship.” Einstein said, “Your daughter tells me the truth about my look and brings me cookies.     69     (介词) return, I help her with her math homework.”

It’s easy to make     70     (friend) even with great people like Einstein. Just be sincere to others.

Once upon a time, there was a rich man. ①他非常喜爱他的儿子。Because he wanted to make his son have a happy life, he decided to send him to see a smart old man for advice on happiness. When the old man knew about this, he gave the boy an empty bowl and asked him to go to the river and fill the bowl with water. “If no water is spilt (洒) when you come back, I will tell you about it.”

The boy walked to the river and came back with a bowl of water. The old man asked him, “②Did you notice the beautiful flowers along the road and the birds singing in the trees?” The boy could say nothing about them because he paid much attention to the bowl in his hands. The old man smiled and said, “Bring me another bowl of water and enjoy the flowers and the singing of birds.”

When he came back, the boy could describe everything he had seen to the old man. But when he looked at his bowl, he found most water was gone. He forgot all about his bowl when he enjoyed the beautiful things along the road.

“Well, young man,” the old man said. “Enjoy the beauty of the world, but never forget your dream in your heart. This is the secret of happiness.”