One day a little boy asked his father, “What does the word ‘great’ mean? Who are great people and ________ do they become great?”

The father asked his son to bring two plants and then told him to plant one of them ________ the house and the other outside the house. The boy did as his father said.

“Which one of the two plants do you think will be bigger and ________?” the father asked his son.

The boy replied, “The plant inside the house will be safer, ________ it will grow bigger, while the plant outside the house is not safe at all. No one will be there to ________ it. It may be eaten by animals.”

The father smiled and said, “Let’s wait ________. We will know the answer.”

Then the boy ________ for study and after four years he came back to his house. He said to his father, “Look, ________ happens to this plant inside the house and it is safe.”

When the boy went outside, he was very ________ to see a big tree. The boy couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t ________ how the plant outside was able to grow much bigger than the plant inside the house.

“The plant outside the house faced every ________ and many difficulties!” The father ________ to his son why the plant outside was bigger. “The plant inside was safe, it didn’t face weather changes, and it didn’t get ________ sunlight, so it didn’t become big.”

Here is the ________ to the question about being great: To become a great person, one must have failed many times, experienced many difficulties and ________ those difficulties. Only after that he is able to become great.

Here are the five longest rivers in the world.

There are 76 rivers in the world over 1,000 miles long. A lot of people think that rivers always flow south, but 4 of the longest rivers in the world flow north. The United States alone has around 3.5 million miles of rivers. Four of the top 10 longest rivers flow through China at some point.

One morning a highly successful businessman, running a big company, was getting ready to go to his office. When he reached into his car and opened the door, a dog sleeping under his car suddenly came out and bit on his leg! The businessman quickly picked up a few rocks and threw at the dog, but none hit the dog. The dog ran away.

Upon reaching his office, the businessman called a meeting of his managers to ask about their tasks, and during the meeting he put the anger of the dog on them. The managers also got upset by the anger of their boss and they put their anger to the workers under them. The chain of this reaction kept going, and finally the anger reached to the office cleaner.

Now, there was no one working under the cleaner! So, when the office time was over, he reached his home, and his wife opened the door. She asked him: “Why are you so late today?” The cleaner said loudly, “I didn’t go to the office to play football. I went to work so don’t irritate me with your stupid questions!”

So, the wife got upset for no reason. She put her anger on her son who was watching TV, saying, “This is all you do. You have no interest in studying! Turn off the TV now!”.

The son got upset too! He walked out of his house and saw a dog passing by looking at him. He picked up a rock and hit the dog in anger. The window of the businessman’s car in front of the building was broken unluckily.

The Marches’ house was between two large houses. On one side there was an old brown house. On the other side there was a large stone mansion（豪宅）. This was the home of old Mr. Laurence and his grandson, Laurie. It was a very grand house and the rooms looked very comfortable behind the heavy silk curtains（窗帘）at the windows. But it was a house without life. The Marches’ house was different. It was always busy and full of noise and people.

A few days after the party Jo saw Laurie again. He was standing at an upstairs window in the mansion and looking down at their garden. Beth and Amy were playing in the snow. They were throwing snowballs and having a lot of fun. Laurie’s face was very sad.

“Poor boy!” she thought. “He’s all alone. It’s a shame! He needs some friends.” She couldn’t stop thinking about him. ________, but how could she go to his house without an invitation?

Then one snowy afternoon, while she was looking out of the window, she saw Mr. Laurence. He was getting into his carriage（马车）. He was going out. This gave her an idea.

“Laurie is alone in the house,” she thought. “Perhaps he’s looking out of his window.”

She put on her hat and an old coat and took a broom（扫帚） and a shovel（铁铲）from the kitchen.

“What are you going to do, Jo?” asked Meg when she saw her sister in the hall.

“I want to get some exercise,” answered Jo with a smile. “I’m going to clear the garden path.”

Laurie was standing at the window again. He wasn’t looking at her so she threw a snowball to get his attention（注意）. When the snow hit the glass, he turned his head immediately and a big smile changed his pale, sad face.

Jo laughed and shouted, “How are you? Are you ill?”

Laurie opened the window and said, “I’m better now, thank you. I had a bad cold and I had to stay inside for a week.”

---Adapted from Little Women

Have you ever heard the sound of a hummingbird (蜂鸟)? They make a buzzing noise when they fly. They make this noise because they beat their wings so fast. They beat their wings up to 80 times a second. All that flapping makes a lot of noise. That’s why we call them hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds fly in a unique way. They move their wings so fast that they can hover. This means that they can stay in one spot in the middle of the air, like a helicopter. Sometimes they fly upside down. They are the only bird that flies backward.

Hummingbirds are small. One type called the bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world. Bee hummingbirds weigh less than a penny. They are just a little bit bigger than bees. I guess that’s where they get their name.

Hummingbirds move fast. It takes lots of energy to move as fast as they do. This means that they need to eat a lot of food. Their favourite food is nectar, a sweet liquid inside of some flowers. They drink more than their own weight in nectar daily. They have to visit hundreds of flowers to get enough nectar to live. They can only store enough energy to survive through the night. They live on the edge.

Hummingbirds help flowers too. They get pollen (花粉) on their heads and bills (鸟嘴) when they feed. Flowers use pollen to make seeds. Hummingbirds help pollen get from one flower to the next. This helps flowers make more seeds. More seeds mean more flowers. More flowers mean more food for hummingbirds. Isn’t it nice how that works out?