Several years ago, a farmer had some land along the sea. He advertised (征聘) for workers, but no one wanted to work for him. Most people didn’t want to work there ________ they didn’t like the bad storms. Finally, a ________ man, who looked weak and more than fifty years old, came to see the farmer. “Are you a good farmhand?” the farmer asked him.

“Well, I _________ sleep well when the wind blows, answered the little man.

Although the answer was strange, the farmer let the man stay to work. The little man worked ________ around the farm, busy from morning till evening. The farmer felt very pleased with his work.

Then one night the wind began to blow strongly. Jumping out of the bed, the farmer ________ into the little man’s room. He shook the little man and cried. “Get up! A ________ is coming!”

The little man said slowly. “No,sir. I told you—I can ________ well when the wind blows.”

The farmer was very angry, but he had to hurry outside to get ready for the storm. To his ________. Everything was ready outside. ________ could be blown away.

The farmer ________ what the man meant, so he returned to his bed to sleep while the wind was still blowing.

Mr. Brown got up late this morning. He was going to be late for work. It was raining hard and the streets were wet. He drove so fast that he didn’t see the red lights. He couldn’t stop his car and hit（碰撞）a car. An old man got out of the car and called out angrily, “What are you doing? How can you drive so fast?”

“I'm sorry, sir,” said Mr. Brown. “I didn’t see the lights turn red.” Then he brought out a bottle of wine and gave it to the old man.

“It’s cold today, sir,” said Mr. Brown. “Please drink a little, and then you’1l get warm.”

The old man drank some wine and became happy. He asked, “I'm feeling much better now. Why don’t you drink any?”

“I can’t drink anything now, sir,” answered Mr. Brown. “I’m waiting for the policeman. Only drunkards（酒鬼）cause accidents, you know!”

Basketball stars are usually tall. The stars of other sports are sometimes short. Some of the best football players are not very tall.

Short people often have better balance（平衡）than tall people. So they do not fall over very often. In some sports the players must have good balance, for example, table tennis and running.

You do not need long legs to run fast! Some of the fastest runners in the world are not very tall. Some people are tall and some people are short. There is no medicine to make people grow taller or shorter.

The tallest woman in the world was Sandy Allen. She was 2.32 metres tall and lived in the United States. The shortest person in the world was Chandra Bahadur Dangi from Nepal. He was only 54.6 centimetres（厘米）tall.

Today young people in many countries grow taller than their parents. This is because they eat better food today. Good food can help children grow.