Nasreddin was a poor man，so he tried to grow_____he could in his own garden，so that hewould not have to buy so many in the market.

One evening he heard a noise in his garden and looked out of the window. A white ox（牛）had got into the garden and_____his vegetables. Nasreddin at once took his stick, ran out and chased the ox, but he was too old to catch it. When he got back to his garden, he found that the ox had ruined most of his precious vegetables.

_____, while he_____in the street near his house, he saw a cart with two white oxen which looked very much like the one that_____his vegetables. He was carrying his stick with him,_____he at once began to beat the two oxen with it. As neither of them looked more like the ox that had eaten his vegetables than the other, he beat both of them equally hard.

The owner of the ox and cart was drinking coffee in a______coffee house. When he saw_____Nasreddin was doing_____his animals, he ran out and shouted,“What are you doing? What have those poor animals done to you for you to beat them like that?”

“You keep out of this!”Nasreddin shouted back. “This is a matter between me and one of these two oxen. He knows very well______I am beating him!”

Susie Sunbeam was not her real name, that was Susan Brown. But everyone called her Susie Sunbeam because of her such a sweet, smiling face.    31    

Her grandfather first gave her this name, and it seemed to fit the little girl so nicely that soon it took the place of her own.

Even when a baby, Susie laughed from morning till night.     32    

When she had learned to walk, she loved to go about the house and get things for her mother, and in this way save her as many steps as she could. She would sit by her mother’s side for an hour at a time, and ask her ever so many questions, or she would take her new book and read.

    33    She never used a unkind word, but tried to do whatever would please her playmates best.

One day, a poor little girl with a very ragged dress was going by and Susie heard some children teasing her and making fun of her. She at once ran out to the gate, and asked the poor little girl to come in. “What are you crying for?” Susie asked. “Because they all laughed at me,” she said.

    34    She cheered her up with kind words, and gave her a nice dress and a pair of shoes.

This brought real joy and gladness to the poor child.    35