One day a king went to a far away place in his country. When he came back, his feet hurt a lot. “There are too many small stones on the roads. They hurt my feet.You should cover（覆盖）every road with leather（皮革）,”he told his men. Of course, it would cost a lot of money. One of his men was very smart. He told the king,“Why not cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?” The king was surprised. He agreed to the man’s idea. He asked his men to make a pair of leather shoes for him.

Maybe this is not the beginning of leather shoes. But it teaches us a lesson of life: if you want to make this world a happy place, the best way is to change yourself, not the world.

【推荐2】There was once a king who had a great palace with a wonderful garden .In the garden,there lived all kinds of animals. All of them enjoyed living there.

There was only one thing in the garden that the king hated: an old tree in the center of the garden. It was so old and dry. This made the king so angry that he finally asked some people to cut down and turned the place into a swimming pool. However, after the trees were cut down, the animals left the garden .Without the animals; the garden was not so beautiful as before. The king was sad, but he didn’t know what happened.

A young man went to the king, and said he could explain what had happened. “This was because you cut the old tree down,’’ said. “ There were thousands of moths (飞蛾 ) which lived in the tree .Birds needed the moths to eat and then attracted many other animals to your garden. So your garden became very beautiful. But as you cut the tree down, the animals had to leave. ”

“Excellent!” said the king, I’ll make you rich and you will try to make my garden beautiful again.”

“I’m afraid it will take many years to finish. It will take many years for the natural balance to get back again,” said the young man.

The king was sad, but all he could do was just to wait.

【推荐3】Marty is not happy. As a clownfish (小丑鱼), he feels like he must be funny. But he is not funny at all. He is very serious. So he decides to tell jokes to others.

He tells jokes to the lionfish, but they don’t laugh (笑). He tells jokes to the tigerfish, but they don’t laugh either (也).

“I am a clownfish, and I must be funny,” Marty says to his friend, a catfish.

“You don’t have to be funny,” says the catfish. “You do well in swimming. You are friendly and clever.”

“But clowns make people laugh, so a clownfish must make fish laugh,” says Marty.

“The lionfish do not act like lions. The dogfish do not act like dogs,” the catfish tells him. “Marty, just be yourself.”

So, Marty does just that. He stops telling jokes. Soon, the other fish all like him. It makes him happy.

Look at the photo! This is the finger (手指) family. The man is Finger Father. He is 35. He has black hair (头发). The woman is Finger Mother. She is 33. She has red hair. The boy is Finger Brother. He is 10. He has black hair too. The girl is Finger Sister. She is 8. She has brown hair. Who is the little girl? She is Finger Baby. She is just 3. She has purple hair. They say hello to me every day. And they’re together(一起) every day.

The Wilsons are from Russia. Every winter, the Wilsons go to Hainan Island for a two-week holiday. There are many interesting things to do at the beach.

The children play games on the sands. Sometimes they make sandcastles. There is a saltwater swimming pool in the notes. The children can swim safely in the swimming pool and the water is always clean. There is a nice park and an esplanade by the beach. There are many cafes, fruit shops and grocery stores on the esplanade. There are also tall trees and beautiful flowers along the esplanade. The Wilsons like taking a walk there after supper.

The Wilsons always stay at the same hotel. They usually have the same rooms. These rooms are at the front of the hotel. There is a good view (景色) of the sea from their windows. The children are a little sad when the holiday is over because they don't want to go home.

【推荐2】I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboreturn in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heart-breaking; survival is never certain. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.

I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.

I examined the chick and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree.

The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.

Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.

A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all—LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.