【推荐1】One day, Mother Monkey is playing with her children in the park. Later, they are hungry, so Mother Monkey takes them out to look for food. She finds a banana tree. Mother Monkey wants her daughters to get some bananas on the tree. But no one wants to do it. Mother Monkey has to do it herself. Some hours later, she gets a lot of bananas. She says to her daughters, “Who would like to take them into our house?” No one wants to do it. So she takes the bananas home herself.

When she gets home, she says, “Who can help to make banana salad?” Her daughters all say, “Sorry, Mom, we are not free.” After she makes the salad, she says to them, “Who wants to eat the salad?” “I will, Mom!” they all say. “No, you can’t. Because you don’t do anything before I make the salad. You must know ‘No pain, no gain.’” Then she eats the salad herself.

【推荐2】An old man was going home late one night with his horse and cart (马车) after a day’s hard work. When he was not far away from his house, the light on the cart went out. He tried but could not repair (修理) it. He was near his home, and so he went along the road without a light. When a policeman saw this, he stopped the old man.

“Where is your light?” asked the policeman. “No man may take a cart along the road at night without a light. You know that. You have broken the law.” “I had a light, but it has just gone out,” said the old man.

“I don’t believe that story. What’s your name and where do you live?” asked the policeman.

“Please don’t write down my name,” said the old man. “My home is just there. You can see it from here. I had a light nearly the whole way.”

“You came all the way without a light. What’s your name?”

The old man quickly took the policeman’s hand and put it down on the top of the light. The light was still hot and burned the policeman’s hand. The policeman jumped and he was very angry.

“Now, what do you think?” said the old man. “Did I come all the way without a light?”

【推荐3】

Pinocchio had a fever. The Fairy took a glass of water with awful medicine and said to Pinocchio, “Drink this, and you’ll be up and well.”

Pinocchio looked at the glass anxiously and said, “I’d rather die than drink that terrible medicine.”

At that moment, the door of the room opened and four Rabbits came in, carrying a small black coffin (棺材) on their shoulders.

“What do you want?” asked Pinocchio.

“We have come for you,” said the largest Rabbit.

“Oh, Fairy, my Fairy,” the Pinocchio cried out. “Give me that glass! Quick, please! I don’t want to die!” And holding the glass with his two hands, he swallowed (吞下) the medicine quickly. Then the Rabbits had to leave.

After that, the Fairy asked, “Pinocchio, tell me how you were in the hands of the robbers (强盗) last time.”

“I had five gold pieces to give to my father, but on the way I met two robbers. They tied my neck with a rope and hung me to a tree.” said Pinocchio.

“Where are the gold pieces now?” the Fairy asked.

“I lost them,” answered Pinocchio. As he spoke, his nose became at least two inches longer.

“And where did you lose them?”

“In the wood nearby.” At this second lie his nose grew a few more inches.

“If you lost them in the nearby wood,” said the Fairy, “we’ll look for them and find them.”

“Ah, now I remember,” replied Pinocchio, “I did not lose the gold pieces, but I swallowed them.”

At this third lie, his nose became longer than ever. The Fairy sat looking at him and laughing.

“Why do you laugh?” Pinocchio asked her, worried now at the sight of his growing nose.

“I am laughing at your lies.”

“How do you know I am lying?”

“Lies, my boy, are known in a moment. There are two kinds of lies, lies with short legs and lies with long noses. Yours, just now, happen to have long noses.”

Attention（注意）, please. NASA is looking for funny astronauts（宇航员）！This is not a joke.

NASA wants to send astronauts to Mars in 2030. But the journey to Mars will be long and boring. Astronauts will have to live on their spaceship（宇宙飞船）for about two years. So the team needs funny astronauts. They can help their teammates get along and do their jobs better.

Scientists have looked at examples（例子）from the past. Roald Amundsen was from Norway. He became the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911. He had a cook on his team. The cook was the “clown（小丑）”of their team. He cheered them up when things were hard. The cook was the most important member of the team, Amundsen said in his diary.

Of course, being funny is not enough. The astronauts should also know a lot about space.

They also have to take hard training.

Mars astronauts wanted

You should be:

You must have:

【推荐2】One day, our teacher said that he had an exercise for us to try. We were to stand, facing away from our classmates, and fall backward, relying (依赖) on another student to catch us. Most of us were uncomfortable with this. We couldn’t fall back for more than a few inches before stopping ourselves.

Finally, Judy gave it a try. She is a thin, quiet, dark-haired girl who always wears big white sweaters. Judy crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes, leaned back, and did not stop. She looked like one of the TV ads where the model jumps into the pool.

For a moment, I was sure she was going to fall onto the floor. At the last moment, her partner grabbed her head and shoulders and pulled her up immediately.

“Whoa!” several students yelled. Some clapped their hands. Our teacher finally smiled. “You see,” he said to the girl. “You closed your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see. You have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too even when you’re in the dark. Even when you’re falling.

【推荐3】No one wants to be in a life-or-death situation. However, if you are getting into such a dangerous situation, what will you do, fight or flight?

When 13-year-old Joe Rowlands and his dad were in a kayak (皮艇) accident, the brave teenager chose to fight. He not only fought for his own life, but also saved his father’s.

On that day, Joe and his father Paul were out on their kayak off the coast of Anglesey in the UK. Suddenly they noticed that the kayak was starting to fill with water. Then they found out there was a hole in the floor of the boat. Without another choice, Paul turned the boat over. He asked Joe to climb on top so that he could push the boat to a nearby island.

However, the rough (汹涌的) waves made it too hard for Paul to push the boat to land. They had to swim without the boat. Luckily, Joe made his way to the island safely. But when he looked back, he found his dad was no longer swimming. Risking his life, Joe jumped back into the cold water and managed to drag (拽) his dad up onto some rocks. Then Joe did CPR (心肺复苏) on his dad until he came around.

“I’m very proud of him. He acted with courage.” Paul said of his son.

A lady in an old dress and her husband, dressed in an worn suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked quietly without an appointment into the president of Harvard’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such country people didn’t have business at Harvard. “We want to see the president,” the man said softly. “He’ll be busy all day,” the secretary said coldly. “We’ll wait,” the lady replied.

For hours, the secretary didn’t talk to them, hoping that the couple would finally become disappointed and go away. They didn’t. And the secretary finally decided to talk to the president.“Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they’ll leave,” she told him. He was reluctant (不情愿的)to meet with the badly-dressed couple.

The lady told the president, “We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard, and was very happy here. But he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to build up a memorial(纪念碑) to him somewhere on campus. ” The president wasn’t moved and said angrily,“We can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died, and this place would look like a cemetery (墓地).

“Oh, no,” the lady explained quickly,“We don’t want to build a statue. We thought we would give a building to Harvard.” The president said in surprise, “A building? Do you have any idea how much a building costs? The physical building cost us seven and a half million dollars.”

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all it costs to start a university?” Her husband nodded. The president was puzzled .Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they set up the university that was named after them-------- a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

【推荐2】It was August in Paris. Most Parisians were out of the city, enjoying their summer holiday. The streets were empty and restaurants were closed.

But on a Saturday morning at 9 a.m., I was standing in a queue(队伍). I was waiting to see Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the world's most famous artwork. I bought the ticket in advance (提前). However, by the time I arrived at the Louvre(卢浮宫), there had been a very long line.

It took me around 30 minutes to pass the security check(安检). As I entered the museum, I found the second airport-style queue of the day. The line moved forward slowly and silently. It's just like a trip to Ikea. You only need some glasses. However, you have to walk, eyes-down, past lots of sofas and tables before you reach what you need.

The only sign（迹象）the Mona Lisa was close was a forest of security officers. Only ten people were allowed to view the painting at a time. A poster（布告）outside the pen（围栏）warned, “The Mona Lisa has many admirers. Please keep your visit short and sweet to give everyone a chance to meet her.”

“How short is short and sweet?” I wondered. Very short, it turned out.

My watch clocked only 22 seconds from entering the pen before two staff members told me it was time to go. "One photo and go," they said. I tried to take a selfie（自拍）, but an arm quickly came to guide me onwards. Behind me, the queue slowly moved forward, ten by ten, to take a photo and leave.

I was almost alone as I admired the other artworks in the Louvre. I couldn't help wondering: Why are we so eager to see the Mona Lisa? Are we really going to appreciate the famous artworks or are we just "checking in" at the “popular” attractions?

【推荐3】Here are four messages on Alan Marshall's answer phone.

Monday 9:21

Alan? Alan, if you're at home, please answer the phone. Are you really not there? Well, I'd just like to say that I'm very angry with you and your father too. You know how much he loves our monthly family lunches. This is the fifth one you've missed. I hope you've got a really good reason this time. Oh, umm, this is your mother speaking.

Monday 10:02

Mr. Marshall, this is Stefi Rosen, Mr. Prince's assistant. I'm calling to confirm tomorrow's lunch with Mr. Yamada of Rising Sun Computer Games. Mr. Prince wants you to know that this meeting is very important. Please remember to bring the interactivity designs （互动设计） with you. He says that Mr. Yamada is ready to pay for the world rights （版权） on your new game! The restaurant is The Four Stars in Gower Street and I've booked a table for a quarter past one. Be there on time please!

Monday 11:23

My name is Karen Miller. I' m a producer at Interactive Computer Games, Australia. I saw your game “Kill the Enemy!” at the International Computer Game Fair. I think your work is great and I'd like to discuss buying the rights for my part of the world. Someone at the fair said that you're working on a new game which is even more interactive. How interactive can you get? Perhaps we can interact over lunch? I'm in London until Wednesday. My mobile number is 0277476130800.

Monday 12:31

Hello, Alan. It's Daisy. Did you have a good weekend? How's the new game going? I miss you. Bye.