【推荐1】A man lived in Florida and he was in his eighties. He called his son in New York one November day. The father said to the son, “I have to tell you that we’ve got some troubles here in the house. Your mother and I can’t stand each other any more, and we’re getting a divorce (离婚). I decided it! I want to live out the rest of my years in peace. I’m telling you now, so you and your sister shouldn’t go into shock (震惊) later when I move out.”

The son called his sister in Hampton at once and told her the news. The sister said, “I will deal with this.” She called her father and said, “Don’t do anything till we get there. We will be there on Wednesday night.” The father agreed, “All right.” The old man hung up the phone and shouted to his wife, “OK, they are coming for Thanksgiving. What are we going to tell them for Christmas?”

【推荐3】

One day, three of my friends came to our house.

They told me they were going to Africa. They asked me if I wanted to go with them. I said, “Yes, of course I’d love to.”

We started to prepare all the necessary things for the journey. Soon we were ready to go. I said goodbye to my wife and we started our journey. Our plan was to be back in two months.

We left Brazil (巴西) on the first of September, 1659. Our ship was very big but we were only seventeen men. The ship was full of things for business. We had cups, glass, mirrors, knives and other things.

At the beginning of our journey, the weather was very good, but very hot. In one week, a hurricane (飓风) came and it was threatening our ship for the next twelve days. After the hurricane passed, we saw we went quite far away from our original (原来的) journey and were instead close to the northern part of Brazil near the Orinoco River. The ship was badly damaged, so we could no longer go to Africa.

The captain wanted us to go back and repair the ship, but I strongly disagreed with him. We went over the maps and decided the best thing to do was to go to Barbados and repair the ship there.

When we started this short trip, a second hurricane came. The next morning one of the sailors cried out, “Land?” and at that moment the ship stopped in shallow (浅的) water. We expected the ship to break apart (解体) at any moment because of the strong wind, so we all got into the small boat the ship carried. This was very dangerous because the seventeen of us were too crowded (拥挤的) in the boat, and it had no sail.

The waves (浪) were very big. The wind was too strong. The wind pushed us to big rocks. We knew the crash was close.

Suddenly, a huge wave came and overturned the boat. I was covered with water and couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see the others or the boat. But I saw a little beach between the rocks.

Another wave carried me to the beach. I tried to get up. I also tried to go far away from the sea. I was able to move ten metres up. I was safe. But my arms and legs were very weak. I fell down and I was lying on the beach.

—— An excerpt from Robinson Crusoe

【推荐1】Eliza was a very popular girl at school. She got on well with everyone. She tried very hard to be kind and friendly to everyone. She felt very lucky: no other girl had so many friends at school and in the neighborhood.

But everything changed on Friendship Day. On that day, everyone had to make three gifts to give to their three best friends. However, by the end of the activity, Eliza didn’t receive（收到）any gifts! She felt terrible. She tried so hard to make so many friends, but in the end, no one saw her as their best friend.

When she got home that night, Eliza asked her mother how she could find true friends. “Eliza, my dear, if you want true friends, you will have to give them time and love. True friends must always be there for each other, in good times and bad.” Eliza said, “________” “There just isn’t enough time for everyone, so you can only have a few true friends.” Hearing this, Eliza decided to make a change so that she could have some true friends.

【推荐3】Tina loved to run. She began running at a very young age. She always took part in school races. Winning was very important to Tina. She ran hard every day, but she always came in second or third place.

Another girl named Janice always came in first. Tina just couldn’t get past her. Tina thought to herself, “If I could just get in front of Janice. I would have a chance to win.” Finally, in one race, Tina got the break she wanted.

It began like usual, with Janice in the lead（领头）. Suddenly, Janice caught her foot on a rock and fell over. Tina ran as fast as she could to stay in the lead, but Janice ran even faster and soon passed her. Tina got tired and four more girls passed her. It went on like this until the very last minute.

That day, Tina learned that one can’t depend on the bad luck of others to get ahead in life. Only hard work will take you to the first place.

Bill is only fifteen years old, but he is already very rich. Two years ago, Bill began a football website (网站) for young people. “I became interested in computers when I was 8 because my father’s job is with computers. As a little boy, I also loved football.     1    ”

Bill started the “Football OK!” website two years ago, and now more than 20,000 people visit it every day.

    2     He usually gets up at six o’clock and looks at his e-mails. Then he goes to school from nine to four. In the evenings, he always works for about four hours on his website.

    3     “At the moment I am thinking about a new website on American football, maybe for next year.”

And is Bill the same person that he was three years ago?     4     “I have met a lot of interesting people on the website and I have traveled all over the world.” Bill doesn’t know about the future. “Maybe I will sell the website. I really don’t know. I’ll just wait and see.”

When he is 21, Bill will be a millionaire (百万富翁).     5    

【推荐3】Sarla is a Grade 8 student. One day, during science class, Sarla looked out of the window and saw an eagle in the sky（天空）. “How happy the bird must be!” she thought.

“Here, should you not be looking at the blackboard? ” asked the new teacher Hamsa. Sarla got up and said, “ Sorry Madam, I was watching an eagle. I wish we could fly like a bird.”

“What is your name?” “Sarla.”

“Oh how nice! Did you know that Sarla was the name of a successful Indian woman pilot too?” said the teacher. “You should spend some time in the library, Sarla, I'm sure there are many books about birds and flying machines there.”

Over the next few days, Sarla went to the library after school and read a lot about birds and planes. Sarla learnt that people can fly too, but not like birds. We can fly to other places in the world in a plane.

Sarla thinks a plane is like a large bird. She’s right. They are similar. Just like birds, planes have wings to help them to fly. But there is something different between the two. Birds flap（振翅）their wings to fly, but we have never seen a plane with wings that flap…

For Sarla, there are still so many interesting things to learn about planes. In the future she wants to be a pilot and fly planes around the world.