【推荐2】Emma and Hannah are 13-year-old school girls from Minnesota, USA. They are good at making new things both of them are also good at sales. They are selling charms (小装饰物) made out of bottle caps.

The girls came up with the idea last summer when they saw charms were popular with kids. They talked with their parents about the idea. Since then they have sold enough charms to buy a bike for Hannah.

The girls collect bottle caps and then clean them. They find some interesting pictures on the Internet or on paper, and then glue them onto the inside of the caps. There are different kinds of pictures, “Peace signs are popular with girls, and single-letter charms are popular with boys whose names start with those letters,” Emma and Hannah said.

Now, charms can be found everywhere at Dakota Hills Middle School in Eagan. “Students put charms on purses, backpacks, and their lunch boxes,” said Emma. Emma and Hannah also have a shop on the Internet. They hope they can sell their charms to more kids. They’re thinking about selling their charms at the Eagan Market Festival next summer.

Their business is not only for getting money. At their Valentine’s sale, 20% of the income (收入) went to charity.

【推荐1】On Saturday morning, every boy in town was happy, except Tom Sawyer. Tom’s aunt said he had to paint the fence (围栏). It was thirty yards long and three yards high! When he was working, some boys came along and made fun of him.

Ben was the first one who came happily with an apple in his hand.

“I’m going swimming,” said Ben. “Do you want to come? Oh, you have to work, don’t you?”

Tom got a little angry, but soon he had a wonderful idea.

“Work?” he said. “I don’t think this is work. It’s fun. Does a boy get a chance like this every day?”

Ben thought about this. He was watching Tom’s every move and was getting more and more interested.

After a while, he said, “Tom, will you let me do some painting?”

“No way. You see, Aunt Polly wants it to be done properly (正确地). I’m the only one that can do it right.”

“Oh, please, Tom,” begged (恳求) Ben. “I’ll be really careful. Let me try!

I’ll give you my apple in return.”

“Well, all right, Ben,” said Tom. “But you must be careful.”

He gave Ben his brush with worry on his face but joy in his heart. He started to eat Ben’s apple.

All day, boys passed by and wanted to paint. When Ben got tired, Billy began to paint. He gave Tom his favorite kite. Then Johnny gave him twelve marbles (玻璃球), and so on.

That afternoon, Tom got many toys, and the fence got three coats of paint. Aunt Polly was so pleased when she saw the painted fence that she gave him a large cake!

【推荐2】I’m Robert Brown. I was born in 1976 in Australia, and I teach in a middle school. I have a special hobby. I like collecting things! Do you know what I collect? Signs (标牌)! I got some bulletin board(公告栏) signs in 1984. Then two years later, I started collecting signs.

I built a website (网站) to show my collections. In the past, I took photos of my signs and put them in a photo album (相簿) to share with friends and family. After I had 300 signs and 300 photos, I took my collections to the website. I also hope that this website is helpful to other collectors, or to visitors who just want to learn more about street signs and traffic lights.

【推荐3】Balzac was a great French writer. But he was very poor before he was famous. He lived in a dirty, wet room and was often worried about food. All his friends were as poor as him and they could not help him.

One night it was very cold with strong wind and heavy snow. Balzac went to bed early but he couldn’t fall asleep, because he didn’t have anything for dinner. And he didn’t know where to get some food for the next breakfast. He thought and thought, but couldn’t have a good idea. At midnight he saw a man climb in through the broken window. The man began to take something on his bookcase. Balzac got up quietly, lit a lamp (点灯) and said, “Don’t waste time, my friend! I can’t find any money in the daytime. How can you find some in the dark?”