【推荐1】There once was a homeless cat named Cathy. She wanted to make herself strong. So she was hard-working and could run fast later. She always walked around her neighborhood to catch mice and she had enough food. When the weather was warm, she could lie in the sun and enjoy a relaxing and happy life.

One day, a girl moved into Cathy’s neighborhood. She was a kind girl and noticed that Cathy was homeless. Every day she put food around Cathy’s house, an old box. The food was delicious and plentiful. So Cathy didn’t have to go out and catch mice by herself anymore. Every day she did nothing and just waited for her delicious food. As time went on, she got fatter and fatter. She couldn’t run very fast. But what did this have to do with her? She had enough food now!

But she didn’t know why this kind girl suddenly moved away one day. Cathy had no more food to eat. At the same time, she was too fat to catch mice. The neighbors complained (抱怨) that there were some mice in the neighborhood. Cathy’s miserable (悲惨的) life began.

She really wished she hadn’t met that kind girl. Her kindness made Cathy lose the aim of living hard. So we should not lose our ability (能力) in the easy and comfortable life, or we will be miserable like Cathy!

【推荐3】Why is the sea salt? Long before we discovered scientific ways of thinking about it, we explained it in a story. Even though the answer isn’t scientific, it holds some other truth in it—especially about the human heart.

Long ago, a poor old couple lived on the coast. One day, an old storyteller came to their village. The old couple gave him a meal. In return, he gave them a coffee mill (磨粉机) and said , “Say, ‘Mill, please grind (磨粉),’ and it’ll make whatever you want; to stop it, say ‘Mill, please cease (停止) grinding.’”

Soon the old couple had a much better life. They’d been happy people, and they didn’t need much more. But the young couple next door were never satisfied. When they saw the old couple wearing good clothes and buying good food, they burnt with envy (羡慕). So one day, the young husband went to the old couple’s house secretly and heard, “Mill, please grind hot chocolate!” He was surprised to see it coming out.

Then the young couple stole the mill from the old couple. With it, they rode a horse and set off down the coast, where no one would know them. Along the way, the husband showed proudly and asked, “What do you want it to make?” “Oh, I don’t know. Why not salt?” the wife said. “Mill, please grind salt!” he said. “It works!” the wife shouted. But then they noticed the salt went everywhere. “Make it stop.” the wife said. But the husband didn’t know how. “Mill, please stop grinding! Please, no more!” His words didn’t work. The mill kept grinding. Finally the young husband threw the mill into the sea as far as he could.

And there it’s been, for hundreds of years, endlessly grinding salt. That’s why the sea is salt.

【推荐1】Mrs. White was reading a newspaper story to her class. The story said: Were you ever in a hospital when you were small? How did you feel? The doctors in Children’s Hospital are asking for money for children’s toys. Some children in the hospital must stay in bed for many weeks. Toys are needed to keep these sick children happy and quiet. Money for them can be sent to the hospital.

After Mrs. White read the story, she said, “This story gave me an idea.”

“You want us to bring some money for the toys.” “We could bring some of our own toys for the children in the hospital.” said the boys and girls one after another.

“Well, your ideas would be nice,” Mrs. White said, “but mine is different.”

“We could make some toys.” said one of them.

Mrs. White smiled. “Do you think you could make toys?” she asked.

“Yes, yes.” the whole class answered.

“Great! Let’s begin to make toys tomorrow.” said Mrs. White.

On Saturday afternoon, Mrs. White took children to the hospital with the toys made by her students. The children in the hospital felt very happy.

A few days later, Mrs. White read another newspaper story to the class:

Some school pupils brought toys to Children’s Hospital last week. The toys were made by the pupils of Grade Three in Green Street School. The doctor said, “We have never had so many wonderful toys. Our children are very happy with them. They say, ‘THANK YOU, GRADE THREE.”

【推荐2】When he was 9 years old, Felix Finkbeiner was asked to give a speech in class on climate(气候) change. The young German spoke about deforestation(砍伐森林) and its influences on the planet. At the end of his talk, he called on the people of his country to help by planting one million trees. . Before he was 20, however, Finkbeiner’s hard work had resulted in the planting of more than 14,000,000,000 trees around the world.

Finkbeiner and his classmates began the project — named “Plant-for-the-Planet” — by planting the first tree outside their school. Other schools followed the example, and news of the one-million project began to spread. As a result, Finkbeiner was even given an invitation to speak at the European Parliament. Other invitations soon followed, and when he was just 13, he spoke at a United Nations conference in New York. “We don’t think that adults(成年人) alone will save our future,” he said in the speech. “We have to take our future in our own hands.”

Finkbeiner is now in his twenties, and Plant-for-the-Planet has grown to be an organization with around 70,000 members. It works to teach people about climate change and to challenge them to plant more trees. Germany’s one millionth tree was planted long ago. The goal now is to plant 1,000,000,000,000 trees — about 150 for every person on Earth.

Finkbeiner continues to give talks on climate change to world leaders. “I don’t think we can give up on this generation(一代人) of adults,” he says, “and wait 20 or 30 years for our generation to come to power. We don’t have that time. All we can do is push present world leaders in the right direction.”

There are many people helping to look after others in every country. For example, some high school and college students in the United States often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages (孤儿院) or the old people’s homes.

They read books to the old people.     1     Other young volunteers help the sick (生病的) people.     2     For boys without fathers, there is an organization (组织) called Big Brothers. College students take these boys to baseball games or take them to go on trips.     3    

There are many clubs in some cities.     4     Some of these clubs show movies or organize short trips to the mountains, the beaches, the museums or other places of interest. Most of these clubs have a lot of high school and college students as volunteers because they’re young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls.

    5     So volunteers always do their work happily.

【推荐1】Little George lived a poor life with his mother. One summer day, George’s mother was ill and sent him to a field to pick up some dry plants to make fire.

George worked very hard. When the sun was high, he felt very hot and wished for a cool place to have a rest. As he walked along, he found the cool place and some fine wild strawberries. Then he picked them up.

When he was lifting one of them to his mouth, he remembered his mother, alone in her dark cold room. With this in mind, he put the strawberry back. “She may love strawberries,” he said to himself. He thought how they would cheer her up!

However, he was still looking at them with a longing eye. He couldn’t wait to taste them, so he said, “I will eat half, and take the other half to her” He changed them into two heaps(堆), but each heap looked so small. He put them together again.

On his way home, he felt very tired and thirsty. “I will only eat one,” he thought. But, as he lifted one to his mouth again, he thought if he ate this one, his mother would eat fewer. Finally, he put it back in silence.

After an hour, George returned home happily with the dry plants and all the strawberries. He heard his mother’s weak voice. “Is that you, George? I am glad you have come back.”

George ran to her and happily offered his wild strawberries.

“And you saved them all for me, didn’t you?” said she, with tears (眼泪) in her eyes.

“Yes, I want to give you all, just like all you gave me,” said George.

【推荐2】I am a middle school student. My name is Wang Jing. My grandfather is 70 years old now. He often says life has changed a lot. It becomes better and better. I asked him what life was like when he was a child. The following is what he said.

When he was a child, he used to feel hungry. There didn’t use to be enough food for him to eat. He has two brothers and two sisters. His parents were both farmers. They were very poor and couldn’t let their children eat as much as possible. As for clothes, they didn’t use to have enough clothes. They didn’t use to buy new clothes. The younger brothers and sisters often wore their elder brothers’ and sisters’ clothes. My grandfather is the youngest. Only he went to school and had a job in the city. His brothers and sisters didn’t get an education and live in the countryside now.

Now my grandfather has retired and lives a happy life. He can eat any food that he wants. He can buy clothes that he wants. He says he is much happier than before. He often asks me to study hard. He says if I work hard, I can have a good future.

【推荐3】I’m Bob and I’m a student of No.2 Middle School. We have many rules in our school. I think some of them are good for us, but others are not so good.

We have to wear our school uniforms. I think it’s good. If we don’t have this rule, some students will think more about clothes, but not study. We can’t be late for school and we have to listen to the teacher carefully in class. All of these rules are good for our study and I like them.

We can’t take mobile phones(手机) to school. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Sometimes our parents are busy and can’t get home early. They need to tell us about that. If we don’t take phones, how can they call us? Also, we can’t go to the movies on weekends. I know we should study hard, but we need to relax a little, too.

【推荐1】After giving a talk at a high school, I was asked to pay a visit to a special student. An illness had kept the boy home, but he had expressed an interest in meeting me, and it would mean a great deal to him. I agreed.

During the nine-mile drive to his home, I found out something about Matthew. He had muscular dystrophy(肌肉萎缩症). When he was born, the doctor told his parents that he would not live to see five, then they were told he would not make it to ten. Now he was thirteen. He wanted to meet me because I was a gold-medal power lifter, and I knew about overcoming difficulties and going for my dreams.

I spent over one hour talking to Matthew. Never once did he complain or ask, “Why me?” He spoke about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams. Obviously, he knew what he was talking about. He didn’t mention that his classmates had made fun of him because he was different. He just talked about his hopes for the future, and how one day he wanted to lift weight with me.

When we finished talking, I went to my briefcase(公文包) and pulled out the first gold medal I won and put it around his neck. I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming difficulties than I ever would. He looked at it for a moment, then took it off and handed it back to me. He said, “You are a champion. You earned that medal. Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal, I will show it to you.”

Last summer I received a letter from Matthew’s parents telling me that Matthew had passed away. They wanted me to have a letter he had written to me a few days before:

My mom said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me. I also want to let you know that the doctors tell me that I don’t have long to live anymore. But I still smile as much as I can.

I told you someday I was going to the Olympics and win a gold medal. But I know now I will never get to do that. But I know I’m a champion, and God knows that too. When I get to Heaven, God will give me my medal and when you get there, I will show it to you. Thank you for loving me.

Yours,

Matthew

【推荐2】Every school has a notice board. Let's see what is on the notice board of an American school.