【推荐1】One day five fishermen go fishing. Each fisherman gets a big fish. "What a fine supper we will have! " says one fisherman. "Now let’s go home." "Are we all here? Let me count first, " says another. "One, two, three, four. Oh, no! One of us is missing! " "It cannot be true ! "says another. So he begins to count. “One, two, three four, I see four fishermen too! One of us drowned(淹死) in the river!” They cries and cries.

Just then a little girl comes by. "Why are you so sad? " she asks them. “One fisherman is missing, " says one fisherman. "One, two, three, four,” he counts again. The little girl sees his mistake(错误) right away. The fisherman didn't count himself. "Will you give me your fish if I find your friend?” she asks. “Yes! Yes!" they say.

Now jump into the river one by one, "the little girl tells them." And I will count you. " Then the fishermen jump into the river one by one. One! Two! Three! Four! Five! “Five!” the fishermen shout.“ We find our lost friend!" The fishermen give the little girl all their fish. They have no fish for supper, but they are all together and very happy.

【推荐3】As the taxi leaves, my father stands at the living room window looking out, watching me move off into the darkness, at 4:30 a. m. His grey hair is untidy from sleeping.

Moments ago, he got up to carry my bag for me and went into the cold open air.

He thanked me for a daughter’s cooking and for having traveled so far to spend the holiday with him. I told him that I worried about he would feel lonely again in the empty house.

“I have my plans,” he said, in the moments before I walked out the door.

When I arrived 10 days ago, I felt it was quiet and lifeless in the house. Then my brothers and I came and filled the rooms. But, now, they’re gone, I am the last to leave.

As the taxi began to move, I watched the lights go off, but my father didn’t leave. Even though he couldn’t see me in the dark, he stood by the window watching, beside the tree. It was a fresh tree. He buys one every year for the new year.

The life is hard for my father: my mother died years ago, and now his children are far from home, our selfish choices taking us from one end of the country to the other, the life of the tree, cut for Christmas, is short; my father’s is long and strong. But both of them are tall and straight.

I leave behind two trees: one with silver-grey hair, the other still freshly green.

【推荐1】There were many plants in a forest. When spring came, a pine tree (松木) saw a red rose nearby and said,“What a beautiful flower! I wish I were that lovely!”The rose proudly said, “It seems that I am the most beautiful flower in this forest.” Then the rose looked at a cactus (仙人掌) and said,“Look at that ugly plant full of thorns (刺)!” “What a proud flower!” thought the tree.

As the days passed, the red rose often looked at the cactus and said bad words about it, like “This plant is useless. How sorry I am to be his neighbor!” The cactus never got angry and even tried to advise the rose, saying, “Any form of life couldn’t be created without a purpose.”

Spring passed, and the weather became very hot. As there was no rain, the red rose began to wilt (枯萎). One day the rose saw birds put their beaks (喙) into the cactus and then fly away. The red rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that the birds were getting water from the cactus. “The cactus has water?” asked the rose.“Yes, you can also drink some from it. The birds can bring water to you if you ask the cactus for help.”The red rose felt too ashamed to ask for water from the cactus.

But finally it did ask for help. The cactus kindly agreed. The rose learned a lesson that never judge anyone by their appearance again.

【推荐2】A few weeks ago, I went into Chase’s class for help. I e-mailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, “My son keeps telling me that his homework is maths, but I’m not sure whether I should believe him. Help, please.” She e-mailed right back and said, “No problem! I can help Chase after school anytime.” And I said, “No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me.”

And that’s why I stayed with Chase’s maths teacher. We talked about teaching children. We agreed that subjects like maths and reading are not the most important things that are learned in a classroom. We also talked about something else — kindness and bravery.

And then she told me this.

Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down whom they’d like to sit with the following week. She also asks the students to nominate (推荐) who is the most popular student that week. They needn’t write down their names on the paper.

After the students go home, she takes out those pieces of paper and studies them. In fact, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart (表) or “popular students”. She is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for the ones who don’t want to talk with others. She is finding out whose names are not noticed by their classmates. ★

After watching Columbine, the wise woman knew that all violence (暴力) comes from loneliness. So she decided to start fighting violence early and often, and what she is doing is SAVING LIVES.

And she finds the lonely kids from those lists and tries to help them. It’s maths to her. All is love — even Maths.

【推荐3】Can you picture in your mind (大脑) your school becomes a farm? This is what students are doing in Chaoyang School.

Under the “double reduction” policy (双减政策), students there have many new clubs and after-school activities. One of them is the Happy Farming Club.

“At first I thought I could just learn to grow some vegetables here,” said Zhang Ming, a club member. “But it turned out that I also learned a lot by working with my hands. ________” After studying crops (农作物), students got the chance to grow them.“My group tried growing leeks (韭葱),” said Zhang. “We first put the roots (根) underground. Then we filled (填满) the hole with soil. Last we watered them carefully. We looked after them from then on.”

Mrs. Li, their club teacher, said, “Now our school looks like a small farm now.”

“In the 38 years of our school’s history, we are the first to grow vegetables,” said Zhang.

【推荐1】These days, I am always deeply moved by the news that 18－year－old Wei Xiang was accepted by Tsinghua University.

“I was born with serious illness and I can't walk at all. Because of my situation, my mother has to carry me on her back to school every day，” Wei Xiang said in the letter to Tsinghua University.

“I only hope that Tsinghua University can offer my mother and me a place to live together，” he wrote.

The letter was published on China's WeChat social media platform (社交媒体平台) on Monday and soon got a reply from Liu Zhen, Tsinghua's director of admissions(招生办)．

“Tsinghua will try everything to keep this student from dropping out for economic reasons，” Liu wrote in the message. Then, Tsinghua University promised the school would offer a two－bedroom apartment and other economic help to Wei and his mother.

Tsinghua's respond(回应) quickly received the approval of Chinese media. People's Daily praised it for setting a good example for public organizations in China.

According to a 2011 UN report, there are about 85 million disabled in China, and most of them live poorly with little education and little service. A 2016 survey by a professor at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education also found about 34.7 percent of disabled children aged 6 to 17 dropped out of school.

All of us admire the strength Wei and his mother have shown. But being strong does not mean they can be neglected(被忽视) by society. Being responsible and helpful should be the aim of each public organization.

【推荐3】A good book can teach you things beyond your class. It opens your eyes and clears your mind. If you want to get into a good reading habit, there are a number of ways to develop it.

Plan your time

You should give yourself at least thirty minutes in all to read every day. When time is set，nothing can change it. For example, make it a habit to read during breakfast or lunch time.

Always carry a book

Wherever you go, take a book with you. When you leave the house，make sure that you always carry a good book as well as your school things. Remember that a book always stays with you.

Find a quiet place

Find a place in your home where you can sit in a comfortable chair. When you read a book，make sure no one will trouble you. There should be no televisions, computers, music or even noisy family members around you.

Have a library card

Have a library card, and you can read as many good books as possible in the library. Make it a weekly trip to the library. You can save a lot of money.

Blog it

One of the best ways to develop a good reading habit is to put it on your blog. If you don't have one, create one. It's free. Ask your friends and family to go there to share your ideas and offer you suggestions.

【推荐1】The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of 2 September 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three- quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. One hundred people became homeless but only a few lost their lives.

The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King’s baker (面包师) in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery (面包房) into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.

By eight o’clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Paul’s and the Guildhall among them.

Samuel Pepys, the famous writer, wrote about the fire People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat.

The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the direction of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.

After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect (建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone. In fact, the streets are still narrow, but he did build more than fifty churches, among them the new St Paul’s.

The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.

Cats wearing shirts with QR codes(二维码) meet at Miaoxiannv in Hangzhou July 16, 2018.

A cat cafe(咖啡馆) named Miaoxiannv in Hangzhou is really welcome now, with many people driving one hour from the other side of the city only to enjoy a new service(服务): scan a cat to order a meal.

Luo An, a very smart young man, runs the cafe. Because Luo doesn’t often

Luo lets all the 15 cats wear shirts with QR codes. So people can use Koubei and Alipay to order their meals.

Cat lovers can also buy cat food on the apps and feed the cats, and a cat named Azrael is the cafe's top star.

Candy Wang is a nineteen-year-old Asian pop star. But last time when I interviewed her, she told me she used to be really shy. As she got better at singing, she dared to sing in front of her class and even the whole school. Now she loves singing and becomes very famous.

Candy found that her life changed a lot after she became famous. Of course, there are many good things, like being able to travel and meet new people all the time. But there are also many bad things. For example, she always had to worry about how she appeared to others and to be very careful about what she said or did.

What was the worst, she didn’t have much private time any more.