Harry’s reward

Harry didn’t want to learn to swim. He couldn’t figure out what the use of learning to swim was. But Harry’s parents believed it was a great pity for a healthy boy to be afraid of the wind and the sea.

“Everybody, especially every Englishman and boy, should know how to swim,” Papa had said. “There is never any knowing the use it may be of.”

“Isn’t it very hard to learn?” Harry asked.

“It takes some patience,” his father said. “But in three weeks or so, you should be able to swim fairly well, if you have a lesson every day.”

There was no escaping it, however. Papa, though very kind, was very firm, and once he said a thing, it had to be done. So with a rather white face, poor Harry set off every day for his swimming lesson. He was a quick and clever boy, and a strong boy, and his father knew this. After the initial fear was overcome, it went on better and faster than could have been expected. Two weeks later, Harry had the pleasure of hearing his father say to his mother, “He swims already very nearly as well as I do myself.”

Seacliff, the place at which the family was spending the summer, was not a fashionable watering place but a little village. There were a few gentlemen’s houses in the neighborhood, so that in fine weather merry groups met at the little sheltered bay among the rocks.

One day, Harry, having finished his own morning swim, set off to walk home at his ease. Suddenly a sound disturbed his pleasant thoughts. A carriage was rushing wildly along, coming nearer and nearer. The driver, Ann, stood upright in the carriage (马车), hitting the poor horse as if she were mad, while from time to time she screamed, “Help, help!”

“What is it?” screamed Harry too, as Ann passed. She would not stop, but she threw back some words through the wind. “My sister—Alice—is drowning (淹溺). Go to the village to fetch someone who can swim.”

Harry ran back to the bathing place at once.

There were plenty of hands to help carry them to land once they were within a safe distance; however, it was Harry who was the true hero.

When our youngest sister was born, my little brother Tom was six and I was eight. I had always been the “Big Sister” and he had always been “The Baby”.

Our sister’s arrival was a complete surprise to both of us. In those days no one worried much about sibling rivalry (兄弟姐妹间的较劲), and no “experts” told us how to deal with another child in the house. We had wise and loving grandpa and mom, however.

I was excited about the baby and loved to hold her and help care for her. Tom’s feelings were quite different! He just looked at her and left, preferring to spend the evening in his room. When I went to his room to talk to him and try to get him to play games with me, he just looked away. “Why did they have to get that baby?” Tom asked.

Later that night, Grandpa came over to see the new baby. As he held her, he said to Tom, “You know, she’s a lot like the baby lamb I’m raising on the bottle. I have to take care of her and feed her often, just the way your mom does with the baby.” Tom said, “I’d rather have the lamb.”

Grandpa heard and said, “Well, if you’d rather have a lamb, maybe we could trade your little sister for it. I’ll give you a day to think it over, and if you still want to trade tomorrow, we’ll do it.” I thought I saw him wink at Mom, but I knew I must have been mistaken because Grandpa never winked at anyone.

After Grandpa left, Mom read to Tom for a long while. Tom kept looking at the baby, and Mom asked him to hold our little sister while she went to the bathroom. When Mom came back. Tom was gently touching the baby’s smooth black hair, and as he held her hand, she took hold of his finger.

“Mom, look! She’s holding my hand!” Tom smiled.

“She’s a day older now. I think she’s worth five lambs now,” Tom said.

6 . It was a cold winter night and I was sleeping in my warm and cosy bed. My cousins had come to stay with me at my house. The sound of thunder could be heard in the distance, but getting closer by each passing minute.

I woke up and saw that my cousins were not sleeping in the spare beds in my room. They were gone! I had a thousand questions in my mind, “Where were they? Had someone kidnapped (绑架) them?”

This filled me with fear. I wondered if I should go and tell my parents, then I decided to check downstairs first to see if they were playing tricks with me or trying to pull my leg. I stepped out of the room and decided to go downstairs to investigate.

When I stepped on the top step, I slipped and rolled down the stairs like a ball. It was the most miserable experience rolling down the stairs! My legs were hurting and I had a bump (肿块) on my forehead.

When I entered the living room, the electricity went off, and because I couldn’t see anything, I accidentally bumped into the wall. This made me feel dizzy. When I looked beside me, I saw a figure but couldn’t make out what it was. The figure started to move here and there, and then I heard strange and frightening sounds.

I glanced back towards the direction of the figure, but there was no sign of it this time. This made me frightened. Again I could hear someone talking and jumping in the room. I stayed rooted where I was.

Suddenly the TV switched on by itself. I was totally scared now. Then I felt as if someone was patting my shoulder. I hurried in the direction of the electricity switch and turned it on. Suddenly a person appeared in front of me and turned off the lights. I froze with fright for a moment but managed to get enough courage to move away, only to trip over a rope.

Someone then switched the lights on again.

But soon I was also laughing with them after I had calmed down.

Philip found himself at a crossroads. Although Mrs. Ford, his head teacher, appreciated his stories, the label of “nerd” (呆子) from his classmates cast a shadow over his passion for writing. Discouraged and feeling that his writing served no purpose in the eyes of others, he thought about giving it up.

One day, during recess (课间), as Philip was absentmindedly taking down some random events of the day, he heard an anxious voice calling out for help. He put down his pen, glanced out the window, and saw a gathering of people near the playground fence. With concern, he walked over and joined the crowd.

In the centre of the crowd was Robin, a sporty boy in the class, who was injured on the knee and bleeding heavily. Robin was playing kickball when the ball unexpectedly shot over the playground fence, landing in the old park next to the school. As he ran to get the ball, he tripped over the overgrown weeds, his left knee crashing into a broken bench. Robin’s face paled, perhaps from both pain of the bleeding knee and his panic. Concerned classmates surrounded him, and Mrs. Ford hurried to the scene, providing some initial care before sending him to see the doctor.

Amidst the lively discussion of the crowd, Philip absorbed the information that the park had been abandoned for ages. Turning his attention to the park, he was astonished at its awful state. Overrun with weeds, broken benches, rusty sports facilities, and scattered rubbish, the park was practically a dangerous place for students.

Philip was probably a nerd when involved in reading or writing, but he was never ignorant of the world around him. He felt a strong desire to do something, and the only way he could think of was to pick up his pen.

The next day witnessed Philip getting down to work.

As the article spread, offers of help poured in.

It was a beautiful day outside. The sky was a pale blue and the clouds were big and fluffy which made me delighted. I decided to take a walk in the park and enjoy the lovely weather. As I was walking, I saw a little girl sitting on a bench, looking sad and lonely. I approached her and asked if she was okay. She looked up at me with big, round eyes filled with tears and shook her head.

I sat down next to her and asked her what was wrong. She said that she had lost her doll and couldn’t find it anywhere. I offered to help her look for it and we searched the park together. We looked in every nook and cranny, behind trees and bushes, but couldn’t find the doll. We all felt frustrated and depressed. Just when we were about to give up, I saw a glimmer of pink behind a park bench. I picked up the doll and handed it to the little girl.

She was so grateful and gave me a big, warm hug. She told me that her doll was very special to her because the gift was given by her best friend who had gone abroad and she missed the best friend very much. She couldn’t thank me enough for helping her find it. As we walked back to her house, the little girl told me that she was new to the area and didn’t have any friends yet. She always felt lonely and sad and didn’t want to go to school. I comforted her and promised to come back and visit her again, and we exchanged phone numbers.

Paragraph 1: As promised, I went to visit the little girl the following week.

Paragraph 2: Years passed, and I received a wedding invitation from my childhood friend.