“Tiki!” I yelled crazily. Our little white dog, Tiki, had slipped out of the door earlier that evening while I was carrying groceries into the house. Now I was walking up in the neighborhood trying to find him. My seven- year-old son, Jordan, and my three-year-old daughter, Julia followed me.

The last few months had been difficult. After losing my job, I could no longer afford our house in Indianapolis. The kids and I moved in with my parents in northern Indiana, 150 miles away from the city.

We called out Tiki’s name and knocked on neighbors’ doors until it was too dark to see. We were forced to returm home empty-handed. “Mom, it’s all new here. What if Tiki can’t find Grandma’s house?” asked Jordan. “It’s okay,” I said. “He’s wearing his collar and dog tag, so if someone finds him, they’ll call me, and we’ll get him back.” It was at that moment that I realized with horror that Tiki’s tag listed our address and phone number in Indianapolis. If someone found him, they’d have no way to reach me. I felt sick to my stomach.

The kids were sad, especially Jordan. One afternoon, I found him crying in his room. “At school, we had to write about our wishes,” he said. “I wrote, ‘I wish my dog would come home.’ Mrs Rush hung our papers in the hallway. Every time I see my paper, I feel sad.” My heart broke for him.

So later that week, when he put on a T-shirt with a rat picture from his old school back in Indianapolis, something told me to just let it slide. If it helped him get through the school day. that was more important than looking put-together.

When he got home that afternoon, he told me the school custodian(门卫) had asked him about his shirt. “I told him that we had just moved here from Indianapolis,” said Jordan

The next day, I got a call from Jordan’s teacher. “I’m calling on behalf of our school custodian,” she began. “His grown daughter found a dog recently, and he thinks it might be yours.”

I called the custodian’s daughter immediately.

She told me she’d mentioned to him that she’d found little dog.

A Great Monday

Monday started out well. I woke up on time, ate breakfast and did some last minute studying for my math test later that morning. I was confident of getting good grades. I left my house and ten minutes later, I sat with my friends on the school bus. We were busy chatting about how we spent our weekend. At the next stop, a student named Ryan got on the bus. He was in a rush and tripped (绊倒) over someone’s foot. There was a loud noise as he fell to the floor.

Every one of us on the bus laughed. Ryan got up, brushed his jacket and went to an empty seat. He tried to laugh with us, but his face was red with embarrassment. The rest of the morning went by quickly. I did well in my math test. I read two more chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird in English class. Soon we heard the lunch bell. I met my friends from the cheerleading team in the dining hall. I noticed Ryan a few tables away, sitting by himself. He caught me looking at him. I smiled at him quickly and looked away.

When we finished eating, we went to the courtyard to practice a cheer we would do at that night’s football game. After much practice, we finally managed to do the cheer perfectly. We decided to practice it again one last time. Just like the rest of my day so far, the cheer was going great. I raised my leg for one last toe touch. That was when I felt my jeans (牛仔裤) split (裂开) down the middle of my backside.

I froze. I had no idea what to do. I heard people burst out laughing and I saw them pointing at my torn jeans. I tried to cover myself with my hands, I tried to laugh too, but I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes.

Then I saw Ryan running towards me.

That night, after the cheer at the football game, I found Ryan.

A successful badminton match

Long long ago, there lived a girl named Eat. She was a good girl, but she never liked her name because all the kids made fun of her name. She ran away from everybody who laughed at her name, so Eat never really had friends. She played alone all the time.

One day, Eat went to her favorite place near the river behind her house, where she always spoke to the river. On that day, when talking to the river, she said, “You are so lucky, as you can travel to different places and always be with your friends — ducks, turtles, fishes, and plants. I wish I had more friends and wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

When she was bored talking to the river, she picked up some stones and tried to skip (打水漂) them across the river. However, she failed most of the time. Finally, she found a perfect stone. She held it tightly (紧紧地) in her fingers, and said to the river, “Oh, dear river, if I could skip this stone all the way across, I would wish for a dear friend just like you.” Saying this, Eat waved her arm back and threw the stone with full strength.

She watched the stone skip once, twice... and to her surprise, the stone went on skipping and finally, on the seventh skip, made it across the river onto the shore of the opposite side. Eat was totally amazed. She could not just believe her eyes.

Her happiness were disturbed (打断) when she heard footsteps coming towards her. Eat looked around and found a little girl was rolling down towards her. Eat hurried to get up to help. However, she lost her balance and fell off, too.

The little girl was crying and holding her knee. Eat pulled herself and went close to the girl, whose knee was bleeding (流血). She said gently to the little girl, “It will be alright. My house is nearby, let me help you. My mother will take care of the wound.”

Once they arrived at her house, Eat called out, “Mom, help! Someone is injured.”

The little girl looked at Eat and asked, “What is your name?”

Peter woke up early in the morning. He went downstairs in a hurry and started to have his breakfast as quickly as possible.

“Why are you in such a hurry, early bird?” Mum asked him. “We will have an English spelling test today, Mum,” Peter said. “Mr. White promised to offer prizes to those who get 100 scores. I’ve been studying the word list since last week. Although the words are difficult, I am well prepared for them.”

Peter reviewed the spelling of each word once more carefully when Dad drove him to school. At last, it was time for the students to have a test. “Responsibility,” Mr. White started. Peter wrote it on his test paper quickly and confidently.

“The second word: contribution,” Mr. White said.

“So easy,” Peter thought. He quickly wrote the word down.

Thirty words later, the test papers were collected by Mr. White. “I am to mark your papers now,” he told the class. After marking the test papers, Mr. White said, “Three of you won a prize today for excellent test scores. Peter, David and Mary got full marks on the spelling test!”

Mr. White praised them. Meanwhile, he gave the three students each a dictionary. Peter’s was an English-Chinese dictionary—the one he liked best. Peter was so excited that he held it high when his classmates cheered. “This is my happiest moment,” Peter thought.

After Mr. White gave the test paper back, Peter had a look at the words, feeling proud of his spelling. All of a sudden, the word “contribusion” confused him. It didn’t seem right. Peter began to compare them after taking out the word list. “C-O-N-T-R-I-B-U-S-I-O-N,” he whispered. He spelled it wrong.

“What am I to do?” Peter said to himself. “I expect my classmates to think I’m a master at spelling. If I tell Mr. White one of my spelling words is wrong, I’ll have to give my prize back, or I will become an example for telling a lie.”

Staring at the full marks written on his test paper, Peter was lost in thought. After a while, he remembered a lesson Mum used to teach him, “We ought to be an honest person.”

Slowly,Peter raised his hand.

Peter looked around.

The event that stands out in Tom’s memory happened one morning when Tom was only ten years old.He was at home with his elder sister Jane.Tom was doing his homework when he heard raised voices.At first he thought nothing of it since customers in the motorcycle shop directly below their flat often became loud，but he soon realized this time it was different.

“Quick! Quick! Remove the motorcycles from the shop.” someone shouted.Then a thick burning smell filled the air.When Tom opened the front door of their flat to investigate，a thick cloud of smoke greeted him.The motorcycle shop had caught fire and people were running and crying.

Jane，who had been playing the violin in her room，hurried to the living room.They rushed out of the door and along the corridor (走廊) through the smoke.

They were heading towards the stairway at the far end of the corridor when Jane suddenly stopped in her track.She turned around and headed back the way they came.Tom had no idea what she was doing，but he followed her.

Jane had suddenly remembered the lady in her 70s who lived next door to them，who they called Makcik.Jane began banging on Makcik’s door，but got no answer.As the smoke thickened around them，Tom could see many of their neighbors—some still in their pajamas (睡衣)—running for safety.The thought of fear crossed his mind.

“She would have run for safety like everyone else!” Tom cried.However，Jane refused to give up.“I know Makcik’s still inside.” She said she was familiar with Makcik’s daily routine and was certain she would still be sleeping.She pounded against the door.“Go downstairs.Go now! Go!”

Tom noticed the flame (火焰) was reaching up.

Luckily，some neighbors passing by stopped and offered help.