It was a cold, snowy evening. Tommy was running as fast as he could, focused on nothing but his destination —the shop on the street corner. Two weeks ago he saw figurines (小塑像) of Marvel superheroes on the shelves and felt he had to have one. He has been walking the neighbor’s dog ever since then to earn money to fulfil his little dream. He was so excited and barely noticing the world around him. Maybe that’s why he tripped over the legs of a homeless woman, who was sitting on the pavement, her back against the wall. He said “sorry” and moved on to his destination.

Once he entered the shop, he went straight to the shelves with figurines. Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and many more — all of his admired heroes. With his heart pounding like crazy he reached for Spiderman.

“You like these, true believer?”

Tommy turned around. An old man was standing behind him with a wide smile on his face.

“Y-yes,… Yes, they’re awesome! ”answered Tommy. “They’re strong and fast and help other people a lot ...” the boy looked at figurines in admiration. “I wish I could be a superhero too.”

“Then become one!” said the old man.

“How?” Tommy asked in surprise “I don’t have any superpowers.”

“And why would you need them?” the old man smiled. Seeing the confusion on the boy’s face, he put his hands on Tommy’s arms. “Did you know that shopkeeper lady over there has a disabled husband? She has been working hard and taking care of him for years. I have never heard a word of complaint from her. And this person...”he pointed at a redhead man, who just entered the shop. “He’s a firefighter; he’s saved countless lives. He never gives up, no matter how dangerous the situation seems to be.”

The old man looked Tommy in the eyes and smiled. “You don’t need a superpower to be a hero for someone else. The path of a superhero starts not in the mind, not in the muscles, but in the heart.”

Tommy listened intently, his eyes wide with wonder and realization.

Tommy stepped back out into the snowy evening and approached the homeless woman.

I was eight years old when my family moved from Towoomba to England in 1950. My mother was suffering from a rare disease and had to take treatment in London. The day before we boarded the ship, Father sent his five-year-old red heeler (Australian cattle dog), Spider, who was loved by us all, to his friend Sandy, as Sandy was to be his guardian while we were overseas. We didn’t know how long my mother’s treatment would take or how long we would be away.

Six weeks later, an airletter arrived from Sandy, giving my father the news that Spider had run away just two weeks after we had sailed. I will always remember my father’s face as he read this news. My mother and I tried to comfort him, knowing in our hearts how useless this was.

Sandy had advertised constantly on the media. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. It seemed Spider just kept running and searching for us. My father worried he would be shot or dead from starvation. But our family thought that Father held a secret hope that Spider was still alive.

We sailed back to Australia two years later and my father immediately began his own search for Spider. He repeated calls to the people who had said they had seen his dog, but it turned out to be clueless.

One cold winter’s Saturday morning, eight months after our return, my father had a call from Gin Gin, 375 kilometers from Toowoomba. An elderly lady living on her own was putting food out “for a very old yellow dog”. This had been going on for a few weeks. Immediately we set off.

Five and a half hours later, we found the old house beside the bush (灌木丛). Sadly, the lady told my father that the dog hadn’t been around for a few days. My father had an upset look in his eyes. He put two fingers to his mouth and did his special whistle for Spider.

Suddenly there was a sound in the bush.

Once home we gently cleaned him up.

Alice was only five and it was her first camping trip with Mum and Dad. She was excited but was a little nervous, too. “What if the tent collapses and squashes us? What if the wind blows it away? What if it rains and the tent leaks? What if a wolf comes into the tent and eats us?...” she kept asking Mum these strange questions.

This made Mum laugh. Alice had read too many fairy stories with big bad wolves in them. Mum comforted Alice, saying that there weren’t any wolves in the city or even in the whole country, except in zoos. “Well, what if one has escaped from a zoo?” asked Alice. Mum laughed, “Zoos are careful enough not to let their animals escape.” Then Alice soon forgot about wolves as the v started getting ready for the camping trip.

Alice helped Dad load up the car. They put a tent into the car, which wasabi gone for the whole family to stay in. Then the sleeping bags, blankets and more. “It’s cold at night when you’re sleeping in a tent,” added Dad. When everything was packed, the car was full to bursting(爆棚). Dad started the car, and soon they were leaving the city behind them.

“Look at the hills!” shouted Mum excitedly. “Look at the cows on the grass!” They drove up a winding road until they reached the campsite, which belonged to a farmer and was in a big field. Once the tent was set up, Alice went to explore. There were trees to climb and a stream for paddling(戏水). Alice sat there watching the cows eating the grass. The day flew by and was: getting dark. Then the family had a barbecue near the tent.

As they were ready for sleep, strange rustling(沙沙声) noises came from the fence next to their tent in the darkness. “What are those noises? Is a wolf approaching?” Alice worried and moved closer to Mum, “Maybe it’s just the wind,” Mum gently patted Alice. Alice didn’t say, anything more. They were all tired after a day outdoors, and crawled into their sleeping bags. Soon Mum and Dad were asleep.

It was the first time that Alice had slept in a tent outside.

She said to her parents, “There must be a wolf or something else near the fence.”

It was a busy morning and I had several work to do before the day became too hot to be outside the house. As I was walking by the side of a busy road I saw an old lady, maybe in her 80s standing dangerously close to the traffic. Although my mind was preoccupied, I thought to myself that I should warn her not to stand so close to the chaotic traffic rushing by.

When I reached the spot where the old lady was standing, I noticed that she was trying to get attention of passersby who of course were too busy to take note of her. She kept pointing to the middle of the road. When I tried to gently move her back further away from the edge of the busy road, she said that she was standing there because she had dropped her house key in the middle of the road and was unable to open her house without the key. I looked around and no one seemed to be interested in the two of us.

The traffic was busy on the road with commuters on two-wheelers and office goers in cars as well as school buses rushing with school children. It was the worst time of the day to cross a busy road without a traffic light.

I knew I was getting delayed but decided to help。

I quickly picked up the key and ran back to the old lady and returned the key to her。

It was time to go home. “Remember to work on your class speeches for homework,” Miss Walker called, as everyone started talking and packing their school bags. Jenny felt sick. She hated having to read aloud in class. She was sure everyone got really bored listening to her. Once, when Jenny was reading out her holiday diary, Lee was even looking at his watch, a silver and blue one which seemed just magical.

Jenny watched Lee walk ahead of her as they left school. He seemed so clever, and he had a certain sort of shining confidence. He was just one of those people who were good at everything. Jenny sighed. As she turned the corner, she saw Lee’s watch lying right in the middle of the path.

Jenny knew she should just pick it up and return it to him, but she didn’t want to run after him. Jenny bent down quickly, picked up the watch and ran home. On arriving home, Jenny put it on almost without thinking. She was surprised it fitted so well. She walked to the mirror and started practicing her speech. Words just flooded out of her. “I’m going to talk about swimming. I have been lucky. I’ve won lots of competitions. But when I’m in a race, I’m not really thinking about winning. I’m just loving the feeling of being in the water...”Jenny laughed with excitement. She walked across the room. She suddenly seemed to have a certain sort of confidence. Turning back to the mirror, Jenny saw a flash of light from the watch in the glass. The flashes of silver seemed almost magical. So maybe Lee’s watch really DID have something magic.

The next day, as the lesson began, Miss Walker asked who was going to be brave and go first. No-body moved. Jenny slowly raised her arm. Before Miss Walker could say anything, there was a shout from behind. “She’s stolen my watch!” Lee said angrily, “It went missing at school yesterday.”

Paragraph 1: Everybody was fixing their eyes on Jenny, waiting for an explanation.

Paragraph2: At that moment, Miss Walker smiled and asked the class to listen to Jenny’s speech first.

Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks (盯着他们).

One day, Ali took Zahra’s shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra’s school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.

Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city. When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.

The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache.

He looked forward and found three boys running ahead of him.          

When Ali came to life, he was already at home.