An old man was going home late one night with his horse and cart after a day's hard work. When he was not far away from his house, the light on the cart went out. He tried but could not repair it. He was near his home, and so he went along the road without a light. When a policeman saw this, he stopped the old man.
"Where is your light?" asked the policeman. "No man may take a cart along the road at night without a light. You know that. You have broken the law." "I had a light, but it has just gone out," said the old man.
"I don't believe that story. What's your name and where do you live?" asked the policeman. "Please don't write down my name," said the old man. "My home is just there. You can see it from here. I had a light nearly the whole way."
"You came all the way without a light. What's your name?"
The old man quickly took the policeman's hand and put it down on the top of the light. The light was still hot and burnt the policeman's hand. The policeman jumped and he was very angry. "Now, what do you think?" said the old man. "Did I come all the way without a light?"
It was Saturday again. Grace and Karen disliked Saturdays. That was another thing the twins had in common. They shared the same clothes and tied their hair in the same manner. In fact, it was hard for their classmates and teachers to tell them apart sometimes.
Unlike their classmates, they had to get up early every Saturday to prepare for their lessons. Grace had to attend the art lesson and Karen had to attend her ballet lesson. "How I wish I could do something different today", said the twins with one voice. All at once, an idea came to Grace and Karen at the same time.
"How would you like to be me for a day?" they asked each other. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After giving each other a description of their own friends, Grace put on Karen's ballet dress while Karen put Grace's brushes and paints into her bag. Then they left for their classes.
When the art lesson started, Karen was lost. Unlike Grace, Karen was poor at drawing. When the art lesson finally ended. Karen didn't dare to hand in her work.
Meanwhile, Grace was struggling in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps, she had to follow her classmates blindly. As a result, she kept knocking into them. Their ballet teacher became impatient with her, "Karen, you should remember the basic steps. You can't rely on copying what others are doing."
When Karen and Grace got home, they were tired out. They decided that they would never try to be someone else they were not. It seemed that the grass was not always greener on the other side.
Most people have heard of the Great Wall, but not many people outside China know about the Grand Canal. This man-made waterway is known to the Chinese as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand. Canal. It is the longest as well as one of the oldest canals in the world and a place of interest. It's 1,797 kilometres long and some parts of it are more than 2,000 years old. Starting from Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou. The Grand Canal links the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.
It was built as a way to transport grain from the rich agricultural land in China's south to cities in the north. In fact, it's not one canal, but a system of canals and rivers linked together. It's still an important part of the transport system in China. Thousands of ships use it every day to transport grain and many other types of goods.
The Chinese government has done new work on the Grand Canal. It has made Darts of it deeper, so bigger ships can use it. The canal also helps to move water. There is a lot of rain in the south of China, but not as much in the north. The canal can carry millions of liters (公升) of water from the south to the north.
The Grand Canal is much less famous than the Great Wall, and not very many tourists visit it. But it's possible to go on a cruise (乘船游览) along some of the oldest parts of the canal. Passengers on these cruises can see beautiful parts of China that other visitors don't see.
As space science develops, man has learnt more and more about space. Space is not only amazing but also dangerous. While working in space, spacemen are facing danger as well as success.
Scientists have found out that the radiation is the greatest danger to spacemen in space. When spacemen are working in space, they are in danger of the radiation from the Sun and other stars, which is bad for their health.
Space rubbish is also a great danger to spacemen. It's reported that there were 9,000 man-made things flying in space. About 30% of these are satellites, 10% are spaceships, and the rest space rubbish. A small piece of these can knock a spaceship window and cause some damage.
Scientists are watching and reporting any possible danger all the time. They are working to deal with space rubbish. Although space is really dangerous, it interests many people on Earth. In the near future, it may become possible for people to spend a few days in a space hotel. We may even choose to leave the Earth and live in space in a few years. So we should do something to help improve the space environment.
