Eleven-year-old Kristina shouted on the phone. Vera, her mother, packing lunches for her two children, heard the shouting and dashed to Kristina. Kristina gave her the phone. Kristina was talking to her father at his doctor’s office in Moscow, Russia.

“Vlad, why is Kristina shouting?” began Vera in Russian.

“Vera, this afternoon I must attend a conference at her school. But I cannot be there. I have an important meeting. Why don’t you attend it?” Vlad replied.

“How can I go?”

“You are not going to a forest. You’ll be fine!”

“I know, but I can’t speak English properly. It’s a rule at her school.”

“You can manage. GO!”

Vera turned to Kristina, “Kristina, your father is busy. I will come instead of him.”

Kristina shouted, “Mother, you can’t speak English. How can you come to the conference? NO!” She plowed through her mother and ran sobbing. But Vera convinced Kristina. As there was no option, she agreed and left for school.

Vera was depressed. She felt that if only she knew English, she could avoid such situations. “But how is it possible for me to learn English while balancing so many tasks?” Suddenly, she realized that Andrei was getting late, so she got him ready and walked him to school.

In the afternoon, Vera attended the conference at the school. All the teachers and staff gave a warm welcome to Vera. Kristina kept quieting her mother. All she said were phrases like, “You are embarrassing!” “Stop talking!” and “You do not know English!” Ignoring her daughter’s comments, Vera managed to keep her cool and finished the meeting.

After delivering a cake to a customer, Vera went home to start dinner. At home, she asked her mother-in-law where Kristina was. She said that Kristina had gone to study with her friends. While they were talking, Kristina walked in.

Vera asked, “Why did you go out? You can study at home, you know!”

”I have doubts about English Literature. Can YOU clarify them?” Kristina said in an arrogant (傲慢的) tone.

The Trouble With Chores (家庭杂务)

The twins, Jenna and Jeff, were good at most things. Their dad was good at most things, too. But there was one thing the twins and Dad were not good at—that was chores. It wasn’t that Dad and the twins didn’t want to do their chores. It was just that they always seemed to have reasons not to do them. And they had such good excuses.

“You’re right, my dear,” said Mum. “The grass does need cutting. But a spider has spun a wonderful web on the lawn mower and I haven’t the heart to put all her hard work to waste.”

“Mum,” said Jenna, “I know it’s my week to put up my cards. It’s just that I’m waiting for them to dry. They’ll be easier to scoop up that way.”

“Mum,” said Jeff, “may I skip setting the table tonight? There’s a TV show on the Ice Age, and I have to do a report on the Beast of Baluchistan.”

There were also the endless quarrels about who did what and who got the easy job. Mum sighed. If only Dad and the twins were as good at doing their chores as they were at arguing about them, life would be easier. Talking of chores, Mum thought instead of pushing them for chores, it would be a lot easier to do them herself. And that was what she did. She put away all cards and set and cleared the table. She chased the dust bunnies from under the furniture and cleaned up the twins’ messy room.

The twins did pick up and put away things occasionally. Dad did cut the grass once in a while. Not surprisingly, things began to slide. Everybody got a little unhappy, especially Mum, who spent much time doing chores. Something had to be done. But what?

On a Sunday afternoon, Kiana French was having fun fishing with her father and younger sister, not knowing the next minute, they would struggle not to sink in the freezing water. Their 12-foot boat was taking in water little by little, and the wind was picking up. Her father, Gary French, hurried to operate the engine, while Kiana,16, was in the middle with Cierrah, her sister, frightened but still able to keep calm.

Kiana asked Cierrah to take off one of her cowboy boots, with which she got some of the water out. Hard as she tried, that little effort would not help stop the boat sinking. Moments later, the unthinkable happened. The boat was full of water and then it flipped over. Kiana and her sister were dumped in the water. Their father, who had had a surgery six months ago, managed not to be thrown into the water but seemed to have great pain in the chest due to the sudden change.

Kiana quickly put on her life jacket and saw Cierrah’s and her father’s life jackets floating away. She reacted quickly to get them back and held her sister onto the boat. They were so far out in the middle of the lake that they could not see the shore clearly. What’s worse.it was getting harder to stay above the waves. Their father swam over and hugged his two girls. Cierrah crying silently. Kiana heard her beloved sister murmur, “I can’t feel my feet.”

Kiana knew the only thing to do was to get to shore herself and find help. She looked up at her father, exchanging a concerned glance, turned round and swam as hard as she could towards the shore

Fighting against the strong currents and cold wind, she screamed for help at the top of her lungs every three minutes or so. A strong wind blew, and she looked back only to see her sister’s and father’s heads bobbing(浮动)in the water. She burst into tears, thinking her sister and dad were dead, because she was taking too long.

With desperate tears, she suddenly spotted a boat with a figure walking on it

Once rescued, they were rushed to shore, where a concerned group waited for their arrival.