It’s 7:00 a.m. on Friday in Beijing. Anna is having a video chat (视频聊天) with her family in America. In the video, Anna’s family are sitting around a big table. It’s 6:00 p.m. in America and it’s the night before Friday. Today is Thanksgiving Day in America. Anna’s mother is making a lot of delicious food for dinner. Anna sees the turkey—the must-eat on Thanksgiving Day. Anna’s brother Nick is talking with her.

“Hi, Anna,” Nick says. “We are taking a trip tomorrow.”

“Oh, really? I hope you’ll have a good time.”

“Don’t you want to know where we are going?”

“Mom loves Thailand. Are you going to Thailand?”

“No. We miss you and we are going to Beijing to see you!”

Wow! Anna sees her family’s smiling faces and cries. No one loves you like your family.

Jeremiah hurried into the kitchen and washed his hands. He had exactly one hour until his father got home. He wasn’t used to starting dinner this early. On his nights to cook, Jeremiah generally got dinner ready in fifteen minutes. But Dad always praised Jeremiah’s meals, no matter how simple they were. “Delicious!” he would say. But Jeremiah knew Dad liked more complicated (复杂的) dishes, because on Dad’s nights to cook, he used a ton of ingredients. Dad was a natural cook. Not Jeremiah-at least, not until tonight.

It was Dad’s birthday, and for once in his life, Jeremiah was cooking something complicated: spaghetti with homemade sauce (酱). He’d eaten it a million times, so he knew most of the ingredients. “Tomatoes, onions, garlic, beef,” he thought, looking through the fridge. They had everything except the beef. No problem—they’d go vegetarian tonight.

Jeremiah cut up the vegetables with Dad’s special knife and put them into the pot. Then he turned to Dad’s spice(香料) collection. He picked a few familiar ones and put them in. The pleasing smell of fresh tomatoes amazed him. He tasted it just as Dad usually did. It was terrible! Way too spicy. Aha! A lime would cool things down. He added in as much lime juice as he could. One more taste. Ugh. It was awful! Now the sauce was sour and spicy.

He left the kitchen and went into his room. He could at least order pizza, so Dad wouldn’t have to stay hungry on his own birthday. As he counted his money, he heard the front door open.

“Hi, Jeremiah!” Dad called.

“Coming.”

Jeremiah returned to the kitchen, where he found Dad digging through the food cupboard. “I’m buying pizza,” Jeremiah said. “It’s not much of a birthday dinner...”

Dad turned, holding a bag of chips and a bowl of Jeremiah’s spaghetti sauce. “We don’t need pizza!” Dad smiled. “This delicious salsa(萨尔萨辣酱) is a meal in itself!”

Tom brings his report card home. He doesn’t want to show it to his parents. He puts it under the bed. Then he throws his schoolbag on the table and goes into the living room and turns on the TV. There is a football game on it and he begins to watch it. But after supper his dog Bobby goes under the bed and brings his report card out. His mother sees it and begins to read.

“Oh, dear!” the woman calls out. “You are not good at all! Look! You get a zero in the English test, and in the math test, too. You pass only PE. Tell me how you study at school…”

“Don’t be angry, Mom,” says Tom, “Nobody is perfect, you know!”