It was dark that night and it wasn’t easy to see where we were going. Suddenly, a big steamboat（汽船）came at us very fast. Jim and I jumped off the raft（木筏）into the water. The boat hit the raft and went on up the river.

When I came up out of the water, I couldn’t see Jim anywhere. I called out his name again and again, but there was no answer. “He’s dead!” I thought. Slowly, I swam to the side of the river and got out. I was near a big old wooden house. Suddenly, a lot of angry dogs jumped out at me and someone called from the house, “Who’s there?”

“George Jackson,” I answered quickly. “I’ve fallen off a river boat.

The people in that house took me in and gave me some new clothes and a good meal. I told them that my family were all dead, so they said I could stay with them as long as I wanted.

A few days later, a slave（奴隶）in the house came to me and said, “Come with me!” Together, we went down to some trees by the river. “In there!” he said and went away.

On the ground, I found a man, asleep. It was Jim! I was really happy to see him. When the steamboat hit the raft, Jim told me, the raft didn’t crash. Jim swam after it and caught it. Then he began to look for me.

We decided to leave at once. It’s all right living in a house for a little while, but we feel more free and easy and comfortable on a raft.

——Adapted from The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin

It was a clear sunny day. Mary skipped all the way to the secret garden wall. At this moment, the robin flew towards Mary and landed at her feet. Mary was pleased to see him, then she stopped skipping and spoke to him.

“Thanks to your help yesterday, I know where the key was,” she laughed. “Can you show me where the door is today?”

The robin sat on an old climbing plant on the wall and began to sing. Suddenly the wind made the plant move. The thick, heavy plant was covering a door. Mary’s heart was beating fast and her hands were shaking as she pushed the leaves away. That was the door she had found for all the time! Mary nervously opened the door.

Once she got into it, she was amazed by the beautiful scenery. It was the loveliest and nicest place she had ever seen. There were old roses everywhere, and the walls were covered with climbing roses. “Are the roses still alive,” she wondered. “I hope they aren’t all dead.” This garden seemed very strange and quiet but she did not feel lonely at all as she stayed in a world of her own.

Suddenly, she noticed some small green shoots coming up through the grass. Something was growing in the garden! When she found a lot more shoots, she made up her mind that they needed more air and light, so she began to pull out the thick grass around them. However, she worked very slowly because she only worked with her own hands.

“If I can have some useful tools at my hand, I can surely start to make my own special garden,” she thought, “Now there isn’t much for me to do.” Thinking about this, Mary left the secret garden.

There was a businessman who was deep in debt (债务) and could see no way out. He sat on a park bench, head in his hands.

Suddenly, an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the businessman’s story, the old man wrote out a check (支票), and put it in his hand, saying, “Take it and pay me back here exactly one year from today.” Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The businessman saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in the world.

“I can pay off my debts soon!” he realized. But instead, the businessman decided to put the check in his safe (保险箱). Just knowing it was there might give him the power to save his business, he thought.

He went back and worked hard to make his business successful. Within several months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the check. The old man appeared at the agreed-upon time. Behind the old man was a nurse. The nurse told the businessman that the old man was mentally ill and was always telling people he was John D. Rockefeller.

The businessman was shocked to hear this. All year long he’d been buying and selling, believing that he had half a million dollars behind him. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money that had turned his life around. It was his self-confidence that gave him the power to succeed.