There are many great stories in Chinese history. This is one of the most educational stories. Kuang Heng was a very famous person in the Western Han Dynasty (西汉), and he was born in a poor family. He liked reading very much. He needed to work in the daytime, so he had to read books during the night. ①He was so poor that he couldn’t buy a candle. One day, he found his neighbor had candles, but the light couldn’t go through the wall. After thinking for a while, he had a good idea. ②small, a, hole, he, dug, wall,in, the (.) Then he could use the light from his neighbor’s house to read books. From that day on, he read books every night until the light went out. After some days, in his house there were no books for him to read. Then he went to a rich man’s house and worked for him without asking for any money. Hearing this, the rich man thought Kuang Heng was stupid but still asked “You meant you would work for me for free. But why?” Kuang Heng replied, “Well, I only want to borrow your books to read. That’s enough.” ③That rich man was deeply moved. Kuang Heng read all the books in the rich man’s house. Finally, he became a great scholar (学者). If you are also worried about reading books, it’s necessary for you to learn from Kuang Heng.

Yesterday afternoon, there was a big fire in King's Village. Some people saw two teenagers in a flat. They were about fifteen years old. They cooked food without any adults at home and ate their lunch there. After that, they played with matches. They threw much paper into the fire.

It was very dry and windy. Soon, there was a big fire in the kitchen. The teenagers were afraid and ran out. The fire got bigger and bigger. There were some old people in the block. They ran away quickly when they saw the fire. They lost everything in the fire.

The firemen came after twenty minutes. They helped the people to leave. The firemen fought the fire for two hours. They were very brave.

Answer the questions.

A woman bought a parrot (鹦鹉) from a pet store. However, she decided to return the parrot to the store the next day.

“This bird doesn’t talk,” she told the pet store owner.

“Does he have a mirror in his cage?” the owner asked. “Parrots love mirrors.”

The woman bought a mirror and left. The next day she came back again, saying that the bird still didn’t talk.

“How about a ladder (梯子)? Parrots love ladders.” the owner said. The woman bought a ladder and left. But again she was back the next day.

“Does your parrot have a swing? No? Well, once he starts swinging, he’ll talk up a storm,” the owner said.

The woman then bought a swing and left. When she walked into the store the next day, she began to cry. “The parrot died.”

The pet store owner looked very surprised. “I’m sorry to hear that. Tell me. Did he ever say anything?” he asked.

“Yes, right before he died.” the woman answered, “in a low voice, he asked me, ‘Don’t they sell any food at that pet store?”

Sometimes we forget to “feed the parrot” in our life. We must remember—no matter how many problems we have, we should first solve the most important one.