There was a man who was going through hard times. His wife left him. He failed in business. He worked hard, but failure was all that he had seen. Struggling with this, he left everything behind and went into the forest. 【小题1】 He shared his story with the old man, and then asked “Can you give me one good reason not to give up?”

“Look,” the old man said, pointing to two plants. “【小题2】”

“Yes,” the man answered.

“When I planted the fen and bamboo seeds(种子), I took very good care of them. 【小题3】” the old man went on.

“Although I watered and took care of the bamboo seed for years, it did not sprout(发芽). There was no sign of growth. 【小题4】 In the fifth year, a small sprout came out of the earth. And in six months, the tree grew a hundred feet tall.”

“The little bamboo tree had been growing underground for the past four years, developing a root system strong enough for its ground growth in the fifth year and beyond. 【小题5】 So you know, all the time you were struggling, you were actually growing strong roots,” the old man said.

“Girls are much too clever to fall out of their prams（婴儿车）. I wish there was someone to toll us stories. Come with me, Wendy.”

“But I can’t fly.”

“I’ll teach you.”

“Can you teach my brothers, too?”

“Oh, all right,” he replied.

She ran to John and Michael. “Wake up,” she cried, “Peter Pan is here, and he is going to teach us to fly.”

John rubbed his eyes. “Hello, Peter. Can you really fly?” he asked. Instead of answering, Peter flew around the room.

“Wow!” said Michael.

“How do you do it?” asked John.

“You just think lovely, wonderful thoughts,” Peter replied, “and they lift you up in the air.”

They all tried, but it didn’t happen. Peter was tricking them, because you need fairy dust to fly. He put some on them, and they all began flying around the room.

“I’m flying!” screamed Michael.

“Oh lovely!” cried Wendy. “Look at me!” cried John.

Up and down they went, and round and round.

“Let’s go out!”

Of course, this was exactly what Peter had wanted. The window opened and the children flew over the town and to the ocean. They flew for one day and one night. Sometimes, they would fall asleep and fall out of the sky like stones. Peter would dive down and save them one moment before they hit the water. After a long, long time, they saw the island of Neverland. All the children knew it. It was the island of their imaginations. Neverland was really fun in their minds, but now it was real, very dark and scary.

One day, a strong white horse found a very good piece of grassland (草地) . He thought it belonged to (属于) him because he found it. So he lived there. He ate fresh grass every day. But one day a deer (鹿) came here and started to eat the fresh grass. The horse was very angry. He said, “Why do you eat my grass?” The deer was in surprise. The horse said, “I will let you know whose grassland it is.” He ran to the village, then he went to a man. He said to the man, “Can you tell the deer that the grassland is mine?” “Yes, I can, but you must work for me every day.” “OK.” The horse agreed (同意) happily. Then the man went to the deer and told her the grassland belonged to the horse. The deer left. From then on, the horse worked for the man very hard like a slave every day. He got the grassland but he lost his freedom (自由) .