Tom was a fat boy when he was ten. He liked watching TV very much. He watched TV at least 5 hours every day. Wherever(无论哪里) he went, he would be late.     

One day, he found a pair of special glasses in his post-box(邮箱). He also found a message saying, “With these you can see time.”

The boy decided to have a try. He put the glasses on, looked at his brother, a tall and thin boy, and saw a big box of flowers on top of his head. And it wasn’t just his brother. When he looked at his parents, he also saw the flowers. The three boxes were very large and the flowers were very beautiful. Then, he looked at himself from the mirror. He saw the flowers, too. But his flowers went to the mouth of the television. Its mouth was big. His flowers became fewer and fewer.

At last, he learned that watching TV was a waste of time. He could learn nothing from it. He decided he would never again let the television eat his time.

Tom and Ann have a dog and a cat. The dog is Tom’s. It’s black. Its name is Peter. The cat is Ann’s. Its name is Gunder.

Tom and Ann are playing with their dog and cat in the room. They put two boxes there. They want to let the dog and cat jump up on boxes. “Jump!” Tom says to the dog. “Jump, Peter! But Peter doesn’t jump. It runs in the room and jumps in Tom. Ann puts the cat on a box. “Stay there, Gunder!” Ann says. But Gunder jumps down and goers away.

“It’s not easy.” Tom says. “No, it isn’t.” Ann says.

A manager once advertised for a person to help him in his office, and nearly fifty people applied for the place. From all these people, in a short time, he chose a boy and sent the others away.

“I would like to know,” said a friend, “how you came to choose that boy. He had not a single recommendation(推荐)with him.”

“You are mistaken,” said the manager. “He had many.”

“He wiped his shoes before he came in, and closed the door after him, showing that he was orderly and tidy.”

“He gave up his seat quickly to an old man, showing that he was kind and thoughtful.”

“He took off his cap when he came in, and answered my questions promptly and peacefully, showing that he was polite.”

“He lifted up the book which I had purposely laid on the floor, and placed it on the table, while all the rest stepped over it, or shove it aside, showing that he was careful.”

“And he waited quietly for his turn, instead of pushing the others aside, showing that he was modest.”

“When I talked with him, I noticed that his clothes were carefully brushed, his hair in nice order, and his teeth as white as milk. When he wrote his name, I observed that his fingernails were clean, instead of being tipped with pen.”

“Don’t you call these things letters of recommendation? I do and what I can tell about a boy, by using my eyes for ten minutes, is worth more than all the impressive letters he can bring me.”