Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. Her skin was as white as snow, so she was named Snow White. She had a stepmother, the queen, who was not kind to her.

The queen had a magic mirror, which could tell her anything she wanted to know. One day, the queen asked the mirror who the most beautiful woman was in the world. The mirror said Snow White without thinking twice. The queen was so angry that she ordered the hunter to kill the princess. Instead of killing the poor princess, the hunter let her go and told her not to be back anymore.

Snow White walked around the forest for a long time and finally she saw a small house. In the house there were several small beds. Snow White was so tired that she fell asleep in bed quickly.

In the palace, the queen asked the mirror again and the mirror still said the most beautiful woman was Snow White. The angry queen decided to kill the princess by herself. She turned herself into an old woman and prepared an apple which was poisonous(有毒的). She found Snow White and cheated her to eat the apple. This time she was sure that Snow White was dead, so she left.

Luckily, a prince saw Snow White and saved her. In the end, Snow White got married to the prince and lived happily together.

Mr Wu: Welcome back to our English class, boys and girls. Now whose turn is it to tell us an idiom story?

Nancy: It’s my turn, Mr Wu. Today I’ll tell a story Old Oil Seller. During the Northern Song Dynasty, there lived a skilled archer called Chen Yaozi. One day he was practicing on the ground. He shot so accurately that the on-lookers cheered with excitement. He became very proud. But among the crowd, an old oil seller only nodded his head indifferently. This hurt Chen’s self-respect. “Can you do this?” he asked the old oil seller. “No, I can’t.” “What do you think of my skill?” “Nothing special. Everyone is able to do well if they get enough practice.” “What can you do then?” The old man said nothing. He put a gourd bottle on the ground and covered the mouth with a coin. He then took out a ladle (长柄勺) of oil from his big jar, held it high and began to fill the bottle. Now, a line      ① oil came down ② the ladle ③ the bottle just ④ the hole of the coin. Everyone looking on watched with amazement. But the old man said, “This is nothing special. I can do this because I’ve practiced it a lot.” With these words he moved off. Later on, people use this phrase to show ________.

Mr Wu: Thank you for the wonderful story, Nancy.

A little pine tree (松树) only had needles (松针). The little tree said, “I don’t like needles. I want pretty leaves just like others. I want gold leaves (金叶子).”

Night came and the little tree went to sleep. A fairy (小精灵) came by and gave it gold leaves. When the little tree woke up, it found its gold leaves. It said, “Oh, I am so pretty! No other tree has gold leaves.” A man came by and took all the gold leaves away. The poor little tree cried, “I don’t want gold leaves again. I want to have glass leaves.”

When the little tree went to sleep, the fairy came again and put the glass leaves on it. “How pretty they look in the sunshine! No other tree is so nice,” the little tree said happily. Then a wind came up. The glass leaves all fell down and got broken. Again the little tree had no leaves. It was very sad and said, “I will not want gold leaves or glass leaves. I want green leaves like others.”

And the little tree went to sleep. When it woke up, it had green leaves. A sheep came by. It was so hungry that it ate all the leaves. Then the little tree said, “I will not want green leaves, nor glass leaves, nor gold leaves. I like my needles best.”

So you see, being yourself is the most important thing.