basketball

Today is my basketball training,and i want to tell you all one thing.It is................... i very careless today.When i borrow my friend's bicycle to ride.I fell down and my leg and hand was injured.I was in painful and i stand up myself.My mother advised me to be careful next time.

notes:cannot naughty like me o!!T_T

Blind and Kind(DOWN)

Philip can look for and look at, but he cannot see. He says strangers often correct themselves when talking to him. They’ll say, “I see,” meaning “I understand.” But then they think they’ve been rude, so they’ll correct themselves and say, “I mean, I understand.”

Philip has never seen a good movie or a bad TV show. He has no idea what a sunset or a full moon looks like. He is a musician. He plays the saxophone(萨克斯管), but not in a band. Four times a week, he travels to Old Town in Pasadena on the bus in the afternoon. He gets off at the bus stop and then finds his way across the street to The Cap, a hat store. On the sidewalk(边路) in front of The Cap is his “spot.”

He unfolds(展开) an aluminum chair and assembles his sax(萨克斯管) after taking it out of the case. He sits down and starts warming up. He puts a hat, upside down with change in it, on top of the case. “The change keeps the hat from blowing away,” he says. “It also lets people know where to put their donations. I usually spend about four hours here. I’ll earn from $10 to $30. One evening I made almost $100. Another evening, someone stole everything. I guess he needed it more than I did.”

notes:this story have change somethings in story one lo.

Blind and Kind(UP)

Philip is 55 and blind. He has been blind since birth. He says he does not feel like he is missing anything, because he cannot imagine what sight(视力) is like. He can smell a rose, but he cannot tell if it is red, white, or blue. It does not matter to him; he enjoys the beauty of the scent itself.

People sometimes take pity(可惜) on him, but he tells them he is a contented(心满意足) man; he does not feel cheated by Mother Nature. The doctors never figured out why he was born blind.

But his life is not a bed of roses. It is difficult for him to travel. He cannot drive, of course; he travels by bus. At home, he cannot just look out of the window to see what the weather is like, and then dress appropriately(适当). He can’t look at the clock on the wall to see what time it is. He uses his Braille(布莱叶盲文) watch or a special radio for that.

He must always put everything in the same spot in his apartment. If he doesn’t, “I’ll spend forever looking for it,” he laughs.

notes:very interesting because this story say about a blind man how to pass a day in his live i like it.

Two Babies

She wanted to have two babies—one boy and one girl. She wanted to have the boy first and the girl a year later. That way they could grow up together. He said that was okay with him. She said, "What do you mean, 'okay'? It shouldn't be 'okay' with you. You should say that you want two babies just as much as I do. If you don't want two babies as much as I do, then forget it."

He asked, "Forget it? You mean that we won't have two babies unless I really want to have two babies?"

She said, "Yes, that's right. If you don't really want two babies, then we won't have two babies."

"Okay," he said, "then let's not have two babies."

"Are you sure about that?" she asked.

He nodded(点头) his head, "Yes, I'm sure. We can't afford even one baby."

"Okay," she said. "Goodbye."

"What do you mean, 'goodbye'?" he asked.

She told him she was going to leave him. She was going to find a man who wanted to have two babies with her. He told her that he was just kidding—of course he really wanted to have two babies with her.

"Too late," she said. "You already told me how you really feel."

notes:this is a good story but at last very pitiful(可怜) because the girl go to find another boy.T_T ko lain(in hokkien)

Eggs and a Bunny

Easter Sunday was a cloudy but festive day in Memorial Park for about 100 kids from local orphanages. An Easter egg hunt started at 10 a.m. when a fire engine blasted its horn(垫铁). Boys and girls, ranging(排列) in age from 2 to 6, dashed throughout the park, yelling and screaming, walking and running, and quite often, falling down. One little girl, Amanda, found her first egg less than a minute after the horn blew. Instead(反而) of putting it into her basket and continuing to search for more, she sat down. Then she spent the next 10 minutes examining it, unwrapping it, and eating it piece by piece. When she finished, she put the wrapper into her basket, wiped her hands on her white dress, and went to hunt for another egg.

Meanwhile(同时) Jeff, one of the older boys, filled his basket to overflowing(溢出). He asked one of the firemen to hold it for him, and then took off running for more candy eggs. As soon as he found some, he put them into the basket of the child closest to him. Two little toddlers(小孩) both saw a candy egg at the same time, and they both bent over to pick it up. They banged heads, and both of them sat down bawling(大喊). A couple of volunteer nurses picked them up and told them that everything was going to be all right.

By 11 a.m., the search was over. Most of the kids were studying their candy, exchanging it with others, or eating it. But then the fire engine horn blasted again, causing three-year-old Jenny to cry. A fireman on a bullhorn() told everyone to gather(聚集)around, because a special guest had arrived.Once everyone was settled, the Easter Bunny climbed down out of the fire engine. The bunny was 6’6” tall. Most of the kids cheered and ran toward him. Even Jenny stopped crying for a moment. She stared at the bunny and at all the kids running toward the bunny; then she started crying even harder. The Easter Bunny hugged the kids, and they hugged him. Then the Easter Bunny sat on a fire engine step, and one by one the kids came up, sat on his lap, and got their pictures taken. After that, the older kids were allowed to explore the fire engine itself.

The festivities ended about 3 p.m., when the orphans climbed into the buses for the return trip home. Most of them said they had a fun time. Six-year-old Sara asked, “Can we do this every Sunday?” And more than one boy asked, “Can I drive the fire engine next time?”

Crazy Housing Prices(down)

Tim says he hopes he doesn’t get that desperate(绝望). “Whether you decide to buy or decide not to buy, you still feel like you made the wrong decision. If you buy, you feel like you overpaid. If you don’t buy, you want to kick yourself for passing up a great opportunity(机会).”

Everyone says the bubble has to burst sometime, but everyone hopes it will burst the day after they sell their house. Even government(政府) officials have no idea what the future will bring. “All we can say is that, inevitably(不可避免地), these things go in cycles,” said the state director of housing. “What goes up must come down. But, as we all know, housing prices always stay up a little higher than they go down. So you can’t lose over the long run. Twenty years down the road, your house is always worth(价值) more than you paid for it.”

notes:so so lo like up one.

Crazy Housing Prices(up)

Homebuyers nationwide(在全国范围内) are watching housing prices go up, up, and up. “How high can they go?” is the question on everyone’s lips. “As long as interest(兴趣) rates stay around 5 percent, there’s no telling,” remarked one realtor(地产商) in Santa Monica, California.

“It’s crazy,” said Tim, who is looking for a house near the beach. “In 1993, I bought my first place, a two-bedroom condominium in Venice, for $70,000. My friends thought then that I was overpaying. Five years later, I had to move. I sold it for $230,000, which was a nice profit(利润). Last year, while visiting friends here, I saw in the local paper that the exact same condo(condominium 的短称) was for sale for $510,000!”

It is a seller’s market. Homebuyers feel like they have to offer at least 10 percent more than the asking price. Donna, a new owner of a one-bedroom condo in Venice Beach, said, “That’s what I did. I told the owner that whatever anyone offers you, I’ll give you $20,000 more, under the table, so you don’t have to pay your realtor any of it. I was tired of looking .”

notes:very interesting but i don't like everyday do la pls la mama!

It had been another hot spring day. By ten o’clock in the evening, it had only cooled down to 87 degrees, according to Larry's thermometer in the living room. He rarely looked at his thermometer because he usually didn't care what the exact 精确的)temperature was.

Larry had two table fans in his bedroom. Because of the high temperatures, the last three evenings had been “two-fan” nights. He used his air-conditioner only occasionally(偶尔地). During one month the previous summer, he had used the air-conditioner 10 days consecutively(连续地) day and night. His electric bill that July, normally about $30, was $77.

But Larry figured(表现的) that, once in a while, using the AC wouldn't kill him. So that evening at 11:30, just before he went to bed, he turned on the AC. He set the thermostat(恒温器)to 72 degrees. He woke up four hours later when he heard a big bang, which sounded like two cars had run into each other on the street outside. But it wasn't two cars. It was the AC capacitor on the roof; it had just blown up. Larry's air-conditioner was officially dead.

Two circuit breakers had switched off, so he switched them back on. Larry had already suspected that there was something wrong with his air-conditioner. He called Jack, the repairman, but Jack didn't show up until four days later because he was so busy repairing all the other air-conditioners in the neighborhood.

When Jack finally came, he climbed up on the roof. Larry heard a lot of banging. Twenty minutes later Jack told Larry, "You need a new air-conditioner. Yours is the original model that came with this apartment building. All the other original AC units have been replaced. Yours lasted longest, but now it’s kicked the bucket(急急忙忙) I'm going to call your landlady to see if she will approve a new AC unit for you. It’s going to cost $1200 parts and labor(工作).”

“Wow,” said Larry.

Jack said that if everything went as planned, he'd install a new unit Monday morning. “Until then,” he said with a smile, “stay cool.”

Larry said, “No problem,” but he wondered if he should drive to the thrift(节约) store to look for a third fan for his bedroom.

感想:一句话(很悶)

Unhappy Birthday

A drunk driver speeding along in his SUV on the 60 freeway last night killed three of four people in a sedan(轿车). The sedan had slowed to a crawl because of construction work on the 60. Four lanes were merged(合并) into two. The Department of Transportation crew was making repairs to a three-mile stretch of highway. Hundreds of bright orange traffic cones guided the merger. Four heavy duty trucks were parked in the emergency lanes. Their brightly glowing signs said, “Slow. Be prepared to stop. Construction ahead.” Vehicle traffic had slowed to about 3 mph.

Missing all of these warnings, the drunk driver, going at least 50 mph, plowed into the sedan. The sedan driver, a computer programmer, was a recent immigrant to America. In the passenger seat was his wife, and in the back seat were his 6-year-old daughter and his 8-year-old son. It was 9 p.m. The family had been at a restaurant to celebrate the little girl’s birthday. They never knew what hit them.

The impact of the collision(碰撞) caused the sedan to explode in flames(火焰). Somehow, the sedan driver managed to crawl out of the car seconds after the explosion. Third degree burns covered much of his body. His chances for survival are slim. His life, as he knew it, is over. His loved ones were burned beyond recognition(公认). The car was a skeleton(骨骼) of metal.

The 28-year-old drunk was not only unhurt, but was able to escape from his smoldering SUV and run away, leaving two whisky bottles behind. The police tracked him down this morning. He claimed that his brakes had failed. It was revealed that he had four prior convictions for driving under the influence in the past 10 years.

Stepmother Kills Herself

Lois Castle, 58, committed(做) suicide(自杀) at home with a revolver(左轮手枪) yesterday. Two police officers heard a single gunshot as they were about to knock on her front door. They were at her house to arrest her for the 1970 murder of her young stepdaughter. Castle apparently(显然地) realized that she was going to be arrested(拘捕). Only a month earlier she had been interviewed by detectives about Dorothy’s death 35 years ago. In 1970, Castle told police that the girl had fallen out of a tree she was climbing and hit her head on a rock. But Dorothy’s natural father, Dwayne, who was married to Castle at the time, thought his wife was lying. “She said she would hurt me if I bother her again,” Dorothy had told her father earlier. “Your little girl is making up stories about me. I try to love her, but she rejects me,” Castle told Dwayne. An autopsy(验尸) was inconclusive(非决定性), and the death was ruled accidental. Dwayne divorced Castle shortly thereafter. But the case was reopened recently when a playmate of Dorothy’s came forward. Beverly Lisenby, also seven at that time, said she was about to knock on the door of Dorothy’s house that fateful day. But instead of knocking, she listened quietly as she heard Dorothy screaming for help and Castle telling her to shut up. Beverly listened until it was silent inside, then ran back home. She was so shaken by the event that she had told no one in all these years. The coroner dug up Dorothy’s body and did a second autopsy. Using new crime-solving(罪行解决) tools, he determined that Dorothy had been struck in the skull several times by a rock the size of a baseball. The police are now trying to locate Dwayne to tell him the good news.

Dave needed to pack(包装) for Saturday’s fishing trip. He went into his hall closet(大厅壁橱), where he had more than 20 rods(标尺) and reels(卷轴).Nowadays(现今) he went fishing twice a year at Big Bear, a huge lake(湖) in southern California about 7,000 feet up in the mountains. California tries to boost (助力)the fishing industry(产业) by sponsoring(主办) a Free Fishing Day twice a year, once in June and once in September. That sufficed(足够了) for Dave. He went mostly(主要) because it was a social event(社交活动) with a few friends, not so much to catch fish. Even by itself, the scenic(风景) drive up a twisty two-lane road was worth the trip. Not to mention(提及) the big, beautiful houses and trees that lined the shore of the lake.

感想:boring lo...................... but learn many many a lot a lot of words

Looking for Mr. Right

Because Debra had just bought a new laptop computer, she decided that she must start cutting back on some expenses if she could. Her long distance phone bill was one expense(费用）that sprang（跃起） to mind. She was paying almost $30 a month to Horizon(地平线）, her local phone company. That $30 covered her residence(居住） line and various taxes, surcharges(使装载过多), funds, fees, and services. It also covered her local phone calls—those to locations within 12 miles.

But she was paying another $40-$80 a month talking to her best friend and to her boyfriend, both of whom lived more than 12 miles away from her. But how could she not talk to her best friend and to her boyfriend? Could she tell them she was having budget（预算） problems, so could they please call her in the future? Could she just call them less often—a lot less often?

Fortunately for Debra, she found the solution a month later, when she tearfully discovered that her boyfriend and her best friend were seeing each other behind Debra’s back. Debra saw them kissing in his car outside of a restaurant that all three of them liked to visit occasionally（有时候）. Debra immediately called Horizon to cancel her long distance service. The female customer service representative asked if she was sure she wanted to do this. Debra said, “Yes, I’m sure. All men are jerks.” The representative（代表）agreed enthusiastically（热心的） with her.

Debra was only on her new computer for a week before she discovered Computer Dating, a service that promised: “Ladies, you will get to choose from hundreds of men in your own ZIP code area. New selections every day. Only $29.95 a month!” As much as she hated her boyfriend, Debra knew that not all men were alike. Maybe Mr. Right was waiting for her on her computer screen. Maybe he was living only a block away. And she did happen to have $30 available.

A Missing Cat

The owner of a missing cat is asking for help. “My baby has been missing for over a month now, and I want him back so badly,” said Mrs. Brown, a 56-year-old woman. Mrs. Brown lives by herself in a trailer park near Clovis. She said that Clyde, her 7-year-old cat, didn’t come home for dinner more than a month ago. The next morning he didn’t appear for breakfast either. After Clyde missed an extra-special lunch, she called the police.

When the policeman asked her to describe Clyde, she told him that Clyde had beautiful green eyes, had all his teeth but was missing half of his left ear, and was seven years old and completely white. She then told the officer that Clyde was about a foot high.

A bell went off. “Is Clyde your child or your pet?” the officer suspiciously(可疑) asked. “Well, he’s my cat, of course,” Mrs. Brown replied. “Lady, you’re supposed to report missing PERSONS, not missing CATS,” said the irritated(激怒) policeman. “Well, who can I report this to?” she asked. “You can’t. You have to ask around your neighborhood or put up flyers(飞行物),” replied the officer.

Mrs. Brown figured that a billboard would work a lot better than an 8”x11” piece of paper on a telephone pole(电话柱). There was an empty billboard at the end of her street just off the interstate(跨境) highway. The billboard had a phone number on it. She called that number, and they told her they could blow up a picture of Clyde (from Mrs. Brown’s family album) and put it on the billboard for all to see.

“But how can people see it when they whiz(专家) by on the interstate?” she asked. “Oh, don’t worry, ma’am, they only whiz by between 2 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. The rest of the day, the interstate is so full of commuters(通勤者) that no one moves.” They told her it would cost only $3,000 a month. So she took most of the money out of her savings account and rented the billboard for a month.

The month has passed, but Clyde has not appeared. Because she has almost no money in savings, Mrs. Brown called the local newspaper to see if anyone could help her rent the billboard for just one more month. She is waiting but, so far, no one has stepped forward.

感想:she very sot sot tai de lo

感想:very interesting

Jerry Decided To Buy a Gun

Jerry Baldwin was 30 years old. He was the manager of a pizza restaurant. He lived in an apartment about one mile（英里）north of the restaurant. He walked to and from work. When it was raining, he took the bus.

Jerry loved gangster movies. When a new one came out, he would go to the theater（戏院） and watch the new movie three or four times. Then, when it went to video, Jerry would buy the video at Barney’s Video Store. Jerry had a home collection of over 1,000 gangster videos. Old ones, new ones, color, black and white, English, Spanish, Japanese--he loved them all. He could tell you the name of the movie, the director, the stars, and the plot. Did you say you liked “Pulp Fiction”? Well, Jerry would rattle off all the details（细说） of that movie. And then he would invite you to his place to watch it some time. He was a nice guy.

Jerry finally decided that he would like to own a gun, just like the gangsters. So he saved his money for a couple of years. Then he went to a gun store and bought a used .38 caliber（口径） revolver（旋转者） for $300. While there, he also bought a couple of boxes of ammunition（军火）. The following Saturday morning, he went to the gun club to practice with his new revolver(左轮手枪). He was in the club for only 10 minutes when he accidentally dropped his pistol. The gun went off, and the bullet went into Jerry’s right knee.

Jerry now walks with a limp（跛行) and a cane, just like some gangsters.

Wednesday night, Howard asked Glenn if he wanted to go fishing and girl-watching that weekend at Santa Fe Lake. “We’ll leave Friday morning and return late Sunday night,” he said. Glenn said he had to clean out his garage(汽车间）, so Howard went by himself.

Howard had also planned to lie around the hotel pool, soak（泡） up the sun, read a good book, and look at pretty women in their bathing suits（一套衣服）. His own apartment didn't have a pool, so whenever he traveled, he always liked to stay at a place with a pool. But when he arrived at the hotel about noon, he saw that there were no pretty girls at the pool. There were no girls at all. There was nobody at the pool, because the pool was empty. It was being repaired all that week. The staff had “forgotten” to tell Howard this little detail.

Howard called Glenn late Friday night.

“How was the fishing?” Glenn asked.

“Didn’t see any, didn’t catch any,” replied Howard.

“Well, did you catch any women?”

“No. And don’t even ask how many beauties I saw at the pool. I didn’t go to any bars. But I did go to a Mongolian all-you-can-eat place and had a good dinner. I think one of the waitresses liked me. She asked me if I wanted extra ketchup.”

“Well, I hope you said yes. Any time a woman asks you if you want extra anything, that’s female code. It means they like you.” “I said no. There was a whole bottle right in front of me .“Well, you blew it. I don’t know when you’re going to learn to pick up on those signals（信号的）. Next time I’ll go with you and show you all the tricks.” “If you knew all the tricks, you wouldn’t be divorced（离婚的） three times.”

A Life-Saving Cow

Six consecutive(连续的) days of spring rain had created a raging(发怒) river running by Nancy Brown’s farm. As she tried to herd her cows to higher ground, she slipped and hit her head on a fallen tree trunk. The fall knocked her out for a moment or two. When she came to, Lizzie, one of her oldest and favorite cows, was licking her face. The water was rising. Nancy got up and began walking slowly with Lizzie. The water was now waist(腰部) high. Nancy’s pace got slower and slower. Finally, all she could do was to throw her arm around Lizzie’s neck and try to hang on. About 20 minutes later, Lizzie managed to successfully pull herself and Nancy out of the raging water and onto a bit of high land, a small island now in the middle of acres(英亩) of white water. Even though it was about noon, the sky was so dark and the rain and lightning so bad that it took rescuers(救助者) another two hours to discover Nancy. A helicopter lowered a paramedic(伞兵军医), who attached Nancy to a life-support hoist. They raised her into the helicopter and took her to the school gym, where the Red Cross had set up an emergency. When the flood subsided(下沉) two days later, Nancy immediately went back to the “island.” Lizzie was gone. She was one of 19 cows that Nancy lost. “I owe my life to her,” said Nancy sobbingly.

感想:boring-_-ZZZZ

Rumpelstiltskin3/3

On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood(邻里) as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious(好奇). Perhaps your name is Shortribs(Shortribs), or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg, but he always answered, "That is not my name."
On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, "I have not been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid(出价) each other good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous(可笑) little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted -
'To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
the next I'll have the young queen's child.
Ha, glad am I that no one knew
that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'"
You may imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, "Now, mistress queen, what is my name?"
At first she said, "Is your name Conrad?"
"No."
"Is your name Harry?"
"No."
"Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"
"The devil has told you that! The devil has told you that," cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged(浸入) his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore(撕毁了) himself in two.

"The ring on my finger," answered the girl.
The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.
The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not gold enough, and he had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife."
Even if she be a miller's daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.
When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?"
"I have nothing left that I could give," answered the girl.
"Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child."
Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait(海峡), she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.
And when the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a queen.
A year after, she brought a beautiful child into the world, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, "Now give me what you promised."
The queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, "No, something alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world."
Then the queen began to lament(哀叹) and cry, so that the manikin pitied(可怜) her.
"I will give you three days, time," said he, "if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child."
So the queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to every one the little man said, "That is

感想:very sedap lo n bagus to see i know very much n i 1 2 yhx my zz becauz she can find a good story like this THX ^_^ $_$ @_@ #_# !_! =_=' +_+ =_=! =_=?

Rumpelstiltskin 1/3

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."
The king said to the miller, "That is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test."
And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, "Now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die."
Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.
But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, "Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so?"
"Alas," answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it."
"What will you give me," said the manikin, "if I do it for you?"
"My necklace," said the girl.
The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.
By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was stonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, "What will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you?"

"DEAR MR. HOLMES:—I am very anxious to consult you as to whether I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, VIOLET HUNTER."

"Do you know the young lady?" I asked.
"Not I."
"It is half-past ten now."
"Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring."
"It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. It may be so in this case, also."
"Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question."

"Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial. I cannot blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across to me. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and ran thus:

It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-colored houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings.
"At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "You can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, at all. The small matter in which I endeavored to help the King of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I fear that you may have bordered on the trivial."
"The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold to have been novel and of interest."

"It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my friend's singular character.
"No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing—a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales."

Yesterday,i went to skul for basketball training.Unluckily it was rainy day.my fren n I was very sad,n then teacher call us to train stamina.At first we all very tired but after trained about 15 minutes,we can slowly getting faster n better.At last, teacher teach

us the technich to fight in 5 on 5.We learned many things from him(teacher Saw)

we also very happy. ^_^ *_* >_< =_=' $_$

THE COPPER BEECHES

"To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Telegraph, "It is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes celebres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province."
"And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my records."
"You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood—"You have erred perhaps in attempting to put color and life into each of your statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing."