The Value of a Dollar
When I was nineteen, I had a job at a local bookstore. One night, a young couple came in and walked here and there looking for a book. They seemed (be) the usual type to give mall (worker) a hard time. When they went to pay the book, the girl was a dollar or two short of (buy) the book she wanted.
She looked disappointed. I had a customer discount card and it was still active. I told the girl (gentle), "Hang on, don't worry, you'll have the money to buy the book." I typed my password.
She gave me a (thank) smile. With a dollar left, she and her boyfriend left the store. I believed that I would never see (they) again.
I don't remember how long it was. they did return later that evening just to bring me beautiful card that said "It's people like you who make the world a better place to live in."
I (move) by the little girl and her boyfriend. In fact, they have also made the world a little brighter.
The Galapagos tortoise (加拉巴哥象龟) is a kind of tortoise. In Spanish, "Galapagos" is a word for "tortoises". The Galapagos tortoises gave their name to the Galapagos Islands because they were first found there.
Do you know what Galapagos tortoises look like? They can grow to be five feet long and weigh over one hundred and fifty kilograms. An adult tortoise is strong enough to lift a man.
Galapagos tortoises can walk for a long time without food. They can survive on very little water for a few weeks. The female tortoises lay eggs in a hole in the sand or among the rocks. The babies are very small with soft shells. The babies always face dangers from other animals. There are many animals which eat the eggs and the baby tortoises. In fact, only one in about three thousand survives to become an adult tortoise. Adults often live for more than one hundred years.
Now Galapagos tortoises are endangered because people eat the eggs they lay and the adult tortoises are hunted for their big shells. Also, the pollution of the Galapagos Islands is hurting the Galapagos tortoises as well. The number of them is becoming smaller and smaller. We should start to protect them.
