henry ford didn’t always pay attention in school. one day ,he and a friend took a watch apart. angry and upset, the teacher told him both to stay after school. their punishment was to stay until they had fixed the watch. but the teacher did not know young ford’s genius. in ten minutes, this mechanical wizard had repaired the watch and was on this way home.. ford was always interested in how things worked. he once plugged up the spout of a teapot and placed it on the fire. then he waited to see what would happen. the water boiled and, of course, turned to steam. since the steam had no way to escape, the teapot exploded. the explosion cracked a mirror and broke a window. the young inventor was badly scalded ford’s year of curiosity and tinkering paid off. he dreamed of a horseless carriage. when he built one, the world of transportation was changed forever.
亨利.福特在學校里常常心不在焉。有一天，他和一個小朋友把一塊手錶拆開了。老師很生氣，讓他們放學後留下來，把表修好才能回家。當時這位老師並不知道小福特的天才。只用了十分鐘，這位機械奇才就把手錶修好，走在回家的路上了。
福特對各種東西的工作原理總是很感興趣。曾有一次，他把茶壺嘴用東西堵住，然後把茶壺放在火爐上。他便站在一邊等候著會出現什麼情況。當然，水開後變成了水蒸氣。因為水蒸氣無處逸出，茶壺便爆炸了，因而打碎了一面鏡子和一扇窗戶。這個小發明家也被嚴重地燙傷了。
多年後，福特的好奇心和他的動手能力使他得到了回報。他曾經夢想著去製造一輛無馬行進的車。他造成了一輛這樣的車後，運輸界發生了永久性的變化。
國中生英語朗誦材料（2）：
to all my friends and loved ones
love from me
useful perspective
致朋友們以及我所愛的人們
這是一份愛的禮物
也是一席金玉良言
if the world were a village of 100 people
如果世界是個一百人的村落
_david j.smith/大衛.史密斯 shelath armstrory／謝拉.阿姆斯壯
if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the exsting human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:
如果我們把全世界的人口按照現有壓縮為一個１００人的村子，情況就會如同以下：
there would be:
57 asians
21 europeans
10 from the western hemisphere, both north and south
8 africans
這個村子裡有：
57 人是亞洲人
21 人是歐洲人
14 人來自西半球的南、北美洲
8 人是非洲人
52 would be female
48 would be male
52 人是女性
48 人是男性
70 would be non-while
30 would be white
70 人是有色人種
30 人是白人
70 would be non-christian
30 would be christian
70 人是非基督教徒
30 人是基督徒
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
89 人是異性戀者
11 人是同性戀者
6 people would possess 59％ of the entire world’s wealth