You are a mountain climber. Three years ago, you spent the summer at a climbing school in the mountains of Colorado. Your instructors said that you had natural skills as a climber. You made rapid progress and by the end of the summer you were leading difficult rock and ice climbs. (excerpt from The Abominable Snowman by R.A. Montgomery)

It all began when Ms. Frizzle showed our class a film strip about the human body. We knew trouble was about to start, because we knew Ms. Frizzle was the strangest teacher in the school. (excerpt from The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen)

Lorraine, Cindy's mother, came out of her bedroom carrying a small mirror. She peered at her reflection as she walked, carefully examining the lipstick she had just put on. "Stop whinin' baby. Just straighten things up before you leave for school. I'm late for work." "I'm not going to school today,” Cindy declared. She waited to see if her mother would get angry and insist that she go. (excerpt from Someone to Love Me by Anne Schraff)

They spoke no more until camp was made. Henry was bending over and adding ice to the bubbling pot of beans. Henry grunted with a tone that was not sympathy, and for a quarter of an hour they sat on in silence, Henry staring at the fire, and Bill at the circle of eyes that burned in the darkness just beyond the firelight. (excerpt from White Fang by Jack London)

That’s how many hours there are in a week. If you’re a student, you probably feel like this isn’t enough. I know … You have so many assignments to do, projects to work on, and tests to study for. Plus, you have other activities and commitments. And I’m sure you want to have a social life, too. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could study smarter (not harder), get good grades, and lead a balanced life?

(excerpt from How to Study Smart: 20 Scientific Ways to Learn Faster by Daniel Wong)

As I walked inside the department store, I saw a woman and a child arguing with each other. The child was asking her mother to buy him an expensive toy. Then, I remembered my childhood days when I, myself, also did the same thing.

I have told you, reader, that I had learnt to love Mr. Rochester: I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me--because I might pass hours in his presence (excerpt from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte)

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young duck named Ping. Ping lived with his mother and his father and two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty-two cousins. Their home was a boat with two wise eyes on the Yangtze River. Each morning as the sun rose from the east, Ping and his mother and his father and sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles and his forty two cousins all marched, one by one, down a little bridge to the shore of the Yangtze river. (excerpt from The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack)

We lived on the main residential street in town Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia, our cook. Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment... Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. (excerpt from To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee)