12. James is a poor boy in our community. He has no father, and his mother is poor in health. He studies hard and is good at all his lessons. At weekends, he has to work to make money. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, he rides his bike to the post office to get newspapers, and then gives them out from house to house before breakfast. So he usually gets up early at 5:00 a.m. He goes to the street corner after breakfast and shines shoes (擦鞋) for people there.
James has no time to go back home for lunch. Very often he has some dry bread with cold water. He keeps working for ten hours a day like that.
The following picture shows the money he earns (挣) each week.
Because the family have to pay sixteen dollars for food each week, their life is really hard.