【推荐1】We were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought me to this spot in a small town not far from our home in Rome. I wondered why.

“Look down, Elsa,” father said. I gathered all my courage and looked down. I saw the square in the center of the village. And I saw the crisscross (十字形) of twisting, turning streets leading to the square. “See, my dear,” father said gently. “There is more than one way to the square. Life is like that. If you can’t get to the place where you want to go by one road, try another.”

Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my mother to do something about the awful lunches that were served at school. But she refused because she could not believe the lunches were as bad as I said.

When I turned to father for help, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By the time we reached home, I had a plan.

At school the next day, I secretly poured my lunch soup into a bottle and brought it home. Then I asked our cook to serve it to mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed one spoonful and sputtered (喷溅出) “The cook must have gone mad!” Quickly I told her what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would take up the matter of lunches at school the next day!

In the years that followed, I often remembered the lesson father taught me. I began to work as a fashion designer two years ago. I wouldn’t stop working until I tried every possible means to my goal. Father’s wise words always remind me that there is more than one way to the square.

【推荐3】For many teenagers who are growing up in cities, the first things that catch their eyes when they come to the countryside are the animals, farm tools and above all, the rural scenery that is very different from that in cities.

But when Wang Zhicheng, a 17-year-old boy from Qingdao No. 2 High School went to his mother’s hometown for the first time during Spring Festival, he was shocked by the terrible condition of the roads.

Roads in the small village in Heze, Shangdong province were muddy and bumpy(崎岖的). “Complaining doesn’t solve any problems. I wondered what I could do to help rebuild the roads,” Wang said.

He talked to villagers and learned that a lack of money had been the major problem that had gotten in the way of the rebuilding project. Wang decided to donate 3,000 yuan of his gift money he had received for Chinese Lunar Ney Year over the past three years. But it was really only a drop in the ocean. What else could he do?

Then he realized he could use the Internet. Wang said he remembered the reports he had read on social networking sites about crowd funding helping cancer patients and other charity projects. So why not try Internet crowd funding for the village road?

Wang released the information on the Internet on Feb 22. “I was not sure whether I had expected too much from the Internet, but it was worth trying,” he said. Much to his surprise, he achieved that goal in just 10 days. Money continued to be transferred(转入)into the account and up to now, a total of 50,000 yuan has been collected.

The new road will hopefully be ready by the end of this year. “I had thought charity was just showing off, but I came to realize that it is a systematic project. It not only helps those in need, but also highlights the positive side of life for all the people involved.”