After my son, Scott, graduated from high school, he took a job in North Carolina.Two thousand miles suddenly separated me from the person who’d been the focus of my life for 18 years.As the days went by, I missed Scott more and more.I’d always been able to take care of myself, but now I seemed to need Scott’s help constantly, like getting a tool from the top shelf, or moving something heavy.Most of all, I just missed having him to talk to.I was lonely.I knew this day would come.But why does it have to be so hard?

However, a mother spider(蜘蛛) taught me a lesson.

On my way out from my storeroom, I noticed a spider building her web across the top corner of the doorway.I reached for a hoe (锄头), tore down the web, and watched the giant spider run away in the grass.She was back the very next morning, in the exact same spot, busily rebuilding.I stared for a moment, and then reached for the hoe again.Then I twisted the hoe round and round, catching the spider in her own web.I carried her far into my backyard, shook the hoe and watched her fall to the ground and disappear in the bush.The third morning, I stopped short as I entered the storeroom.The spider was back in the same corner, her web almost completed again.I reached for the hoe, but stopped.I thought her persistence (坚持) in building her web should pay off.I stepped back and watched her long legs busily knitting the web.

For the next few weeks, the spider and I were close neighbors.One particularly boring day, I was feeling so down that I didn’t even glance up at my spider as I entered.Suddenly I found a hundred tiny creatures on the floor.I realized that these were baby spiders and the web the mother had built was to protect her young.

As the mother watched from the corner of the web, her young were making their way to the ground safely.

I decided that I would leave this web as a reminder.

“Put ourselves in others' shoes”is what we mean by the term“transpositional consideration”,

How far would you go to help a friend? When you and your friend are in trouble, what will you do? Will you leave him alone or face the danger together with him? Jeremy Savage, aged 17, and Ian Marshall, aged 16, both from Canada, had their friendship tested to the limit on a recent trip to the Rocky Mountains with their parents.

On Saturday morning, the two boys decided to climb Cathedral Mountain by themselves while their parents relaxed at the campsite. Jeremy filled his backpack with some food, two bottles of water and an extra shirt. Ian told Jeremy that it was unnecessary, but Jeremy insisted. After three hours, they reached the top and enjoyed the beautiful view from the mountaintop.

However, trouble began when they started the climb down. On one very dangerous part of the mountain, Ian fell three metres off the side of the path. Jeremy climbed down to where Ian was and found him badly injured and not able to move. Jeremy had to decide what to do. He needed help but he did not want to leave his friend. He cleaned the dirt and blood from Ian’s face and hands, and then tried to help Ian stand up, but Ian’s right leg was hurting too much. They had to wait and hope that help would come.

Meanwhile, as darkness started to fall, their parents back at the campsite became very worried that the boys had not returned. They got in touch with park workers and began searching for the boys. Soon more than 20 people were looking for them on Cathedral Mountain.

While they waited for help, Jeremy gave Ian his food and water and let him lie on his jacket.

At sunrise, Jeremy decided that the only way to help his friend was to carry him down the mountain.

Whether middle school students should make friends on line

Role Change

It was a Friday night, and I was just picked up from school by my uncle. He told me that my mother had been in a terrible car crash and had been taken to a nearby hospital.When we got to the hospital, my grandmother pulled me aside and said whatever I did, I mustn’t cry in front of my mother.

My mother’s room was right next to the nurses' station. As I turned into the room, I saw her lying on her side, with her tiny back to me and a pillow between her bandaged legs. She struggled to turn around but couldn’t. I slowly inched to the other side of the bed and said “hi” in a calm voice, containing my urge to cry out.

Gently holding my mother’s cold swollen hands, I tried to keep calm. She kept looking straight into my eyes as if trying to tell me how much pain she was in. I turned my face away from her, trying to hide the tears that were rolling down my face. Eventually I had to leave her for a moment because I couldn’t take it anymore. That was when it struck me that I really might lose my mother. Then I went home and cried myself to sleep.

From that night on, my life completely changed. Up to that point, I'd had the luxury of just being a kid, having to deal with my “messy” teenage life and enjoying my mother’s care. My concept of crisis was now forever changed. As my mother struggled first to stay alive and then to relearn to walk, my sense of priorities in life changed completely. My mother needed me. The trials and hardships of my daily life at school, which had seemed so important before, now appeared insignificant. My mother and I had faced death together, and life took on new meaning for both of us.

I visited my mother in the hospital as often as I could for the next two months. Finally, a sort of hospital suite (房间) was set up in our family room, and to my relief and joy, she was allowed to come home.

Her returning home was a blessing, but it meant some unfamiliar duties for me.

My mother’s dependence on me changed our relationship.

When I was little, I left Germany with my family and moved to the Netherlands. For months, my main company had been my mother or other adults. I could only speak German and hardly spoke a word of Dutch. I only met one girl who also spoke German in the neighborhood grocery store.

I was shy, so when I set off for my first day of a new school, I was really terrified. I cried leaving our apartment. I entered a classroom where there were about 20 children who looked extremely busy. Suddenly, I saw a girl with dark hair. I couldn’t see her face, as her back was turned towards me. In that moment, she turned around and looked at me. In a flash, we recognized each other. It was the girl from the corner grocery store! We instantly rushed into each other’s arms like long-separated sisters, sentences in German flowing between us. I smiled and my anxiety disappeared immediately.

“My name is Annelies. You can call me Anne,” she said smilingly. As two little girls who didn’t know Dutch, we were excited to find each other.

I was attracted by Anne immediately. Apart from being outgoing and kind, Anne was confident enough to get close to others though they spoke Dutch. Soon I also began to play with other children.

When we went home after school, Anne and I were glad to discover we were also next-door neighbors. Anne’s apartment was a floor above mine. After that, every day she came to knock at my door and then we walked to school together.

Soon we became inseparable friends and I knew more about her. She liked seeing films and her father even rented a film projector (放映机) on her birthday every year, which made her very happy. But she still felt she had difficulty integrating (融入) fully into the lives of local people.

With the desire to fit in, Anne and I began to learn new Dutch words and phrases.

Here came Anne’s birthday again and in our hands were many invitations.