Mrs. Peabody was a serious old woman the kids called psychic (通灵者) because she magically knew which students had accomplished the real assignment and which had not.

She once gave the class a writing assignment. “Write an essay about summer vacation. ”she said. “Be as creative as you can. ”

Well, that night Jim sat at his desk at home and stared unhappily at a blank sheet of paper. He didn’t want to write a stupid essay about his summer vacation. Boring. So he gave up on the assignment but wrote what he wanted to—not an essay at all but a science fiction. It was about a distant planet that didn’t have summer—it was spring all the time. And it didn’t have vacations either. The aliens on the planet worked 24 hours a day.

The next morning he handed in the story but that night he lay awake until three a. m. , thinking: Why did I do that? I totally ignored the assignment. Maybe it’d take Mrs. Peabody a few days to grade the essays. I’d beg her for a chance to write another one, the sort she wanted.

But when he got to class the next morning it turned out that Mrs. Peabody had read and graded the essays. And when he saw the way she glanced at him with a strange look in her sten, psychic eyes, he wished he’d stayed home sick. I’m in trouble, Jim thought, blushing already, betrayed by his freckles (雀斑). Staring at the floor. Mrs. Peabody continued, “Almost everyone in class wrote an essay about his or her summer vacation . Almost everyone. ”This is bad, Jim thought. I’m getting an F, I know it. “But, ” the teacher said, “One student decided he didn’t feel like doing that. ” Jim glanced up long enough to see her eyes focused on him. This is worse than an F. . . I’m in note-to-the-parents territory now.

It pays to have friends in “high” places!

Last year, Brody Ridder of Westminster, Colorado changed schools because hed was being bullied(霸凌). Sadly, the problem didn’t go away at his new school, The Academy of Charter Schools. When the school yearbook came out at the end of his sixth grade year, no one in his class wanted to sign his book.

Brody says he approached several classmates to ask them to sign, but they refused. The few who did sign only wrote down their names carelessly with no personal notes for Brody. Except for a couple of teachers’ notes, his pages were completely blank.

Greatly disappointed, Brody sat down and wrote in the book himself. ”Hope you make some more friends.—Brody Ridder,“ he wrote.

Mom Cassandra Ridder was sad indeed when she read the note and heard how cruelly he’d been treated. She took a picture of the note and shared it online for parents of students at Brody’s school. She had no idea it would lead to discussions all over town!

Parents were so sad to read Brody’s note to himself that they encouraged their children to reach out to the boy the next day. Rising senior Simone Lightfoot was one of the teenagers who heard the sixth grader’s story, and she understood his embarrassment. She and other high school students spent hours talking about Brody, coming up with a plan to help lift his spirits and make him feel less alone.

”We all just started planning that the next day we were going to go and sign this kid’s yearbook,“ said Logan South, another rising senior.

The next day, they did just that.

Not surprisingly, Brody’s classmates also reached out to him.

On my first day in college, I was filled with worry and anxiety. I have heard that college is quite different from high school. Before school started, I became concerned about taking courses for credits, which would determine whether I could graduate on time. I also worried about getting along with my classmates and the rules and regulations of the school.

I was not used to changing from high school to college, which is why I was a little scared when I went into the building. I saw so many students that I did not know. I was surprised that we have class all day and there are around 150 students in one lecture class. I went to my first class really early so that I could get a seat close to the teacher to record the class and meet my classmates. Fortunately, there were some students that I knew from high school. Therefore, the class was not so scaring any more and everything seemed to be better than before.

Now is another thing. I did not realize that college students can wear whatever they want and it doesn’t matter with the uniform. But except for one, which is about your ID. You have to wear it when you are in college. If you don’t, you won’t be allowed to have the class, so it is totally different from high school. Related to this, the college contains only two sections for one morning, each lasting two hours. We have fifteen minutes for having the break time. That day, on my way to the next class, I tried to make new friends with the other students. After the morning class, I had lunch with my classmates. Most of my classmates are from the other provinces, which gives us a lot to talk about.

After lunch, we went to the library to look for some documents.

My first day in college was so wonderful.

I had ordered many gifts online for the upcoming Christmas. One day,when the doorbell rang, I was sure some of the packages arrived. I opened the door,but only to find a beautiful little dog sitting on the floor. It looked up at me with her big,cute eyes. I looked around, but there was no one in sight. It was obvious that someone had found the puppy somewhere and intentionally left her outside the door.

The lovely dog was a timely Christmas gift for me,indeed. The year marked a turning point in my life. In September,my husband was offered a new job in Africa. Feeling that I had hit a career bottleneck as a photographer journalist,I decided to relocate with him. While my husband was busy with his work,I didn’t know what to do anyway. I felt isolated,homesick and lacking purpose. We lived in a house near a river that cut across an expansive grassland. With few people around,I would take my camera and wander around,photographing aimlessly every day.

So we adopted the abandoned dog. My husband called her“our little angel”and I named it accordingly.   Angel seemed to be very happy with us and she turned out to be a perfect companion for me. Always by my side,she enjoyed exploring the shady bushes and mysterious tunnels all over the grassland. Encouraged by her curiosity,I decided to explore,too.

There was a deep cave near our house and I had been eager to explore it. The only way in was narrow and slippery. I had promised my husband that I wouldn’t do it unless he was around. But he was always busy. With Angel as my companion,I figured that it was time to stretch the rule a little bit.

One day, I equipped myself with a good flashlight and carefully walked down the dark cave. Suddenly, Angel,who had been following me closely,rushed ahead and disappeared into the darkness.

A few seconds later, it brought back a little bird.

During the recovering process, I took many photographs of the little bird.