【推荐1】Ana, her husband Mario, and their four-year old son Antonio just moved to North Carolina. They need a temporary place to call “home” until they get settled into their new surroundings. So, Ana figured that she had better start looking for an apartment for them to stay in.

First, Ana picked up an Apartment Book at her local newspaper stand. The Apartment Book contained listings of all the major apartment complexes in her area.

Ana started by looking at the prices in the advertisements for apartments in the Apartment Book. Then, she read about the amenities that each apartment complex offered. For example, some apartments had a clubhouse, a gym (also called a “fitness center”), and a pool. After considering prices, amenities, and locations, Ana found a few apartment complexes that she liked.

Ana called the apartment complexes. She set up appointments with the apartment managers to see the apartments she found interesting. Ana made five phone calls, total. “I’ll see you then,” she said to the fifth apartment manager, and hung up the phone.

When Mario got home (to the hotel in which they were staying) from work, Ana showed him the list of apartments. “These look good,” he said.

“Mommy, let me see,” said Antonio, whom Mario had just brought home from childcare. Ana showed Antonio the pictures of the apartments.

The next day, while Mario was at work and Antonio was at childcare, Ana visited the apartment complexes. After visiting all five, she found that she liked the fifth one the best. It was near a good school system for her son, and it was near her and her husband’s workplace. She went home and discussed it with her husband, and they decided that they wanted to rent the apartment. The next day, they called the manager of the apartment complex and told him that they would like the apartment.

The manager asked them to sign a rental contract and pay a security deposit so that if any damage was done to the apartment while they were in it, the security deposit would pay for it. They signed the rental contract and paid the security deposit.

Finally, they had a place to stay.

【推荐2】My family and I never talked about school as the ticket to a future. I was in the classrooms, but I wasn’t there to learn to write, read or even speak. When it was my turn to read, I wanted to hide. I was 13 years old, but I already hated being who I was.

I had an English teacher, Mr. Creech, who knew I couldn’t read. In one of my first lessons the teacher said that anyone who had a reading age below six had to stand up. I felt so embarrassed. But at the same time, it made me realize that I needed to change the situation. I was determined it wouldn’t happen again. Later that day, Mr. Creech encouraged me and promised he would try his best to help me learn to read. From then on, I never gave up practicing reading.

Now I was 41 years old. One day, I planned to fly back to Texas to visit my friends and family. On my way from the airport, I saw Mr. Creech buying himself a drink. I rushed over and reached into my pocket to pay for him.”Do I know you?”he asked.”Yes, sir, you do know me,”I answered excitedly.”My name is Anthony Hamilton. You taught me English.”The look on his face told me that he remembered the boy he’d once encouraged.

“I’m so glad I had a chance to see you,”I said.”And Mr. Creech, I have great news to share.”I told him I had learned to read. But that wasn’t all. I had become a published author and an active speaker.”The next time you get another Anthony Hamilton in your classroom, please encourage him to read as well.”I added.

The experts say what once worried me has a name: dyslexia(诵读困难症). But I can tell you it was a lack of desire for education.

【推荐3】Ellen and Bill County are both teachers. They met in college and became good friends because of their shared love for children. Two years after the couple got married, Ellen saw a huge change in the life of one of her students, a 9-year-old girl. Three years earlier both of the little girl's parents had died and there was no one to take care of her. She was taken away to live in a government office. But finally she was taken in and adopted by a family and became their daughter. Ellen said that she noticed the difference in the child's life after she was placed in a permanent home and thought that maybe she and her husband could help a child in a similar way.

They decided to become temporary parents and to take a child into their home on the weekends when the real parents could not take care of him or her. The pair planned to have their own children in a few years, but decided that this would be a way to give to the community in the meantime.

The couple quickly grew to love one of the children they looked after, when he became legally available, Bill became the first child they took in permanently. Six months after adopting Billy, Ellen was told by her doctor that she was unable to have children naturally. Ellen says she knew then that adoption was the way she was meant to have a family.

Since adopting Billy, now 17, Ellen and Bill have adopted five more children—Rose, 16; Albert, 11; Joshua 5 and in June 2003, they added biological brother and sister Tyler and Rylee to the County family.

The County family has been recognized for their work on adoption, and has received many awards for their efforts. Last June, the family was even interviewed on the television show, "Adoption Stories".

Ellen says she would like to encourage other families to adopt children. She adds that the best part of being a mother of six is: “Giving Josh a bath, putting a band-aid on a cut knee or just the everyday Mom things, that makes motherhood such an honor and a privilege.”

【推荐1】The life of a premature (早产的) baby born during the winter storm in Texas was saved thanks to a team of medical professionals, including a doctor and two nurses who travelled from East Austin to Marble Falls in an effort to save a newborn baby’s life.

When Arias began experiencing pains, she and her parents headed to the closest hospital, Baylor Scott & White. Arias gave birth to her daughter, Zaylynn, who weighed just over one pound and was in need of advanced special care. However, the hospital does not offer the specialized care premature babies require.

“We had five or six people out at the nurses’ station calling hospital networks all over the state of Texas,” said Meredith Schubert, the labor and delivery nurse on duty when Arias arrived. “Nobody could answer our cry for help.”   

They finally reached Dr. John Loyd through a patient, division neonatologist (新生儿学专家) chief at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas. Around 5 p. m., after already having worked a full shift, Loyd packed his SUV with equipment and he and two nurses set out for Marble Falls, about 55miles away. The drive took Loyd and the nurses about two hours as they drove in the night through ice and snow.

After safely arriving at the medical center in Marble Falls around 8 p. m., the Dell Children’s crew set up a temporary newborn ICU. Together, the Dell Children’s and Baylor Scott & White teams worked around the clock to care for the mother and daughter.

Once the weather cleared enough to allow for a helicopter to safely land. Zaylynn was transferred (转移) to Dell Children’s, where there is a Level IV newborn intensive care unit (重症监护室).

Schubert said, “It was a huge relief and a sense of accomplishment and joy that Zaylynn finally got to the place where she needed to be.”

Arias said that she was grateful to the doctors and nurses who worked together to save her daughter.

【推荐2】When it comes to money, the world’s luckiest woman appears to be a 63-year-old American called Joan Ginther. She has managed to win the jackpot (头奖) four times.     1     Experts say that the chances of winning this much are extremely small.

Mrs. Ginther’s first win was in 1993 when she won half of the $11 million first prize of the Texas Lottery (彩票). The rest of her money has come from scratch (刮) cards. You scratch these cards to expose if you have a winning code. They are very popular, but not many people who buy them win anything. However, Mrs. Ginther won $2 million from a Holiday Millionaire scratchcard in 2006 and then she won another $3 million from a Millions and Millions scratch card in 2008.     2    

As a result of these wins, the Times Market in Bishop, where Mrs. Ginther bought her card, has become very popular.     3     The shop also receives calls from people trying to purchase scratch cards over the phone even though they live far away.

However, not much is known about Mrs. Ginther.     4     Even her neighbours have very little to say about her. She is now rarely seen in Bishop because she moved away and she now lives in Las Vegas.

Sun Bae, the owner of Times Market, remembers that Mrs. Ginther bought a new car for one of the town residents, even though she herself drives around in an old car.     5     And she bought her new home in Las Vegas and she donated her old home in Bishop to charity. “She has helped so many people,” Mrs. Bae said.

【推荐3】A few years ago, Adina Lichtman was handing out sandwiches on the streets of New York City to help people experiencing homelessness. One man, grateful for the sandwich, approached her and offered a surprising idea.

“It’s great that you’re giving out sandwiches,” he said, “but one thing we really need is socks, especially as winter approaches.”

“Here I was, sandwiches in hand, thinking I knew the best way to help people,” Lichtman said. “It was a powerful lesson, and I wanted to put it into action.”

She began that night, with a simple step: going door-to-door on the floor of her dormitory (宿舍) at New York University, asking her classmates if they could each just donate (捐赠) just one pair of their own socks to someone experiencing homelessness. She got 40 pairs of socks in a single night, from a single floor. The next morning she opened her door to find a lot of socks that other people had donated.

That morning officially kicked off Knock Knock, Give a Sock (KKGS), a new nonprofit (非营利的) organization that has now provided over 350,000 pairs of socks to the homeless across America. To date, over 50 colleges and high schools across the US have joined KKGS over the years.

“While many people donate clothing, 9 out of every 10 clothing donors have never donated socks. On top of that, people who are trying to donate socks often find it difficult to donate used socks,” she says. “KKGS is one of the only organizations that collects used socks. We have volunteers knocking on doors of their classmates in school, of their workmates at work, and even of their neighbors.”

But, whether you’re 26 or 62, you don’t need to wait to organize your own sock drive, collect socks, or even wash and clean some of your own to donate to your local shelter (收容所), or someone in need who you meet on the street.