We often describe someone who cannot keep a secret as having a “big mouth”. It turns out that this might not be their fault.

According to Asim Shah, professor at Baylor College of Medicine, US, keeping a secret is difficult. This is because people often have an “obsessive（着迷的）and anxious urge to share it with someone”

An earlier study, led by Anita E. Kelly, a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, US suggested that keeping a secret could cause stress. People entrusted（受委托）with secrets can suffer from depression（压抑）and anxiety according to the Daily Mail.

But with secrets so often getting out, why do people share them at all? Shah explained that people often feel that it will help them keep a person as a friend. Another reason people share secrets is guilt（负罪感）over keeping it from someone close to them. A sense of distrust can develop when people who are close do not share it with each other. “Keeping or sharing secrets often puts people in a position of either gaining or losing the trust of someone,” said Shah.

He added that some people easily let secrets slip out. But this doesn’t mean that it is a good idea only to share secrets with quiet people. A quiet person may be someone who keeps everything inside. To tell such a person a secret may cause them stress, and make them talk about the secret.

Shah said that in order to judge whether or not to tell someone a secret, you’d better put yourself in their position. Think about how you would feel to be told that you shouldn’t give the information away. Shah also said that if you accidentally give up someone’s secret, you should come clean about it. Let the person know that their secret isn’t so secret anymore.

It was a hot summer day and I had just pulled into the gas station to fill up my car. After filling it up, I started to walk inside to pay. That is when I noticed them. Two elderly women were standing back from their car. There was shock and fear on their faces. I looked and saw what they saw: five yellow jackets（小黄蜂）building a nest around their gas cap. I suddenly felt scared. I shared the ladies’ fear.

Yellow jackets have never been friends of mine. Several times these wasps（黄蜂）have attacked（攻击）me while l was cutting the grass, stinging（蛰）me each time I ran over their nests. The worst time however, was when I was a young boy. A friend of mine and I were playing in my backyard. I must have stepped on one of their nests again because before I knew it, both of us were being chased and stung by the yellow jackets while we ran away screaming（尖叫）. I ran to my mom with tears in my eyes. She ran a cold bath and put us both in it to ease（减轻）the pain before giving us medicine to help us feel better.

Still, I knew I couldn’t let fear stop me now. I reached into my pocket for a paper to well had there, tore out the nest and stepped on it while the wasps buzzed around me. Both of the ladies thanked me for what I did

You can’t let the fear of being stung—either physically or emotionally（情感上的）—keep you from doing what is right. We need to love each other and change the world for the better. And the only way you can do this is through helpful acts and kindness. Don’t let the yellow jackets in your life hold you back.

In our everyday life, we take many things for granted（认为……理所应当）. Being able to see is one of them. However, not everyone in the world has good vision（视力）.

The World Health Organization（WHO）has released（发布）its World Report on Vision. It says that 65 million people could get their vision back with a cataract operation（白内障手术）, but cannot get one because they have little or no health care where they live. In addition, over 800 million people have trouble doing everyday activities because they don’t have enough money to buy a pair of glasses.

For example, there are thousands of nearsighted（近视的）African drivers who have difficulty seeing people walking across the road. This makes it dangerous for them to drive. And there are coffee farmers in Bolivia who find it hard to see their ripe（成熟的）beans because of cataracts. This means they can’t harvest as many beans.

This is mainly a problem in low-income countries, such as western and eastern sub-Saharan（撒哈拉沙漠以南的）Africa, according to the report. A lack（缺少）of eye care services is one of the main reasons for this.

In southern Asia and other places around the world, there are still some cultural barriers（障碍）when trying to get glasses. In some places, people believe wearing glasses will make one’s eyes worse. In other places, when kids start wearing glasses, their grandparents will say they are for rich people and not for village boys or girls, Public Radio International reported. These beliefs（信仰）and attitudes must change before more kids can get glasses and improve their vision.

The year 2021 was a difficult one for people from Zhengzhou.     44     July 20, when most people were ready to go traveling, shopping or to the movies, a sudden rainstorm in my hometown of Zhengzhou disrupted（打乱）everything. The heavy rain lasted several     45     (day), causing massive floods（洪水）.

When the rain stopped, I went to the community volunteer service station. I wanted to do something to help     46     (that) who suffered from the natural disaster（灾害）. From 2 to 7 pm each day, I loaded（装货）and unloaded supplies（物资）that would be sent to flooded areas with other volunteers. I was     47     (deep) moved as I saw so many people—adults and teens come to volunteer. When everyone     48     (put) on the red vests（背心）and stood together, I could even see the shape of a big Chinese heart.

In 2022, I want to take on more social responsibilities instead of only focusing on my studies. I want to make more contributions（贡献）to my community as a citizen（公民）.

A few years ago, I went through a time of such serious depression（抑郁）that life didn’t seem worth living. It was like always being in     54    , so icy（冰冷的）and cold that the sun would never shine.

Then, I saw green shoots（幼芽）pushing through the freezing（冰冷的）, iron-hard ground. I looked at them every day     55     I felt that if they could come back to life, then so could I.

Those green shoots gave me hope in a way that nothing else did. They     56     me to keep going, even when times were hard.

As spring came, I added more plants until my garden was     57     with color. Life was growing through my hands—gentle, peaceful but, above all,optimistic（乐观的）. If I gave love, it was returned even more than it was worth. I watched my garden grow bigger and bigger.

I could     58     hours gardening（园艺）. My depression is biological（生理性的）. It follows no rules or reason.

Of course, fresh air and exercise help to reduce（减少）depression,     59     for me, gardening is more than that. It represents endurance（忍耐力）, as well as hope. At the end of the first gardening season, I stood     60     a tree. It lived through freezing temperatures and strong winds.

Its leaves dropped until it looked like nothing more than a skeleton（骨架）, but it always came back to life. I learned that although we might face many challenges, hope can help us get through them.

No one wants to be in a life-or-death situation. However, if you are getting into such a dangerous situation, what will you do, fight or flight?

When 13-year-old Joe Rowlands and his dad were in a kayak（皮艇）accident, the brave teenager chose to fight. He not only fought for his own life, but also saved his father’s.

On that day, Joe and his father Paul were out on their kayak off the coast of Anglesey in the UK. Suddenly they noticed that the kayak was starting to fill with water. Then they found out there was a hole in the floor of the boat. Without another choice, Paul turned the boat over. He asked Joe to climb on the top of the kayak so that he could push the boat to an island.

However, the rough（汹涌的） waves made it too hard for Paul to push the boat to land. They had to swim without the boat. Luckily, Joe made his way to the island safely. But when he looked back, he found his dad was no longer swimming. Risking his life, Joe jumped back into the cold water and managed to drag（拽）his dad up onto some rocks. Then Joe did CPR（心肺复苏） on his dad until he came around.

“I know I can never pay him back for saving my life and I’m very proud of him. He acted with courage beyond his years,” Paul said of his son.