【推荐1】Do you want to be a volunteer (志愿者)? Your helping hands can make others and yourself happy. Here are some young people’s stories.

Andy, 18: I like looking after animals. I have two dogs and a cat at home. This summer, I will work in an animal center with my friend, Linda. I want to make friends with more animals.

Steve, 16: Some children in a center have difficulty in reading. They need our help. I’ll work for the center this summer. Every day, I’ll go there to read books to the children. I love children and reading. I want to be a teacher when I grow up.

Angela, 17: I often go to a forest park with my parents on the weekend. I find there are not enough paths (小路) there. I will help make new paths this summer. It will take seven days, so I’ll live in the forest park. I can work with my friends in the daytime and then sleep under the moon in the evening.

【推荐3】

【推荐1】Have you ever looked up at the stars and wondered if one of them might be a spaceship? Have you ever wondered if aliens might be real and on the earth?

In the summer of 2022, a missing photo from the 1990s showed up again in the U.S. It got people talking. It was a photo of a UFO. There are lots of these kinds of photos, where a strange shape or a so-called “flying saucer (飞碟)” can be seen.

This got me thinking about growing up as a child in the U.K. in the 1990s. Then, everyone seemed to be talking about “aliens” and “UFOs”. It was strange. We used to watch the alien movie, E.T. They were all about conspiracy theories (阴谋论) and they talked about UFOs and human beings taken away by aliens. My older brother knew I was scared and he’d play tricks on me. “Look up at the sky. There’s a UFO.” He’d say. “The aliens are going to get you.” Now I know these were just silly stories. But back then they seemed so real and scary.

【推荐2】My dad bought me a new car when I was 17, but the real gift was what he taught me about life through this car. Every month, on the first day, he asked me to pay him $ 150 if I wanted to drive my car. If I didn’t pay, I couldn’t own the title (所有权) of the car. My dad was a successful trader. To a 17-year-old student who only had a part-time weekend job, $ 150 was more than I usually made every month. I had to work harder. Although I was unhappy about my father’s request, I always tried to give him $ 150 on the first of each month, and did so for two years.

The day I graduated from high school my dad asked me to his office. “Kevin,” he gave me a white box and said, “Here’s your graduation gift. In fact, this is a gift you gave yourself.” I opened the box carefully, and almost started crying when I found he gave me $ 3600! It was 24 car payment that he had saved for the last two years. By making me pay him every month, he was teaching me how to be responsible.

From years later he gave me the title of the car as my college graduation gift.