【推荐3】Clark can often be found sitting in front of a building at his university, for a few hours at a time. He always holds up a handmade poster that reads “Free Listening”.

Rana is a student at the same university. One day, she decided to sit down and talk to Clark. She said later that she feels relaxed every time she talks to Clark. Now they have been good friends.

Clark is 27 years old this year. He has been doing this for about two years.“I believe that listening plays an important role in our life,” he said. When someone talks to Clark, he lets them decide what to talk about. Conversations can be light or serious. Sometimes, people just want to talk about what they make for dinner. Other times, conversations are serious. The person might be emotional or stressed. Whatever they want to talk about, it does good to them, he said. Listeners can also learn more about things outside themselves in this way.

Andrew Wolf is a professor at the university. He encourages what Clark is doing. Wolf said that listening helps people deal with their challenges that they are going through.

The Boy Made It!

One Sunday, Nicholas, a teenager, went skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In the early afternoon, when he was planning to go home, a strong snowstorm swept into the area. Unable to see far, he turned off the path by accident. Before he knew it, Nicholas was lost, all alone! He didn’t have food, water, a phone, or other supplies. He was getting colder by the minute.

Nicholas didn’t know where he was. He tried to keep calm. He thought about all of the survival shows he had watched on TV. It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.

He decided to stop skiing. There was a better chance of someone finding him if he stayed put. The first thing he did was to find a shelter(遮盖物)from the freezing wind and snow so his body temperature wouldn’t get very low to kill him.

Using his skis, Nicholas built a snow cave. He gathered a huge mass of snow and dug out a hole in the middle. Then he put branches on himself, like a blanket, to stay as warm as he could.

By that evening, Nicholas was really hungry. He ate snow and drank water from a nearby stream so his body wouldn’t lose too much water. Not knowing how long he could last, Nicholas did the only thing he could — he huddled (蜷缩) in his cave and slept.

The next day, Nicholas went out to look for help but found nobody. He returned to the snow cave - without shelter, he could die that night. On Tuesday, Nicholas went out again to find help. He had walked for about a mile when a volunteer searcher found him. After two days stuck in the snow, Nicholas was saved.

Nicholas might not have survived had it not been for TV. He had often watched Grylls’ survival show Man vs. Wild. That’s where he learned the tips saved his life. In each episode (一期节目) of Man vs. Wild, Grylls is left in a wild area and has to find his way out.

When Grylls heard about Nicholas’ amazing story, he was surprised that Nicholas had made it since he knew better than anyone how hard Nicholas had to work to stay alive.

My life used to be terrible. I didn’t get into the swim team and I had to wait another year to try out again. What was more, I was taking some difficult classes this year, and my best friend moved away.

Dad knew I was feeling pressure and upset. He sat next to me and asked me to help him make bread. In the kitchen, Dad gave me one apron(围裙). Next, Dad took out his mixing bowl and a pair of chopsticks, and told me to stir the things in it. After making a dough(面团), Dad told me to use my hand to push the dough ①       five minutes. Next came the most difficult and surprising part—doing nothing. We waited for more than an hour for the dough to slowly double in size. Then we pushed the dough again, divided it into two parts. After that, we put the dough into pans and waited another hour for the dough to rise and double for the last time. Dad said,“It’s hard not to put the dough directly into the oven, but if you do, the bread will be small and hard.”

②      we waited, we sat and talked. The dough was going to rise at its own speed. We could do nothing to make it rise faster. As I accepted that, I stopped watching the clock and playing with my fingers on the tabletop. I started enjoying the quiet time with Dad. I learned to relax and let the bread rise.