One thing my father did when I was young still remains fresh in my memory today.

My father was a carpenter, and he often helped others build houses. Every time he finished building a house, he would pick up the broken bricks and tiles that others didn’t need, either one or two. Sometimes, when walking on the road and seeing bricks or stones on the side of the road, he would pick them up and put them in a basket to take them home. Over time, a mess of bricks appeared in our yard. I can’t figure out the usefulness of the things. I just felt that the small courtyard was left with no room for playing.

Until one day my father started to use these things to build a square room in a corner of the yard. Then my father drove the pigs and sheep that were raised in the open into the small house, and the yard was clean. Our house became the only one with a pig house in the yard in my village.

At that time, I just thought my father was great, and he built a house by himself. Because my family was so poor that it was almost a problem to eat, but my father did not give up, picking up bricks day after day, and finally one day he had enough bricks to build the house in his heart.

In the following days, the spirit of this thing has been inspiring me. When I do something, I usually ask myself two questions: One is what the goal of doing this thing is and the other is how much effort is needed to make this thing happen. After that, I must have enough patience, because I can’t pick up enough bricks in a day.

【推荐3】He was the only gray cub(狼崽) of the she-wolf. The other cubs had red in their hair. He was gray like his father. He was the strongest cub. He showed more anger than his brothers and sisters.

He made more noises.

He was a carnivorous animal. He came of a breed of meat-killers and meat-eaters. His father and mother lived wholly upon meat. In his first months of life, he lived on mother’s milk, which was transformed directly from meat. And now, at a month old, when his eyes had been open for but a week, he was beginning himself to eat meat.   

There came a time when there was no meat. For many days the cubs did not eat. They were too weak and tired to play. One-Eye, the cub’s father, was killed in the fight over food. Even the she-wolf left the cave to find meat, but there was nothing. One by one, the cubs died. Only the she-wolf and the gray cub were left.

One day the gray cub ran out of the cave to hunt for his own food. He met a weasel（黄鼠狼）of his size. The rat-like animal ran at him and bit his throat. He was nearly dead when the she-wolf arrived just in time to kill and eat it.

The gray cub was not good at hunting yet, and still needed food from his mother. One day, the she-wolf brought him a lynx（猞猁）kitten. While eating, he heard great noise. The kitten’s mother had followed the she-wolf here. The she-wolf and the she-lynx started to fight, and they would fight to the death.          The bite was enough to give the she-wolf the chance she needed. The lynx was dead, but the she-wolf was badly hurt. For a week, she did not move. The gray cub had to find food for both of them.

Without his mother to take care of him, he learnt what life was about. Without meat there was no life. Animals had to eat other animals to survive. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN.

(—Taken from White Fang)

【推荐1】The world is a lot greener thanks to a young man named Felix. Ever since he was 9 years old, he has been trying to save the planet. In 2007, the German started an environmental organization called “Plant-for-the-Planet”. It encourages and teaches children from around the world to plant trees. The first tree for Plant-for-the-Planet was planted in Germany in March, 2007.

Since its start, the organization has already made great progress with the help of over 100, 000 children between the ages of 9 and 12. One year after it started, 150, 000 trees had been planted. And four years after it started, it had reached its goal of planting a total of 1 million trees around the world.

Felix once said, “Forests are not only the livelihood（生计）of the people, but for us children, forests are our future. “It called on kids from over 90 countries to join his movement. In 2011, the United Nations handed over its Billion Tree Campaign（亿棵树运动）to Plant-for-the-Planet. The Billion Tree Campaign was encouraged by Wangan from Africa. Her Green Belt Movement planted more than 30 million trees in Africa. In 2017, the Billion Tree Campaign became the Trillion （万亿） Tree Campaign — to plant one trillion trees in the next 30 years. There are about 3 trillion trees alive in the world today. That’s about 50 trees for every person on the Earth.

【推荐2】Sydney Fredette is very busy. Not only is she a high school student, but she has also set up her own organization, Beary Merry Christmas. She volunteers(志愿) to offer services to poor children and families in Orange Country in California, US.

To remember her best friend who died of cancer nearly 10 years ago, Fredette decided to offer services to those in Orange Country who are less lucky than she is.

She began with the easy idea of collecting donated(捐赠) Build-A-Bears, the popular toy animal that is made by children themselves in the stores’ workshops. Fredette then gave them as presents to the homeless children in California during the holiday season.

With donations at more than 100 bears a year, Fredette and volunteers hold activities every year, where volunteers not only give out the bears, but also clothing, meals, and other things.

Not wanting to limit(限制) the giving to just the holiday months, Fredette held other activities for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Halloween, offering the chance to her volunteer team to make a difference through the year.

“I love making friends with the people I offer services to,” Fredette said. “It’s so cool to hear their stories and see how happy they are.”

Fredette even built a public food bank and offered a self-development class to students in her school.

She plans to stay local and continue to help out in her hometown.

【推荐2】A friend advised me not to choose Slovakia though he hadn't been there. Few guidebooks include the country.

However, I decided to take a trip to Eastern Slovakia. I always search for roads that are less traveled.

On the first day, I stayed in a hotel opposite a great church. Around the corner, there was a lively town center. Coffee shops were serving hot chocolate. The dumplings and snacks in restaurants were as delicious as any in Western Europe.

On the second day, I traveled to Spis Castle (城堡). It's about an hour's drive northwest of Kosice. Perhaps you've never heard of the name, but this is one of Central Europe's largest castles. Part of it was built in the 11th century. On the castle, I saw colorful fields, villages with red roofs (屋顶) and green hills. After that, I tried some local food there.

And the best was yet to come. Driving southeast, I arrived in Banska Stiavnica on the last day of my trip. It is a perfectly protected historical town. I went to a concert in a 15th-century church. At the town center, local people were celebrating a traditional festival. There were traditional shows and teaching of making dumplings. It was the most enjoyable moment of my trip.

Old towns, natural beauty, great castles and food—all at affordable prices and with no tourist crowds. Maybe it's time to rewrite the guidebooks.

【推荐3】These days more and more middle school students are smoking. They don’t listen to their teachers, parents or classmates and they smoke anywhere they can’t be seen—on the way to school, in the dormitory(宿舍), or even in the washroom. And most of them think smoking is very cool looking. But I want to tell you my story and you’ll see that it is wrong to smoke at our age. My friends at school smoked and they asked me to have a try. So I started smoking when I was a fourteen-year-old boy and after a month I couldn’t stop. But two years later I felt what smoking was doing harm to me. I couldn’t run far, I coughed every morning, and I got very weak. So I wanted to stop smoking. It wasn’t easy, but now I have stopped it, and I feel better.

If you smoke, you will get ill more easily, and perhaps you can’t grow taller, because there is something bad in cigarettes(香烟) and also you may get some bad behaviors and habits such as stealing(偷盗) and telling lies(谎言).

So you can see smoking is a bad habit. If you smoke, try to stop. Though it isn’t easy, you must do it as soon as possible.