It was one of the hottest summers in     1     in the state of Victoria, Australia. Bush fires were burning very     2     to people’s homes and they were in danger. In every town, volunteers were fighting the fires. David Tree was one of these     3     firefighters.

One day, Mr. Tree was working with his team near his home town of Mirboo. They were fighting a bush fire. They were     4     up Samson Road when Mr. Tree saw a koala. It was walking across the burned ground, and it didn’t look happy. There’s a koala, stop the truck. Mr. Tree shouted and jumped out “I videoed the koala for my daughter Cheyenne and shouted for a bottle of water.”

Firefighter Mark Pardew took the photo while the koala was drinking from a bottle. “Koalas are     5     friendly to people but this one took David’s hand,” said Mr. Pardew. “She was     6     tired and thirsty.”

A friend took the     7     animal to a wildlife centre. At the centre, they named her Sam after Samson Road.

Later Mr. Pardew emailed the photo to friends and someone sent it to the     8     newspaper. From there it went around the world and David Tree became a celebrity.

Bush fires=fast and dangeous fires that happen in the countryside in Australia.

Adapted from the Guardian newspaper

2 . Vision of Hope

Molly Burke was not born blind. She started losing her sight when she was four years old. Doctors said that she had a rare eye disease that would gradually take away her vision. In her first grade, she learned to read Braille (the language used for the blind), although she could still see.

By age 14, Molly was completely blind. What’s worse, a group of girls who were once her friends started bullying her. Eventually, Molly became disappointed and depressed. Her high school years were not easy.

After she finished high school, Molly wanted to do something that would help others. Then she found out about Me to We, an organization that runs international volunteer trips and leadership camps. Molly knew what she wanted to do next - to help inspire people by being a speaker at Me to We.

Molly began speaking at schools all over the USA and Canada about bullying. Her advice? Be strong! During a speech in Toronto, she spoke to about 20,000 people. After her speech, the crowd stood up and clapped. “Molly has a real ability to inspire people and to help others,” her father says.

In 2014, Molly started her own channel on social media, uploading things like makeup video blogs, or vlogs. As of 2019, she has close to two million followers, some of whom don’t even know she’s blind. She tries to be a role model for young people but is realistic about what she can and can’t do. She even makes fun of the challenges she faces as a blind person - like sharing a video that she once bit into a lemon, thinking it was a potato.

“How can you hold somebody like that back?” says Molly’s mother. “She’s unstoppable”.

There is a river between a small village and the village school in a town of Hainan Province, but no bridge over the river there. Two teachers of the village school insist on carrying the children on their backs across the river to go to school. The 54-year-old teacher, Wang Wenzhou is also the headmaster of the village school. The other teacher, Wang Shengchao, is 45 years old. Both the two teachers have been doing this for many years day after day. The river is about twenty metres wide.

Wang Shengchao said that his father carried him across the river when he was young. Now he does the same thing as his father did. He will carry little children on his back across the river if their parents can not send them to school. Many parents are thankful to them for their good manners. The life in this village school is very hard. Many teachers left the school because of the hard conditions (条件). In September it rained heavily every day so the river became very deep. Children could not go to school during that time. They had been back and forth between the school and the river.

They hope that the local government can build a bridge over the river so that they can go to school easily. But one of the officials said they had not enough money to build such a bridge because it would cost one million yuan. Who can help them?

My neighbor, Mrs Lee, hurt her back recently so I spent this afternoon helping her tidy up. Afterwards, she offered me some soya milk. I noticed that its packaging was very fashionable and a    1    . “Thanks, Mrs Lee. Can you tell me where you got it?” I asked. “Oh, it’s from farmfresh330,” she replied with a smile. “I like helping people in need.”

Some days later, I googled farmfresh330 to find out more. It is a food shop that opened in 2011 as a social company. Like charities, social companies help with social problems like poverty. However, unlike charities, they don’t rely on donations(募捐) . I    2    , they sell products to support themselves. The p    3     of farmfresh330 is to offer training and jobs to people recovering from mental illnesses such as depression.

At farmfresh330, you can buy organic fruits and vegetables. These are p    4     by Hong Kong’s New Life Farm, another social company helping people with mental health problems. They sell lots of other things, too. In the website photos, there’re many great products to c    5     from such as watermelon-flavoured coconut milk and lemongrass tea. Someday I’d like to visit one of farmfresh330’s shops. They look very welcoming, with wooden shelves, warm lighting, and friendly blackboard m    6     telling customers about new products.

After googling the web, I discovered a lot of other social companies in Hong Kong. I’m planning to visit them soon. I think it’s going to be f    7     to support Hong Kong’s social companies.

How will geography affect your life? For some children around the world, the environment they grow up in has a huge effect on their lives. This is the case in Madagascar, an island country in Africa, where a 3D-printed school is now being built.

Maggie Grout was just 15 years old when she set up a non-profit organization-Thinking Huts. Now 22, she is raising money to build a series of 3D-printed school powered by solar energy. She led the whole process from start to finish, working with university professors. They chose Madagascar because it needs more schools. Many children in that country don’t have the chance to have access to education. Besides, it has a lot of sunshine, which can be made into energy to power things.

Maggie then drew a design for the school. She thought about what the people might need and where they worked best.

Next, Maggie found an architect and 3D printing company for the job. To make it environmentally friendly, they use a special 3D printer to build the school. It meant up to 50 percent less concrete (混凝土) used and less CO2. Plus, the school could be completed in just a week. They also used local materials to build the doors, windows and roof.

What’s more, Thinking Huts trained local workers to use a 3D printer so that they could build more schools on their own in the future. Maggie plans to print more new schools in other parts of Madagascar because one in five children don’t have the chance to attend primary school there.

So far, Grouts charity has already raised $125,000. “It’s not so bad to me! Of course, we need more.” Maggie told Spring wise website.