2 . Over the past 15 years, 97-year-old Xia Sen has given most of her money to help students from poor families receive education.

Born in September 1923, Xia joined the Communist Party of China in Yan’an in 1938. She was only 15 years old at the time and then she became a teacher there. A few years later, she worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) until she retired in 1982.

According to Cao Qiizhang, who worked with Xia for more than 30 years, the money she donated comes from her and her husband. “When she was working at CASS, she often told us to keep on reading and learning.” Cao said.

In 2006, she started providing financial (财务) support for students in Danfeng county and Shangyou County. At first, Xia visited Xijie Primary School in Danfeng. The condition of the school made her sad.

After that she borrowed 20000 yuan from friends and bought desks and books for the students She soon took out another 20,000 yuan to reward excellent students at school. In 2008 she donated 200,000 yuan and helped Zhaogou Primary School in Danfeng build a teaching building. Five years later, she used 1 million yuan to set up the “Xia Sen Scholarship” to support high school and college students from poor families in the two counties.

So far, Xia has already helped at least 182 students. Lai Houfang is one of them. Xia’s scholarship supported her in completing a four-year study in college. She’s now a teacher. “I have made up my mind that I will learn from Xia and do my best to help others since the first day I received support from her,” Lai said.

When a kid suffers from     1     illness, parents usually worry more about the treatment, and they hardly think about the kid’s dreams or wishes. Even if they do, they don’t know how to make the dreams and wishes     2    . Luckily, Childream can help with it.

Childream is a charity organization that works to help children and teenagers, aged between 2 and 18, with a serious illness, get their dreams to come true.

    3     years ago, Xu, founder (创立者) of Childream, watched the documentary (纪录片) Batkid Begins. It tells about the day in 2013 that the city of San Francisco turned itself     4     Gotham, the city where Batman the superhero lives, to help a sick boy see his dream come true. “The film     5     the softest and deepest part of my heart and I quickly searched online and found that there were no such organizations in China at that time,” Xu says. He studied how the charity organization in the film worked and in 2016, he     6     his job and set up Childream with his friend.

Childream has volunteered across the country. They try to help as many children as     7     to realize their dreams. Some children want to meet their favourite cartoon character, some want to     8     a day as a police officer or a firefighter, some wish to travel to somewhere... While some wishes are     9     to make true, some need help of thousands of people. No matter what the dreams are, Childream tries its best to make them come true. These dreams and wishes are just like light, which can drive out the     10    , and help these children to see hope and love in their life.

Will, a 16-year-old boy from New York, started a charity activity to fight against food waste in 2022.

Will saw many people on the subway ________ food every day. He felt sorry that he was unable to help them, ________ he didn’t have much money as a student. At the same time, he ________ that a lot of good food was thrown away in school dining hall. To solve the problem of food waste, Will decided to do ________. He invited some classmates to join him. But they didn’t know where and how to start.

________, they got an idea from their history teacher. The teacher ________ them to work with community fridges. There food such as bread, milk and fruit is provided for people in need. So Will and his classmates offered the spare ________ in the school dining hall to the Loisaida Community Fridge. So far, they have donated 3,000 pounds of food to people across the city from ________ school.

“Many families are too poor to ________ basic food, so I want to help them. I hope students in other schools can do the same thing ________ us. There are over 1,700 public schools in New York. If every public school has such an ________, they will be able to give away over a million pounds of food each year,” said Will.

Will is ________ that they can give a helping hand to people in need. With their help, more people can get ________ they need from the community fridges. ________, people can get close to each other when they visit these fridges. “People who have a lot are giving to those who don’t. It’s really ________. I think it’s helpful in building a wonderful society.” added Will.

Have you ever noticed you feel happier after helping someone else? Volunteering isn’t just great for the people you support, and it can bring you happiness too.

Volunteering means that you give your time, energy or skills to help others but don’t expect others to give you anything back. There are more than one billion volunteers helping others all over the world, and there are lots of ways you can join them, including raising money for charity, helping in your local community,or even carrying a neighbour’s shopping goods home.

According to Susan Albers, a psychologist, volunteering can reduce stress and make you feel better about your life. This is because being kind and doing things for other people activates (激活) the reward part of the brain and releases (释放) feel good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. Albers says that volunteering has other benefits (益处) too, such as feeling part of a community, making friends and learning skills.

There are lots of ways you can volunteer. Albers recommends finding something that is meaningful to you. If you love sports, say, then ask if your club needs help like coaching younger players. If you’re passionate about protecting the environment, organize a litter pick or beach clean. You could also ask at your local library, community center or school for volunteering opportunities (机会). Before you start, remember to make sure you check with your parents. What’s more, Albers says volunteering is an activity that everyone can do. You needn’t have a lot of skills or spend much time.”

Title: Volunteering