4 . British schoolgirl Lowri Moore is just 13 years old. But she has done a lot for other kids who wear glasses like her. She’s worked to make them feel more included.

She says many people believe that children being stigmatized (被歧视) for wearing glasses is a thing of the past. But she thinks many children don’t want to wear their glasses because they’re afraid of looking “different or uncool.” Study also shows children with glasses are over 35 percent more likely (可能的) to be hated at school.

When she was 9 years old, she wrote a letter to the Disney. Lowri asked Disney to show more characters (人物) with glasses in its movies. This got Disney to make its first hero that wore glasses. Two years later, the movie “Encanto” came out. And it had the glasses-wearing character Mirabel Madrigal. Jared Bush is the director of “Encanto”. He said the schoolgirl’s letter gave him the idea to make such a glasses-wearing character. The director also said he had wanted to let her know much earlier, but had to keep it secret until the movie was on.

Now, Lowri has a new project. It is about letting people put glasses on emojis (表情包). Instead of writing something out, people use an emoji. Many emojis are cartoon faces.

Lowri’s mom gave her the idea for her new project. She wanted to find an emoji that looked like Lowri. She only found three emojis with glasses. They were a nerd (书呆子), a teacher and a grandma. These emojis made it look like wearing glasses isn’t for kids or isn’t very cool.

Many kids don’t want to wear glasses, Lowri said. They may think they look nerdy. “But if you need glasses to see, you need to wear them. If you can’t see, you won’t be able to learn,” she said.

Now Lowri has written a letter to the Unicode Consortium, a group in charge of (负责) all new emojis. She asked the group to design more emojis with glasses.

Earlier this year, she got an award (奖) from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) because of her project. Jessica Thompson who works for the IAPB said Lowri has worked hard to show how important it is for kids to wear glasses if they need them. If they don’t wear glasses, they can get eye problems. Also, glasses help kids do well in school. “If you try hard to see, you try hard to learn,” Thompson said.

5 . This year, I really wanted a special birthday so I told my family that I didn’t want anything for my birthday. Instead, I ________ them to think of a way to share ________ in their world for me. In the end, my husband and my daughter did something different, but ________.

A few days before my birthday my husband went to a restaurant and told a waiter that he wanted to ________ pay for the dinner of a family. The waiter was ________ and said he has been working there for three years and this had never _________. When the family finished eating, the waiter told them their ________ had been paid. The mom looked happy and the dad stood up, trying to ________ who might have done it, but my husband was outside ________ the whole thing. He told me he had such a wonderful ________ in his heart and he would like to ________ it a few more times.

My daughter ________ the week smiling more at people, and letting someone stand before her when waiting in a line. She just took the time during my birthday week to slow down and be ________ and kind to a stranger and her friends.

When we finally all got together for my birthday, everyone was in tears as each person ________ what they had done. As you can see, it was the ________ birthday ever!

6 . Kang Yu graduated from Renmin University of China in Beijing in 2015. One month before graduation, Kang decided to teach at a middle school at Mangshui Township, in Yunnan’s Baoshan City. Many of the students at the school were “left-behind” children, whose parents worked and lived in large cities. They were looked after by their grandparents. Kang found that her students needed a way to express their feelings. So she decided to teach the students how to write poems. The school held eight poetry classes for students every year, two every season. As the classes grew in popularity, Kang became the school’s favorite teacher.

In 2017 Kang finished teaching at the school and returned to Beijing. On Teacher’s Day that year, Kang received a gift—a big box full of poems and letters written by students at her old school.

One read, “I want to make a wish. I hope more children can find out who they are by writing poems, just like I did.”

Kang said, “It made me realize the importance of writing poems to the students. I cannot leave them.” So she gave up her plan to study abroad. Instead, she started Enlighten Our Future, a charity (慈善组织) that teaches students in the countryside how to write poems.

In less than two years, the organization has provided poetry classes for more than 50,000 students at 609 primary and middle schools in Yunnan, Shandong and Henan.

“Although the job is tiring and provides no vacations and little pay, the happiness and satisfaction I feel is rewarding (值得做的) enough.” Kang said.

7 . An American high school principal (校长) goes to work at Walmart (沃尔玛) near his school on weekends. The principal’s name is Henry Darby. He works there from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Because he knows many students in his school are poor (贫穷的) and they really need help. So he decides (决定) to help the poor students and their families.

One night, one of his students met (遇见) him at the supermarket. And many students then know his good act (善举). They are moved and some of them join (加入) him and start working at Walmart, too.

After hearing Darby’s story, many people raise (筹集) some money. Mr. Darby was very happy. With the money, he can help more students.

“I will keep on (继续) working at Walmart,” Darby said. “And I hope my students can learn the spirit(精神) of helpfulness.”

Captain Sir Thomas Moore (April 30, 1920 — February 2, 2021), more popularly known as Captain Tom, was a British Army officer and fundraiser who made international headlines in 2020 when he raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic. The English army captain raised a large amount of money for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) by walking in his garden. He also raised a lot of excitement and good feelings.

Captain Tom had been very impressed by the efforts of the health care workers of the NHS. They risked their lives to help patients with COVID-19. So he decided to raise money to support them by walking around his garden. At first, his plan was just to complete 100 laps. He hoped to raise $1,000. In less than 24 hours, he had reached his goal. Shocked by his success, the captain set a new goal of raising $100,000 by his 100th birthday.

Interest in his efforts grew quickly as people learned about the project. By the time the captain finished his 100th lap, $14 million had been raised. Things didn’t stop there. Captain Tom promised to keep walking as long as people would keep giving money, and people kept giving money.

Though his age was a part of what made Captain Tom successful, his positive messages really brought hope to many people. “Remember, tomorrow is a good day,” he said.

Captain Tom had the Guinness World Record — the most money raised by an individual (个人) through a charity walk. He raised $29 million. Captain Tom became so popular in the UK that he got over 125,000 birthday cards. The Royal Mail was even humoring Captain Tom by putting a special postmark on all letters in the UK.