1 . The Canadian teenager Auldin Maxwell broke two of the Guinness World Records for stacking Jenga blocks (堆积木). He stacked 1, 840 standard-sized Jenga pieces on top of just one block and also stacked 900 really large ones on a single block.

Auldin, who has autism (孤独症), first discovered his talent by chance. “I have always liked balancing things and, as a baby, I used to stack anything like books and toys,” he told CBC News.

Although he has a natural talent for stacking the blocks, he did come up with different patterns through hard work to balance out the tower.

The most difficult part of stacking the Jenga blocks was forming a strong base to make sure the stacked blocks did not fall over. Once he was halfway through, it became much easier to put the blocks together.

Auldin’s favorite thing about Jenga blocks is their versatility (多功能性). He doesn’t just see them as blocks in a game, but as tools that can be used for building all kinds of things. “For me, it’s a big challenge, and using them really develops my creativity!” he said.

His secret to building such towers is about three hours of focused attention. “When I’m doing it, I don’t think about anything,” he said. He would get ready for each try by preparing with fun activities like riding his bike or listening to music in the mind, which helps him focus attention better.

Now, Auldin has his eyes set on breaking another record—although this time, it has nothing to do with Jenga. “I want to solve the most Rubik’s Cubes (魔方) while on my cycle,” he told CBC News.

2 . Back in New York, I am fighting fires as the assistant captain (副队长) of a volunteer fire company.

I still remember my first fire. I was the second volunteer on the scene (现场). The captain was talking with the homeowner, who was surely having one of the worst days of her life. At midnight, she was standing outside in the heavy rain, under an umbrella, barefoot (赤脚的), while her house was in flames (在燃烧中). The other volunteer, who had arrived just before me, was asked to go inside and save the homeowner’s dog. The captain then waved (招手) me over. He said, “Bezos, I need you to go upstairs past the fire, and get this woman a pair of shoes.” So, not exactly what I was hoping for, but off I went up the stairs, down the hall, past the “real” firefighters, who were pretty much done putting out the fire at this point, into the bedroom to get a pair of shoes.

Now I know what you’re thinking, but I’m no hero. (Laughter) I carried the shoes downstairs where I met the other volunteer with the valuable dog. We took our treasures outside to the homeowner, where, not surprisingly, his received much more attention than mine.

A few weeks later, the company received a letter from the homeowner thanking us for saving her home. The act of kindness she noted above all others was that someone had even gotten her a pair of shoes.

Here, I would offer this reminder: don’t wait. Don’t wait until you make your first million to make a difference in somebody’s life. If you have something to give, give it now.

Not every day is going to offer us a chance to save somebody’s life, but every day offers us an opportunity to affect (影响) one. So get in the game. Save the shoes.

3 . For 16-year-old Ma Yifei, the violin performance of the Beijing 2022 Olympic theme song, Snowflake, was her best present for Paralympians (残奥运动员) all over the world. Even though snowflakes are related to winter, she let others feel warmth, hope and light through her performance. “I’m also disabled and I want to do something for them with my music,” said Ma.

Ma went blind at the age of two because of an illness. She became interested in music when she was young. She started to learn to play the piano at five and the violin at nine, experiencing the “colorful” music through sound and emotion.

Ma’s mother Ha Chunyan, a former music teacher in a primary school, helped her memorize the music score (乐谱) before she played the piano. Ma could not see the keys and always played the wrong notes. It took her thousands of tries to play a piece correctly.

Learning the violin was more challenging. Ma needed to feel the teacher’s hands, arms and back to learn the movements, and listen to the strings (弦) over and over again to feel the muscles (肌肉) herself.

“After three years of learning, she still could not make any sound except terrible noises,” said Ha, who advised her daughter to give up the violin. But Ma said, “As I’ve been practicing so long, it’s hard to give up. I believe I will play better if I persist in practicing.”

In 2018, Ma got a chance to follow Sheng Yuan and Cao Yuhan, famous musicians from the Central Conservatory of Musie, to study music in Beijing. She left her home in Ningxia to follow her musical dream, though she knew there would be more challenges ahead.

Ma expressed her excitement about performing at the big event. “All my hard work has paid off. I’m proud of standing on the stage today.”

4 .

Ghaffar Pourazar, a British man, has learned the necessary skills to perform Beijing Opera and he has become popular with his lively performance of the Monkey King.

Born in Iran, Ghaffar has been a big fan of Chinese culture since he was a child. And he is interested in China.

In 1993, he happened to watch Beijing Opera performed in London by professionals from Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing. Ghaffar fell in love with the beautiful voices, colorful costumes, excellent shows and so on. So after a year, he arrived in China alone and became a student of Beijing Opera at a school in Beijing.

At the age of 32, he had to learn with teenage students every day, starting from the most basic training of the legs and waist. At that time, he was mostly troubled by the dialogue in Beijing Opera. To him, it was the biggest problem. But he never gave up.

Four years later, he began to learn to perform the Monkey King, a traditional character from the Chinese classic story Journey to the West. He usually arrived at the workroom an hour earlier than the other performers and he also bought books and CDs to understand the character better.

Ghaffar is not only good at speaking Beijing dialect (方言) but also has won the world reputation for Beijing Opera. He once won a top international prize for performing the Monkey King.

To help more people enjoy Beijing Opera, Ghaffar often teaches the traditional art form in schools in the United States, Britain and other countries. When he found that the language was difficult to understand, he started to translate the lyrics of Beijing Opera. Ghaffar led a group of actors to perform 66 times in a month and a half in the United States. He also led a 48-member team to perform in Malaysia. In the past 10 years, he has performed in more than 400 shows.

5 . Zac and I were always best friends. We both started playing football from an early age. Zac was bigger than me and it was difficult to score a goal when he was in front of me. I was faster, though. Once I got past him, he couldn’t catch me.

There were two under-17 teams. The first team was the Springtown Stars. They played the most important games. The other was the Springtown Asteroids. They were also a good team but not as good as the Stars. Zac and I were proud to be in the Stars!

It was time for the coach to name the team for the season. Zac’s name was called out but mine wasn’t. I went to check the list on the board. I could hardly believe my eyes! How could the coach make such a mistake? I was as good as Zac. What pain I felt! I lost my place in the Stars. After that, I had to practise with the Asteroids but I didn’t enjoy it. I played so well, yet no one understood this. I began to despise (鄙视) Zac and the coach. However, one Saturday, I watched the Stars play against another team. I thought they wouldn’t play well without me, but I was wrong. I began to see that they had great teamwork and skills. Zac was especially good. He had worked harder than me and was much better now. Perhaps I was not as good as I had thought. As he left the field, I gave him a big high five, “Zac, you are great! I will be back to the Stars next season.”

9 . Four beggars (乞丐)usually met at an old house at the end of the day. One day, they were very upset because none of them got much in their begging bowls.

“I only got this piece of meat today,” the first beggar said. The second beggar just picked up few vegetables outside the vegetable store. The third one said that all he had was a handful of herbs (一把香草) but he couldn’t eat them. The fourth beggar only got some dried beans.

As they sat around the fire, one of them had a great idea. “Let’s put all these things together and boil them. In this way, we can make a delicious dish and share it.” They all agreed.

However, the first beggar thought, “I don’t want to share. I’ll just pretend (假装) to throw my meat into the pot. They’ll never know and I’ll eat my meat later.” So he did it. The other beggars had the same idea and the house was so dim that no one could see what the others were doing.

Finally, when the dish was ready, each of them got a bowl in turn. They drank the hot water quietly, learning that selfishness (自私) didn’t taste that good.

10 . Being disabled doesn’t stop Guilhem Gallart, a French musician, from making music. For many years, he was a successful record producer and recording artist. He was known as “Pone” and helped spread hip hop in France in the 1990s and early 2000s, creating many popular songs with his music group Fonky Family.

In 2015, Pone was told to have ALS. ALS is an illness that can influence the ability to move, speak, eat and even breathe. There’s no medicine that works for ALs at present. Because of it, Pone has to depend on a machine to breathe, and can’t move any of his body parts except his eyes.

But technology has given Gallart new possibilities. With the help of the certain software (软件), his eye movements are tracked (跟踪), and as a result, he is able to write.

“I have once again discovered Pone that I knew before,” said his wife Wahiba. “And even stronger than he was before.”

The effort has resulted in a album (专辑), Listen and Donate, which came out in June, 2021. With this album, Pone hoped to raise money for the organization called Trakadom. The charity (慈善机构) was set up by him with two doctors. Its goal is to train more care takers and help patients to receive care at home. “Talking about this with my doctors, nurses and care takers, I found that they weren’t trained well enough, and that many of them wanted the chance. So Trakadom was born,” he said.

“If there’s a message in my story, it’s that anything is possible,” said Pone.