My family had only recently moved into a new neighborhood. All of my neighbors have been very friendly and helpful since we moved in.

However, Mrs Davis, an elderly lady living in the last house on the other side of the road, escaped associating with us, or anyone else. When I asked around the neighborhood why, they warned me not to go after her because they thought she was insane (精神失常的) and preferred staying alone after losing her husband and only daughter in an aircraft crash. After that, she stayed isolated (孤立的) from all the neighbors, refusing all the care and help.

I often saw her on the streets during the evening, but she was always by herself. She appeared weak and I always wanted to help her, but after hearing what my neighbors had said about her, I wasn’t sure whether I should.

One day, when I was on my way to the supermarket, our paths crossed. I was walking past her and overheard her singing a tune. It immediately drew my attention because my parents used to sing the same song with me. I began to sing along with her, and she smiled at me for the first time. But when I smiled back, she quickly hurried her pace and went home.

She seemed very different to me that day. I refused to trust my neighbors’ claims that she had cut herself off from the rest of society because she was insane, so the next day, I knocked on her door. Mrs Davis was home, and instead of letting me in, she just looked at me silently through the window. I noticed her staring at me and was about to walk to the window when she quickly closed the curtains.

The next day, I revisited her house. “Hello, I brought you something,” I called out to her. “It’s the record of the music you were singing yesterday.”

The door opened and Mrs Davis’ eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me standing there.

Several days later in the morning, the doorbell rang at my house.

Greg sat on the driveway of his home and rolled his papers for delivery on Monday afternoon. The shouts of his friends playing soccer in the schoolyard across the street caught his attention. He watched his neighbor, John, kick the ball into the goal and shouts of excitement came from his teammates.

Greg sighed and eagerly looked at the group. He would love to be able to play soccer too. But he had to deliver newspapers every afternoon. He didn’t have enough time to play soccer.

He thought about his paper route. It had been necessary after his father suddenly lost his job. Greg saw his parents struggling to meet their bills. His mother had to go to work while his father looked for another job. Greg knew there must be some small way he could help. His friend Mark had a paper route, and Greg decided that he could get a paper route to help his parents too.

One day, immediately he finished delivering papers to his subscribers (订户), he cycled home. He met John with his soccer ball in the Anderson’s driveway.

“Hi, Greg. We sure miss you on our team. Wish it were the good old days when you were our goalie (守门员),” said John. Greg shook his head and replied, “I just can’t do that now.”

On Tuesday, Greg stopped at the soccer field before he began his paper deliveries. John and his other friends were just beginning a game. John called out to him, “Hey, Greg. Come play a quick game with us.”

Just as Greg started to say no, the soccer ball went out of play and rolled to a stop by his feet. He picked it up and tossed (抛) it back to Tim who was playing goalie. Tim caught it and stepped aside. “I have to go home, Greg,” he said. “The goal is all yours.”

When I was seven years old, my family moved from Mexico to America. In Mexico, I was a cheerful girl who loved making people laugh with my jokes and inventing fun games to play with my friends. However, when I arrived in America, I found it hard to fit in, and I became quieter.

We lived in a small house with a modest yard where we grew vegetables—my responsibility. While I took pride in watching them grow, there were times when I dreamed of having a beautiful garden like my schoolmate Luella’s, with its delicate tulips (郁金香). Although Luella lived in the same neighborhood as me, we barely knew each other.

It was after a tornado that Luella and I finally became close friends.

The tornado struck on a Sunday afternoon.The gentle breeze transformed into a strong wind, and thick gray clouds filled the sky. Gradually, the tornado took shape, starting as a thin rope and growing into a large black funnel (漏斗). My entire family gathered in the bathroom, seeking shelter from the storm. Terrified, I sat close to my mom, knees in my chest. After the storm had passed, our worries and fears were replaced by relief that we were unharmed and that our house had remained undamaged.

As I stepped outside, I witnessed the extent of the damage the tornado had caused to our neighborhood. Across the street, a tall tree had fallen, crushing Luella’s garden in front of her yellow house. We hurried over to check on it. Fortunately, her family seemed to be away at the time, and no one was injured. However, her once-beautiful garden was in ruins, with the fallen tree destroying the tulips and debris (碎片) spread everywhere. I could only imagine how heartbroken they must feel seeing this.

Then my mom’s usual words rang in my ear, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and my family started to think about how we could help.

Just at that moment, Luella’s family returned in their car.

Even after the debris was cleared, I could still sense Luella’s sorrow for her lost garden.

“And that’s ‘The Ray of Hope’ for you!” Asta said as she ended her book review. She took a deep bow and was given thundering applause. I, too, gave applause. I was happy for my friend. Well, I was pretending to be happy for her. Deep down inside, I was rather feeling envious of Asta. She was always the one who makes speeches, debates and tells stories to others. Me? No! I had stage fright and was always the shy, quiet one who was never courageous to speak in front of others. I had never managed to do a presentation without stammering(结巴). Every time I saw someone making a speech, I would imagine myself in his or her place, receiving the applause and praise.

I was walking to the canteen with Asta. She, as usual, was looking at the script. She had been chosen to be the presenter for the National Day Celebration. I sighed to myself. Why could I not be like her, always loud and brave? If only there was a way to prove myself...

Just then, I caught a glimpse of a poster on the noticeboard.

“Minute to say it?” I read the poster out loud.

It was a competition where one has to prepare a speech about a particular topic and summarize it on the stage within one minute. This could be my big chance to overcome my stage fright! And the best part was, if I won the competition, I would receive a mini-trophy (小奖杯).

Without thinking twice, I grabbed a form and filled in it. I took a seat in the canteen with Asta and told her what I had done, after which she said that she had also signed up for the competition. Suddenly, regret hit me like a 20-pound hammer. I was competing against Asta who was the best speaker in the school! I was bound to lose! Why was I so ill-fated? I just wanted a chance to prove myself that I could overcome my stage fright.

The big day finally arrived.

Next, it was Asta’s turn.

A boy called Jamy always arrived home hungry every day and his parents couldn’t figure out why, despite making meals for him. When Jamy wouldn’t share what was going on, his parents decided to visit the school principal (校长), hoping the principal could offer some insight.

After talking with Jamy’s classmates, the principal and his parents heard a story they weren’t expecting. Although Jamy never talked about it, his classmates told them that he always came to school without food. The principal and his parents were shocked. No wonder Jamy was always so hungry after school! Was there something happening on the way to school that Jamy didn’t tell them?

To make the situation clear, the principal asked Jamy’s teacher, Callum to talk to Jamy in private. During the conversation with the teacher, Jamy refused to say any further details about the situation, leaving everyone frustrated and helpless. And despite multiple questioning, Jamy still refused to say any knowledge of the situation. This left the principal with no evidence to take any action regarding the missing lunch of Jamy.

Jamy’s parents were becoming increasingly concerned as their child continued to come home from school without saying a word. Despite their meeting in the school, they thought that they hadn’t gotten any closer to uncovering the truth about why Jamy was always so hungry. The lack of communication from their child only added to their frustration and helplessness. They knew they needed to take action, but they had no idea where to start.

Determined to get to the bottom of the problem, Jamy’s father decided to take action again. The next day, Jamy’s father went to school and requested to speak with Jamy’s teacher Callum.

When Jamy’s father reached the school, Callum spoke with him and patiently answered all of his questions. However, despite a deep conversation between them, no conclusion could be reached, which still puzzled Jamy’s parents.

One sunny afternoon, I was playing in the backyard when I noticed a beautiful shiny piece of paper lying on the table. It was leftover aluminum foil (锡纸) from a package my mum had opened. I picked it up and was immediately attracted by its sparkling appearance. Curiosity got the best of me, and I couldn’t help but ask my dad about it.

“Dad, what is this paper called? It’s so shiny and beautiful!” I inquired, holding the aluminum foil up for him to see.

My dad chuckled and replied, “That’s. called aluminum foil, and it has many uses.”

Naturally, my curiosity was piqued (激发), and I eagerly asked, “What can it be used for?”

My dad smiled and said, “Why don’t you research it yourself? It’ll be a great opportunity for you to learn something new. ”

With a sense of excitement, I grabbed my phone and started researching on the Internet. I found out that it is a type of metal paper called aluminum foil, which is moisture-proof(防潮的). As I looked through the information, an idea popped into my head. What if I put some water in a small aluminum foil container and heated it in the microwave? Would the water boil?

Unable to resist the urge to experiment, I cut a piece of aluminum foil and folded it into a small square container. I added some water into the container and placed it in the microwave. With my eyes wide open, I anxiously watched the aluminum foil container, filled with anticipation. But before I could see any changes in the water, suddenly a burst of fire erupted from the microwave, surprising me. I quickly rushed to unplug the appliance and collapsed onto the floor, feeling a great fear.

With my youngest, 11, it’s Tik Tok and FaceTime with her friends. With my middle one, 14, it’s SnapChat with his classmates. And with my eldest, 18, it’s Tinder with, well, God only knows.

What I do know, is that my kids’ reliance on their mobile phones is becoming pathological (病态的). They all wander around the house with smart phones permanently in their hands.

They walk in and out of the toilet staring at the screen, they come down to dinner staring at the screen and only put it down because they can’t feed themselves using the screen. God knows what their screen time weekly report notifications would read.

However, one house rule that I managed to enforce was that they weren’t allowed their phones in their rooms overnight and there was a bed time phone amnesty (赦免) in place where they would all, very reluctantly, hand over their device for overnight charging.

Now, I must confess that, occasionally, I “forgot” to charge one of the phones, so that at least I would get one of them to be a little more present the following morning at breakfast and I might hear something about their upcoming day, rather than being completely ignored.

I never forgot to charge the same phone twice in one week and so no one seemed to get wise to my tricks, however this emboldened me to take my cheating to new levels.

Any phone left unguarded would be quickly kidnapped and whisked away to an undisclosed location, only to mysteriously reappear when I deemed that its owner had engaged with the real world for a sufficient amount of time.

Then one night in February, it happened. A big storm hit our rural village and we had a power cut. “Dad!” They screamed, ignorant of the sudden lack of light and heat and only concerned with the sudden lack of Wi-Fi. It began to dawn on them that they were faced with the living hell of being off line and off their phones for an amount of time.

What followed was a peaceful period without the addiction to their phones.

And so I tried it a few weekends later to see what the reaction might be.