Yours,

Li Hua

7 . Just Being There

Mark and Ivan ran from the school bus to Mark's house. They had both tried out for the school soccer team, and the _________ were supposed to be online by now. Dropping their backpacks in the front hall， the boys raced to the _________.Mark logged(登录) into the school website. The list was up! Finding his _________， Mark was overjoyed. “Our suffering is over.”he said.

Ivan didn't_________, though. Mark turned to look at him. Ivan had a(n)_________ expression on his face. Mark turned back to the computer and read every name on the list,_________ for Ivan's name.

Mark felt as if he had been hit in the stomach. “This isn't _________，”he shouted. Ivan just sighed(叹气) .

“Let's talk to the coaches. Maybe they'll give you another _________,”Mark insisted.

Ivan just _________ his head. “If I didn’t make it,I didn’t make it” Then he was silent,staring at the computer screen.

“Oh,no,” Mark thought. “Was Ivan about to__________?”

“At least you can sleep in on Saturdays,” he __________ Ivan. “Right?”

No answer. Mark sighed. He wished he could __________people up the way Ivan could.

Even back in kindergarten（幼儿园）,Ivan had known how to do it. On the first day of kindergarten, Mark had been homesick and began to cry during the break. The other kids __________ around him. “Want to hear a funny joke?” “Try to __________!” After a while, they walked away. Only Ivan __________. He said, “I’ll just keep you company while you’re sad.” Minutes later, the two boys were playing happily.

__________ it now, Mark felt calmer. For a few minutes, he kept quiet. Then he said, “This must be really hard.”

Ivan finally __________his eyes from the screen. He looked at Mark and nodded. “Yeah. It is.” The friends sat in __________ for a while. Then Ivan took a deep breath, wiped his eyes and stood up. “Maybe we could shoot some hoops（投篮）,” he suggested. “I’ll probably feel __________ when I beat you.” He smile a little.

Mark stood up, too. “You mean when I beat you,” he said. Ivan laughed, and they headed outside. “Thanks,” said Ivan, nodding at mark. “__________. Thanks, Mark.”

Depression Discussions

Alison Malmon was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania when she got a call from her mother that would change her life: Her fun, outgoing older brother, Brian, had killed himself.

When Malmon returned to school after Brian's funeral (葬礼) that spring of 2000, she was still extremely sad. But when she looked for help on campus, there was no place to turn. “Back then, students weren't encouraged to talk about their mental health. I started reflecting on the fact that there was an enormous need to get that conversation going,” says Malmon.

She was only 19 and had no experience with mental health issues, but that didn’t stop her from launching Open Minds at Penn. Now, 20 years later and with a new name Active Minds, it is the largest young adult mental health advocacy organization in America, with more than 550 chapters at high schools and colleges. “What I'm most inspired by is that my generation and the generations coming behind me are taking on mental health as a social justice issue,” says Malmon. “Our tools are changing not only their campuses, but also their families.”

The mental health statistics on college campuses are alarming. The American College Health Association's 2019 National College Health Assessment found that 45% of students reported feeling so depressed in the previous 12 months that it was difficult to function; 66% felt great anxiety; and 13% seriously considered taking their own life. So Active Minds' peer-to-peer education techniques are more important than ever.

“I wanted to educate students about the issues, about the signs and symptoms (症状), and about where—on campus and off campus and online—they can get help for free. Active Minds chapters empower young adults to speak openly about mental health so that everybody who needs help gets it as early as possible. We can't make it uncomfortable for students to come forward with their stories,” she says. “Because that's how we're going to have more students graduate and go on to become productive members of society, and not feel so ashamed like my brother did.

10 . An Unexpected Gift

Twelve-year-old Mathew Flores is different from other kids. He loves junk (垃圾) mail, and these advertisements were the only reading materials _______ to him. Once he asked his mailman if he could offer him some.

The question _______ the mailman. He asked the boy the reason, and then recorded his _______ in his Facebook. “Today while delivering mail, I saw a boy reading ads, and he asked me for extra mail. Actually he wants to go to the library, but his family is very poor and can’t _______ the bus.”

The mailman then asked his Facebook friends if they could _______ some books for the boy. He wrote, “Most kids want electronic products! But what he wants is books. It’s great to see his rare _______, and you may have seen him smile when I said I could help him!” “He is counting on me,” he concluded. “So I am counting on you!”

The mailman thought the Facebook post might _______ 50 to 60 books. But his _______ was passed on quickly. People from around the world, including the UK, Australia and India, have sent books. Hundreds of books have been delivered to the boy’s door, with hundreds more _______ on their way.

When books first started arriving, Flores was shocked by what happened. “I thought they were ________, but they indeed were for me.” He says that he can’t wait to share the books with other kids, and has promised to read every one.