2 . When I was 24, I moved into an apartment and the couple next door were loud all the time. After putting up with it for a couple of weeks, I decided to ________ them and politely ask them to be ________ after noon, as I had to work at midnight, so I ________ went to bed around noon.

I went next door and knocked on the door and an old woman answered.I ________myself and she asked if I came over to complain about the ________, and I said yes. She________ both she and her husband were going ________ and that they needed to speak loudly to hear each other, She invited me in and ________ me a coffee and we started talking. ________, we heard a loud bang (巨响) in the kitchen. Then we found her husband had fallen onto the ground. Immediately, we ________ him to to hospital.

When I came home from work the next day, there was a ________ on the door from the lady asking me to come over. When I reached her ________, she asked if I'd drive her to the hospital, to which I said no ________. When we got to the hospital, I followed her to her husband's room, where he ________ me. Soon I ended up being friends with this couple ________ they moved away a year later.

One day after ten years, I got a ________ from a lawyer. I was ________ what was going on, so I went down and when I arrived at his office, the lawyer asked me knew a ________ by the couple's names and I said yes. He told me that the couple had died and he was employed by their children to find me. They wanted to thank me ________. I met the family and then we became friends! You can never know when, where or how you are next going to make new friends. Life is full of ________ . Whatever happens, try to treat others exactly as you would like to be treated.

3 . Learn With Homer

Price: Free

Grade level: Pre-K, K

Skill: Comprehension, Phonics(拼读法)

Device: iPad

It’s a learn-to-read app for kids aged 3 to 6 that includes drawing, voice recording, stories, songs, and more, along with more traditional phonics exercises.

This app can be helpful for kids who have speech production problems and language organization problems.

Inspiration Maps

Price: $ 9.99

Grade level: 4th and above

Skill: Comprehension, Writing

Device: iPad

Inspiration Maps is a mind-mapping tool that helps kids visually (视觉上) organize ideas. They can create maps, organizers, brainstorms, and text outlines. Outlines can be changed to maps, and maps can be changed to outlines. Users can share creations by emailing, printing, or saving to iTunes, Dropbox, Photos, or the app (as PDF or PNG files) . The Lite version (简化版本),which is free, lets kids create up to five mind maps with no sharing choices.

Aesop’s Quest

Price: $ 0.99

Skill: Comprehension

Grade level: 2nd, 3rd, 4th

Device: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Aesop’s Quest, based on Aesop’s Fables, is a learning game where the student must remember parts of a story to complete a level. At the end of each story level, the student is rewarded with tests. After solving the tests, the story is complete and the child can continue to the next story.

Developed together with the Virginia Department of Education.

LightSail

Grade level: Pre-K, K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and above

Price: Free

Skill: Comprehension

Device: iPad

LightSail is an e-reading platform that helps teachers support their students’ independent reading. Students can use LightSail to check out text from their schools’ online libraries and read the books directly on their iPad. As students progress through a book, questions appear to check their comprehension. As students complete these assessments (评定),they earn prizes.

6 . Most humans are able to recognize about 1 million different colors, but some people can’t recognize this many because of something called colorblindness. In rare cases, some people can’t see any colors at all.

There are three cone-shaped (锥形的) cells at the back of our eyes that allow us to see colors. These cells absorb light waves and send a message to the brain, where the image is processed.

If something is wrong with these cone-shaped cells, this can result in colorblindness.

One of the most common types of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. People who have this specific type of visual impairment (视觉障碍) have difficulty telling the colors red and green apart. “Problems with distinguishing red from green interrupt simple daily routines such as deciding whether a banana is ripe,” Karepov explained. That is why people with colorblindness sometimes find it difficult to finish their daily tasks.

Thankfully, special color-correcting glasses have already been made to help fix some types of colorblindness. Now, according to research published in Optics Letters, scientists have provided another choice.

Sharon Karepov and Tal Ellenbogen, engineers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, have found a way to apply this technology to contact lenses (隐形眼镜), which create a customized, compact and durable way to address these deficiencies (缺陷) of the special color-correcting glasses which are significantly bulkier (笨重的). The creation of the much smaller contact lenses is really good news for the millions of people worldwide who suffer from colorblindness.

This new research is groundbreaking (开创性的). In addition to offering those who are colorblind another option, it may lead to solutions for other visual impairments.

8 . Before I turned 10, I lost my parents. My siblings left Hyderabad after relatives adopted them, but I insisted on staying back to continue my education. I lived alone in a room that a family member allowed me to use rent-free. To support myself, I began to deliver newspapers.

I would be up every morning by 5 a.m. and walk five kilometers to the newspaper office. By 6 a.m., I would collect 50 copies of Manzil (Urdu Daily)—the bundle must have weighed over 5 kilograms. My beat spanned 3 kilometers. After distributing the copies, I would rush home—another 3 kilometers —quickly cat and be off to high school.

One wintry morning in 1945,I got home after my deliveries to find a boy of my age at my doorstep. He introduced himself as Afzal and said his father wanted to see me.

I was greeted at the door by Afzal's mother, Naseem. She served tea and snacks as Afzal's father, Mr Kader, joined us. She gently asked me about my daily routine. I told her about my morning job.

Later, as I was about to leave after thanking them, Mr Kader asked me to wait. Later, Mr Kader emerged again, wheeling a new bicycle. "This is for you!" he said.

It took a few seconds for the love to sink in. It felt warm, like home. I didn't realize tears were rolling down my face.

Mr Kader said. Your newspaper editor is a friend of mine. He gave me your address. so I knew you lived close by. Then Afzal told us more about you."

I bowed, gratefully, shook hands with Afzal and left. This time I did not have to walk—I had the bicycle.

The bicycle saved my life for many years thereafter and taught me a lifelong lesson: Help should always be need-based. Never try to feed a person who is dying of thirst.