1 . My name is Jimmy. One Thursday afternoon, when I was in senior one, a new boy came into my classroom. He was short and thin. He walked up to the teacher and told her, very seriously, that he was new. His name was Christian. He sat down, took a look at me, and then looked away. I didn’t think he was very nice and I was sure he wasn’t the type I would like to become friends with.

During that year, I didn’t talk to him much, but he smiled at me when our eyes met, always shyly. He never ate lunch with anybody, and he never talked to anybody but me.

But one day I joined those unkind kids who were making fun of him. We made fun of him though I thought it was wrong.

“Haven’t you got any friends?” a kid asked Christian, who had walked past us alone, head down.

“No, he hasn’t got any friends. He’s too stupid and shy,” I said. Then Christian looked up at me with the saddest dog eyes I had ever seen. I felt very sorry at that moment.

That night, I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t get Christian’s face out of my mind. In the weeks that followed, he never met my eyes in class and never smiled at me. It was really hard for me to decide to write him a note asking him to forgive (原谅) me. But I thought I should.

The next day in class, I wrote him a note telling him how sorry I felt. About five minutes later, I turned and saw tears in his eyes. “You will never realize what your apology (道歉) has meant to me, Jimmy.” he said to me. “I hope we can become friends.”

We had lunch together that noon and we had the best talk I had ever had. Over the years at high school, we were close friends.

When I think back, I realize that, if I had not apologized, I would never have known what a lovely person Christian was.

Apologies can really change your life, so never miss the chance to tell somebody you are sorry.

5 . Although he is one of China’s most famous scientists, Yuan Longping considers himself a farmer, for he works the land to do his research. Indeed, his sunburnt face and arms and his slim, strong body are just like those of millions of Chinese farmers, for whom he has struggled for the past five decades. Yuan Longping grows super hybrid rice. In 1973, he became the first agricultural pioneer in the world to grow the super hybrid rice that has a high output. This special strain of rice makes it possible to produce 20% more of the crop in the same fields. Now more than 60% of the rice is from this hybrid strain.

Born in 1930, Yuan Longping graduated from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953. Since then, finding ways to produce more rice has been his life goal. As a young man, he saw the great need for increasing the rice output. At that time, hunger was a problem in many parts of China. Yuan Longping looked for a way to increase rice output without expanding the area of the fields. In 1950, Chinese farmers could produce about 56 million tons of rice, but now nearly 200 million tons per year. Nearly 22% of the world’s people are fed from just 7% of the farmland in the world, which is due to the super hybrid rice grown by Yuan Longping.

6 . The kitchen and bedroom are the most unsafe places. Common accidents in these rooms include falls, fires, poisoning, cuts, hot water burns and electric shocks. How to make sure your kitchen and bedroom are safe. The following are some tips.

THE KITCHEN

*Turn off all appliances after use.

*Make sure the floor is not slippery.

*Keep matches out of the reach of children,

*Turn pan handles away from the front of the stove.

*Always cut away from your body when you use a knife.

*Follow instructions for all electrical appliances carefully.

*Always use a ladder to reach high cupboards; never stand on a chair.

*Store all cleaning materials and poisonous materials in a locked cupboard.

THE BEDROOM

*Never smoke in bed.

*Keep a lamp near the bed.

*Turn off electric blankets when not in use.

*Have a telephone near the bed, especially if ill.

7 . My problem started after I went to a boarding school. I was only 14, and at first I missed my family a lot. I often called them and cried on the phone. But after two weeks, I found I enjoyed being with my classmates at school.

I had many friends who were boys. I thought of them as my best friends – but only friends. I never guessed my friendships with boys would become a problem.

Then, three months later, my friends told me that some teachers and girls said I was hanging out with boys all day long in order to get attention from them. Seven months after that, the head teacher Mr. Wang asked the class to choose some students to join the Student Union. I thought I could win for I was doing well in school. I’d already won prizes for the best math and English exams. A week later, the list came out and it didn’t include me. I was sad.

Mr. Wang came to me and said, “Don’t be sad. I know you’re excellent! Maybe, you’re a little distant from the girls in our class. They don’t know much about you, so some of them didn’t choose you. It doesn’t matter. Do your best to get along well with everyone and I think you’ll make it next time.”

8 . Mr. Guo is a teacher from Xi’an. He asked his students to hand in their homework through a QR code(二维码). “We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate (产生) the codes, and in the end everything gets easier” said Gao. “When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat. Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work everywhere using my computer or telephone.”

The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Guo scans(扫描)his students’ QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos.

Guo’s students like the new way and think it is interesting. “We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun,” said Tingting, a student of Guo’s.

“The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share,” Guo said. “It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation. I don’t want my students to fall behind the times.”

However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time on computers and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it’s unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the code when they hand in their homework, which doesn’t take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the Students’ work at any time. And it’s also an easy way to share homework with other students.

9 . There was a terrible earthquake in my country. Many people were killed and many houses fell down. After the earthquake, the newspapers reported many stories about families who were in trouble. One Sunday, when I was reading a newspaper, a special picture touched me. It gave the clothing sizes of each family member. I thought this would be a good chance to teach my children to help those who were less lucky. I said to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and three-year-old daughter Meghan, “We have so much, and these poor people now have nothing. We’ll share what we have with them.”

I filled a box with some food and old clothes. While I was doing this, I encouraged the boys to donate some of their less favorite things. Meghan watched quietly as the boys took out their old toys and put them in the box. Then she walked away. A few minutes later, she came back with Ava, her favorite doll. She put it on top of the other toys “Oh, dear,” I said. “You don’t have to give Ava. You love Ava so much.” Meghan said, “Ava makes me happy, Mom. Maybe she’ll make another little girl happy, too.”

I was surprised. Meghan taught me a lesson. It’s easy to give something that we don’t want anymore, but hard to give what we love.