How far would you go to help a friend? Jeremy Savage, aged 17, and Ian Marshall, aged16, both from Canada, had their friendship tested to the limit on a recent trip to the Rocky Mountains with their parents.

On Saturday morning, the two boys decided to climb Cathedral Mountain by themselves while their parents relaxed at the campsite. After three hours, they reached the top and enjoyed the beautiful view from the mountaintop.

However, trouble began when they started the climb down. On one very dangerous part of the mountain, Ian fell three metres off the side of the path. Jeremy climbed down to where Ian was and found him badly injured and not able to move. Jeremy had to decide what to do. He needed help but he did not want to leave his friend. He cleaned the dirt and blood from Ian’s face and hands, and then tried to help Ian stand up, but Ian’s right leg was hurting too much. They had to wait and hope that help would come.

Meanwhile, as darkness started to fall, their parents back at the campsite became very worried that the boys had not returned. They got in touch with park workers and began searching for the boys. Soon more than 20 people were looking for them on Cathedral Mountain.

While they waited for help, Jeremy gave Ian his food and water and let him lie on his jacket.

At sunrise, Jeremy decided that the only way to help his friend was to carry him down the mountain.

My mom only had one eye. I hated her. She was such an embarrassment.

She ran a small shop at a flea market (跳蚤市场) and collected old clothes and some other things to sell for the money we needed. Once during elementary school, it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed and wondered how could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school, my schoolmates asked me, “Your mom only has one eye？” and laughed at me.

I was so angry with my mom and wished that she would just disappear from this world. So I said to my mom, “Why don't you have the other eye? You're only gonna (将要) make me a joke！” My mom trembled with shock, and said in an apologetic tone, “I'm so sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you. But I was so proud of my son to see a whole new world for me with that_eye. I will leave right now. Sorry！” My mom turned around and staggered away.

For the words I had said to her earlier, there was something biting at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my one­eyed mom and our desperate poverty. Maybe because my mom hadn't punished me, I didn't think I had hurt her feelings very badly.

I told myself that I would become successful in the near future, so I studied very hard. Later I got accepted by the Seoul University. I left my mother and came to Seoul to study. I never went back to visit my mom.

Then I got married there. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I am living happily as a successful man. I enjoy the life in Seoul because it's a place that doesn't remind me of my mom and my past. This kind of happiness was getting bigger and bigger, until one day someone knocked at my door.

Every Saturday, Grandpa and I walk to the nursing home (养老院) a few blocks away from our house to visit some of the old people who live there.

First we visit Mrs. Sokol. I call her “The Cook.” She likes to talk about the time when she was a well-known cook back in Russia. People would come from miles around, just to taste her famous chicken soup.

Next we visit Mr. Meyer. I call him “The Joke Man.” He tells us jokes, and laughs at his own jokes, shaking up and down and turning red in the face. Grandpa and I can’t help but laugh along with him, even when the jokes aren’t very funny.

Next door is Mr. Lipman. I call him “The Singer” because he loves to sing for us. Whenever he does, his beautiful voice fills the air, so clear and strong that we always sing along with him.

Then we visit Mrs. Kagan, “The Grandmother,” who shows us pictures of her grandchildren. They’re all over the room, in frames (画框) and even taped to the walls.

One day Grandpa got sick and had to go to the hospital. The doctors said they didn’t think he would ever get better.

Saturday came. How could I go visiting the nursing home without Grandpa? Then I remembered what Grandpa once told me: “Nothing should stand in the way of doing a good deed (行为).” So I went alone. Everyone was happy to see me. They were surprised when they didn’t see Grandpa. When I told them that he was sick and in the hospital, they were sad. They told me that Grandpa would have a complete recovery.

The Cook went on to reveal (透露) some of her secret recipes (食谱). The Joke Man told me his latest jokes. The Singer sang a song especially for me. The Grandmother showed me more pictures. After a while, I said goodbye to everyone.

A few days later, Grandpa was still in the hospital. He was not eating, he could not sit up and he could hardly speak. I went to the corner of the room so Grandpa wouldn’t see me cry.

Suddenly the nurse came into the room and said, “You have some visitors.”

That evening, Grandpa called the nurse in and said he was hungry. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once when I was young and had a loose tooth, I asked my father, a dentist, to look at it.

“It needs to be pulled，” he told me. I frowned, afraid of the pain of that experience. My dad sent me for some tissues and I imagined them soaking up liters of blood from my mouth. I closed my eyes and strengthened myself. I was still waiting for him to pull when I heard my father say, “I’m done.”

I opened my eyes and saw my tooth in his tissue­covered hand. I hadn’t felt anything, and there was just a bit of blood on the tissues. I thought my father was a magician.

The next day at school I bragged to a friend about my father’s wonderful skill. When I explained that the process didn’t hurt, my friend called me a liar. He said that when his tooth was pulled, it had hurt a lot. I talked to my father about this and there was not a single mystery left after my father’s explanation: my tooth had been ready to be removed, while my friend’s had not.

“I’m going to be a dentist，” I declared. I wanted to follow in the professional footsteps of my father, my uncle and grandmother. My father supported my ambition, honoring my interest in his profession even when I was young. He always encouraged me, saying，“To achieve your goal, you should always be devoting hard work and effort to it.”

I didn’t need to visit my father’s office as a child because I had few cavities. As I entered the elementary school and began eating more candy, however, I visited more often. I didn’t mind, though. I was the only kid I knew who was excited about going to the dentist. After my father worked on my teeth, he let me hang around. And I was amazed as he operated complicated machines, leaning over patients’ mouths with a tiny mirror strapped to his head.

Once, when my dad was pulling my mother’s teeth, he even let me clear her mouth.　

Years later, the dream of a child has not declined but actually grown firmer.　

Thank you.

George’s mother was very poor. Instead of having bright blazing fires in winter, she had nothing to burn but dry sticks, which George picked up from under the trees and hedges.

One fine day in July, his sick mother sent George to the woods, which were about two miles from the village in which she lived. He was to stay there all day to get as much wood as he could collect.

It was a bright, sunny day, and George worked very hard; so that by the time the sun was high, he was hot, and wished for a cool place where he might rest and eat his dinner. While he hunted for a spot about the bank he saw among the moss some fine, wild strawberries, which were a bright scarlet with ripeness.

”How good these will be my bread and butter!“thought George. Lining his little cap with leaves he set to work eagerly to gather all he could find and then seated himself by the brook.

It was a pleasant place, and George felt happy and contented. He thought how much his mother would like to see him there, and to be there herself, instead of in her dark close room in the village.

George thought of all this and just as he was lifting the first strawberry to his mouth, he said to himself, ”How much mother would like these!“and he stopped, putting the strawberry back again. ”Shall I save them for her?“said he, thinking how much they would refresh her, yet still looking at them with a longing eye.

”I will eat half, and take the other half to her, “said he at last, and he divided them into two heaps(t). But each heap looked so small, that he put them together again.

”I will only taste one“thought he. As he again lifted it to his mouth, he saw that he had taken the finest and he put it back. ”I will keep them all for her, "he said with great happiness, and he covered them up nicely, ready to take home.

He stood up and started to get more and more wood until the sun began to sink.

Just after he had thrown down his wood, he heard his mother’s weak voice calling him from the next room.

A boy named Ali had a large and harmonious family, happily living with his sisters, parents and grandmother. His grandmother loved everyone a lot and was respected by all family members. She was very old, but sometimes she would recall things from her past and share with them. Sometimes they would believe her but at other times they would think that Granny might be mixing up the facts due to her old age.

One day, when Ali was in school, suddenly while knitting (编织), Granny remembered something and she couldn’t contain her emotions so she got up to tell her son — Ali’s father. She walked as fast as she could to his room and said, “You always asked about my birth date, but do you know today is the day when I was born?”

She looked at her son with an excited expression, expecting an immediate response. However, her son wondered how she could remember her date of birth in this old age when she forgot so many other things, so he didn’t pay much attention to this. Disappointed at her son’s reaction, Granny then went to Ali’s mother and Ali’s sister, but like Ali’s father, nobody believed her.

Sadly, she went and sat in the terrace (庭院). When Ali returned from his school, he found his grandmother sitting alone with a sad expression. Ali asked his granny about the matter, but she said there was nothing to worry about. After a lot of persuasion she finally told him what was troubling her — nobody seemed to care that it was her birthday today!

After hearing what Granny said, Ali thought of a plan. Purely by chance, some of Ali’s friends were playing nearby so he shared his plan with them.