2 . Emily Bhatnagar has always loved reading. “Growing up, I was really shy, so I always turned to books,” she said. “They became my best friends when I didn’t have one.”

In 2019, when Emily was in her second year of high school, her dad suffered from cancer. The news was difficult for the family. Books became an even bigger comfort, and she started thinking about families in similar situations. When her father recovered, she came up with a plan to help others. “The idea came from the fact that there were kids who were facing the same problem,” she said.

Then, Emily started the book drive in her hometown, Gaithersburg, Maryland. The goal was to collect books and give them to kids being treated for cancer in local hospitals. Her father was not surprised by this plan. “She always wants to do things for the neighborhood,” he said. Since the start of the book drive, which she calls For Love & Buttercup, Emily has collected more than 10,000 books.

Emily had no idea how much attention her work would get. She started by posting on social media, asking people in her area to donate. “I was expecting maybe two or three neighbors to do it,” she said. “But it ended up blowing up,” especially when newspapers began reporting it.

The Children’s Inn is one of the places where Emily has donated books. “Donations like Emily’s share a piece of the world with kids and families that they may not experience,” said its director, Aisha Campbell. Emily continues to run the book drive with her parents’ help. She hopes to one day make it reach more kids. The memory of the first time she visited children who’d received her books sticks with her. “It was the best day of my life,” she said. “I realized I wanted to do this type of work forever.”

When I was in seventh grade, my parents paid a tutor(家庭教师) forty dollars a week for her coming to my house and helping me with math. It ended up raising my marks from fifty to fifty-five.

I had to admit it was mainly my fault. Maybe I should have concentrated my math from the beginning. But studying math was a tough thing. Sitting on a chair to work on confusing math problems for two hours was a slow and painful process. During the process, I would fidget(坐立不安) and have many trips to the refrigerator in an attempt to get off that chair for at least five minutes.

During math tests, my teachers would always stay by my desk. My teachers and friends would frequently ask the question after tests,” How’s your math this time?" So I became extremely afraid of math. While normal people of my age were scared of some insects and adventurous travels, I feared anything to do with numbers. The thought of a teacher picking on me in class made me feel scared. The red marks on the test paper were also terrifying.

My fear of math got worse in ninth grade. Every report card I received from my new math teacher Ms Robbins had the comment to encourage me, "I'm glad to do what I can to help you.” But I couldn't tell her the real reason why I didn't ask for help-I didn’t want to be considered stupid. Every question I had was, in my opinion at the time, something that the whole class had understood but I. So instead, I ended up not caring about anything related to math, without working hard on math at all. And I concluded everything would work out in the end

Eventually, my classmates and I took the final test that would lead to our graduation from middle school and stepping into high school. Days after the exam-- on a rainy summer morning, Ms. Robbins called me.

With worry and uncertainty, I entered her office.

After I took the courage to tell my parents the bad news, they were silent.

It was a day just like every other day. I woke up early in the morning and went to run on Mount Gracious with my dog, Bubbles. As I ran up the mountain, with my dog following close behind, I felt energetic and refreshed. Running in a natural environment never failed to make me feel alive. When I reached the top, I drank some water and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise. This scene always took my breath away, no matter how many times I had seen it.

Having rested enough, Bubbles and I made our way back down the mountain. As we were running downhill, I saw an unfamiliar path and decided to explore the area. The path was full of rocks. It was not easy to walk.

Suddenly, I slipped on a muddy patch, rolling down five meters before I managed to grab hold of an exposed root of a huge tree. I was safe for now. However, I was seriously injured. My knees were badly hurt. My right foot was also dislocated (脱臼). I knew for sure I would be unable to make my way up or down the mountain without help. I called out to Bubbles and he barked loudly from above. It seemed like he understood that I needed help. He looked down at me pitifully before disappearing from sight.

As night fell, panic (恐慌) set in and scary thoughts went through my mind. There were many things that I had got to do. I couldn't die! This would not have happened if I had stuck to my usual path.

I was losing hope when I heard barking. It was Bubbles. I rubbed my eyes as I struggled to keep awake. But there was silence. Who could it be? Was I hallucinating (产生幻觉)? Then I heard some voices and more barking. Yes. Help was near, I knew. I could count on my dog to get help.

Soon, I heard my parents calling my name.

Later, my parents told me what Bubbles had done to get help.

“Is this allIgot?” asked my daughter, Allison. “I asked for a new cellphone!”

“What kind of birthday is this?” asked my son, Blake.

Blake and Allison are twins. Every year, I gave them birthday presents. But they always felt unhappy about not receiving something on their wish list.

I knew I had somewhat spoiled(宠坏)them, but I had no idea it was this bad . I was in shock. How self-centered and unappreciative could my children be?

I was determined to do something.

I found a family living on a farm that badly needed help. There were four children in the family aged from three to eight. I began to visit them every two months.

Soon, Allison and Blake’s birthday was drawing near. I decided to introduce them to the new friends. One day, I woke the kids early and drove them to the farm.

When we arrived, I told my children to take two bags off the car, of which one was filled with food and the other with many boxes full of presents my children would never be satisfied with.

We were welcomed inside with smiles and appreciation. Obviously, Alison and Blake were shocked by what they saw. I could guess they had never expected people would live such a difficult life.

“Look! Presents for you. ”Allison was trying to make the kids happier.

With their parents’ permission(允许), the kids began to pick the boxes up, shake them, and guess what was inside. They were so excited. Allison and Blake encouraged the kids to open the boxes. They did. And there were shouts of surprise and joy: a model car, chocolate …then laughter. Then grateful hugs(拥抱)and sincere “thank-yous” .

At first Alison and Blake looked confused but soon joined the children. Before long, they were laughing, too, proud that they brought happiness there.

On the way home, Alison and Blake were a little quiet. When it was time to go to bed that day, my kids hugged me and said, “Thank you, Mum. ”

The next year, with their birthday nearing, I asked Alison and Blake what presents they wanted.                            

I agreed and offered to drive them to the farm.               

Winter break was approaching, and all Scott wanted to do was go snowboarding. Unfortunately, Scott's parents had different plans. They had booked a weeklong tropical cruise (热带船游). Scott hated warm weather and asked if he could just stay at his best friend's house so he could snowboard every day at the local mountain. His parents didn't want to hear anything of it. He kept debating them about the topic, but they would not change their minds. Family time was important to them, and it was tradition that they spend winter break together.

The week of the cruise arrived, and Scott continued to mumble (咕哝) his complaints as he and his family left their house to head south. Scott's dad told him that he would only make the vacation worse for himself if he didn't change his attitude and open his mind to a new experience. Scott still couldn't stop thinking about all of the snow he was leaving behind.

When they arrived at the port to board the ship, Scott had a hard time admitting that he was actually impressed with the size of the ship. He had seen the brochures but seeing the ship in person was a whole different animal. Then he remembered that the brochure said something about a surfing pool. Maybe surfing would be somewhat like snowboarding. After all, it involved riding a board.

Scott climbed aboard the ship with his parents, and then they walked around to check everything out. He couldn't believe how fancy the accommodations were. The dining room looked like a royal hall; the game room had all of his favorite games; the ship's deck (甲板) had several different swimming pools for different purposes. Then Scott saw the surfing pool. It was incredible. It wasn't a big pool, but it had big waves, and the young man who was demonstrating how to ride the waves made it look like a ton of fun.

Scott asked his parents if he could try surfing.

Gradually, Scott began to love the cruise.

Mary and her little son Andy lived alone and led a hard life. They didn’t have much, but there was always food on the table-for Andy, at least.

To support the family, Mary did three jobs. It was tiring, but Mary didn’t give up. Each day when she finally got home, she’d bring Andy home from a kind neighbor, who attended to her boy for hours daily.

Years later when Andy was 15, Mary was still working hard. One morning she crazily looked for the house keys, worried about getting late for work. She had a long day ahead, but she didn’t even make it to her house’s front door. She tried to move the sofa to see if the keys had fallen behind it. At the time, Andy was preparing to go to school.

Suddenly, Mary fell due to long-term lack of sleep. And when she fell, her head hit the sofa’s edge, which caused her to faint immediately. So worried, Andy did everything he could to help his mom. Finally, he took her to hospital.

Hours later, Mary woke up, noticing Andy’s hand on her shoulder. The doctor brought her document for her to read. She soon knew why she was in hospital. And she knew the fall had reduced her sense of hearing to 20%. Mary couldn’t help crying. “What am I going to do now?” she thought as she looked at Andy. With tears in eyes, Andy said, “I love you, Mom!” And it saddened them both again because Mary could barely hear Andy’s words.

The doctor recommended wearing a hearing aid. It was a very expensive device. “Who has that kind of money?” Mary thought, feeling upset and hopeless.

But Andy wasn’t. “Mom has taken good care of me for years. It’s high time that I did something to try to repay her,” Andy thought. He was determined to take a part-time job to earn the money for the hearing aid. Since his academic performance was very good, he decided to work as a tutor for grade kids.

First, he made advertisements.

One morning when Mary was still sleeping soundly, Andy put the hearing aid in her ear.