1 . When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was a total outsider, bullied (欺凌) at school. I felt completely alone in my small town. But by starting to do volunteer work when I was 14, I turned my problem into helping others. The opportunity to practice kindness made me feel like my life had a greater purpose. The more positive energy I shared, the more kindness and appreciation I received. I realized that my purpose in life would be to reach out to people, specifically teenagers, and help them feel less alone.

Books were my true friends back then. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books. The kindness they offered me with their books saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become an author so I could write books that would help other teenagers the way those books helped me.

After surviving terrible experiences at school and at home, I made a choice to take the optimistic and positive road in the next steps of my journey. My dream career, which I thought was only possible for the authors I loved, is what I am doing now. I have been a full-time author of teen novels since 2007 and am grateful for this amazing opportunity to reach out to readers every single day.

Kindness saved me when I needed help the most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone’s life. You never know what someone else is going through. But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect of positive change.

4 . Some time ago, I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there was a lot of antique (古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning, carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop, expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man didn’t even look at my chair.

The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth — so I decided that my approach (way) must be wrong.

I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said, “Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds,” I said. “OK,” he said, “I’ll give you twenty pounds.” “It’s got a slightly broken leg,” I said. “Yes, I saw that. It’s nothing.”

Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?” I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.” “I’ll buy it,” I said. “What do you mean? You’ve just sold it to me,” he said. “Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I’m sorry. I’ll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.” “You must be crazy,” he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.” “You’re right,” I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, ‘Would you mend this chair for me?’ ” “I wouldn’t have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver (five dollars)?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

The teenage year from 13 to 19 were the most difficult time for me. They were also the best and worse years in my life. At the first, I thought I knew everything and could make decisions by yourself. However, my parents didn’t seem to think such. They often thought wrong for me to do some things without their permission and always tell me what to do and how to do it. At one time, I even felt my parents couldn’t understand me so I hoped I could be freely from them. I showed them I was independent by wear strange clothes. Now I am leaving home to college. At last, I will be on my own, but I still want to have my parents to turn to whenever I need help.

A man stopped at a flower shop to order some       1       (flower) to be sent to his mother who lived two hundred miles away. When he got out of his car he noticed a young girl sitting on the roadside     2     (cry). He asked her what was wrong and she     3    (reply), “I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother,     4     I only have seventy cents, but the rose costs two dollars.”     5     a smile on his face, the man said, “Come on in with me. I’ll buy you a rose. He bought the little girl her rose and ordered     6     (he) own mother’s flowers. As they were leaving he offered the girl     7     ride home.     8     (happy) she said, “Yes, please! You can take me to my mother.” She directed him to a cemetery (墓地),     9     she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave (坟墓). The man returned to the flower shop, canceled (取消，撤销) the mail order, picked up a bunch of flowers and     10     (drive) the two hundred miles to his mother house.”

8 . A couple from Miami , Bill and Simone Butler , spent sixty-six days in a life-raft (救生艇)in the seas of Central America after their boat sank.

Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their boat, Simony, they met some whales(鲸鱼). “They started to hit the side of the boat, ” said Bill, “and then suddenly we heard water. ”Two minutes later , the boat was sinking. They jumped into the life-raft and watched the boat go under the water.

For twenty days they had tins of food , biscuits , and bottles of water. They also had a fishing-line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water-two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw(生的). Then the line broke. “So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks(鲨鱼) came to feed , and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands. ”

About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea, their life- raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn't stand up. So the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over.

9 . It was 1504, and Columbus was making another trip to the New World. Columbus and his men needed fresh water and food after three months at sea. They saw an island and went on shore. On the island there were unfriendly Indians who refused to give food to them.

Columbus' men were afraid of the Indians, but he had a clever plan.He used body language to tell the Indians about his mysterious (神秘的) power to turn off the light in the sky. He knew about a lunar eclipse (月食) the next night because the information was in his almanac (天文历书).

Columbus told the Indians, “Tomorrow night I'll turn off the light in the sky.”But they didn't believe him. When the eclipse began the next night, the Indians became very frightened. They begged Columbus to turn on the light again, and they quickly gave him all the food and water he wanted. Immediately Columbus and his men hurried back to the ship and sailed away in the moonless night.