1 . For more than a century, the Mississippi Delta has been a popular destination for immigrants. Recently, I was assigned to learn more about one immigrant group: the Chinese in Greenville, a small city along the Mississippi River. There I met Raymond Wong. whose family has long been part of the community.

The first wave of Chinese immigrants came to the Mississippi Delta soon after the Civil War, and the pace picked up by the early 1900s. The Chinese initially came to pick cotton, but they quickly started opening grocery stores, mostly in the African-American communities where they lived.

“On my street alone, there were no less than four grocery stores. I’m talking about a minor street,” Wong recalls. “I was raised in a grocery store. All my family — six of us — lived in a couple of rooms at the back of our store. As soon as I could calculate money I had to work in the store.”

In 1968, Wong’s father opened a Chinese restaurant, one of the first in the town. “The restaurant existed for 40 years.” Wong says. Wong remembers a time of big excitement when his family finally could afford to buy a house in a white neighborhood. Then suddenly, that conversation stopped.

“When people found out that we were moving in, they started throwing bottles in the driveway,” Wong says. “We ended up building a house directly behind the grocery.”

And the future? It’s probably not in the Delta. Wong remembers the question his son raised when he was still in high school: “Dad, do you want me to take over the store when you retire?” Wong’s response was immediate: “No. I want you to live better than me.” That’s the story of the typical Delta Chinese.

2 . How to release your art potential? Traditionally, people may bury themselves in learning painting skills at a studio and begin from drawing lines. However, Maggie Wiebe, a 21-year-old girl from Stamps School of Art& Design at the University of Michigan, has her own method.

Wiebe and her school friend Jessie Rice are trying to do something that shows their love for art and also benefits the environment. For the past year or so, they have tended a garden at their campus farm, planting a variety of colorful flowers, as well as flax (亚麻) to make linen (亚麻布) and paper to be used in art.

Inspired by a group of old ladies in Canada who plant sustainable art materials and post their videos on social platform YouTube, Wiebe learned about how to plant, harvest and separate fibers. She planted different fruits and vegetables traditionally used to dye (给……染色) fabrics (织物) . She then put their peels (外皮) into boiled water and added hot pressurized air to make a dye. For her, it’s a demanding but enjoyable process.

Wiebe and Rice plan to eventually buy some land in Detroit to grow these sustainable art materials — a dye, fiber and pigment (颜料) garden   —— “a bigger version of what we’re already doing”, Wiebe told Minnesota News. “We’d set it up like an organization where artists can volunteer a few hours a week and then use all of the plants that we grow.”

Wiebe also likes fiber-based art, such as quilting, weaving and sewing. She has applied those techniques to her recent works, displayed as part of the annual Senior Exhibition at her school. During her sophomore (高中或大学二年级) year, Wiebe joined the Michigan Daily as an illustrator, learning to conceptualize and complete complex illustrations on tight deadlines. Wiebe’s works received a lot of help from others. “Because the art school doesn’t have departments, we have studio coordinators who take care of each studio,” she said. “I see them every day, and they’ve helped me a lot.”

4 . The Boy Made it!

One Sunday, Nicholas, a teenager, went skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In the early afternoon, when he was planning to go home, a fierce snowstorm swept in to the area. Unable to see far, he accidentally turned off the path. Before he knew it, Nicholas was lost, all alone! He didn’t have food, water, a phone, or other supplies. He was getting colder by the minute.

Nicholas had no idea where he was. He tried not to panic. He thought about all of the survival shows he had watched on TV. It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.

He decided to stop skiing. There was a better chance of someone finding him if he stayed put. The first thing he did was to find shelter from the freezing wind and snow. If he didn’t, his body temperature would get very low, which could quickly kill him.

Using his skis, Nicholas built a snow cave. He gathered a huge mass of snow and dug out a hole in the middle. Then he piled branches on top of himself, like a blanket, to stay as warm as he could.

By that evening, Nicholas was really hungry. He ate snow and drank water from a nearby stream so that his body wouldn’t lose too much water. Not knowing how much longer he could last, Nicholas did the only thing he could — he huddled (蜷缩) in his cave and slept.

The next day, Nicholas went out to look for help, but he couldn’t find anyone. He followed his tracks and returned to the snow cave, because without shelter, he could die that night. On Tuesday, Nicholas went out again to find help. He had walked for about a mile when a volunteer searcher found him. After two days stuck in the snow, Nicholas was saved.

Nicholas might not have survived this snowstorm had it not been for TV. He had often watched Grylls’ survival show Man vs. Wild. That’s where he learned the tips that saved his life, In each episode (一期节目) of Man vs. Wild, Grylls is abandoned in a wild area and has to find his way out.

When Grylls heard about Nichola’s amazing deeds, he was super impressed that Nicholas had made it since he knew better than anyone how hard Nicholas had to work to stay alive.

6 . Sarah, a Girl Guide (女童子军) from Wagga Wagga, dreams of being a medical scientist, inspired by Florence Nightingale’s ________ work in the field of nursing. “I want to make a positive ________ on the world by learning first aid to help people ________,” explains Sarah, who has a vision of seeing more girls in science.

Meanwhile, Olivia, from Coogee, has taken ________ from a famed Australian obstetrician (产科医师). “I want to be a biomedical engineer or something else in the medical field, to make money from some great inventions and then use that money to ________ houses to the homeless,” she says. “This is just like Catherine Hamlin, a gynaecologist, who used her wealth to ________ to the women of Ethiopia by providing them with more healthcare.”

Girl Guides Australia promotes the ________ of girls, whether they dream of working in forensic science or engineering, or ________ want to learn first aid. It also ________ a conference about what they could achieve, where some schoolmates who have gone on to success in STEM ________ a vital experience as members of Girl Guides.

Natasha Hendrick is principal geophysicist at Santos Ltd and a Rhodes Scholar. She said that her time as a Guide showed girls could do anything. She ________ for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and donates her time to Women Who Code, ________ young women who want to succeed in the tech industry. “A great many activities I was ________ in as a Guide provided a safe, supportive space in which I learned to try new things, like effective communication skills, be brave, and grow,” says Natasha. “I became a young woman who ________ to be different through my choice of career. And today I can look back and say my Guiding experiences made me one of those sought-after scientists who are also skilled managers, ________ communicators and good leaders.”

7 . After I made it to the city center, I started to feel it might be easy for a foreigner to deal with the great size of Beijing. With growing confidence, I decided to take the subway to the hotel, not realizing that the network didn’t go that far. Impressed with the cleanliness of the station, I bought a ticket and boarded the first subway that came along.

After a few minutes I asked in English a young man seated next to me where I should get off closest to the Friendship Hotel. Wearing a smart business suit and tie, he would surely speak English, wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand me but seemed very friendly. I showed him the room card with all the information of the Friendship Hotel in Chinese characters. He looked at it, and then his eyes moved quickly to the carriage (车厢) subway map. Next, he raised three fingers of his right hand.

In Australia, raising fingers at someone is not usually nice, but this man wasn’t smiling. At the next station he showed me two fingers. Now in Australia, that’s really rude, but I got the message. When we stopped at the third station, he didn’t just point to the door, but got up, took me out of the train, and led me to the top of the stairs, and out onto the street. Then he stopped a taxi and told the driver where to take me.

All this came from a man who couldn’t speak my language, and I couldn’t speak his. I was now speechless, especially when he refused my offer of money. I felt a little embarrassed having even thought he would accept a tip.

This experience made it clear I had to learn some Chinese quickly or my adventures might start turning into misadventures.

8 . Alice is a student who came to my class last year. Though she has already turned 60, Alice looks so fit and______with a bright smile and an enthusiastic attitude. I am Alice’s teacher in class, but I feel she is my teacher in life.

For my 2-hour class every Saturday morning, Alice has to take a 3-hour round-trip on the road. But she is never ______for class. Alice is very passionate about learning English. She often says, “Don’t ______ me as a 60-year-old. I am just a new beginner who wants to learn anything ______ . You know, I am very excited to come to the class!” So I feel a strong sense of______ to make sure what I teach makes sense to her.

Alice came to me with very______ English skills, but she turns out to be a very fast learner because she always puts English______ on a daily basis. I______ her homework before every class. Her homework is usually not what I ______ for the class, rather it is something that she______ to put together. She makes various sentences using the important words and phrases she learned from our______ class. I am always______ by the quality of her work.

I feel fortunate to have a student like Alice. She has______ me so much. Our______ is a great learning experience for both of us. Though I have no idea why she learns English, I hope I can help her ______ her dream, whatever it is.

9 . One day, Lisa’s mother drove her to make a donation to Hope House, a shelter for the homeless. A 3-year-old boy there ______ thought they were gifts for his birth-day. At that moment, Lisa ______ something had to be done.

Lisa, who was 9 at the time, said she hadn’t really thought about families who couldn’t ______ birthday parties for their kids before meeting the boy. That day she asked the director of the Hope House whether birthday parties had been hosted there before. The answer was apparently no.

“The ______ of giving birthday parties for homeless kids at Hope House was already ______ in her mind on the car ride home,” Lisa’s mother, Tania, said.

Lisa ______ that the little boy was wearing a blue shirt, blue shorts and blue socks, so she decided to ______ him a blue- themed party. For the child’s ______, she and her mom brought balloons, a cake and a gift back to Hope House.

This was the ______ of the Hopeful Hearts Club, Lisa’s non--profit group that hosts birthday parties for kids ______ at Hope House. Each child gets a cake, a gift and party decorations ______.

Hopeful Hearts Club ______ with Lisa and two of her friends. Today it has ______ to more than 1,000 members--people who have contributed their time or things to Lisa’s projects.

______ birthday parties at Hope House, the club hosts events such as collection drives, holiday meals and family activities. Meantime, Lisa hopes to inspire others to reach out and help their community. “If you see a need, try to ______ it,” Lisa said.