I ever studied at a school that was down the street from a homeless shelter (收容所). The shelter was right next door to a little gas station where they sold breakfast daily. I would ride my bike to the station. I would buy a sandwich and a coke every morning from the store. There was always someone standing around outside asking for money to get something to eat. As my family wasn’t rich, I hardly had money to spare, but sometimes I would give the homeless my change until I noticed most of them would go inside and buy a beer with the money instead of food. I stopped giving out my change and just told them I didn’t have money.

One day, as I was walking out of the store, I noticed an old man who was obviously homeless. However, interestingly, he was always wearing a nice suit (西装) and a tie and just sitting on the sidewalk watching the cars go by. When I walked past him, he asked me in a very kind voice whether I had any change to spare so that he could get a sandwich. Before I could say a word, he added that he wasn’t wanting “beer money”. I had just enough money in my pocket that day to pay for another sandwich and a can of coke. So, I just walked back inside the store and bought him some breakfast. When I came out and gave it to him, his eyes lit up. He said, “Thank you very much!” We sat and talked for a minute before I had to go to school.

It became an everyday ritual (习惯). I learned that his name was Massey and from Africa. Whenever I had the money to spare, I would buy two sandwiches and two cokes. We would sit outside the store, have our breakfast together and talk for a while until it was time for me to go to school.

For a while, I stopped buying our breakfast every morning because my brother’s birthday was coming up. I wanted to save up so that I could buy him a gift. I explained to Massey the reason and he said he understood, but still sat and talked with me.

The next day when it came the time for our morning chat, I found a well-packed gift on my bike.

A little bird landed on the tree branch outside Lisa’s bedroom window. It sang energetically as the first pale yellow rays of sunshine appeared.

“Oh, my god, what is that noise?” Lisa complained to herself, pulling her bed sheets over her head to ignore the sound. It was no use, and she knew it. The loud sound showed the coming of the day. Lisa’s mom knocked twice on her door, and then came in with a smile. “Time to get up, Sleepyhead,” She whispered. “The early bird catches the worm, you know.”

“Ugh,” mumbled (含含糊糊地说) Lisa into her pillow. “What does that even mean?”

“It’s just an expression, Honey”, her mom replied. She gave Lisa a kiss on the cheek and urged her to get out of bed. Lisa rolled over and slept for a few more minutes.

With her mom’s repeated urging, Lisa had no choice but to get herself dressed. She went unwillingly downstairs for breakfast, ate slowly, and missed her bus. When she finally got to school, she failed to get a place in the Chess Club. She also missed the first part of math class, so she didn’t understand the lesson and had to get extra help at lunchtime. Her teacher gave her extra homework to make sure she knew it. As a result, she missed her favourite library time. This day was no fun.

The next morning, Lisa was woken up by the same loud noisy song. Instead of ignoring it, today Lisa walked over to the window and opened the curtains. “Well, hello there, little fellow,” she said when she saw the pretty bird outside, still singing happily. As she watched, the bird stuck its beak (喙) into the wet ground, and pulled out a wiggling (不停摇摆) worm for breakfast.

“Today I am going to be the early bird,” thought Lisa.

At lunchtime, Lisa finished her lunch early and had time to go to the library. 

A funny thing happened to Arthur when he was on the way to work one day. As he walked along Park Avenue near the First National Bank, he heard the sound of someone trying to start a car. He tried again and again but couldn’t get the car moving. Arthur turned and looked inside at the face of a young man who looked worried.

Arthur stopped and said, “It looks like you’ve got a problem.”

“I’m afraid so. I’m in a big hurry but I can’t start my car.”

“Is there something I can do to help?” Arthur asked. The young man looked at the two suitcases in the back seat and then said, “Thanks. If you’re sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble, you could help me get these suitcases into a taxi.”

“No trouble at all. I’d be glad to help.”

The young man got out and took one of the suitcases from the back seat. After placing it on the ground, he turned to get the other one. Just as Arthur picked up the first suitcase and started walking, he heard the long loud noise of an alarm.

It was from the bank. There had been a robbery (抢劫)!

Park Avenue had been quiet a moment before. Now the air was filled with the sound of the alarm and the shouts of people running from all directions. Cars stopped and the passengers joined the crowd in front of the bank. People asked each other, “What happened?” But everyone had a different answer.

Arthur still carrying the suitcase, turned to look at the bank and walked right into a young woman in front of him.

She looked at the suitcase and then at him. Arthur was surprised. “Why is she looking at me like that?” he thought. “The suitcase! She thinks I’m the bank thief!”

Arthur looked around at the crowd of people. He became frightened, and without another thought, he started to run.

As he was running, Arthur heard the young man shouting behind, “Stop! Stop!” _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The taxi stopped in front of the police station. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My great-grandmother Eileen is ambitious (有雄心的), determined, loyal, strong and a bit of legend (传奇) in her own lifetime, which now reaches 92 years. I should add that we’re not allowed to call her Gran, because she says it makes her feel old.

That summer, I lost my job and felt hopeless. One day. I paid a visit to her. On my arrival, seeing my low spirits, she asked me whether I had prepared to get a new start. I just kept silent. Without any more words, she picked up a box which she placed on the coffee table, saying “You do know what you’re doing with these things, don’t you?”

It was a new phone. Her current mobile was pretty ancient.

“Yes.” I said.

“Good. That’s why I ask you. You young people know more about such things than us oldies. You can take it home and get it all set up,” she went on. “Then, when you bring it back, show me how to use my new phone, such as getting on the Internet, sending e-mails and so on.” She smiled so sweetly. Setting up the phone would be easy, but teaching her how to use it might be challenging.

The following day I headed back to my great-grandmother’s with the phone. “Here’s your phone. It’s all ready to use.”

For the next hour, I was busy setting up her passcode (密码) and fingerprint recognition, which she said was like something out of James Bond.

When I finally got her to swipe (滑动屏幕), she didn’t put the right amount of pressure on and the menu slipped away. After what seemed like hours, she threw the phone across the room and it landed on the sofa. “Take it easy!” she howled. “I want my old phone back!”

I picked up the phone and was about to leave to give her time to cool down when I realized I didn’t want to go home when she was angry.

6 . In 2019, Wang Jibing, a food delivery rider, had an unpleasant experience due to the wrong address left by a customer. Wang searched three buildings and climbed 18 floors before he finally managed to deliver the food to the customer, who rudely scolded Wang for arriving late. Wang was sad and frustrated. As a husband and father of three children, who shouldered the majority of the financial responsibility in his family, he had to bear all silently. On his way home that day, Wang wrote a poem, Man in a Hurry, expressing his feelings.

Since then, Wang has been writing poems inspired by his daily life, including a poem New Temple, which occurred to him after he delivered food to construction workers repairing an old temple, and Forgive, based on his observation of a young couple fighting.

Wang’s poems, simple yet real, are seen as a tool to process his emotions, especially the personal experiences he has during his work. His heart is healed by writing the poems, and he has shared them with his friends. In 2022, one of his friends posted Man in a Hurry online. It quickly went viral and was viewed for over 20 million times. The same year, Wang published a collection of more than 180 poems, under the same title. So far, Wang has written about 4,000 poems. This April, Wang published his second poetry collection, titled I Love This World Clumsily, featuring about 130 poems he has written since July 2022.

“Poetry is like a distraction from stress and an opportunity to record my life. Whether it’s coping with pain, dealing with stressful situations, or coming to terms with life’s struggles, poetry makes me confident and happy,” says Wang.

“The feedback from the readers is a big encouragement to me. Those poems carne to me naturally and I enjoyed writing them very much. However, the priority is to look after my family, so I will keep my regular job delivering food,” says Wang.

8 . Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions (探险) but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

Larry first began diving when he was his daughter’s age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children at his age were not even allowed to dive.

After the first expedition, Larry’s later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

Larry’s first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them. Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different spots for free. Larry didn’t even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

10 . It was a cloudy day in Northern Ontario when Terry Fox ran his last miles.

He had started out strong that morning and felt confident. The roadside was ______ with people shouting, “Don’t give up, you can make it!” which ______ him and lifted his spirits. But after 18 miles he started coughing and felt a ______ in his chest.

Terry knew how to deal with the pain. He’d run through it as he always had before; he’d simply keep going until the pain went away.

For 3, 339 miles, he’d run ______ six cities and now was two-thirds of the way home. He’d run close to a marathon a day, for 143 days. His left leg was strong but his right was a mere stump (假肢). He’d ______ the leg to cancer when he was 18.

His run, the Marathon of Hope, as he called it, a(n) ______ across Canada was his way of repaying a debt. He ran through ice storms and summer heat, against ______ winds of such speed that he couldn’t move, through fishing areas and Canada’s biggest cities. Though people were calling him a ______ , he still saw himself as simple little Terry Fox, from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, ______ in everything but determination (决心).

Terry believed that he had won his ______ against cancer, and he wanted to raise money, $1 million perhaps, to fight the disease. There was one more important purpose of his marathon: a man is not less because he has lost a leg, indeed, he may be ______ . Certainly, he showed there were no ______ to what an amputee (被截肢者) could do.

He ______ people’s attitude towards the disabled, and he showed that ______ cancer had taken away his leg, his ______ was unbreakable.