1 . The silence was broken by the voice of a child. Out of the window, I saw my neighbor and her six-year-old daughter, Ayuni, _______in the park. Ayuni tried to climb the ladders of the slide again and again. Ayuni cried, shouted at her mother to help her, and then _______, but her mother told her to try again. Every time Ayuni fell off the ladder, her mother asked her to _______rather than helping her and wiping her_______.

I saw Ayuni shouting in _______, “I hate you! You are the _______mother.” But her mother listened to that quietly and patiently, and then she _______to tell her to try again. I was___________about why she was doing that. Even if she wanted Ayuni to learn to climb the ladders, she had to first help her by holding her and showing it practically to her. After all, Ayuni was too_______to learn this based on verbal(口头的)________ Oh！ I saw her mother trying to hide her tears as Ayuni fell for the 13th time! Then, I got ________ to know what was going on!

Later, I noticed there was a __________to my mother with the signature “Lavangi", the name of the little girl’s mother. From it, I was fully ________of the truth. Now, I extract (选取) the following：“Dear Manya, you’ve been like my elder sister，so I ____________to write this letter. I’ve been in the last stage of cancer. You’ve been a great________during my difficult time. The last favor I need from you is to keep an eye on my daughter, little Ayuni...”I closed my eyes, praying for Ayuni and wishing everything would go well with her.

To act with honesty was a habit with Susan who always follows the Golden Rule: “Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you.” But when she thought over her past conduct, a blush of shame appeared on her cheeks, as many little acts of selfishness and unkindness came back to her memory. She was determined that for the future, both in great things and small, she would remember and follow the Golden Rule.

It was not long after this that an opportunity occurred, which tried Susan’s principles. One Saturday evening she went, as usual, to Mr. Thompson’s store, to receive the money of her mother’s washing for him, which amounted to five dollars. When she arrived, she found Mr. Thompson extremely busy. As Susan made her request for the money, he simply pressed a bill into her hand.

With the bill in hand, Susan happily went out of the gate. Pausing to put the money safely in her purse, she discovered that he had given her two bills instead of one. She looked around; nobody was near and her first reaction was joy at the unexpected prize.

“It is all mine,” said she to herself. “I will buy my mother a new coat with it, and she can give her old one to my sister Mary, and then Mary can go to school with me next winter. I wonder if I can buy a pair of shoes for my brother Tom, too.”

At that moment she remembered that he must have given it to her by mistake. But again the voice of the tempter whispered, ‘‘He gave it, and how do you know that he did not intend to make you a present of it? Keep it! He will never know it.”

This conflict was going on in her mind between good and evil.

“Sir, you paid me two bills instead of one,” she handed him the extra note.

7 . If someone said they’d pay you $1,800 to stay off social media for six years, would you do it? Could you? Sivert Klefsaas did just that.

In 2016, Lorna Goldstrand Klefsaas challenged her 12-year-old son Sivert to stay off social media until he was 18. If he completed the challenge, she’d award him the cash on his eighteenth birthday. On February 19, 2022, Sivert claimed his prize.

Lorna once listened to a radio program called the “16 for 16”, where a mother gave her daughter $1,600 when she turned 16 if she stayed off social media. She decided to up the ante (提价) to two extra years and $200 more.

Sivert said it wasn’t too difficult to live without social media, and he didn’t think about it much during the six years. As a 12-year-old, Sivert said he wasn’t using social media much anyway. “I got to avoid all the unnecessary drama that was on there,” Sivert said. Lorna said she never had to check for any sneakily (偷偷地) downloaded apps. “He’s so competitive; it was definitely more for proving a point,” she said. “It also meant he had more time to focus on his grades and sports instead.”

After Sivert’s success, Lorna took to Facebook to share the challenge. She said it was some of the best money she ever spent. Other parents have seemed interested in trying it out too.

“We are certainly not against social media, but it’s the healthy using of it,” Lona noted. “It’s about not letting yourself get weighed down by (被……拖累) it, or addicted to it, or affected by things that people post.”

Sivert is the youngest of four children, and his three older sisters all used social media growing up. Lorna said there were times she felt her daughters “got too engrossed (沉迷的)” in their apps and feeds. “Social media was affecting their mood, their friendships and was kind of a depressant (镇静剂),” she said. When one of her daughters was 16, Lorna took away her phone because of it. Lorna says her daughter later thanked her for doing so, as it improved her mood.

My family had a hard time when I was in Grade 11. My parents lost their jobs during the Depression. Dad was too ill to work outside, while Mum had a tough time raising us kids on her own in our small community. We relied on our community assistance to keep us clothed, and although our clothes were secondhand, we thought they were beautiful.

Looking back, I realize what Mum went through for sending us kids to school. Every morning she would put a new piece of cardboard in our shoes, because our shoes were worn out. Moving house constantly was typical for my family during the period. Rent was twenty-five dollars a month, but Mum couldn’t pay it. These were hard and sad years, but we never complained.

The new year was approaching, and we were entitled (享有)to a twenty-five dollar fund for social services. Mum said that instead of buying food, she would use the money to pay back rent, making sure we all had a roof over our heads for a little while longer. She told us then there would be nothing for the new year.

Unknown to Mum, I had been removing snow and doing odd jobs to earn enough money to buy a new pair of shoes. I knew exactly which shoes I wanted. They were made of genuine leather and they had a price of twenty-three dollars. Well, the big day came on the last day of that year. I was very excited, as I was hurrying up to catch the bus. It was only a half-a-mile walk, but on the way I noticed a house with lights and decorations. It was then that I realized in our house, we had no lights, no decorations, nor any money for goodies (好吃的东西). I knew then that we would have no delicious food for the new year, and I felt sad.

As I continued walking, I began to feel confused. I was sixteen years old, and I was feeling a strange sense of guilt. Here I was going to buy a new pair of shoes while Mum was home in tears. She would be trying to explain to us why there were no presents.

I thought how I ought to use the money I had earned.

Soon I got to my house with the groceries (食品杂货).

Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus (马戏团) . Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter (柜台).

This family made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of twelve. You could tell they didn’t have a lot of money.

Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly talking about the clowns. elephants, and other acts they would see that night with their brothers or sisters in a low voice.

One could sense they had never been to the circus before. It promised to be highlight of their young lives. The father and mother were at the head of the pack, standing proud as could be. The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him as if to say, “You are my knight (骑士) in shining armor (盔甲).”

He was smiling and responding in pride, looking back at her as if to say, “You got that right” . The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly responded, “Please let me buy eight child tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.”

The ticket lady gave the price. The man’s wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, and his lips began to shake. The father leaned (倾斜) a little closer and asked. “How much do you say?”

The ticket lady again quoted (报价) the price. The man didn’t have enough money.

How was he supposed to turn around and tell his eight children that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus?

Actually we were not wealthy in any sense. So I understand how the kids would feel. I felt sorry for them.

Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand in his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground.

That day my father and I went back to our car and drove home without any tickets.