1 . Mark Twain was a great writer in America. He was also a funny man. There were many interesting stories about him.

In his city, a man didn’t like Mark Twain. On April Fool’s Day, the man wanted to play a joke on the great writer. A newspaper in New York said that Mark Twain died. All his friends around the country were sad when they read it. Then they decided to visit his home. When the friends got there, they found Mark Twain writing in front of his desk. They got a big surprise and thought the newspaper did a bad thing. But Mark Twain didn’t get angry. He smiled and said, “The report(报道)about my death is right. But the time is too early.”

2 . Xiao Ming gets up very late. He rides his bike to the school quickly. He doesn’t look at the traffic lights, so he hits a car. The driver takes him to the hospital right now. The doctor looks over Xiao Ming very carefully. Xiao Ming wants to go to the school but the doctor and the driver ask him to stay in bed.

“ Now my boy,“ says the doctor.“ Could you tell me your name, please?”

“ What are you going to do?” asks Xiao Ming.

“I’m going to tell your parents and your teacher. ”answers the doctor.

“But my parents know my name and my teacher knows my name, too.“ says Xiao Ming.

3 . A young man went to a farm and asked for a job. When the old farmer asked what the young man could do to help the farm, he just said, “I can sleep when the wind blows.”

This short answer puzzled(迷惑)the farmer. But he liked the young man and said OK anyway. Everything went well until one night when there was a heavy storm. The old farmer and his wife quickly woke up and started checking to see if everything was safe.

The farmer and his wife checked their things. They found that the farm tools had been put away safely in the house. The truck was parked in the garage. They found that the doors of the farmhouse were closed. The barn(谷仓)was properly locked. Even the animals were calm. All was well.

After checking everything, they went to the young man’s room and found that he was sleeping. The farmer and his wife then understood the meaning of the young man’s words—“I can sleep when the wind blows. ”

Because the young man finished all of his work while the skies were clear, he was prepared for the storm before it came.

So when the wind blew, he was not afraid. He could sleep in peace.

4 . In America, men and women are allowed to learn to drive at the age of 16. It’s a turning point in any young person’s life. Being able to drive offers newfound freedom. It can also provide independence. So 16-year-oldAllan Gieger III was especially pleased when his mother and father bought a car for him when he passed his driving test.

His parents had intended him to use the car to drive to school and to work once he found a job. They thought it would give Allan a good start in life. Sadly, Allan did not see it quite the same way as his parents. He could not wait to pick up his friends and drive around the neighbourhood showing off his good luck. His parents felt that he let them down. They tried to speak to him about it, but the 16-year-old chose to ignore(不理会) their protests.

So not long after Allan received the car he was very surprised to see that its picture appeared on a website that sold cars. Next to the photo was the following message: “I have put my son’s car up for sale. I bought it for him as his first car. He thinks it’s cool to drive around with his friends. I don’t think he shows my wife and me enough respect(尊重). My son chose to throw all that away because he’d rather his friends had a stronger influence over him than me.”

Allan could hardly believe what he saw or read. It was reported that his father was able to sell the car within two hours. Now, Allan is carless. The father also received a number of phone calls from other parents congratulating him on what he had done. Allan was very upset at first, but when he saw how many phone calls his father received from other parents he began to consider his own actions.

5 . Christian Larsen asked his mother, Lindsay, to throw him a ninth birthday party so he could invite all of his friends. Finally, she gave in, sending out invitations— and waiting. But only one person responded. Christian, who attends Hillsdale Elementary in Meridian, Idaho, has autism (自闭症).

On May 31, Lindsay posted on Facebook about not having responses, and her friend Blythe Ben-David stepped in to make a birthday miracle (奇迹) happen.

Ben-David wanted to attend the party, but she lives in South Texas, far from the Larsen family. So she reached out to Dan Holtry, a family friend and the football coach at Nampa High School in Idaho.

“He has always been a caring man with a big heart,” Ben-David said. “I knew if anyone could help it would be Dan.” When Ben-David asked Holtry whether he could help, he agreed and went“above and beyond.”

“My players were also willing to celebrate with Christian,” Holtry said. “Within seconds of a sent text, they were 100% in.”

When Christian’s party was held on June 4, a few classmates, some children with their parents from the neighborhood and some family friends showed up. Christian was running around and having a good time when the surprise guests arrived. Holtry and his players showed up.

“It was amazing to see how they all came together,” Lindsay wrote in an email. “Christian often plays alone, but with the players there helping organize games, he became part of the action that day. He was playing alongside his peers (同龄人), as well as the football players.”

Holtry and his players stayed until the very end, playing with the children and singing happy birthday.

“He talked about the party for days,” Lindsay said. “He didn’t question why the players were there, he just loved it. He has said many times that it was the best birthday ever!”

7 . On August 4, 2021, the US toymaker of Mattel showed the latest additions to the collection of Barbie Role Models series-custom, one-of-a-kind dolls modeled after six ordinary female workers. To shine a light on their efforts, Mattel is sharing their stories to inspire the next generation to take after these heroes and give back. The company does not plan on selling these dolls.

Amy O’Sullivan

Amy O'Sullivan is an emergency room nurse at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. She treated Brooklyn’s first COVID-19 patient, survived a deadly attack of COVID-19 herself, and then returned to care for others.

Professor Sarah Gilbert

Professor Sarah Gilbert, a professor at the University of Oxford in England has been battling the pandemic(疫情) out of the public sight. Ms. Gilbert helped develop the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-l9 vaccine(疫苗), which has helped save the lives of millions of people worldwide.

Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz

Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz is the perfect role model for any young girl wishing to have a STEM career. The 31-year-old got a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering before turning to a medical school. Sue Cruz has been on the front lines in both hospitals and clinics during the pandemic.

Dr. Kirby White

Dr. Kirby White, a doctor in the countryside of Australia, was honored for her work in providing frontline workers with protective gowns(长袍) during the pandemic. She started the movement, Gowns for Doctors, which attracted hundreds of local volunteers and companies to make thousands of re-usable gowns. They were given away to over 750 countryside medical clinics.

8 . It was 3:34 in the morning. Suddenly the bed moved a little. I woke up. That bed used to move a lot so l just thought it was my wife rolling (翻) over. I looked over to her and she was fast asleep. So I thought it was just another small tremor (轻微地震). We used to get many small tremors in Chile. But then everything in the room started making noise. The tremor got a bit stronger. My wife woke up.

I went to open the front door to make sure it wouldn’t get stuck while my wife went to see how the kids were. They were still fast asleep.

I got to the front door and left it open. When I turned around to go back to the bedroom, the full force of the earthquake started to hit. I couldn’t move forward. While I was trying to hold myself up against the wall, I looked out the window. It was frightening, some buildings coming in and out of view and some already falling down. Then the earthquake made a strong push and our lights went out. In the darkness, I thought, “This is it! We’re not coming out of this alive.”

Luckily, the violent shaking gradually slowed down and then stopped. I could finally walk to our children’s room. My wife had been standing over them during the strongest part of the earthquake, making sure nothing fell on them.

After such a big earthquake, we expected the “smaller” aftershocks to be still very strong. There was still a chance that the building could collapse. So we woke the kids up , got some basic things and started to walk down the emergency (紧急情况) stairs…all 22 floors of them.

When we finally arrived at the ground floor many other people had already arrived , some in pajamas (睡衣), some half-dressed. The good news was everyone got out of the building safe and sound.

10 . What are we celebrating today? I asked the above question at the beginning of every one of my classes, whether I was teaching kids or adults. Sometimes I asked it a little differently, as in, “Who has good news?” or “Who has something good to say?” However I asked it, it always meant the same thing. It was a call for celebrating life, for focusing on what’s right and what’s good.

This was something that started by accident in the 1970 school year and continued until I stopped classroom teaching in 2001—thirty years of celebrating! Believe it or not, it started as the result of two things that are not so popular among kids: daily news and homework.

When I was teaching courses in history and government in high school, I would always ask students to read the latest news every night. After a few weeks, one student came to me and said, “Dr. Urban, did you notice that most of the news was bad news?” And he was right. Then we had a long class discussion about this, and finally we all agreed on one thing: We needed to receive more good news.

So the next day at the beginning of class I asked, “What are we celebrating today? Who has good news? Who has something good to say?” Later, I suggested that we should also include good things in our own lives.

They thought it was a great way to start class, and it developed into something that had a profound and lasting impact on both my students and me. Over the years of doing this, we heard just about every bit of good news possible. Some were small things, some were huge things. But the most important was that my students learned to look for the good in everyday life. They looked for it, they found it, and they celebrated it by sharing it with others.