When I was a kid, my parents and I lived near the forest. They often told me that our family was a team that needed to work together for the household to function smoothly. There was always an abundance of work to do — cooking, cleaning, and walking dogs. I volunteered to walk our dog, Max, who had been adopted one month before. I never dared let this giant dog off the lead (牵狗绳), just in case he took off.

One morning, we were walking along in the forest when Max started pulling on the lead. At first, I was able to hold on despite the wet ground from a recent shower. But the more I tried to stop him pulling, the more it turned into a tug of war. And thanks to the slippery ground, I lost.

Pulling his lead, Max shot off like a bullet, leaving me screaming behind. I chased him but lost my footing and fell face-first into some mud. I stumbled (踉跄) to my feet, but looking ahead, I found him running back towards me. I thought he was going to stop and give me his “Sorry” look. But instead, the dog shot past me and returned after a while.

As soon as we got home, my mother immediately attended to Max with a warm towel and a doggy treat. I thought seeing me stumbling and covered in mud, I would also get a warm cup of tea and a motherly kiss. Instead, I got a very loud lecture about letting the dog loose in the forest.

I felt frustrated. It wasn’t fair that she didn’t understand how difficult it was to control Max. I fought back, “Stop lecturing me! Why is everything my fault?” With these words, I stormed into my bedroom and slammed the door shut.

In the evening, I heard my mother call Max and take him out. It wasn’t long before I heard my mother screaming and the door opening again.

I walked out of my room.

Dad stepped in, suggesting that we work together to train Max.

Several years ago, as I was looking over my travel itinerary (行程) for a business trip from San Francisco to New Orleans, I noticed that I would be spending some time at the Dallas airport before catching a connecting flight. So I called my friend Luke who lived in Dallas, and said I would like to have dinner with him. Luke instantly agreed. However, the flight arrived in Dallas an hour late. Luke was waiting for me as I stepped off the plane.

“Hey, Luke,” I said apologetically, “thanks for coming out to meet me. I hope you didn’t wait here too long.” “ Oh, no problem.” he replied easily. “I called ahead and found out your flight was going to be late.” “Oh, good!” I replied. “Listen, I’m sorry about dinner, but I’ll owe (欠) you one next time. Come on! Find out which gate my next plane is leaving from. We can head over there together and talk for a while.”

I started walking but Luke didn’t budge (让步). “But I want to have dinner with you,” he said. I looked back at him questioningly. “What are you talking about?” “We’ re having dinner,” replied Luke with determination. “I have this whole thing examined thoroughly. I really know this airport well. Just follow me.”

He picked up one of my bags and carried it out through the security check. I ran after him, thinking to myself. “There is no way we are going to get into his car, drive to a restaurant, have dinner, and still get back in time for me to catch the plane!”

The two of us moved hurriedly in the parking lot until we came to Luke’s car. Luke opened the trunk (后备箱) of his car.

People think animals are stupid, that they don’t understand kindness and that they can’t feel trust, or gratitude, or love. But I know they’re wrong and I have the evidence I need. It happened on a winter night, when a duck climbed up the stairs to save his sister.

That day, the temperature had suddenly dropped sharply, with cold winds blowing strongly and big snow falling. It wasn’t until late afternoon that we remembered our two ducks were still at our poorly built small farm. “Have they died due to the cold?” we wondered, worried.

My mother and I hurried to the farm and luckily found they were still alive. Their body was covered with snow; they were too cold to even quack. They stayed close together for warmth. We decided to take them home. Once back in the warm house, we made a nest for them in the basement, using newspaper and towels, and brought them food and water. The ducks gathered together in the warm basement. Near their nest, there were fishing nets we had carelessly left. We didn’t realize that could be a danger to them.

We just decided to leave the ducks alone to warm up and recover. We knew they had enough food and water, so we didn’t go down to the basement again that afternoon. That evening we were reading by the fire in the living room when we heard a strange sound coming from the basement. There was kind of a strange noise, then a pause (停顿), and then the strange sound again-over and over.

“Could that be the ducks?” my mother asked my father. Curious about that, we stood up and went to find out. It was indeed the ducks- at least one of them. We found the duck brother was standing on the second-highest step, beating his wings for balance. He gathered his strength and made the difficult leap to the highest step, the source of the strange noise

When he saw us, he stayed there and started quacking (呱呱叫) crazily and beating his wings.

To free the duck sister from the fishing nets, I rushed upwards to bring scissors.

I live in a city where jobs are difficult to get and if you want to find a well-paid job, it will be even harder. Therefore, it is not surprising for you to see many people in our city walk a long way because they can’t even afford an old used car.

It was a cold windy day. I saw one of these people who often have to walk from and to work every day, when I was driving after work. A middle-aged man wearing only a thin overcoat was walking down the road and trying to ask for a ride from the passing cars. Unluckily, there was no driver willing to stop their cars. When I saw two cars in front of me pass him by, I wanted to do the same. But the sight of that poor man remained in my mind for quite a moment. I felt as if a big hand was dragging me and forcing me not to leave. Finally I drew back and gave him a ride.

As I drove along, we had a conversation, during which he told me something about himself and his family. I learnt that the man was doing everything he could to support his family using the limited salary from several part-time jobs. As you could imagine, every coin he earned was going to be used to pay for the house and food.

It was a long drive before we got to his home. All the way, I could feel his hardship and tiredness. But as we came close to the house where he was living, I saw his tired eyes grow bright and the whole body was lit up. His lovely girl was playing in the front yard. Seeing her father was out of the car, she ran to him as quickly as possible, reaching out her two small hands. He held the girl with his two strong hands, laughing and kissing her cheeks. I was lost in that happy moment. I smiled, said goodbye to them, wished them the future happiness and then drove off.

On my way home, something came into my mind.

Half an hour later, I got home.

When I was in seventh grade, my parents paid a tutor(家庭教师) forty dollars a week for her coming to my house and helping me with math. It ended up raising my marks from fifty to fifty-five.

I had to admit it was mainly my fault. Maybe I should have concentrated my math from the beginning. But studying math was a tough thing. Sitting on a chair to work on confusing math problems for two hours was a slow and painful process. During the process, I would fidget(坐立不安) and have many trips to the refrigerator in an attempt to get off that chair for at least five minutes.

During math tests, my teachers would always stay by my desk. My teachers and friends would frequently ask the question after tests,” How’s your math this time?" So I became extremely afraid of math. While normal people of my age were scared of some insects and adventurous travels, I feared anything to do with numbers. The thought of a teacher picking on me in class made me feel scared. The red marks on the test paper were also terrifying.

My fear of math got worse in ninth grade. Every report card I received from my new math teacher Ms Robbins had the comment to encourage me, "I'm glad to do what I can to help you.” But I couldn't tell her the real reason why I didn't ask for help-I didn’t want to be considered stupid. Every question I had was, in my opinion at the time, something that the whole class had understood but I. So instead, I ended up not caring about anything related to math, without working hard on math at all. And I concluded everything would work out in the end

Eventually, my classmates and I took the final test that would lead to our graduation from middle school and stepping into high school. Days after the exam-- on a rainy summer morning, Ms. Robbins called me.

With worry and uncertainty, I entered her office.

After I took the courage to tell my parents the bad news, they were silent.