Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks.

One day, Ali took Zahra's shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it a secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra's school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.

Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city.When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.

The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache. Getting more and more exhausted he thought only of Zahra and his promise to her. Dreaming of the new shoes he would win for his sister gave him strength, and he stayed right behind the two fastest runners, determined to finish third. Suddenly, as the finish line drew near, another runner collided(碰撞) with Ali from behind and he crashed to the ground.

Ali looked up and saw the other boys rushing ahead.

Filled with delight, Ali walked home quickly.

2 . Two weeks ago, a 5-year-old girl named Sunshine Oelfke emptied out her piggy bank (存钱罐) onto the living room floor and immediately started counting. Her grandmother, Jackie Oelfke, thought she was playing as she carefully lined up the coins, but then she saw the girl put the coins into a plastic bag and place it in her backpack.

“What are you doing with that money?” Jackie asked her granddaughter.

“I’m taking it to school,” Sunshine replied. “I’m going to take it for milk money. My friend Layla doesn’t get milk— her mom doesn’t have milk money and I do.”

Jackie’s heart melted at Sunshine’s words. Choked with strong feelings, Jackie held her sweet granddaughter tightly in her arms.

Last week, Jackie and Sunshine met with her teacher, Rita Hausher, and handed her the $30 the kindergartner had saved. There are 20 kids in Sunshine’s class and about half don’t get milk. It costs $ 0.45 a carton (纸盒). The total adds up to about $180 a month for every child in the class to have milk every day.

After dropping Sunshine off at school, Jackie posted a tearful video on Facebook to explain her granddaughter’s plan. To her surprise, many people offered to donate toward the cause. Within a week, Jackie raised more than $1,000. Now every student in Sunshine’s class can get free milk for the rest of the year.

Jackie said Sunshine doesn’t see her kind act as a big deal. She was just trying to look out for her friends. “She doesn’t understand the effect she’s brought about,” Jackie said. “But now she knows she can do whatever she puts her mind to.”

Long long ago, there lived a girl named Eat. She was a good girl, but she never liked her name because all the kids made fun of her name. She ran away from everybody who laughed at her name, so Eat never really had friends. She played alone all the time.

One day, Eat went to her favorite place near the river behind her house, where she always spoke to the river. On that day, when talking to the river, she said, “You are so lucky, as you can travel to different places and always be with your friends — ducks, turtles, fishes, and plants. I wish I had more friends and wouldn’t be alone anymore.”

When she was bored talking to the river, she picked up some stones and tried to skip (打水漂) them across the river. However, she failed most of the time. Finally, she found a perfect stone. She held it tightly (紧紧地) in her fingers, and said to the river, “Oh, dear river, if I could skip this stone all the way across, I would wish for a dear friend just like you.” Saying this, Eat waved her arm back and threw the stone with full strength.

She watched the stone skip once, twice... and to her surprise, the stone went on skipping and finally, on the seventh skip, made it across the river onto the shore of the opposite side. Eat was totally amazed. She could not just believe her eyes.

Her happiness were disturbed (打断) when she heard footsteps coming towards her. Eat looked around and found a little girl was rolling down towards her. Eat hurried to get up to help. However, she lost her balance and fell off, too.

The little girl was crying and holding her knee. Eat pulled herself and went close to the girl, whose knee was bleeding (流血). She said gently to the little girl, “It will be alright. My house is nearby, let me help you. My mother will take care of the wound.”

Once they arrived at her house, Eat called out, “Mom, help! Someone is injured.”

The little girl looked at Eat and asked, “What is your name?”

8 . My seven-year-old son Arthur and I were leaving a holiday party and there was plenty of leftover food that the organizers were trying to give away. Immediately Arthur___ a dish of   tiramisu that no one else wanted. “Please, Mom? Please?” I___ to him.

As we left the restaurant, Arthur stopped to look at something. Standing nearby was a gentleman with his _________   jacket. Every few seconds he _________   and tried to speak to the ______ who didn’t pay him any attention. At that moment, the gentleman spotted my son ______   him.       “Hey man, do you happen to have any____?”

Arthur checked his_____ pockets and then looked at me briefly. I ______ my head. Arthur frowned( 皱 眉 ) and then he said, “No, I don’t. But are you______? Do you like tiramisu? Here, you can have mine.”

I blinked back tears as I watched the man’s smile___ in appreciation. My son didn’t just ____ the food and walk away. He engaged the man in _______ , perhaps the first one this gentleman had all day. He treated the man as a person, with_____ . The smile on the man’s face told me this   was the real reason for his___ .

It was late spring when my mom and I were driving through the countryside. Back then I was 13 years old and always felt unhappy with Mom. However, little did I know that this trip was going to be a special one.

A pot of flowers sat in the back seat, whose pleasant smell filled the car. Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, my mom pulled over（靠边停车）. “What are you doing? "I cried, fearing that the car had broken down and we'd be stuck there, so far from home. Fortunately, that wasn^’t the case. My mom hopped out of the car, grabbing the flowers from the back seat. “It’ll just be a minute," she called back through the open windows.

Impatiently, I cast my eyes towards the edge of the road before they settled on a little sign showing that it was a nursing home. I looked back to the building, somewhat annoyed, as my mom reappeared empty-handed.

Before she started the car, curiosity drove me to ask, “Do you know someone there?" She shook her head. “Then what did you do with the flowers?" She smiled slightly, “I gave them to the receptionist （前台接待员）.“ What?"   She laughed at my confusion. “I told the receptionist to give the flowers to whoever needed them, especially those who haven't received any in a while.”

I kept silent for a moment. Not long after we went on with our driving, I spoke again, “Did you leave your name? “To this she answered instantly, “No. Leaving flowers there for someone who will appreciate them makes me feel good, which is enough of a thank for me. ”

Suddenly, still thinking about Mom's deeds, I heard something burst loudly. It was our car that broke down! Nothing could be worse, because neither my mom nor I understood how to repair it, and we didn’t know where the garage was. It also seemed impossible to wait for any passer-by（过路人），since we had seen so few along the way.

I let out a sigh while my mum rooted （使……固定）herself against the car worrying about what could be done. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As we drove along , a flower shop came into sight on the road.