1 . An Olympic Village is a place that houses Olympic competitors. It is a place where they prepare for what might be the most important moment in their life. But we want to know more about this mysterious (神秘的) place: What really happens in the village?

We asked swimmer Natalie Coughlin, a three-time Olympian and 12-time medalist. She says, “People think it’s a lot more attractive and interesting than it is. It isn’t. It’s like a huge college campus, including a bank, a salon, a post office, and a huge cafeteria — except that everyone is anxious, getting ready for their biggest event under unbelievably high pressure.”

But some other Olympians look differently at their campus. “It’s like the first day of college,” water polo player Tony Azevedo says. “You’re super excited. Everyone’s meeting people and trying to socialize with others.”

Coughlin says the best spot to be in the village is the cafeteria. Not only does it provide a place to talk with the rest of the athletes from your country, but it’s a great chance for people-watching. One of her favorite games was to tell what sport someone in front of her took based on their body type.

Living in the same village means athletes run into one another all the time. Coughlin shares this story: While in London in 2012, at one point applause (欢呼) broke out at the arrival of someone. Coughlin thought it was one of the British royals, but it was Jamaica’s Usain Bolt (the world’s greatest runner alive). Runner Allyson Felix — a winner of six gold Olympic medals — has also had her run-ins. In 2008, she came across the world-famous U.S. men’s basketball team, including Anthony, Bryant, Wade and other top players.

It’s “a pretty wild scene, the biggest melting pot — a place where large numbers of people, ideas, and cultures are mixed together— you’ve been in,” said swimmer Eric Shanteau. Felix agrees, saying, “You get to meet people from other countries that you wouldn’t even come into contact with. To me that’s the coolest thing.”

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic(冠状病毒流行病),everyday heroes are appearing all over the world.

Raina owns and operates a Bakery in San Juan del Monte, Philippines. Though her business has slowed greatly with more people staying home, one pizza delivery driver came by her shop every day to buy at least 300 pieces of bread.

Curious, Raina finally asked why the driver was buying so much bread. She was shocked by his response. It turns out that the driver whose name is Raymond was using his own tip money to buy the bread to distribute it to homeless people in Quezon City.

Raina was so impressed by Raymond’s kindness that she shared the story on Facebook. Raymond explained that he’s gone hungry as a child himself, so seeing people in need as he made his deliveries urged（敦促） him into action.

He said, “when I give them food, they end up crying. They even tell me that their last meal was the night before I spoke to them. I know what I am giving is not enough but at least they could sustain for a few hours.”

Things are not easy for Raymond right now, either. He’s got three kids at home and his wife is out of work and pregnant(怀孕的).Still, he’s setting aside his tips and a bit of his won salary to feed others.

Once Raina’s Facebook post went popular, more people began sending Raymond donations for his cause. When his boss found out what he was up to, he sent him a check for 10,000 Philippine pesos. (菲律宾比索---货币单位)

Raymond says that he’ll continue to do his part to make sure his neighbors are okay! This is just another example of how some people are stepping up when the rest of the world is forced to step back.

4 . I don’t know why the train was unusually full today. I sat down in the only seat _____   beside a middle-aged man who had his head down and seemed to be lost in ______. I was glad that he didn’t notice me as he just ______ to look down towards the floor.

Shortly after the train left I found myself ______ what this man was thinking about. What could be so ______ that he didn’t even see me sit next to him? I tried to forget about it and started to read my paper. ______, some inner voice kept encouraging me to talk to this man. I tried to ______ but I failed.

Finally I ______ an excuse to ask him a question. When he ______ his head and turned his eyes towards me I could see that he must have been really ______. I can’t describe the sadness which was so ______. We talked for about 20 minutes and in the end he seemed to be doing ______. As we were leaving the train he thanked me again and again.

Several weeks later, when I watched TV at home, I received a strange ______, which only had the word Angel written on it. After I read it I was ______ touched (感动). It was a letter from the man I met on the ______. That day he planned to ______ his life. In his letter, he went on to ______ that he had said to God that if God really ______ him he would send someone to prevent him killing himself. In his eyes I was that Angel sent by God.

I don’t know what that voice was that made me take a ______ and talk to a stranger but I do know that it made a ______ in someone’s life that day. So the next time you hear your inner voice, just listen to it.

5 . On a flight from Dallas, Texas, to Cincinnati, Ohio, to visit a friend in 2013, event planner Paige Chenault daydreamed about the grand birthday parties she’d throw for her daughter one day. (Paige was five months pregnant at the time.) Then, flipping through a magazine, she saw a photo of an impoverished Haitian boy, skinny. “I thought, this kid has nothing,” Paige says.

The image stayed with her, and she resolved to do something to help. “I decided I would use my talents to throw birthday parties for homeless kids,” Paige says. For the next four years, Paige and her husband, Colin, took time out from parenthood to visit shelters to determine how best to pull off the parties.

Finally, in January 2017, Paige launched the Birthday Party Project, a nonprofit organization, and recruited friends and family to help decorate Dallas’s 75- occupant Family Gateway Shelter with balloons and streamers, celebrating the birthdays of 11 boys and girls, with 60 more homeless kids in attendance. “That first party was better than I could have ever imagined,” says Paige.

Now Paige and her staff of three paid employees work with regional volunteers to plan monthly themed parties at 15 shelters across the country, some of which house abused or abandoned kids. Each child celebrating a birthday that month gets a $30 gift, a decorative place mat, and an individual cake or cupcake.

One of Paige’s favorite parts of each party is when the kids make a wish and blow out the candles. “They rarely get a chance to dream big,” says Paige.

Her daughter, Lizzie, now seven, often helps out at the parties. Paige says, “The one thing I’ve always wanted is for my kid to be generous.”

6 . Most young architects particularly those in big cities— can only dream about working in a building of their own. And making that dream come true often means finding a building no one else seems to want, which is exactly what happened to David Yocum and his partner, Brain Bell. Their building is a former automobile electrical-parts film in Atlanta. From the outside, it looks too old, even something horrible, but open the door and you are in a wide, open courtyard, lined on three sides with rusting (生锈的) walls.

In 2000, Yocum and Bell found this building in the city’s West End. Built in 1947, the structure had been abandoned years earlier and the roof of the main building had fallen down. But the price was right, so Yocum bought it. He spent eight months of his off-hours on demolition (排除), pulling rubbish out through the roof, because it was too dangerous to go inside the building. The demolition was hard work, but it gave him time to think about what he wanted to do, and “to treasure what was there — the walls, the rust, and the light.” Yocum said. “Every season, more paint falls off the walls and more rust develops. It’s like an art installation (装置) in there—a slow-motion show.”

Since the back building had been constructed without windows, an all-glass front was added to the building to give it a view of the courtyard, and skylights were installed in the roof. The back of the building is a working area and a living room for Yocum and his wife. A sort of buffer(缓冲） zone between the front and the back contains a bathroom, a kitchen and a mechanical room, and the walls that separate these zones have openings that allow views through to the front of the studio and the courtyard beyond.

Yocum and Bell, who have just completed an art gallery for the city, feel that the experience from the decoration of their building, focusing on the inside rather than the outside, has influenced their work. It has also given these architects a chance to show how they can make more out of less.