Ann, a mother of 3 children, is a warm-hearted social worker and she has done a lot to help people1. The family's dinner conversation often turns to local poor families, and she 2 tries her best to seek help for them. This year, Ann 3 that Santa Claus would pay a special 4 to a young unemployed mother named Ashley, who was 5 two sons by herself.

    One Sunday morning, the family were joyfully having breakfast 6the phone rang, saying that the help she had requested for Ashley had 7 No Santa Claus, no presents, nothing. On hearing the news, Ann noticed the 8 disappear from her children's faces. Kinzie, the youngest one, 9 down from her chair and ran out of the kitchen room. In only a few 10 , she returned carrying her piggy bank and began to 11the coins over and over again, $3.30 in total. "Mom," she shook her head 12 , "I know it's not much. But maybe this will buy a13 for the children." Then suddenly everyone was reaching into their pockets and 14 their purses. Immediately the money — coins and bills  15 on the table. On Christmas Eve, Ann as well as Kinzie drove to Ashley's house. After Ann wished the 16 woman a merry Christmas, she began to unload the gifts from the car, 17 them to Ashley one by one and told her the whole story.

    Ashley was moved to tears 18 the words: Kinzie opened not only her piggy bank but also her19 , and my children as well as I myself would be able to do something20 for someone else in need.

    It was early in the morning, on a lonely road. It's 1heavily. A 9-year-old boy was in the car with his mother, who was  2him to school. Suddenly, the car went off the road, 3several times, and came to rest upside down in a ditch (沟渠) filled with water.

    Luckily, both the mother and son were  4seatbelts. The mother suffered a blow to her head and was unable to move. The boy was frightened but  5. As water came through broken windows in the car, he  6unbuckled (解开) himself, climbed out of the  7window, made his way around to the driver's side, and reached inside the  8to free his trapped mother. With great effort, he managed to  9her, pull her through the window and up to the road, where they were soon  10.

    His mother later recalled her experience of the  11. Being unable to move or even  12to offer instructions or encouragement to her son, she was  13by her little son's action. She recalled  14her boy saying out loud as he pulled her through the water, “I think I can, I think I can!”

    It seemed  15that this little boy's act of courage was from one of his favorite books: The Little Engine that Could. In that  16, when everyone else had  17hope, the Little Engine carried the heavy load of toys and good things to eat over the hill to the children waiting on the other side. He had  18and took action. Obviously this book had left a  19impression before the accident that rainy  20and motivated (激励) the son to take action if the terrifying moments.

    A Race Against Death

    It was a cold January in 1925 in Nome, Alaska. The town was cut off from the rest of the world due to heavy snow.

    On the 20th of that month, Dr. Welch 1 a sick boy, Billy, and knew he had diphtheria, a deadly infectious(传染的) disease mainly affecting children. The children of Nome would be 2 if it struck the town. Dr. Welch needed medicine as soon as possible to stop other kids from getting sick3 the closest supply was over 1,000 miles away, in Anchorage.

    How could the medicine get to Nome? The town's 4 was already full of ice, so it couldn't come by ship. Cars and horses couldn't travel on the 5 roads. Jet airplanes and big trucks didn't exist yet.

    6 January 26, Billy and three other children had died. Twenty more were 7 Nome's town officials came up with a(n)8. They would have the medicine sent by9 from Anchorage to Nenana. From there, dogsled(狗拉雪橇) drivers—known as “mushers”—would 10 it to Nome in a relay(接力).

    The race began on January 27. The first musher, Shannon, picked up the medicine from the train at Nenana and rode all night.11 he handed the medicine to the next musher, Shannon's face was black from the extreme cold.

On January 31, a musher named Seppala had to12 a frozen body of water called Norton Sound. It was the most13 part of the journey. Norton Sound was covered with ice, which could sometimes break up without warning. If that happened, Seppala might fall into the icy water below. He would14 and so would the sick children of Nome. But Seppala made it across.

    A huge snowstorm hit on February 1. A musher named Kaasen had to brave this storm. At one point, huge piles of snow blocked his15 He had to leave the trail (雪橇痕迹)to get around them. Conditions were so bad that it was impossible for him to 16 the trail again. The only hope was Balto, Kaasen's lead dog. Balto put his nose to the ground,17 to find the smell of other dogs that had traveled on the trail. If Balto failed, it would mean disaster for Nome. The minutes passed by. Suddenly, Balto began to 18 He had found the trail.

    At 5:30 am on February 2, Kaasen and his dog 19 in Nome. Within minutes, Dr. Welch had the medicine. He quickly gave it to the sick children. All of them recovered.

Nome had been20

    You never know how far a kind act can go. You don't know who it can 1, either. When Gloria Porter and Jeff Reick began 2, they had no idea how much it would 3 others to shower (大量给予) people with kindness.

    89-year-old Gloria Porter was lying in hospital. She couldn't leave her ward. So to 4 boredom, she would often stare outside her window to watch construction workers building the new front entrance to the hospital. She wasn't expecting one of the 5 to wave to her. She couldn't help but wave back at the kind 6. This was only the start of a special 7 between the two.

    Jeff Reick knew Porter was 8, so he decided to send a kind 9 to her by finding some chalk and writing "Get Well" on one of the beams (梁) facing her 10. "I just thought that was 11," Porter said. "So I should do something to 12 that."

    When Porter saw construction workers working high above the ground one cold, windy day, she grew 13. She wrote "Stay safe" on a piece of paper, which she then 14 on the window for the workers to see. "When I saw 4 Stay safe' on a piece of paper, I 15 and said to my coworkers, 'Did you see that?'" Reick said.

    The hospital staff took photos of that and 16 them on social media. The simple acts of kindness 17 and many people were employed in similar acts, including one woman who delivered 18 pizza to the construction workers.

    "I just try to lead by example and never expect so much 19," Reick said. "If everybody 20 does things like that, the world will be a better place."

    Once upon a time there were two brothers who lived near each other. One day, they had a 1 because of some small things. And neither was willing to 2 each other.

    One morning, there was a knock at door of the elder brother. He 3 it and found a man standing beside the door. "I'm a carpenter (木匠). I'm 4 a few days' work. Perhaps you would have a few small jobs I could help with."

    "Yes," said the elder brother. "I do have a job for you. 5 at that farm across the small river. It is my younger brother's. We had a quarrel, so I won't like to see his 6 anymore. I want you to build me a 8-foot 7." The man said, "I think I understand the situation. Don't worry. I'll be able to do a job that makes you 8." So the elder brother was very glad and left for the town nearby.

    In the evening, the carpenter had just 9 his job when the elder brother returned. But he was 10 to find, instead of a fence, before him, stood a 11, which went from one side of the river 12 the other! On the other 13 of bridge, was his younger brother.

    "Do you know the name of the bridge?" The carpenter asked.

    "No," the elder brother was 14.

    "OK, I can tell you. Its name is understanding and 15," the carpenter smiled.

    Suddenly they began to understand 16. Surely, between two brothers there should be a bridge rather than a 17. Standing on the bridge, they 18 each other's hands with 19 in their eyes.

    "Could you stay another few days? I've a lot of other work for you," said the elder brother. "I'd love to 20 on," the carpenter said. "But I have many more bridges to build."

Adults check their phones, on average,360 times a day, and spend almost three hours a day on their devices in total. The problem for many of us is that one quick phone-related task leads to a quick check of our emails or social media feeds, and suddenly we've been sucked into endless scrolling.

It's an awful circle. The more useful our phones become, the more we use them. The more we use them, the more we lay neural（神经的） pathways in our brains that lead to pick up our phones for whatever task is at hand-and the more we feel an urge to check our phones even when we don't have to.

What we do know is that the simple distraction of checking a phone or seeing a notification（通知）can have negative consequences. This isn't very surprising; we know that, in general, multitasking does harm to memory and performance. One of the most dangerous examples is phone use while driving. One study found that merely speaking on the phone, not texting, was enough to make drivers slower to react on the road. It's true for everyday tasks that are less high-risk, too. Simply hearing a notification "ding" made participants of another study perform far worse on a task-almost as badly as participants who were speaking or texting on the phone during the task.

It isn't just the use of a phone that has consequences-its me re presence can affect the way we think.

In one recent study, for example, researchers asked participants to either put their phones next to them so they were visible（like on a desk）, nearby and out of sight（like in a bag or pocket）, or in another room. They were found to perform far better when their phones were in another room instead of nearby-whether visible, powered on or not.