Last year, I went to Beijing Qizhi Special Education School for community service（社区服务）.Before we took the bus, my friend asked me a question, "Why are you here?" I did not know how to answer the question.

    The school was not far from my school, but it looked like it was in a different world. A group of children were waiting for us. A boy walked toward me. He held my hands and pulled me to the ground. I kissed the earth and tasted nature.

    I could not understand what he was doing at first, then I was very angry. Though I was very angry, I controlled my anger.

    A teacher stopped this awkward（尴尬的）silence when she shouted at the boy. "What are you doing right here, right now?" she said. "You will never see your mom again if you keep doing this. Now, say sorry!" "Sorry," he cried fearfully and nervously. I said nothing, but I realized something about this child. After lunch I asked the teacher for information about the child's parents.

    She said that the child was very different from other students because of an illness. His family could not afford to treat him. He needed the kindness of his family, but they had abandoned him. So he depended on the support from the teachers and community service workers like us.

    I suddenly realized I could answer the question my friend asked me at the beginning of the day.

    Community service workers help others and make everyone feel better. There are so many people in the world that need help. Playing with lonely children may not make a big difference. But it can light a corner in the children's hearts, making them know they are loved by people.

    I was going back to work to finish a few things one evening, and my two children were busy sewing（缝纫） things on the sewing machine. My 11-year-old daughter was going to help her older brother make a little cushion（垫子）. I left and in a few hours returned to find a mess in the kitchen and front room while both children were sitting in front of the television. Having had a long day, I was very short with my greeting to them. But then I noticed the material they had used for the cushion. I had bought it to make a blanket. Not stopping to listen to them, I shouted at the children and explained how angry I was at what they had done.

    My daughter listened to me sheepishly, not trying to say anything to herself at all, but the pain could be seen written across her face. She went to her room quietly and spent some time alone before she came out to say good night and once again apologized for the mistake she had made. A few hours later, as I was preparing to go to bed, there on my bed lay a beautiful little cushion, with the words “I LOVE MUM”. Next to it was a note apologizing again.

    To this day, I still get tears in my eyes when I think of how I reacted and still feel the pain of my actions. It was I who then sheepishly went to her and apologized for my actions. I display the cushion on my bed with great pride and use it as a constant reminder that nothing in this world is greater than a child's love.  

    Chopsticks were invented in China. There are many stories about who may have invented them. One of them is about Dayu.

    Dayu was an ancient Chinese leader who helped his people fight floods. He was always busy and often ate in the wild. He used a pot to boil (煮沸)water and cook animal meat. Most of the time, he was in a hurry and didn't want to wait to eat. But the meat was too hot to pick up with his hands. In those days, people ate only with their hands.

    So Dayu picked up some twigs (树枝)to help him hold the meat. The twigs later became the chopsticks we know today.

    But of course, this is just one story. The earliest chopsticks we have found so far are more than 3,000 years old, dating back to the Shang Dynasty (朝代).The six bronze chopsticks were found in the Ruins of Yin (殷墟)in Anyang, Henan.

    At first, chopsticks were just used as cooking tools. It was only after some time that people started to use chopsticks to eat.

    One Thursday afternoon, when I was in Grade 9, a new boy came into my classroom. He was short and thin. He walked up to the teacher and told her, very seriously, that he was new. His name was Christian. He sat down, took a look at me, and then looked away. I didn't think he was very nice and I was sure he wasn't the type I would like to make friends with.

    During that year, I didn't talk to him much, but he smiled at me when our eyes met, always shyly. He never ate lunch with anybody, and he never talked to anybody but me.

    But one day I joined those unkind kids who were making fun of him. We made fun of him though I thought it was wrong.

    "Haven't you got any friends?" a kid asked Christian, who had walked past us alone, with his head down.

    "No, he hasn't got any friends. He's too stupid and shy," I said. Then Christian looked up at me with the saddest dog eyes I had ever seen. I felt very sorry at that moment.

    That night, I couldn't sleep because I couldn't get Christian's face out of my mind. In the weeks that followed, be never met my eyes, in class and never smiled at me, It was really hard for me to decide to write him a note asking him. to forgive(原谅) me. But I thought I should.

    The next day in class, I wrote him a note telling him how sorry I felt. About five minutes later, I turned and saw tears in his eyes. "You will never realize what your apology(道歉) has meant to me, Jimmy," he said to me. "I hope we can become friends."

    We had lunch together that noon and we had the best talk I had ever had. Over the years at high school, we were close friends.

    When I think back, I realize that, if I had not apologized, I would never have known what a lovely person Christian was.

    Apologies can really change your life, so never miss the chance to tell somebody you are sorry.

    Once there was an old farmer. He had a horse and the horse was almost as old as himself. One morning he set out(出发) with his young son to sell the horse before it died.

    The father and the son walked because the farmer did not want the horse to be too tired. They met two men on the road. They said, "Why are you walking, farmer? You have a horse. It's a long way to get to the market. "The farmer knew that this was true, so he rode on the horse while his son walked.                                          

    Then they met two old ladies. "What are you doing up there, farmer? Can't you see how tired your son is? "So the farmer got down, and let his son ride on it. Twenty minutes later, three old men stopped them. One said, "Why are you walking, farmer? Get up. It's too hot for an old man like you to walk today. "So the farmer got up behind his son and they went on riding.                                                      

    Sometime later, a young woman passed them. "Why aren't you walking?"She asked, "It isn't far to the market. Give your poor old horse a rest. " So the farmer and his son got down once again. It is a fact that you cannot please (使…高兴) all the people all the time.