It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. It had not rained in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. If it did not rain soon, we would lose everything. On this day, I witnessed(目睹) a wonder.

    I was making lunch when I saw my 6-year-old son, Billy, walking very slowly toward the woods. Minutes later he came running out again, toward the house. Soon after, I saw him walking toward the woods again. This went on for an hour. Finally I walked out of the house quietly and followed him.

    Billy cupped both hands in front of him as he walked, careful not to drop the water he carried. Leaves slapped his face but he kept walking into the woods. Then I saw an amazing sight. Several large deer stood in front of him. Billy walked right up to them. I saw a tiny baby deer lying on the ground. It was dying of thirst, and it lifted its head with great effort to drink the water in my boy's hands.

    When the water was gone, Billy ran back to the house. I followed him to the tap. Billy opened it and a small trickle(细流) came out. He knelt down, letting the drops slowly fill up his "cup".

Now I understood what was going on. The week before, he tried giving water to our horses but I told him not to waste water. Now when he stood up and turned, I was there in front of him. His eyes filled with tears, "I'm not wasting," he said. I joined him with a small pot of water from the kitchen. I let him walk to the baby deer alone while I stood at the edge of the woods. As tears rolled down my face, they were suddenly joined by other drops... and more drops... as if the sky itself was crying.

Blue Lightning

    Sally loved cars more than anything else. This spring she thought of building a go-kart to enter for the Go-Go Race. So she asked her dad for help.

    "Well," he said. "How about this: you do some research first and then come back to me with a design."

    A week later, Sally brought her notes and drawings to Dad. She named her go-kart "Blue Lightning". Dad looked over her work, thinking. "Well, that's interesting," he said. "Have a try. Just build Blue Lightning as you've designed."

    Over three weekends of hard work, Sally turned her design into a real, working go-kart and painted it light blue. Dad asked her to take it for a test drive. Sally agreed.

    After she did that, Sally drove back to Dad. "Well," she said. "Now I know why you wanted me to have a test drive."

    "Oh, do you?" he said. "Please share."

    "When I drove fast, there was a lot of pushback," she said. "I think it's because of the lightning bolt (闪电) shape."

    "Very good!" Dad said.

    "So, why didn't you tell me about that problem in the first place?" Sally asked.

    Dad laughed. "Where's the fun in that? If you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime."

    Sally said, "I see. Anyway, designing is half the fun!"

    Dad smiled. "Good. Sometimes, learning happens during the process. We learn how to do something right by doing it a few times first and making mistakes along the way."

    That encouraged Sally and she worked even harder. When she showed Dad her new go-kart, he nodded with pride.

    Finally came the race. Sally wasn't worried about whether she would win—in her mind, she had already won, by building something better than ever before.

Somebody Loves You

    One cold rainy night, I was working on my Legos in my bedroom. I was dreaming of the day when I have earned enough money to buy my favourite set. To help me, my father rewarded me one dollar a day after I jogged with him in the morning.

    Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I jumped from my chair and raced to the top of the steps, wondering who would visit us on such a rainy night. My mother opened the door. Surprisingly, she found a very untidy man. Overcome by pity, my mother invited him inside to the living room.

    I went downstairs quietly so I could get a better look. I couldn't hear clearly what they were saying, but I saw the man holding his head in his hands and crying, which made my chest ache.

    I raced back to my room, grabbed the one-dollar coin I had got that morning, ran back to the man, put the coin in his hand and gave him a hug. At that moment, I had no idea why I did so. Feeling embarrassed, I stood still.

In a while, the stranger sat quietly with his head bowed. Tears streamed down his face as he tightly held that coin. Finally, he said, ―I just thought nobody cared about me. For the last twenty years, I have been so alone… I have no family. That was the first hug I have gotten in — hmmm… I don't know how long. It's hard to believe that somebody cares.

    Being a kid, I hadn't thought about what I was doing that night. I just had the reaction to the sight of someone else's pain. On our earlier morning jogs, my dad and I had talked about the importance of giving, but I hadn't had any idea of what it really meant.

    Before the man left that night, my parents asked him why he had knocked on our door. He said that as he was walking along the streets, hopeless and ready to die, he had noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of our house. The bumper (保险杠) sticker on the car read: SOMEBODY LOVES YOU.

Young Heroes for the Planet

Nowadays, people around the world are working to help our planet. Check out how the four young adults made a difference.

Laura is p{#blank#}1{#/blank#} of owning a pair of jelly shoes but she hates the jellyfish. When her brother tells her the shoes are made of jellyfish, she throws her jelly shoes away. However, she changes her mind about the shoes when she sees some s{#blank#}2{#/blank#}, rainbow- like jellyfish babies. She helps to save the jellyfi sh on the sand and she doesn't hate them any more. Instead they look beautiful to her and she likes them. She doesn't get back her shoes, however, even though her brother admits he m{#blank#}3{#/blank#} the story all up. In the end, the shoes are back in the deep sea where she thinks they b{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.