Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what life would be like if you had a hundred dollars less.Also imagine what it would be like spending the rest of your life with your eyes closed.Imagine having to read this page,not with your eyes but with your finger­tips.

     With existing medical knowledge and skills，two­thirds of the world's 42 million blind should not have to suffer.Unfortunately，rich countries possess most of this knowledge,while developing countries do not.

     ORBIS is an international non­profit organization which operates the world's only flying teaching eye hospital.ORBIS intends to help fight blindness worldwide.Inside a DC­8 aircraft，there is a fully­equipped teaching hospital with television studio and classroom.Doctors are taught the latest techniques of bringing sight back to people here.Project ORBIS also aims at promoting peaceful cooperation(合作) among countries.

     ORBIS tries to help developing countries by providing training during three­week medical programs.ORBIS has taught sight­saving techniques to over 35,000 doctors and nurses，who continue to cure tens of thousands of blind people every year.ORBIS has conducted 17 plane programs in China so far.For the seven to ten million blind in China，ORBIS is planning to do more for them.At the moment an ORBIS team is working on a long­term plan to develop a training center and to provide eye care services to Shanxi Province.ORBIS needs your help to continue their work and free people from blindness.

     For just US $38,you can help one person see;for $380 you can bring sight to 10 people;$1,300 helps teach a doctor new skills; and for $13,000 you can provide a training program for a group of doctors who can make thousands of blind people see again.Your money can open their eyes to the world.Please help ORBIS improve the quality of life for so many people less fortunate than ourselves.

    Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York—he in computers, she in special education. “Teaching means everything to us,” Tim would say. In April 1998, he learned he would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.

    Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by Dolly Parton's foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the singer's hometown of Sevier, Tennessee. “I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when we retire,” Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk as a “reminder”.

    Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imagination library com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.

    The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to Dollywood for a look see. “We didn't want to give the children rubbish,” says Linda. The books reviewed each year by teachers, literacy specialists and Dollywood board members included classics such as Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama series.

    Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than appreciative: “This program introduces us to books I've never heard of.”

    The Richters spend about $400 a month sending books to 200 children. “Some people sit there and wait to die,” says Tim. “Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left.”

    A few weeks ago, I called an Uber to take me to the Boston airport for a flight home for the holidays. As I slid into the back seat of the car, the warm intonations（语调）of the driver's accent washed over me in a familiar way.

    I learned that he was a recent West African immigrant with a few young children, working hard to provide for his family. I could relate: I am the daughter of two Ethiopian immigrants who made their share of sacrifices to ensure my success. I told him I was on a college break and headed home to visit my parents. That's how he found out I go to Harvard. An approving eye glinted（闪烁）at me in the rearview window, and quickly, we crossed the boundaries of rider and driver. I became his daughter, all grown up – the product of his sacrifice.

And then came the fateful question: "What do you study?" I answered "history and literature" and the pride in his voice faded, as I knew it might. I didn't even get to add "and African-American studies" before he cut in, his voice thick with disappointment. "All that work to get into Harvard, and you study history?"

    Here I was, his daughter, squandering the biggest opportunity of her life. He went on to deliver the age-old lecture that all immigrant kids know. We are to become doctors (or lawyers, if our parents are being generous) – to make money and send money back home. The unspoken demand, made across generations, which my Uber driver laid out plainly, is simple: Fulfill your role in the narrative（故事）of upward mobility so your children can do the same.

I used to feel anxious and backed into a corner by the questioning, but now as a junior in college, I'm grateful for their support more than anything. This holiday season, I've promised myself I won't get annoyed at their inquiries. I won't defensively respond with "but I plan to go to law school!" when I get unrequested advice. I'll just smile and nod, and enjoy the warmth of the occasion.

    Should you work out in the gym in the morning instead of in the evening? It all depends. Of course, there are advantages of working out(运动) in the morning.

    You will increase your energy for the rest of the day. “Morning workouts result in better energy levels throughout the day and give you more mental sharpness,” says Dr. Cedrie Byrant, Chief Science Officer of the American Council on Exercise.

    Here is another advantage. In 2017, health researchers found that exercising in the morning helps you sleep better at night. According to the study, in all cases, those who exercised at 7:00am experienced about a 10 percent drop in blood pressure that carried through the rest of the day. They also had about a 25 percent drop in blood pressure at night, slept longer and had more beneficial sleep cycles than when they exercised at other times of the day.

    However, there are disadvantages, too.

    If you are not an early riser, getting out of the bed in the morning can be very difficult. Byran says that if you're not used to exercising in the morning and force yourself to get up, you may not put as much effort into the exercise as you would later in the day. Also, if you aren't careful, you can damage your sleep schedule, which can lead to insufficient sleep.

    Besides, hitting the gym before work can cause a challenge in terms of scheduling. If you work a 9-to-5 job, getting ready for work and going to work can cut your morning workout short, Byrant notes.

    To sum up, it has both advantages and disadvantages. If it suits you better to work out in the morning, you can do so.

    High school was a hard time for Me in the beginning because I had just moved to a small town and knew basically no one. I loved to play basketball but was afraid to go to tryout (选拔)for the school's team because I didn't know anyone. One day all that changed when I missed the bus home and decided to shoot baskets on the school playground to kill time. The coach Mr Colbath had been watching me make various baskets and was pretty impressed with my moves.

    He came up to me and asked me who had taught me to play like that. I told him that my dad had taught me how to play basketball. He asked me if he would see me at the tryout on Friday, but I said no and told him why. He told me to have a try because I played very well and would maybe make some friends on the court. After thinking for a few minutes. I finally decided to have a try.

    On the day of the tryout, the coach came, found me and helped me practice before the tryout. He helped me a lot and I did very well at the tryout and many members of the team were quite impressed. I did make the team and over the next few years the coach helped me both on and off the court. He helped me do my math which I had such a difficult time with and he even taught me how to live independently.

    I will never forget Mr Colbath. He really inspired me and changed my life. I would not be the person that I am today if he had not taken such an interest in me when I was in high school.

Once a blind man fell flat on his face, which was awful but finally harmless. His service dog, however, was trained lo tum to an adult if the owner had an epileptic seizure (癫瘤发作). While the dog did what it was taught, the first person it found was merely annoyed but not alarmed. Thankfully, the dog's owner was not in the situation of medical emergency. But the experience inspired him to share this information on social media, "If a service dog without a person approaches you, it means the person is down and in need of help," the owner explained. "Don't get scared, don't get annoyed, and follow the dog! If the first person doesn't cooperate, it moves on.

Referring to the accident, a TV presenter asked a dog trainer, Olivia, some basic questions about service dogs, including how humans should react if an unaccompanied service dog approaches them.

"What they're going to do is sniff and gently push your leg," the trainer explained, specifically noting that service dogs are not usually trained to jump or bark. "If you see a dog in a vest without a person around it, follow it." When asked if one should say something to indicate they're prepared to follow the dog, Olivia said," there's no clear command. Just start walking wherever the dog leads."

Olivia concluded the TV show by adding that those who rely on service dogs could train their companions to move along to someone else, if the first person the dog came upon reacted negatively to its request. Doing so could finally save the owner's life.