Mary is an American girl. She is now in Beijing with her parents. She doesn‘t know Chinese, but she is trying to study and speak it .She often tries to speak Chinese to her Chinese friends. Sometimes they don't understand (理解 )her, because she can't speak Chinese well.

    It's Saturday morning. Mary goes out. She is on her way to the park. She is going there to see a flower show But she doesn't know how to get there. She asks a Chinese boy. The boy can't understand her. Then she takes out a pen and some paper. She draws some flowers on it, gives the picture to the boy and says something about it. The boy smiles and then shows ( 指 ) Mary the way to the park.

    Miss Bailey taught me English in Junior school. She cycled to school, and then when entering the school gate, she would gave her bicycle to anyone of us to park it for her. It was a privilege（特别恩典）when Miss Bailey gave her bicycle to you. One day Shankar stood at the gate, Shankar was a hunchback（驼背的人）.

    We laughed and said, “Move out of the way, Shankar! Miss Bailey is going to enter!” Miss Bailey drove in and we all rushed to offer our hands to her. But Miss Bailey looked past us all. “Will you park it for me?” she asked. We looked back to see who it was and were surprised to see it was towards Shankar. “I don't think so, Miss Bailey!” stammered （结结巴巴地说）Shankar. “Why! You lazy fellow!” said Miss Bailey playfully. “You don't want to help your teacher, do you?” “ Of course I want to, Miss Bailey!” whispered Shankar. “But I might drop your cycle!” “ If you drop it ,you pick it up!” said the teacher with a smile.

    With that she gave her cycle to Shankar and didn't look to see how he'd manage. Pretending she had confidence in his abilities, Miss Bailey turned and walked to class. We watched Shankar as he held her bike, we held our breath as we thought it was going to fall. Dines rushed to help. “Leave it!” Shankar said, and we all stopped. It seemed that his hump（驼背）disappeared as he drew himself up to his full height, and then with growing confidence, he pushed Miss Bailey's cycle to the parking lot. The school bell rang, and we rushed to class. Shankar was the last to enter, but we were surprised; it was a different boy who walked in.

    Miss Bailey didn't even look at him as he walked to her and handed her the key. From that day on, Shankar was ready to answer the questions in class, his grades went up and a smile appeared on his face.

    "You have saved my horse." Queen Olivia told the young boy standing before her. "Now you shall get a gift for what you did." Peter nervously ran his fingers through his brown hair. That day when he was working in the field，the shocked horse ran past him. Without thinking，he rushed out and controlled it. He didn't know it was the Queen's horse and never expected to get a gift. But he still felt happy for getting one.

    Two of the queen's men appeared. One carried a mirror. Red jewels(珠宝)shone on top of the mirror's silver frame(框架). The other carried a wooden cage with a chicken inside it.

    "Only one gift call be yours," the queen said. "Choose wisely." "That's easy," Peter said. "I'll take the chicken." Some of the queen's men laughed. It was clear that they thought he had made a foolish choice.

    "And why did you choose the chicken?" the queen asked. "Well, I don't know much about jewels," Peter answered. "But I do know about chickens. The chicken will provide eggs for my family for a long while."

    Queen Olivia smiled. "Then you did make a wise choice," she said. "That minor may look beautiful. But the jewels you see are only colored glass, and the frame is painted silver. The chicken is much more valuable." Peter took the chicken and bowed. "Thank you, your majesty."

    "You are a smart child." the queen added. "I could use a smart boy to help take care of my horses. Would you like to take the job?" Peter smiled. "Thank you very much!" he said excitedly. A job at the castle paid well. Now his family wouldn't worry about their food any more--all because he was kind to help others and smart enough to make the right choice!

    One cold winter morning, an old woman had to go to see her doctor. When she walked into the doctor's office, she told him that her right leg hurt and sometimes she could not walk. She asked him what was wrong. She told him that she had never had such a feeling before.

    The doctor checked the old woman carefully, then he said, "You're in good health for a woman of your age. I think the trouble in your right leg is just a matter of old age catching up with you. We get all kinds of illness as we get older. The trouble will almost certainly end in spring. "

    "I don't think so, doctor!" she said. "My left leg is well, and it's the same age as my right one."

    Homeless people face a lot of challenges, - such as not having enough to eat and no job opportunities. Some of the most basic challenges, - however, -are not having clean water and toiletries (卫生用品)-a big problem for homeless teens. That encouraged a young researcher to invent a multi-purpose product to help these teens.

    "I was born into a life of volunteering," said 13-year-old Leia Gluckman. And that's true. Her mom is a president of an organization providing help for homeless teens. Leia and her brother have volunteered there for years. When she was a young girl, Leia helped serve food where teens were eating. Now she's a teenager herself, and she's managing the toiletry and clothing work there.

    From her work at the center, Leia noticed that teens asked for some toiletries more than others. What they needed most often were toothpaste, body powder (粉)and shampoo(洗发水).Leia wondered whether she could create a product to serve all three purposes.

    It would need to take away dirt and oil from skin and hair. It would need to clean teeth. Also, it would need to kill bacteria (病菌)without being harmful to people. She wanted her ingredients (产品成分)to be natural, to be able to break down easily and to taste and smell pleasant. Moreover, this product had to be low﹣cost and have a long shelf life.

    Leia started by going to stores and looking at the ingredient lists for toiletries. Then she tried eight different ways. She tested each way to see how well it worked.

    Not all of them worked well. But she finally decided on three. Each includes salt and baking powder. Salt helps clean teeth and skin; baking powder helps take in bad smells. She also has some other recipes which include some special materials that give her products different tastes and smells, which would let teens choose a product based on personal preferences.

    It wasn't easy, but Leia came up with some model products. She presented them at the finals of Broadcom MASTERS science competition.

    Leia wants to develop her products further. "Could it possibly be used to drive away mosquitoes (蚊子)?" she wonders.

    "Science offers a way to go about solving problems and helping people," says Leia. And she thinks her products could benefit a great number of people, not just the homeless. Anyone in an area with little or no chance to get clean water could find her products useful, maybe refugees (难民) and soldiers who are sent to places without running water.