Earlier this year Rodney Smith Jr. made headlines when he drove eight hours from his home in Huntsville. Alabama, to cut the lawn for an elderly soldier in North Carolina who couldn't find anyone to help him with his yard work.

That wasn't the first time the twenty-nine-year-old Bermuda native had gained such attention. To do his good deeds, Rodney often finds leads for those in need through social media.

Back to one August afternoon in 2015, Rodney Smith Jr. was driving home. That's when Rodney saw an elderly man struggling to mow his lawn. He would take a couple of shaky steps, using the handle to stabilize himself, pause, then slowly push the mower again. Rodney decided to help. Mr. Brown thanked him greatly, and Rodney went home feeling satisfied.

Sitting at his computer to do his homework, Rodney couldn't get Mr. Brown out of his mind. There must be many Mr. Browns out there. He went online and posted that he would mow lawns for free for senior citizens. Messages flooded in.

One day a cancer-battling woman said she wasn't having a good day. Rodney decided to do more than mowing lawns. After he finished mowing, he knocked on her door. "You're going to win this fight, Madam", he said. Then he asked folks to pray for her on social media.

Word of Rodney's mission spread. A grandmother in Ohio said he'd encouraged her 12-year-old grandson to mow lawns. He got a letter from a seven-year-old boy in Kansas. "Mr. Rodney, I would like to be a part of your program, and I'll make you proud," he wrote.

That gave Rodney an idea. In 2017, he decided to establish a programme Raising Men Lawn Care Service to make a national movement for young people. The kids learn the joy of giving back.

Yard work seems like a small, simple thing, but taking care of the lawn means a lot to the people they do it for. "When we mow their yards for free, they can use the money for healthcare and food etc. It means more than you would think," Rodney said.

Eighty-year-old retired tailor, James McKay, spent Saturday night in prison after hitting 30-year-old Keith Smith over the head with his walking stick. McKay's wife, Laurene said that, while McKay is usually a（n）1 and pleasant person, he had been driven to this act of2 by literally getting wet just once too often. He could no longer3 it.

Smith lives above the McKays. He is a（n）4 gardener, and also a fish collector. Unfortunately, the water he5 over his balcony（平台）every day ended up on the McKay's floor, or too often, on the unsuspecting McKays themselves.

"For the last two weeks, since Smith moved into the flat above us, we dared not go onto our6 ," said Laurene. She added that it wasn't only the water7 their balcony from Smith watering his plants that8 them, but also the way he cleaned his fish9 . "We'd be sitting there happily reading our newspapers, when suddenly so much water would come from above that we'd be as wet as if we had10 with our clothes on! We could hardly11 the smell of fish!"

And on Saturday evening it was just too12 , "It was James' birthday," Laurene recalled, "and it was such a beautiful night to enjoy the starry night13 . I made him a birthday cake. The candles were a great sight as you can14 , but James didn't get to blow them out." Instead,

Smith15 one of his larger tanks over his balcony and both the McKays and the cake were wet through. "I have never seen him move so fast and I couldn't stop him. He was up there in a（n）16 ."

Smith is not going to take things further with the police. He has also17 to change his ways from now on. And what of James McKay? As he left the18 station,a large crowd of supporters sang him "Happy Birthday". "Definitely the most exciting birthday ever!" said the19 old man. "The best since my20 , I'd say!"

We all know how it feels to get lost in a great book. But what's happening in our brains as we dive into it? How is it different from what happens as we experience real life? Now, a new study led by Dr Leila Wehbe and Dr Tom Mitehell of Carnegie Mellon University have provided partial answers to these questions. 

Since reading comprehension is a highly complex process, earlier studies tried to break that process down and focus on just one aspect at a time: mapping fMRI signatures（特征）associated with processing a single word or sentence, for example. "It's usually not like reading a book, and usually the stimulus（刺激物）consists of out-of-context sentences designed specifically for the experiment"

To address these issues, the researchers developed a computer program to look for patterns of brain activity that appeared when people read certain words, specific grammatical structures, particular characters" names and other aspects of the story—a total of 195 different "story features". In the study, they first asked eight volunteers to read Chapter 9 of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and recorded their brain activity using an fMRI scanner（扫描仪）. Then the researchers fed the volunteers' fMRI data into their computer program and had the program identify the responses of different brain regions to the 195 features mentioned above. 

The result showed that when the volunteers read descriptions of physical movement in the story, there was significantly increased activity in the posterior temporal cortex, the region involved in perceiving real-world movement. Besides dialogue was specifically related with the right temporoparietal junction, a key area involved in imagining others thoughts and goals. "This is truly shocking for us as these regions aren't even considered to be part of the brain's language system," Wehbe says. 

Next, Wehbe and Mitchell hope to study how and why language processing can go wrong. "If we have a large enough amount of data", Wehbe says, "we could find the specific ways in which one brain—for example, the brain of a dyslexic（诵读困难的）person—is performing differently from other brains." And this, the researchers think, may someday help us design individually tailored（特制的）treatments for dyslexia and other reading disorders.

The excitement that soccer awakens in a person is a universal feeling. That is why no one should feel left out of the1 , particularly at a2 match in a stadium (体育场), where there may not be a sports commentator (解说员) to3 the event. This can result in individuals with visual impairments (视觉障碍) not being included.

A4 man named Mike Kearney knows this all too well, but he luckily has a great friend. A5 video recorded Kearney's cousin Stephen Garcia describing a whole soccer match to him at the stadium—and both6 together after their team scored.

Kearney and Garcia are both Liverpool FC season ticket holders. "It's just our routine; it's what we do," Garcia said in an interview. "I7 him every goal kick, every corner, every throw-in. And obviously he knows when we score8 he gets a big hug, a big celebration." The man further9 that Kearney was told who10 the goal and how the play went, in addition to hearing the11 if the other team scored.

Moved by their love for the team, Liverpool FC12 the pair for the final game of the season. The team then documented their13 at the stadium, recording not only Garcia describing the action to Kearney, but also their heartwarming celebration of Liverpool FC's14 .

Later, Salah, one of the team's stars, gifted them team jerseys (运动套衫), signing Kearney's with, "To Mike, your 15 is an inspiration."

Pleasanton Partnerships in Education Foundation (PPIE) was started in 1987 to raise money by organizing running events for local schools. Based in Pleasanton, California, a suburb of San Francisco, the non-profit organization recently hosted a family-focused fitness event for the community. "Our event helps to bring the community together," said Mindy Louie, events and outreach manager for PPIE. "We have more than 3,000 participants, hard-working volunteers and viewers."

This year's fitness event took place on April 30 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. It featured races of two miles, five kilometers and ten kilometers. A new Kids Challenge consisted of a quarter-mile run to encourage younger children to participate. When asked to describe the run, 11-year-old Jeremy Louie said, "Fun, exciting and enjoyable." Jeremy added that he was happy to help support his school.

PPIE supports all 15 schools in the Pleasanton Unified School District, which include more than 14, 500 students and 800 teachers and staff. The nonprofit organization tries to fund programs affected by budget cuts, while encouraging fitness and athleticism. To date, the PPIE has raised over $1 million for the school district.

A local runners' group called the BURN Youth Development (B. Y. D.) participated in the fundraising. The B.Y.D. has since grown to more than 100 youth members, 30 of whom ran in April's PPIE event. Jerry Wu, the group's founder and lead coach, explained that the B.Y.D. was born to keep kids running. "Watching them running strongly and happily makes me smile every time," Jerry said.

Jerry encourages teamwork and teaches the students valuable running techniques. As a B.Y.D. member, Ollie Gu, an eighth grader, was one of the top finishers in the ten-kilometer run. He completed the race in 40 minutes and 46 seconds and won first place in the 12-to-15 year-old age group. "The race was extremely rewarding," Ollie said. "I'm looking forward to it next year."

In 2014, Amy collapsed from a brain hemorrhage (脑溢血) while working. After a year recovering at home, she 1 a course with the ambition to become a 2 .

However, occasional vision disturbance was still 3 , influencing the amount of 4 she could give to the course. Further complications (并发症) left the young artist almost completely blind, making it difficult to see a whole figure. It's particularly 5 because it seemed to 6 her optimism to be a painter! 

One morning, when watching the sunrise, she suddenly felt a sense of 7 . She realized that she may not 8 a whole face anymore, but it shouldn't stop her from putting what she could see on canvas (画布). The following years, she 9 her special art journey.

"Strangely, my experience has increased my 10 when drawing, enabling me to catch a character better," she explains. "People often speak highly of the detail and sensitivity of the character. I have more determination and appreciation for my 11 . These are 12 I wouldn't have had without everything I've 13 ." For her new touring exhibition, she has produced a series of artworks based on her visual experience. "In the 14 interaction between what I can and cannot see lies my perspective on the world."

Sometimes, we can turn a loss into a gain: something unique and individual that has been gifted to us by never 15 .