Characters: Evan, Mrs. Bordoni, Mr.Cortez, Rita. Marco. Tom

Setting: An elementary school

Mrs. Bordoni: (Stands at the schoolgate) Good morning! You need to go straight to your classrooms, children. (Ashy boy walks up, with a red face.) What is your name?

Evan: (Looking at the ground) My name is Evan.

Mrs. Bordoni: Welcome to North side. I'm the principal(校长), Mrs. Bordoni.

Evan: (Looks surprised) Oh! Good morning.

Mrs. Bordoni: I know you are new to ourschool, but you will like it here. I will take you to your classroom.

Evan: I didn't want to move… and leave my friends.

Mrs. Bordoni: You will have friends here. You'll see.

Mrs. Bordoni: Here's your room, 106.

Mr. Cortez: Welcome to our class! I'm Mr. Cortez.

Evan: (The class looks at him. He speaks softly.) Hello.

Mr. Cortez: We are talking about a story we just read. Who can tell Evan what it was about?

Rita: This family moves to a new state.Their story is both funny and sad.

Evan: (Cheering up) Did they like the new place?

Marco: Not at first. But they made lotsof new friends.

Mr. Cortez: What happened to make them change their minds?

Tom: The girl from next door said she needed help. When they got to her house, a sign said, “Welcome”.

Marco: It was a surprise party for them.The whole family was laughing.

Mr. Cortez: The neighbors made the family feel welcome.

Mrs. Bordoni: (Stands in the doorway)Evan, it's time for lunch. (They enter the lunchroom. A sign says, “WelcomeEvan”.) It is hard to change schools and leave old friends. Now, we are your friends.

Evan: (Smiles) I can't believe you did this for me.

I was in a shopping mall, so I decided to go and get a cup of coffee. As I was making my way to the coffee shop, I noticed an old gentleman poorly dressed sitting near the shop. I knew from the first sight that he needed help. He had a little lunch in front of him and was enjoying it. It was clear that he had a problem with his right eye. I then joined the line and waited to be served.

    Then it happened. One of the most beautiful gestures(姿态) I had ever seen in my life. There was a young man in front of me in the line who was also waiting to be served. The next thing I knew was that the young man handed the waitress(女服务员) 20 dollars and requested a glass of juice as a favor(善行). The waitress looked at the young man a little perplexed, not fully understanding the request. That was when the young man asked her to give the juice to the old gentleman eating his lunch outside, as well as the change(零钱) from the 20 dollars. The young man also told her that he would be watching every second so that she would be completely safe. Then there was a wonderful exchange between the waitress and the old man. I only wished I could take a photo of the smiles on both of their faces.

As I was considering this event later, I wondered why the young man didn't perform this act of kindness himself. Maybe he was hoping that this act of kindness might inspire(激励) others to do something for this old man as well.

    In a faraway kingdom, there was a river. It was the home to many golden swans (天鹅). The swans spent most of their time in the river. Every six months, the swans would leave a golden feather (羽毛) as a paying for using the river. The soldiers of the kingdom would collect the feathers and gave them to the king.

    One day, a homeless bird saw the river. "The water in this river seems so cool and nice. I will make my home here," thought the bird.

    The minute the bird landed near the river, the golden swans noticed her. They came shouting, "This river belongs to us! We pay a golden feather to the king to use this river. You can not live here."

    "I am homeless, brothers. I will also pay. Please give me a place to live in," the bird pleaded (乞求). "How can you pay for it? You do not have golden feathers," said the swans, laughing. They added, "Stop dreaming and leave at once." The poor bird pleaded many times. But the arrogant (傲慢的) swans still drove the bird away.

"I will teach them a lesson!" decided the bird, feeling angry.

    She went to the king and said, "Oh, my king! The swans in your river are rude and unkind. I pleaded for a home but they said that they had paid to live in the river with golden feathers."

    The king was angry with the arrogant swans for having driven the homeless bird away. He ordered his soldiers to bring the swans to his palace. In no time, all the golden swans were brought to the king's palace.

"Do you think our kingdom depends on your golden feathers? You can not decide who lives by the river. Leave the river at once or I will kill you!" shouted the king.

    On hearing the king's words, the swans flew away sadly. The bird built her home near the river and lived there happily. She gave homes to all other birds who came to the river.

At the age of 16，Julia left school and worked at a restaurant. For many years, she was only interested in making money. Then one day she had a serious car accident which changed her life.“I had a terrible car accident in August 1996.It took me 10 months to recover （康复) from the accident. During that time，I realized I wanted to find a more meaningful reason for being here in this world，”said Julia.

    As soon as she recovered，Julia gave up working at the restaurant and traveled to California. One day she found a big company wanted to cut down part of a forest. In the forest there were lots of redwood trees. One of the trees was more than 1,000 years old.

Then Julia learned a group called Our Earth was trying to save the redwood forest from the company. They decided to find someone to live in a redwood tree and hoped this would stop the company from cutting the trees down. Julia volunteered.

    Julia lived in the tree for over two years without ever going down. It was cold and wet in a redwood tree. There were even very serious winter storms while Julia was in the tree.

Finally the company decided to protect the tree Julia lived in. They agreed never to cut down the big redwood tree or the trees around it. When Julia put her feet on the earth，she began to cry. But she continued to do other things to protect the environment.

    The ocean is no longer a safe place for many creatures. For many years, 1 activities such as polluting and overfishing(过度捕捞) have made it 2 for many creatures to live in it. In 2015, Chile, a country in South America, tried to 3 that. It created the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park. It is the 4 ocean reserve in North or South America. It is about 115,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean. That's about the 5 of the state of Arizona, USA.

    No 6 or any other kind of harmful human activity will be 7 in the waters in that area. That's good news for the sea creatures that live in that part of the Pacific Ocean. The area is 8 to many unusual creatures not found anywhere else in the world.

    2015 was a big year for protecting the world's oceans. In total, more than one million square miles of ocean were 9 protected in the year.

    Liesbeth van der Meer is a scientist at Oceana, a group working to 10 the oceans. She said Chile's new reserve was a great victory(胜利) for the world's oceans.