On a rainy day, about 150 volunteers worked for eight hours to clean up Carson Creek that is near a river. About nine tons of trash was taken out from there.

    “We did a good job,” said Alan Specter, the organizer of the event. “We're planning to come back here one more time, three years from now. Of course, we hope that there won't be so much trash next time.”

    The trash came in all shapes, sizes, and colors: cans, bottles, bicycles, batteries, furniture, clothing, plastic bags, dolls, and even a golf bag with a full set of golf clubs (球棒).

    The dirty and tiring work was done by two volunteering groups — Save the Bay and Watch the Whales. Most of the volunteers came from a local police station and a fire station. And some of them were old people who had already retired (退休).

    That day, it rained a little. All of them wore boots, gloves and raincoats. They did the work along a two-mile river with over 500 big yellow trash bags everywhere.

    No one found anything that cost much. A five-year-old boy found an earring which he thought might be worth a million dollars. He said he'd sell it. Then he'd donate half of the money to Watch the Whales, and use the other half to buy his favorite ice cream every day.

    Many people laughed at the boy's story. However, it was easily found that the environment there did become better.

    When we talk about stars, especially women stars ,it seems that they are always young, pretty and own charming (迷人的)body shapes. But recently a Britain's Got Talent（英国达人）star Susan Boyle has changed our views absolutely (完全地).

    Simon Cowell, one of the judges of the talent show spoke of his shock over Ms Boyle's voice. “This lady camp up ,and I'm thinking, ‘This will take five seconds and I can go to have a cup of tea. That changed when she began to sing I Dreamed to Dream from Les Miserables. She knew we were going to have that reaction and just to see that look of satisfaction on her face widway through –it was one of my favorite moments,” Cowell said.

    The performance was posted on line and before long,the 47-year-old Scottish woman has been famous all over the world.

    Speaking from her home in Scotland, Ms Boyle said that she hasn't thought of changing her appearance. She said that her friend helped her with make-up. “I mean, that's hardly a makeover,” she added.

    Ms Boyle also spoke of the reason she first began  to explore her vocal talents, “I was kind of slow at school, so getting like singing was a good way of hiding behind that and thus it built my confidence.”

    A few days ago I got a call from my old college friend whom I haven't seen for a very long time. We talked about all the good old times that we had. Then he started talking about his father. His father was badly ill in hospital and couldn't sleep at night, he often talked to himself and made a lot of noise. My friend was angry about this and shouted at his father to stop talking, but after his father stopped talking, he died a few days later.

    My friend was very sorry for speaking the ill words towards his father, he was so sad that he cried like a baby on the other end of the telephone. He said that from that moment on, he prayed every day, asking God to let his father forgive him.

    Sometimes, we complain our parents, but do we realize that our parents take care of us and always stay around us from the day we were born to our adulthood (成年), imagine how sad our parents will be when they hear an unlucky word of "no" come out from our mouths.

    There are so many unlucky children who have neither fathers nor mothers. My dear friends, we can make promises to ourselves that from now on there will be no bad words that come out from our mouths to our parents, take good care of our parents, even if it takes only a second to stay with them, they will be very happy.

    Just as I came back home, I heard a sound coming from the bedroom upstairs-it was from my favourite violin.

    "Thief!"

    I rushed upstairs and saw a boy in dirty clothes pulling my violin down. At first sight, I found a new pair of shoes missing. It seemed he was surely a thief.

    However, when I saw his eyes full of fear, my anger disappeared. I smiled and asked," Are you Mr. Ram's student Rubens? I'm his butler (男管家). I've heard Mr. Ram say his student will come. It must be you."

    "Has my teacher gone out?" the boy said, "I think I'd better visit him again in a while."

    I nodded and asked him, "Do you like playing the violin?"

    "Yes, but I'm too poor to afford one." the boy replied.

    "Then, I'll give you this violin." The boy looked at me surprisingly, but he picked up the violin. While going out of the room, he suddenly saw a huge photo of me playing the violin at the Grand Theatre of Sydney on the wall. His face turned pale. He stood there for a moment and ran out. He must have understood what had happened because no master (主人) would put up the butler's photo on the wall of his living room.

    A few years later, at a music competition in Melbourne, I was invited to be the judge (评委). Finally, a violin player called Merritt won the first prize.

    After the prize-giving, Merritt ran to me holding a violin box, his face red, and asked," Mr. Brian, do you still know me? You gave me the violin, which I have treasured ever since! Today, I want to say sorry and give back this violin to you without regret…"

    He was just the "Mr. Ram's student"!

One Sunday night，I was sitting in my kitchen half-listening as my 15-year-old son Tommy quarreled（争吵） with his younger brother Kevin. I didn't pay attention when Kevin went upstairs with a look of 1 on his face. 

About thirty minutes later，I heard Kevin 2 in his room. I knocked on the door immediately and asked，"Kevin，what's the 3 ？Why are you crying？"No answer. I tried again. Still 4 happened. So I took a piece of paper from a notebook and wrote，"If you don't want to 5 ，we can write down to each other. "and slipped（塞） it under the door. 

An hour later，I was still sitting on the floor 6 his door with a stack of（一摞） notes in my hands. As I read one of Kevin's notes，I couldn't7 crying. It said，"Nobody in this8 loves me. I am not the youngest or the oldest，and I am not the 9 to get good marks. Tommy thinks I am too weak. Dad thought I should be taller. 10 ，he always wants me to be a basketball player. And you 11 listen to me，even notice me. " 

He was 12 about my part. Feeling sorry for him，I wrote back，"Kevin，I do love you，and you are loved in this family. " 

He didn't reply for a while，but I could hear him crying 13 . Kevin ran out of paper，so he wrote"Thanks" on a paper cup. I wrote back"For what？" It was returned to me with the reply "14 " written on it. 

Since then，I have tried my best to care for my family. When one of us 15 that the other is unhappy，we'll smile and say，"Write it on a paper cup. "