Last year, I was lucky enough to work at an office near my mother's house.1, I stayed with her for a month. During that time, I 2 her out with the housework and contributed to the groceries.

    After a week, I started to 3 the groceries were running out pretty quickly.4, I began observing my mother's daily routine for two weeks. To my 5, I found she would pack a paper bag full of canned goods and 6every morning at about nine. She took the food to the slums（贫民窟）and distributed it to street 7.

    I asked around and 8 my mum was popular in the area. The kids looked up to her as if she were their own mother. Then it hit me — why didn't she want to tell me about what she'd been doing? Was she 9 that I would stop buying the groceries if I knew the truth?

    When she got home, I told her about my discovery and 10 she could react, I gave her a big hug and told her she didn't need to keep it a 11 from me. She told me that 12 of the children lived with an old lady in a makeshift home while others13on the streets. For years, my mum had been helping out by 14 whatever food she could 15. I was so moved by how 16 she was. She used what was17for her to help others in need. And I was so 18 of her.

    I 19 to buy groceries for my mum. But now, I always add a(n) 20bag for her other children.

    Anna is a nurse at the National Institutes of Health Center (NIHC). She didn't want the young 1 there, who couldn't go outside, to miss out on the winter 2when it was snowing outside last winter.

    The kids could see the snow 3. But they couldn't 4 it. Many of the kids had a type of immunodeficiency (免疫缺陷) and were waiting to have bone-marrow transplants (骨髓移植). The immunodeficiency put them at risk of infection, 5 while they were having transplants, they were even weaker, so they were6 to go out or be around many people.

    Also, there were kids from all over the world at the center and some of them had 7seen snow in their lifetime. Anna didn't want them to 8 the fun, so she had a(n) 9. Since the patients couldn't go out into the snow, Anna filled up a basin with 10 on her own and 11 it right to them. She made several trips 12 so all the kids would have fresh snow to 13.

    The children made snowballs, 14 the snow with colored pens and made snowmen. One child even 15 Anna with a snowball. They had a very 16snow day.

    After the children's parents knew what she had done for the kids, they 17her. Because of her, the children experienced the 18 brought by snow. One parent said, “My daughter has been at NIHC for almost eight weeks and has hardly been able to 19 her room, so it was so much fun for her to be able to play with the snow.”

    Anna was glad that she could do something to make the children 20.

    One afternoon, my son Adam asked me, “Are all people the same even if they are different in color?”

    I thought for a minute, and then I said, “I'll explain,1you can just wait until we make a quick2at the grocery store. I have something3to show you. ”

    At the grocery store, we4some apples—red, green and yellow ones. Back home. I told Adam, “It's time to5your question.” I put one apple of each6on the table. Then I looked at Adam, who had a7look on his face.

    “People are like apples. They come in all8colors, shapes and sizes. On the9, some of the apples may not10look as delicious as the others.” As I was talking, Adam was11each one carefully.

    Then, I took each of the apples and peeled (削皮) them,12them back on the table, but13a different place.

    “Okay, Adam, tell me which is which”

    He said, “I14tell. They all look the same now.” “Take a bite of15. See if that helps you16which one is which. ”

    He took17, and then a huge smile came across his face. “People are18like apples! They are all different, but once you19the outside, they're pretty much the same on the inside.”

    He totally20it. I didn't need to say or do anything else.

    It's about 250 miles from the hills of west-central lowa to Ehlers' home in Minnesota. During the long trip home, following a weekend of hunting, Ehlers 1about the small dog he had seen 2 alongside the road. He had 3 to coax（哄）the dog to him but, frightened, it had 4.

    Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that 5 dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove 6. After a long and careful 7. Greg saw, across a field, the dog moving 8 away. Ehlers eventually succeeded in coaxing the animal to him. Nervousness and fear were replaced with 9. It just started licking（舔）Ehlers' face.

    A local farmer told them the dog sounded like one 10 as lost in the local paper. The ad had a 11 number for a town in southern Michigan. Ehlers 12 the number of Jeff and Lisa to tell them he had 13 their dog.

    Jeff had 14 in lowa before Thanksgiving with his dog, Rosie, but the gun shots had scared the dog off. Jeff searched 15 for Rosie in the next four days.

    Ehlers returned to Minnesotan, and then drove 100 miles to Minneapolis to put Rosie on a flight to Michigan. “It's good to know there's still someone out there who  16 enough to go to that kind of 17," says Lisa of Ehlers' rescue 18.

    I figured whoever lost the dog was probably just as  19 to it as I am to my dogs,” says Ehlers. “If it had been my dog, I'd hope that somebody would be 20 to go that extra mile.”

Be Happy

    Twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. To my 1 I was driving a school bus to make ends meet although I had a Masters degree. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day they called to say I did not get the job. I went to the bus bay like a zombie(僵尸))of 2.

    Later that afternoon, I had an inner wave, like a scream, "why has my life become so 3?" Immediately after the scream I pulled the bus over to 4a little girl who handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody got back for it. The earring5"BE HAPPY"

    I got angry but then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right. I should be grateful for what I had. I decided to make a list of 50 things I was 6 for.

    At first it was hard, then it got 7. One night there was a phone call for me from a 8 who was a manager at a large 9. She asked me if I would do a one-day lesson for her 200 hospital workers. I said yes and 10 my job as a driver.

    My day with the hospital workers went very 11. I got a standing ovation(热烈鼓掌)and many more days of 12. To this day I know that it was because I changed attitude 13 gratitude.

    I spent the next year conducting training workshops and then decided to go back to Scotland where I had lived 14. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful cottage.

    "The only attitude is gratitude" has been my motto for 15 now and yes, it completely changed my life.

    We first met Tom and Gee in the early days of our marriage. Someone had been 1  our garbage cans to the garage each garbage day, and Jim and I had wondered 2. Then one day we 3 him: an elderly man who lived across the street.

    I baked cookies and left them on a chair outside the garage 4 a thank-you note. When we got home from work that day, a typed letter had replaced the 5. The letter was from Tom and explained how he had come to 6 the neighborhood on garbage day, returning cans for people he 7 knew. Back when he'd been fighting a war I wasn't alive to see, his young wife, Gee, had found herself living alone. Neighbors had taken the time to 8 her garbage cans so 9 didn't have to, and he 10 forgot. Now he paid it forward by doing the same for all of us.

    A few years after we'd moved in, Tom died. We photocopied that letter and 11 it to one of our own for Gee. We told her how 12 Tom had been to us, how sad we felt sorry for her, how thankful we were to have 13 him. She wrote back and told us she still talked to Tom every day.

    These days, we're planning a 14. The house that seemed so huge six years ago is filled with furniture and books and toys and, of course, people. We know it's time to go, and 15  we can't seem to stick the For Sale sign up on the lawn. Gaining a third bedroom sometimes seems like an awful trade for all we stand to 16.

    It's not just Gee. It's the man who lets our kids pick peaches off the tree in his front yard. It's the ladies who 17 Jim when their pool filter (过滤器) breaks and leave overflowing baskets for our kids on Easter. It's the police officer living directly across from us, who smiles and waves and makes me feel a little 18 when Jim is away.

    The moving boxes are still neatly packed in our basement, but Jim and I agree to 19 until January. Maybe before leaving I'll talk to Tom, just as Gee still does. Thank you, I'll say, for teaching us what it means to be a 20.