Mr Robin（知更鸟）had his house in a tree.
     His four baby robins lived in it. They grew very fast. Soon the house was too little for them.
   “It is time for you to fly,” said Mr Robin.
   “Oh, we can not fly,” said the baby robins.
   “You can, if you try, ” said Mr Robin.
     A robin tried. He flew into a tree.
   “Oh, how interesting!” said the little robin. “I like to fly. See me go!”
     Then the other robins tried.
     In a little while they could all fly.
     The robins could fly, but they could not sing.
   “No, Dad, we can not sing.”
   “You can, if you try. Hear the other birds sing. Look at the pretty flowers and the blue sky. Then you will want to sing. Hear me sing to you. Now sing for me.”
      One little robin sang.
     Then they all sang.
     A little girl came by. “Wow, hear the birds sing!” she said. “How happy they are!”

    I was 8 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1993, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday. “Jessica, I don't want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him.”

    AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 11, his condition worsened. My father's other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.

    We couldn't afford all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work. I had no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher's words muffled as I was thinking how I was going to manage.

    I didn't share my burden (负担) with anyone. I had seen how people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside even though he was too weak to feed himself.

    I had known that he was going to die. But after so many years of keeping his condition a secret, I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at the nonprofit (非营利的) National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. She saved my life.

    I was 14 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn't want to call attention to AIDS. I do.

    On Miriam's 9th birthday two years ago, her aunt, who lives in Kenya（肯尼亚）, gave money to a group that cares for elephants to celebrate Miriam's birthday. Then Miriam and her mother visited Africa to learn how the group was helping elephants. Later, Miriam fell in love with the animals and wanted to help save them.

    A few months after visiting Africa, Miriam watched How I Became an Elephant, a film about the mistreatment of elephants in Thailand, and a young girl's effort to save them. Miriam decided she wanted to raise money to save elephants.

    Last year, Miriam created a program called They Deserve（应得） to Be Free after seeing how young elephants are abused in Thailand. She learned how people take a baby elephant, don't give it food or water for days and beat it hard. "It made me really sad. I need to do something useful." Miriam said.

    Miriam is working to make money for Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. She asked her friends to give money to the park rather than giving her birthday gifts.

    She recently joined about 12 other students in an art center. They made elephants from clay and decorated（装饰） them. Then she created a plan to sell clay elephants.

    Kate, Miriam's art teacher, opened her art studio（工作室） to Miriam and her friends on weekends so they could make clay elephants. She even gave them the clay." It's great to see a young student wanting to spend her time on something meaningful. This is what we should all work towards," Kate said.

    Miriam says she has sold 180 clay elephants worth 2, 000 dollars, and all of that money has been sent to Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.

    Debbie is a very busy woman. She has ten children. Every morning she wakes up at 6: 00. The older children get up at 6: 30 and the younger children get up an hour later. After the older children leave for school at 8: 00, Debbie spends most of the day at home with her babies, cooking and cleaning. She doesn't have time to go out to work, but she doesn't mind. Debbie's husband Bob works in a bank. He doesn't enjoy it, but he makes lots of money. Debbie spends most of it on food and clothes for the children.

    Debbie likes the evening best. After dinner, she sits down in the living room and tells the children stories before they go to bed. She doesn't read from a book. She reads her own stories. Once the children are asleep, Debbie can relax. But she doesn't sit and watch TV with Bob. She writes stories in a notebook.

    Bob sent one of Debbies' stories to a competition and it won. The organizer of the competition said Debbie should become a writer, but Debbie wasn't sure. However, the children thought it was a great idea, so she decided to try. The children like elephants best, so Debbie wrote a story about them. One book company (公司) loved it and published (出版) it. People can now buy her book in shops.