Teenager Jake Denham was skiing with his family in the USA when he fell over and lost one of his skis(滑雪板). His family didn't know that he had a problem. They kept on skiing. When they got to the foot of the mountain, there was no sign of Jake.

    Jake couldn't find his ski anywhere. In the end, he decided to take off his other ski and walk down the mountain. But he couldn't work out the right way to go.

    It was now getting dark and he was a long way from any place of safety. He knew that he might die that night in the cold temperatures. But Jake kept calm. At home, Jake watched a lot of TV programmes about living in difficult situations. He remembered the advice from these programmes and knew that he should build a hole in the snow. He made a hole and pointed it up the hill so the wind couldn't blow into it. Outside his hole the temperature fell to a dangerous —15℃ that night, but inside it Jake was safe from the cold.

    But he had to get down the mountain. The TV programmes always said, ^”If you are lost, you should find someone else's tracks (轨迹) through the snow and follow them.” “I wanted to live my life”, remembers Jake.

    So I got up and I found some ski tracks and I followed those. He walked and walked and finally he saw lights.

    Nine hours after he lost his ski, he found a team of workers who came to save him. He was safe!

    His mum was very happy when she heard the news. Amazingly, Jake didn't even have to go to hospital. He got through the terrible experience without any injuries.

    So, the next time someone says that watching TV is a waste of time, think of Jake. Sometimes TV can save your life!

    " Were the birds on the ice ducks or geese (鹅)?" Cruz, 11, and Anthony, 12, couldn't agree. There was only one way to find out. So on a cold January evening, the two friends took a risk onto the frozen(冻结的) lake near their homes.

    "First, we threw a stone onto the ice to test it. We thought it would hold our weight. Then we stepped on it," Cruz said. Anthony went first. He took a few steps, then... He fell through the seemingly frozen ice!

    Cruz rushed to help his friend. The lake "ate" him, too. Cruz managed to lift himself out of the freezing water and onto some ice. He then tried to work his way toward Anthony. But the ice didn't hold, and he fell in again. This time, he couldn't get out.

    The boys were up to their necks in icy water and quickly losing feeling in their arm sand legs. Cruz had a sense that he was going to die.

    Anthony's older sister had seen all this and started shouting for help. John Lavin, a neighbor driving nearby heard her.  He quickly pulled over. He caught a nearby float(浮板), kicked off his shoes. And ran into the water, clearing his way through the ice with his free hand. "It was kind of a ' Hulk smash'" Lavin later joked.

    Lavin made his way to pull the boys back to land. They were taken to hospital immediately. The doctor said their five-minute stay in the water made their body temperature drop nearly ten degrees. Luckily, the boys got well soon. They admire their fearless neighbor just as Hulk, one of Marvel Superheroes.

Han Qian, 35, is now responsible for recruitment（招募）at the Volunteer Department of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee. Thirteen years ago, he was a volunteer at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 

"I'm honored to take part in two Olympics," said Han. "Being a volunteer is different from organizing them, though both are great experiences. Passion is necessary for being a volunteer, which requires volunteers to be in high spirits and warm-hearted. But being an organizer, they may face many new challenges because more thinking and planning are needed in organizing volunteers."

Because of COVID-19, volunteers need to be quarantined（隔离）after the test events as well as after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics（残奥会）. This means they have to give up more time for this job. As around 90 percent of the volunteers are university students, according to Han, this could affect their schoolwork. So Han's team has helped schools to support the students as much as they can. 

Han's team worked with schools to recruit students. "For example, volunteers from Tsinghua University are responsible for the National Stadium, while those from Peking University take care of the National Aquatics Center, Han said. The cold weather is another challenge, as some games will be held outdoors. The outdoor volunteers need to have physical training, like 15-kilometer walks, to prepare for their work. The organizing committee also provides hats, warmer pads and more frequent shifts for them. 

"Many volunteers have developed interest in winter sports because of this experience," Han said. "I've seen them post pictures of themselves skiing and skating. I'm happy that the volunteering experience is meaningful for them."

Ronny looked like every other kid in the classroom where I volunteered as the Reading Mom. However, he had a speech problem so he couldn't 1 like other kids in his grade.

I worked with all the students in Ronny's class one by one to improve their reading skills. On the days when it was Ronny's 2 , I'd give him a silent smile. That's why he sat very close to me and opened the book as if he was opening a treasure that 3 had ever seen.

I watched his fingers move 4 under each letter as he read out difficultly.

Every time he managed (完成) to read a word with a 5 pronunciation (发音), the biggest smile would spread across his face and his 6 would shine with pride.

A few weeks before the school year ended, I 7 Ronny a book—one of those Little Golden Books. A few days later, I returned to the school to visit. I 8 Ronny on a chair with the book. His head teacher said, "He hasn't 9 that book since you gave it to him." Deeply moved, I walked 10 Ronny, placed my hand on his shoulder and asked, "Will you read me your book, Ronny?" For the next few minutes, he read to me more 11 than I'd ever thought. The 12 were already dog-eared (卷角的), like the book had been read many times already. When he finished reading, Ronny closed his book and said with great 13 , "What a good book!"

At that moment, as a writer, I knew I would get 14 about my own writing and do what that writer had done, and probably still does—care enough to write a story that 15 a child's life, care enough to make a difference.

I love bedtime stories. I can never fall asleep without having my bedtime stories. Every day, I can have two stories, one in English and one in Japanese.My mom's first language is Japanese and my dad's first language is English.Usually, Dad reads an English story to me first. Then it's Mom's turn to read me a Japanese story. In my family, though both my parents can speak the two languages very well, we speak English more often than Japanese, so I find listening to Japanese stories challenging. I ask many questions when Mom reads Japanese stories to me.

Mom is not very happy about my Japanese and she is thinking about sending me to a Sunday school to learn Japanese. I don't want to get too busy on Sunday. I need some playtime, so I tell Mom that I will read more Japanese books on weekdays. Mom agrees with me.

The singer and actress Eartha Kitt was born into a poor family in South Carolina in1927. When Eartha was eight, her stepfather（继父）didn't want Eartha to live with them. She was sent to New York City to live with an aunt. The relationship was difficult. The aunt helped pay for piano and dance lessons for Eartha. But she also treated the girl badly.

Eartha lived on the streets and worked in a factory as a young teenager. But she kept up her dance lessons. One day, she decided to try out for a famous African-American dance company called the Katherine Dunham Company. Soon, Eartha was performing in shows around the world with the company.

In Paris, Eartha left the dance company to sing in a nightclub. Her voice was unusual. People there liked her singing. She learned French quickly and had many French fans.

The film director Orson Welles discovered Eartha singing in Paris. He called her "the most exciting woman in the world". Welles asked her to play a lead part in a play that he was directing（执导）and also playing a part in. Later, Eartha returned to NewYork and appeared in the Broadway show New Faces of 1952. A humorous song she sang about a bored, spoiled woman became famous. Eartha appeared in the 1957 movie The Mark of the Hawk. She was very careful about choosing her roles in films. Her other films in the 1950s included St. Louis Blues and Anna Lucasta. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt recorded, worked in films, television, and nightclubs, and returned to the Broadway stage. In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. In the late 1960s, she played "Catwoman" in the television series Batman. This role made her really famous.