It was a rainy morning and the children, mainly boys with various learning difficulties, refused to settle for the start of the lesson. As an inexperienced teacher, I tried every means to get them to be 1, but in vain. my panic was rising and I could feel my heart beating wildly. This was the 2 of my job as a music teacher, I thought —teaching was not for me. Then I had an idea. Hoping that no one would notice that I was 3 inside, I threw my voice as far as it would reach: "Put your heads on the desks and close your 4! We are going on a journey."

    5, the children fell silent. "Now what should I do?" I thought to myself. Reaching over to my collection of CDs, I blindly took one out, put it in the machine and played it.

    Obediently (顺从地), my class lay their heads on their desk, closed their eyes and 6. When the music started, the room as filled with the most beautiful tones and musical colors I could have ever imagined. All the children were 7. When the music finished, I asked them all to raise their 8 slowly so that we could share our musical journey.

    At this point, when all the children were willing to share their experiences, I began to learn how to 9. The music allow me to learn that teaching is about sharing and respect, tears and smiles, the knowing and the 10 and most of all, an understanding of each other. This was the power that music in the classroom could have.

    Jenna had graduated from her middle school and was lucky enough to be admitted to Westwood College. She was ready for new 1  at the college and filled with confidence. 2,  she didn't expect it that college life was quite3.  In the first week, Jenna went to tryouts for cheerleaders. She was competing against very talented girls, and she knew it would be 4 for her to be selected. Two hours later, the 5 read a list of the girls for a second tryout. Her heart 6 as the list ended without her name. Feeling 7, she walked back to her dormitory carrying her schoolbag full of homework.

    Arriving at the dormitory, she started with 8. She had always been a good math student, but now she was 9. She moved on to English and history, and was 10 to find that she didn't have any trouble with those subjects. Feeling better, she decided not to 11 math for the time being.

    The next day Jenna went to see Mrs Biden about being on the school 12.  Mrs Biden wasn't as enthusiastic as Jenna. “I'm sorry, 13 we have enough 14 for the newspaper already. Come back next year and we'll talk then. ” Jenna smiled 15 and left. “Why is college so different? ” she sighed.

    Later in math class, Jenna devoted herself to figuring out the problems that had given her so much 16. By the end of the class, she understood how to get them right. As she gathered her books, Jenna decided she'd 17 to try to fit in with her new school. She wasn't sure if she'd 18, but she knew she had to try. College was just as her mom had said, “You will feel like a small fish in a big pond 19 a big fish in a small pond. The challenge is to become the 20 fish you can be. ”

    In one of my college classes, we were required to do an act of kindness. My project included 1 lunch for an elderly person. When I 2 the elderly person with the food I cooked, it never 3 me that it would result in a new friendship and the discovery of a 4!

    The person I visited was Bill, who was unable to 5 much. A nurse came regularly to help him move to and from the wheelchair because he has no 6. Bill said he was delighted to see me and it was a 7 for him to eat a meal with me because he usually eats 8. He said the food was great, but he enjoyed having 9 even more than the food.

    Bill had had a 10 life when working on the railroad and had many 11 stories to tell about his travels to many places. I was 12 a trip because of his stories. I had once 13 about traveling by train. However, I would 14 be going by train after meeting Bill.

    Perhaps the biggest 15 of this project was that I suddenly realized that I am 16 of working with the elderly. Spending time with them was fun — they have so much life experience to 17. On the one hand, I am a good 18. On the other hand, older people want someone to know their inner world, so it is a perfect 19. I decided to focus my studies on the 20. Hopefully in the future, I will work with them to help even more people like Bill.

    In the 1950s, I was an only child of a single mother, living in a modest cottage in New Zealand. There was no TV and very little1to spend on entertainment.2we had our books and enjoyed3better than reading aloud to each other. My mother read me The Faraway Tree Stories, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Treasure Island and poetry as well.4I turned seven, I was able to take my 5at the reading role, and we spent many pleasant evenings laughing over6characters.

    In 1964, I was 18 and moved to Auckland, but we still phoned each other and talked about books. Years later, Mum's eyesight began to7. She found it8difficult to read the small print of her beloved books. She enjoyed looking at magazines but missed9up with the latest books by her favourite10.

    Later, I became a Special Needs library assistant and my11was to select books for12impaired（损伤的）people. In time, I introduced my mother to large-print novels and audio-books, which gave her a great deal of13as her eyesight grew more dim(模糊的).

    In her 70s, Mum's choice of reading seemed to14to mainly murder mystery stories. I was15to see that, so I bought her a more “worthy” audio-book. The next day, I asked, “How are you getting on with that latest book?” “Oh, not so well,” she replied16. I didn't try to “improve” my mother's literary17after that.

    A few years ago Mum18away. There are still so many thing I'd like to tell her. I'd like to19her for her early guidance in the20world of books. And I'm happy to say that I'm also into audio-books now.

    Kevin Booth had originally planned to take some free food left outside the Sumner Food Bank for people to take when the bank is closed at night. Instead, he1a brown paper bag outside the front door.

    2that it held food, Booth opened the bag only to see that it contained stacks (摞) of $20 bills. The bag was filled with $17,0003. Needless to say, that money would have made a great difference to Booth, and there was no one around to4that he had taken it.

    But Booth says he knew the money would5more people at the food bank, so he waited until volunteer Anita Miller arrived to6the bank.

    "There are a lot of people who would have 7it," Booth said. "I'm just not that person."

    Miller was8to hear about that, and she9called the police. Though the police reviewed the security footage (监控录像), they were not able to10who dropped off the package. After11the necessary 90 days for someone to claim the cash, they turned it over to the12and honored Booth for his behavior.

    Miller says that she has13the cash with Booth by giving him part of the donation in the form of gift cards.14 he lives in a tent, he has turned down her offers of shelter, although he does 15 her gifts of winter clothes.16, a town citizen has started a GoFundMe campaign to help17money for Booth to buy a car that he dreams of using as shelter.

    The food bank serves18meals to roughly 1,000 people every month, including Booth — and19 the multi-thousand dollar package, they will finally be able to20a new large freezer.

Adults check their phones, on average,360 times a day, and spend almost three hours a day on their devices in total. The problem for many of us is that one quick phone-related task leads to a quick check of our emails or social media feeds, and suddenly we've been sucked into endless scrolling.

It's an awful circle. The more useful our phones become, the more we use them. The more we use them, the more we lay neural（神经的） pathways in our brains that lead to pick up our phones for whatever task is at hand-and the more we feel an urge to check our phones even when we don't have to.

What we do know is that the simple distraction of checking a phone or seeing a notification（通知）can have negative consequences. This isn't very surprising; we know that, in general, multitasking does harm to memory and performance. One of the most dangerous examples is phone use while driving. One study found that merely speaking on the phone, not texting, was enough to make drivers slower to react on the road. It's true for everyday tasks that are less high-risk, too. Simply hearing a notification "ding" made participants of another study perform far worse on a task-almost as badly as participants who were speaking or texting on the phone during the task.

It isn't just the use of a phone that has consequences-its me re presence can affect the way we think.

In one recent study, for example, researchers asked participants to either put their phones next to them so they were visible（like on a desk）, nearby and out of sight（like in a bag or pocket）, or in another room. They were found to perform far better when their phones were in another room instead of nearby-whether visible, powered on or not.