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

“Thief （小偷）！”

 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 night, when I was eight, my mother gently asked me a question I would never forget. “Cindy, my company wants to promote (升职) me but needs me to work in Brazil. This is like your teacher telling you that you've done well and allowing you to skip (跳) a grade, but you'll have to leave your friends. Would you say yes to your teacher?” She gave me a hug and asked me to think about it. I was lost in thought. The question kept me wondering for the rest of the night. I had said “yes” but for the first time, I realized the difficult decisions adults had to make.

     For almost four years, my mother would call us from Brazil every day. Every evening I'd eagerly wait for the phone to ring and then tell her everything happened during the day. A phone call, however, could never take her place and it was difficult not to feel lonely at times.

During my fourth-grade Christmas break, we flew to Rio to visit her. Looking at her large empty apartment,   ▲  It was then I started to understand the difficult choices she had to make. She needed to think about both family and work. Faced with difficult decisions, she used to tell me, you wouldn't know whether you make the right choice, but you could always make the best out of the situation, with a positive attitude.

     Back home, I reminded myself that what my mother could do, I could, too. If she managed to live in Rio all by herself, I, too, could learn to be independent. I learn how to take care of myself and set high but achievable goals.

My mother is now back with us. But I will never forget what the experience has really taught me. I've learned a lot because of this separation. There are lots of difficult decisions that we have to face in our life. We need to have a positive attitude no matter what happens.

    Hello! This is a UFO. And I'm an alien（外星人）. I am Eric. Look! My jacket is nice. It's white. What's this in English? It's a pen. What color is it? It's red. And what's this in English? It's a key. It's a yellow key. What's that? It's an English CD. I like（喜欢）it. This is an English book（书）. It's green. It's 0.5kg in weight（重量）.

    This morning Tom gets up at 6:00. Today his family is going to move(搬家)into a new house.

    Tom and his family are busy putting their things into some boxes. When Tom helps to put some glass cups into a box, he breaks one of them. He hurts(使受伤)his right hand. Mum tries to find some Band-Aids(创可贴) for him. But she forgets where the Band-Aids are. So she has to open the boxes one by one. Dad comes quickly to help them. But he falls over. He hurts his hand, too. At last they find the Band-Aids in one of the boxes. Most of the boxes are open now. The family have to pack(打包)them again。

    There are so many boxes in the house. Dad puts some of them behind the door. Later, some friends come and they help to move all the things onto the truck.

    In the new house, Dad starts to count the boxes. One, two, three, four…There are only twenty boxes.

    Where is the last box? Is it behind the door of their old house? They don't know.

    A zero-waste life is a lifestyle that hardly creates any rubbish. So, a zero-waste theme store is about 1 people with a number of everyday, practical and pleasant zero-waste products to help them start on a one-stop, zero-waste life journey.

    "Zero waste" or "danshari" was first 2 by a French woman Bea Johnson. "Live a life and try not to create any rubbish; use different methods to protect the earth." she said.

    Yu Yuan, 27, is 3 attracted by this idea.

    She and her boyfriend have lived in Beijing for many years. And earlier she used to be a customer without thinking a lot. 4 she saw a video about "zero waste"

    The 5 is about a family of four, and the rubbish they produce every year is placed in a jar.

    After watching the video, Yu wanted to 6 this zero-waste lifestyle with her boyfriend.

    Yu says that a zero-waste life 7 the 6R principle --Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Rot (腐烂）.

    Over August-October when Yu followed the principle of zero waste 6R, she and her boyfriend Joe Harvey both 8 only two cans of rubbish.

    Now, the couple have opened a small 9 called The Bulk House in Nanluoguxiang, Beijing, to support a zero-waste life.

    At the store they use environmentally friendly products. For example, they use wood products to replace 10 ones and prepare cloth bags printed with zero-waste logos for customers. Most of the products sold in the store can be reused, and a small number of 11which are not recyclable can degrade (分解). The store 12 has secondhand books and audio-visual CD/DVDs.

    For used toiletries things like soap and toothpaste that are used for cleaning yourself) there is a company which accepts them, and the couple regularly mails their waste to it.

    Yu says that those who were once not 13 in the zero-waste lifestyle have gradually changed because of curiosity. The zero-waste lifestyle, she adds, is for everyone.

    "It's 14 us at our fingertips." Yu expects some of her friends to 15 her on the road to zero waste. As the saying goes, many hands make light work.