The first week is always a bit hard in my writing classes. I'm unfamiliar 1 the students, most of them trying to 2 themselves to their new environment. When Jennifer 3 me with a question on the second day, I was 4 for the chance to connect at least one name with a face.

    Her writing wasn't perfect, 5 her effort was. She worked hard and pushed herself to achieve. She was excited to 6, which made me enjoy teaching her. I didn't 7 then how much she would also teach me. One Friday afternoon, Jennifer stopped by after class. She wasn't asking a question 8a paper I'd returned. 9, she said quietly: “I didn't attend classes yesterday. I was at the health center the whole day.” I gave her a sideways look, 10. “It was just a virus (病毒). I'm fine now,” she 11 me. Then she was gone.

    Two nights later, her father called to tell me that Jennifer would be 12a few classes. She had been in hospital with meningitis (脑膜炎). I heard from him again a few days later, and again after that. Her condition grew 13. We made trips to the hospital room. I was 14 frightened when I saw the pale, thin and weak girl who, only ten days earlier, had displayed life and warmth in my classroom.

    A week later, Jennifer herself called me to tell me she was on the road to 15. “I'll be back to school one day,” she said. “I have no 16 that you'll be with us.” I told her, 17 tears. I remembered what her father had said in his first phone call: “school 18 everything to Jenny.”

    Then five weeks later, I walked into my classroom to find Jenny in her seat,   19.   She 20 all of her missed homework, completed with thought and excellence. The strength of her will to overcome shone out of her pale, weak, eighteen-year-old face.

When I was about five years old, I used to watch a bird in the skies of southern Alberta from the Blackfoot Blood Reserve in northern Montana where I was born.I loved this bird; I would 1 him for hours. He would 2 effortlessly in that gigantic sky, or he would come down and light on the 3 and float there beautifully.Sometimes when I watched him, he would not make a sound and liked to move 4 into the grasses.We called him meksikatsi, which in the Blackfoot language 5 "pink-colored feet"; meksikatsi and I became very good friends.

    The bird had a very particular significance to me 6  I desperately wanted to be able to fly too.I felt very much as if I was the kind of person who had been born into a world where 7  was impossible. And most of the things that I8  about would not be possible for me but would be possible only for other people.

    When I was ten years old, something unexpected 9  my life suddenly. I found myself become an 10  child in a family I was not born into; I found myself in a 11  position that many native Americans find themselves in, living in a city that they do not understand at all, not in another culture but 12 two cultures.

A teacher of the English language told me that meksikatsi was not called meksikatsi, even though that is what 13 people have called that bird for thousands of years.Meksikatsi, he said, was really "duck".I was very 14 with English.I could not understand it.First of all, the bird did not look like "duck", and when it made a 15 , it did not sound like "duck", I was even more 16 when I found out that the meaning of the verb "to duck" came from the bird.

    As I 17  to understand English better, I understand that it made a great deal of 18 , but I never forgot that meksikatsi made a different kind of meaning.I19  that languages are not just different words for the same things but totally different 20 , totally different ways of experiencing and looking at the world.

    When I was 13 my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant 1 Miller King, who was the best 2 at our school.

    Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for 3.

    Just before September, Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him after he came back from 4.He looked very 5,but he didn't cry.

    That season, I 6 all of Miller's records while he 7 the home games from the bench. We went 10-1 and I was named most valuable player,8 I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame for Miller's 9.

    One afternoon ,I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller 10 going over a fence-which wasn't 11 to climb if you had both arms. I'm sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept 12 from. But even that challenge he accepted. I 13 him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally 14 on the other side, he said to me, “You know, I didn't tell you this during the season, but you did 15.Thank you for filling in for 16.”

    His words freed me from my bad 17.I thought to myself, how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated, he was 18 ahead of me. I was right to have 19 him. From that day on, I grew 20 and a little more real.

    Last night my husband and I were taking a walk. Then we saw a man1over on the ground, crushing(砸碎) something with rock. He was completely 2 his task and didn't look up at anyone 3 We kept noticing him. I thought he was crushing stones to make 4 but why would he do that?

    Finally we decided to go up and5 to him. He was crushing pieces of left-over bread to make feed for the birds that 6 there early morning. The large pieces of hard bread would be 7 for the birds to eat so he crushes them into a fine powder.

    He's been doing this every night, by himself, for the last 3 to4 years. What 8us more was that he was surprised we were even taking an9 in this, since for him it wasn't a big deal. Every night, after10 so his accommodation from his job as a tailor, he goes around 11 left-over bread from all his housemates. He12eats a quick meal and comes here, and spends the next 1 to 2 hours13 crushing each piece and makes a neat pile for the birds, which he says will be 14 by next evening. He also leaves grains on top of the pile, which he 15 every month from his wages.

    When we asked him what16 him to do this simple, small but devoted act of 17 he shrugged his shoulders and said. It's just something18I do: so that the left-over bread doesn't go into the rubbish and the birds get 19” We shared his story and perhaps it might inspire someone to start something 20 in their own area,

    I hated math and was really bad at it when I was young, so I found others to allow me to copy their work. Even though they knew they were 1 me, there were lots of people who were glad to “help”. In this way, I2 a few tests.

 But one day something3happened. Our teacher changed our 4 for the exam and I was sitting beside a boy that I seldom5 with before. As I could only answer a question or two, I had to turn to him 6 I didn't want to have a sea of red crosses(叉号) in my paper.

I signaled(示意) to him and managed to7his attention. When he asked me what I wanted, I 8 asked him for the answers. To my surprise, he 9without any hesitation(犹豫). Of course, I was really 10 at his behavior and thought badly of him.

    After the test he 11 me, telling me that I could get good grades in math and that all I needed was to put more 12 into studying the subject. I was still 13 with him, but I couldn't get his words out of my mind.

From that day on, I began to 14 more time to my math. Slowly, the subject I 15 hated so much turned into such an interesting thing. I started to pass my math tests with my own 16.Time passed and I was getting many A's in my math.

    Till today, I am still 17 to my friend who didn't allow me to copy his work. He 18 if he provided me with the “help” during the test, there would be no 19 for me to shine. So let others shine and don't ever rob(掠夺)others of their opportunity to show their 20.

    My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were1itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an)2price of $28, which was popular just then with3, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that4of classic elegance(优雅). John tried it on and the fit was perfect.

    John5the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile" Did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said,6folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a7came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce8. He became more mannerly and9, eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him10his behavior.

    When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and11what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It12be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good13not only because he had earned14but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend "Could this be John?" he asked surprisingly,15John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.

    John and I both know we should never16a person's clothes for the real person within them.17there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for18what is on the inside to what is on the outside.

    For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to19as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape20all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.