I work as a volunteer for an organization(组织) that helps the poor in Haiti. I decided to take my son Brain there for a week, hoping to educate him.

      Before getting out, I told Brain this trip would be tiring and hard. For the first two days, he said almost nothing. Then on the third day, when we were climbing over high rocky mountains, he turned to me and smiled, “Really hard.”

      After that, a five-year-old girl, wearing a too large dress and broken shoes, followed Brain around. Later he said regretfully(遗憾地), “I wish I could speak French.”I was surprised that this was from a boy who always hated French classes.

      However, the moment that really reached my heart occurred in a village deep in the mountains. I was interviewing a woman villager for an article. By working hard, she had learned to read and write and became part of the leadership(领导层) of the village.

      Learning her story, Brain was greatly touched. His eyes were wet and there was love and respect on his face. He finally understood the importance of my work. When leaving for home, Brain even offered to stay in as a volunteer. This trip was very meaningful.

    A baby giraffe is born 10 feet high and usually lands on its back. Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a new-born giraffe learns its first lesson.

    The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she puts herself directly over her child. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She throws her long leg and kicks her baby, so that it's sent sprawling (四脚朝天).

    When it doesn't get up, what the mother has done is repeated again and again. The struggle (挣扎) to rise is important. As the baby giraffe grows tired, the mother kicks it again. Finally, it stands for the first time. Then the mother giraffe kicks it off again. Why? She wants it to remember how it can get up. In the wild, a baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with its group, where there's safety.

    Another writer named Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying great people, writing stories about such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.

    Stone was once asked if he had found something unusual about these great people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life have a dream of something. They're beaten over the head, knocked down and for years they get nowhere. But every time they stand up again. And at the end of their lives they've realized some small parts of what they set out (着手) to do.”

    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）.

The Angel of the North

    The Angel of the North is a modern sculpture (雕塑) in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, designed by Antony Gormley. Completed in 1998, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, 20 metres tall, with wings measuring 54 metres across. The angel, like much of Gormley's other work, is based on the shape of his own body.

    According to the artist himself, the Angel of the North symbolises (象征着) the change from the industrial to the information age and stands proudly as a beacon (灯塔) of hope for the future of the region.

    It cost £800, 000 to make, with the money coming from the British government. It took four years to make the sculpture. It was made in three parts, the body, which weighed 100 tons, and two wings, which weighed 50 tons each. Angels are usually thought of being white, as they represent light, but Gormley's Angel of the North is a reddish brown colour. This is because the steel has a special paint to protect it from strong wind.

    The parts of the angel were moved from Hartlepool to Gateshead at night in big trucks. It took 5 hours to move everything, even though the journey is very short. The Angel of the North was put on the hill in Birtley on the 15th of February, 1998.

    The sculpture was made in memory of the coal miners who worked hard in the dark earth below the hill to bring wealth to the North East in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a sign for Gateshead.

    The sculpture has since become one of the most famous landmarks in England as can be seen in television and film. It is the largest sculpture in Britain. Over 150,000 people come to Gateshead to see the sculpture every year.

As the powerful singing voice of 71-year-old Liu Aibang echoes( 回 荡 ) across the classroom, students control shadow puppets (皮影木偶) with thin straight pieces of wood, making them step onto the "stage"—a cloth screen provided with light from behind. Those sitting in front of the stage play music on drums, suona and other instruments. 

This is a Daoqing Shadow Puppetry class at Longdong University. Besides Liu. the other performers of the show are all college students. Starting in the Han Dynasty, Daoqing Shadow Puppetry has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list(非物质文化遗产名单) since 2006. 

However, with technologies becoming more and more popular, many performers moved on to other jobs. Faced with the choice between protecting this art and making a good living, Liu chose to stay on. 

One day in 2020, Liu got a phone call from Zhao Zhixue, the director of the music school at Longdong University. Zhao told him that the school planned to introduce Daoqing Shadow Puppetry into college classrooms. "We want to develop young students'long-term interest in intangible cultural heritage, "said Zhao. 

Excited by the news, Liu became a part-time teacher at the college. He came to school twice a week, teaching a two-hour class each time. Liu hopes to train more young people. "Just as true love is not a one-man show, the inheritance(传承) of cultural heritage needs efforts from both the old and the young, "Liu said. 

Once there was a village. The people there only cared about themselves. One day, a traveler arrived. Hungry and tired, he wished to find something to eat. Then he stopped at a house and knocked at the door. A woman opened the door. The traveler asked, "May I have something to eat?" The woman shook her head and closed the door without thinking. 

Then the traveler picked up a stone and knocked at the door again. 

"Perhaps you would be interested in my special stone soup!" the traveler said with a smile. The woman was surprised by this unusual suggestion. "Stone soup?" she doubted, wondering what that would be. 

"Yes. I just need to borrow a pot of hot water, please, " the traveler added. Though she didn't want to, the woman still gave him some water. Then the traveler put his stone in it. "It already tastes good, " he said. "But if you had a little salt and butter, the soup would taste a lot better!"

The woman brought him what he asked for, but she was not patient. Soon the word spread through the village and many people came, wanting to see what this stranger would do. "It's almost finished, " the traveler said. "But it would be even nicer if there were some carrots and potatoes. "

"I have potatoes, " said an old lady. 

"I have some carrots, " a young man answered. 

A few minutes later, these were added in. Soon, the air was filled with the nice smell. "Is it ready?" the first woman asked. "Yes, but if we can add some meat to the stone soup, it will taste more delicious, " he replied. "I have beef, " shouted a man who was watching from a window. 

Having everything he wanted in the pot, the traveler tasted a spoon of the soup. "Perfect!" he laughed. Then, he gave everyone a bowl of his special stone soup. "It's delicious!" said the villagers happily. At that moment, all of them finally realized the importance of sharing and supporting each other.