Some people are lucky enough to be born with a good sense of direction and even if they have only visited a place once, they will be able to find it again years later.

    I am one of those unfortunate people who have poor sense of direction and I may have visited a place time after time but I still get lost on my way there. When I was young I was so shy that I never dared ask complete strangers the way and so I used to wander round in circles and hope that by some chance I would get to the spot I was heading for.

    I am no longer too shy to ask people for direction, but I often receive replies that puzzle me. Often people do not like to admit that they didn't know their hometown and will insist on telling you the way, even if they do not know it; others, who are anxious to prove that they know their hometown very well, will give you a long list of directions which you can not possibly hope to remember, and still others do not seem to be able to tell between their left and their right and you find in the end that you are going in the opposite direction to that in which you should be going.

    If anyone ever asks me the way to somewhere, I always tell them I am a stranger to the town in order to avoid giving them wrong direction but even this can have embarrassing results.

    Once I was on my way to work when I was stopped by a man who asked me if I would direct him the way to the Sunlight Building. I gave my usual reply, but I had not walked on a few steps when I realized that he had asked for directions to my office building. However, at this point, I decide it was too late to turn back and search for him out of the crowd behind me as I was going to meet with someone at the office and I did not want to keep him waiting.

    Imagine my embarrassment when my secretary showed in the very man who had asked for directions of my office and his astonishment when he recognized me as the person he had asked.

    One rainy afternoon I was sitting at home feeling so bored.1 feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to meet people and have new2, so I decided to start volunteering. I found a website where I could volunteer on a farm in France.

    Volunteering 3 so many opportunities to have fun and share 4stories. It was the first time for me to work on a farm. It was almost a(n)5holiday as food and accommodation were provided. It was not one6 holiday, however, as I had to 7 fifteen horses and sheep! I soon discovered that I was a(n) 8 farmer but it did not matter because I made some great friends and also improved my9.

    However, you do not 10 go abroad to volunteer. I have had plenty of adventures at home as volunteering can become a11. For example, I love12 so I had a good laugh waving my arms in order to 13my local choir(合唱团). At university, I organized a concert for charity with my friends. It was really 14 to find bands and raise money for a cause.

    It is true that you feel good volunteering but there are also other 15.I once volunteered as a steward (干事) at a charity sports event where the organizers 16 gave me cupcakes from an expensive London bakery to thank me for my 17. I also volunteered in a charity shop so I found loads of nice cheap clothes to 18my wardrobe（衣橱）.

    While this is all fun, my favourite aspect of volunteering is 19and sharing stories. My terrible20  at farming has given me funny stories to tell！

    The family had had a cat for years. Then, one day, the children finally 1 to persuade their parents to get them a dog as well. So a little Labrador（拉布拉多犬）2 .

    The dog was so3that everyone wanted to hold him and he charmed everyone by just loving them. The cat made it very clear she did not welcome another 4 in the house, but the dog just 5 the cat anyway. The little dog 6her anywhere, trying to make friends with the angry cat. No amount of 7behavior from the cat could persuade the dog not to love the cat.

    The family thought the cat would 8like the dog.

    Then one day the family heard horrible 9 from their back yard. They ran to the 10 to see what was happening. They lived in the suburbs and so they saw a real lynx（猞猁）was just planning on11 their cat for lunch. The poor cat had nowhere to run or hide. It would only be a matter of seconds and their cat would be 12.

    And then suddenly a black lightning ran to the rescue. The little dog 13the big lynx with all its strength. It did not14 or stop to think. It saw its 15 in trouble and did what had to be done. The family opened the window and started yelling and the father ran to the yard. The lynx soon disappeared into the16

    And ever since that day the cat's behavior toward the dog17totally. Now it was the cat that followed the hero dog everywhere. They 18in the same basket. The cat even let the dog eat from her bowl.

So we can19: if ever anyone is 20 towards you, don't turn your back on them. They may not rescue your life —but their kindness can certainly rescue your day!

    It's been five years since I came to America. The year before I arrived, every weekend I was woken up by "Spring River in the Flower Moon Night", 1 by my mother on a zheng.

    My mom was always enchanted(着迷)by the beauty of Chinese traditional music2she never had the chance to learn a(n)3. In 2009, she got a zheng from a friend and has been playing and 4 ever since. Sometimes when I miss her, I search for the songs she used to play on the Internet. I 5 expected to hear them here in Boston.

    Earlier this year, as I6 a new apartment, I met Zhantao Lin, the director of the Boston Chinese Musicians Association. At Lin's house, I heard the7of the erhu. Lin later8me to his music team and I heard the rehearse(排练)for a9this year. It was beautiful and powerful — it10 brought me back to my hometown in China.

    11is also part of Lin's daily routine. Besides performing, he passed on his love of the erhu to his12. I went to one of Lin's classes and met 9-year-old London Turk. I asked him13he chose to learn the erhu. "It's much14to learn than the violin," he said. Perhaps Turk hasn't really started to15the beauty of the erhu, but his mother has always loved the instrument. "There are so many beautiful things in Chinese16: the music, the language, and the art. So we just try our best to let him have a17to explore it," she said.

    I18my mom for giving me a chance to immerse(使沉浸)myself in the Chinese musical world. The music makes me feel relaxed. It can also19me of my homesickness. If you listen to one piece, you will20its uniqueness, power, and beauty.

I went to a group activity, "Sensitivity Sunday", which was to make us more1the problems faced by disabled people. We were asked to "2 a disability" for several hours one Sunday. Some members, 3, chose to use wheelchairs. Others wore sound­blocking earplugs (耳塞) or blindfolds (眼罩).

Just sitting in the wheelchair was a4experience. I had never considered before how5it would be to use one. As soon as I sat down, my6 made the chair begin to roll. Its wheels were not7. Then I wondered where to put my   8. It took me quite a while to get the metal footrest into9. I took my first uneasy look at what was to be my only means of 10for several hours. For disabled people, "adopting a wheelchair" is not a temporary (临时的)    11.

I tried to find a12position and thought it might be restful, 13 kind of nice, to be14 around for a while. Looking around, I15 I would have to handle the thing myself! My hands started to ache as I16the heavy metal wheels. I came to know that controlling the17 of the wheelchair was not going to be a (n)18task.

My wheelchair experiment was soon 19. It made a deep impression on me. A few hours of "disability" gave me only a taste of the20, both physical and mental, that disabled people must overcome.