It was Christmas evening. I just 1home from the nearby grocery store with all kinds of things. The kitchen was2with brown bags and boxes. On seeing me coming back, my youngest son, Isaiah, reached me and 3 if I would play a game with him.

    I took Isaiah's  4 . He stood there and his green eyes were5. “Here is a Christmas6 for you. Please find it. You can see something silver.” he said. I began to look for it. I 7 the table in the corner and some other places.

    After a few seconds, I saw there was a  8 snow globe on the top of the piano. It was silvery and beautiful. I held the cool 9 in my hands. Isaiah said to me that it was to 10 the one that he had broken the year before.. I was puzzled completely. So I bent my 11 beside him. He added12aved enough money and asked his elder brother, Logan to help him buy this one to13 the broken one. They just wanted to give me a (n)14 .

    Logan nodded and smiled. When I15 the key on the bottom of the globe, the quiet room was full of elegant music. Isaiah said, “Mum, do you remember how I by accident 16 your snow globe? It broke on the ground17 the music was still going on. I was so, so sad.”His face turned a little18 . But the truth was that I did not quite 19the broken snow globe after a long time. But Isaiah had been sorry for his 20 all the time. I was sure I would keep this snow globe in my mind forever.

    Mariah Smith, a seventh-grader at Southern Alamance Middle School, is February's Student of the Month.

    Mariah said she was “greatly shocked” to receive this 1.

    Mariah has a 2 relationship with her grandmother, Wendy Jordan, 3 nominated（推荐）her. Mariah is the daughter of Cameron and Cierra Smith of Burlington and has a younger sister 4 Chloe.

    “She's a good student. She doesn't have to be told to keep her 5 up,” Wendy said.

Of Southern Alamance Middle School, Mariah said, “6 there is really nice, it's a really good school.”

    She manages her time 7 and sticks to a 8. Her favorite classes are social studies and language arts.

    “I like learning about the world 9 me and what has happened in the past,” Mariah said.

    She10a lot of work with her community. She was selected to be part of the Alamance Youth Leadership Academy.

    “We learn a lot of valuable things from every field trip we 11, Mariah said. “We learn what kind of leader we are, and what we 12 do to help out around our community, and how to13 our schools.”

    Mariah isn't quite sure what she wants to do in the 14 yet.

    She claims that “15 it is, I want it to be something I really16 doing.” Mariah is a quiet and analytical（分析的）person who is also “very thoughtful to 17” and “very humble,” Wendy said. She is an A-honor roll student and is 18 trying to give back to her community and make it 19.

    “She's got a big 20,” Wendy added.

    It was my first day to Miss Hargrove's seventh grade. Past “newcomer experiences” had been difficult, so I was very1to fit in. After being introduced to the class, I bravely put on a smile and2my seat.

    Lunchtime was a(n)3surprise when the girls all crowded around my table. They were friendly, so I began to4. My new classmates told me about the school, the teachers and the other kids. They5out the class nerd（书呆子）to me: Mary Lou. She was a pretty girl with dark eyes and olive-skin,6she wore a long woolen skirt and an old-fashioned blouse. She looked stupid. The girls whispered and laughed7Mary Lou walked by. She ate alone.

    After school, the girls invited me to8them in front of the school. I was9to be a member of the club. We waited. For what, I didn't know. Then Mary Lou came down the school steps. The girls started10her, shouting rudely, biting comments. I11, and then joined right in. Mean remarks12from my lips. No one could tell I'd never done this before. The other girls stepped back and started cheering for me. Feeling13, I pulled on her backpack and then pushed her. Her backpack broke. Mary Lou fell and I backed off. Everyone was laughing. I14in. I was a leader.

    I was not proud. Something inside me hurt. If you've ever picked a wing off a butterfly, you know how I felt. Mary Lou got up, gathered her books and left without a tear or saying anything. She held her head15as blood ran down from her knee. I16her struggle away down the street.

    I turned to leave with my17friends and noticed a man standing beside his car. He must have been Mary Lou's father—he had the same olive skin, dark hair and handsome look. He remained still and watched the18girl walk toward him. Only his eyes—shining with both sadness and pride—followed. As I passed, he looked at me in silence with burning tears that reminded me of my19.

    Mary Lou's father's eyes taught me a good lesson that day. I never again hurt someone for my own20.

    From the first week of high school, my best friend, Trisha, was always going out with the popular girls.1I thought, "It's okay; she's just making new friends." But soon I realized that Trisha wasn't interested in me anymore. I'd 2my best friend. It really hurt.

    One day, I told Trisha that we should 3  pretending（假装）to be friends when we really weren't anymore. I wasn't trying to make her mad, 4 she was. After that, Trisha started talking about me behind my back, telling people that I was 5.Some of our friends 6 with her. I felt like she was taking them away from me.

    The more I thought about it, the 7 I got. Finally, I 8a picture of Trisha and drew lines on her face. I wrote, "I  9 this person" across the bottom. And then I did something I'll always 10 : I put it on a website I thought was 11. I thought people would see it, and it felt good to vent(发泄).

    A week later, Trisha's mom saw the 12.She called my mom, who made me take it off the website right away. However, it was already too 13 .Lots of people had seen it, and I was in a lot of 14.

    That whole day, I felt 15 .I had to say sorry to Trisha face to face. She said she accepted my apology（道歉）,but I felt she was 16 angry with me.

    Posting that picture was one of the worst 17 I've ever made. I realize now I could have found a much better way to deal with my 18 .If I'd just told Trisha how much I 19 her, maybe things would have turned out 20. It's too late for me to change things, but I hope you'll learn from my mistake.

    My eight-year-old son's soccer team in Washington DC was put together several years ago. The team has won 1 one game in the last three seasons. Yet, despite the endless 2, soccer is my son's favorite activity. He plays soccer at every 3, even at break time and at the aftercare(病后护理), and although he doesn't play as well as the best players in his school, this hasn't 4 him in the least.

    This has been repeated often, but I 5 it first-hand: soccer is about friendship as much as it is about learning to control the ball and make successful 6. Watching the children, I see that winning is a distant 7 goal for them. What they enjoy is each other's presence and the fact that they're in this game 8.

    Actually, I went through a phase of giving my son suggestions such as: Why aren't you more 9 once you have the ball? He 10 my sudden torrent(滔滔不绝) of guidance. "Mom, I play midfield or defense, not forward. And 11, soccer isn't about being aggressive. It's about 12." After hearing that, I paused and 13. How strange it is that I, who never played any sport for a single day of my life, wanted my son to be a(n) 14 footballer!

    Isn't it extraordinary that kids don't necessarily 15 their attempts to have impressive results? They love the activity for itself. Becoming an adult means a gradual 16 of that spirit. To stand out or 17, people develop a spirit of competition. How often have I become 18—professionally and personally—when things haven't gone the way I wanted? I've 19 there's much to learn from soccer-loving eight-year-olds: do your best, be passionate, enjoy yourself, and then, regardless of the 20, move on.

    One day, when I was a teenager, I was home along doing two of my favourite things: I was eating a huge plate of spaghetti and mealbails and I was 1.

    At the time, my family pet bird - a big white cockatoo named Luke was free from his 2 and flying around inside the house. Luke, which wasn't3 to use real words, was chucking (咯咯地叫) away, 4 me, but I wasn't paying attention to him. I was 5 on reading my detective book. 6 Luke decided to get closer and before I 7 it, he'd landed right on top of my spaghetti and meatbails! I was so surprised - my mind went8. My reaction was the same as yours would be: I shooed (用"嘘"声吓唬)him off my food! This wouldn't have been so bad 9 one thing: Luke had 10 my spaghetti. So when he 11 again, the spaghetti still winded in his12 went flying everywhere. He landed on my shirt. He hit me in the 13. As I pulled noodles out of my hair, Luke 14 spaghetti sauce all the way. He wasn't15, except for his16the sauce in his beautiful white 17 turned him splotchy (油渍斑斑的)orange for several weeks.

    See how funny spaghetti can be? And see how 18 reading can be? So go ahead and enjoy a good book. But if you like to read while you eat, you'd better keep an eye on your food. And if you find a19 novel at the 20 with red, splotchy (油渍斑斑的)spots on two pages near the middle, you'll know that I've read that book, too!