I was hungry, so I took my 8-year-old Shih Tzu, ”Jack”, on a walk to my favorite cafe, about a quarter-mile from my home. They have a nice outside patio（天井）area which* in the late afternoon, is usually1 I ordered a burger and iced tea and went outside to await my 2.

    While waiting for my meal, a homeless man on a bicycle 3 to ask if there was a grocery store in the neighborhood. After I gave him 4 he asked if I had graduated from Santa Clara University. I was wearing a SCU T-shirt at the time. I told him that I graduated from the university some time ago5 did I know that this simple response would 6a 90-minute conversation.

    The man, Michael, told me he was 50 years old. He was intelligent and very intelligent.7 drug use had derailed （使出轨）both his formal 8 and his pursuit of success in the world of work. He drifted from one topic to another,9 the fact that my lunch had been brought to me. He10 had more of a need to11than I did. I made every effort to give him my full attention, never expecting that our conversation would go on and on and on……

    Eventually, I did eat my meal, bite by bite 12 responses in our conversation. Michael was a bit “out there” in terms of his interests and 13. We had little in common, but he was14 talking with, as he 15 it, “intelligent people. “I consider myself fairly well-educated, but I don't think of myself as being overly 16. Rather, my “gift" is common sense.

    I have to admit that I wished our conversation had been17 ten or fifteen minutes, but 18 Michael finally rode off on his bike, he thanked me for listening so attentively to him and for my 19 to talk with him for so long. It was then that I realized that, just maybe, that was my20 in life for today—to be there, in that place, at that time, to engage in that conversation.

    After suffering severe bums to her back and other pans of her body at the age of three, Sylvia, 49, had spent her life covering up her scars. Her confidence was destroyed by years of1comments. At her lowest she had considered2her own life.

    "I didn't really know what3was. I didn't realize my mental health was being affected﹣I4thought this was a5thing."

    The accident that left her6happened during a7game of hide and seek with her sister. Afterward, a life of8herself up and hiding from attention followed, until a turning point in July last year.

    Sylvia was on holiday with her mother when she9a man's camera phone following her around the hotel pool. She and her mother left for the beach, but she was struck by the10the encounter had on her mother.

    "I could see her11at my scars. She just looked so sad," Sylvia recalled.

So she started to12, calling out to her mum to make her smile.

    "I had been in such a bad place before. I was so13. I was in such a horrible place for so many years. I looked back and felt like I'd destroyed my family s lives and I thought, now is the time for me to stop."

    Sylvia felt it was time not just to make a14for herself, but to help others with disfigurements（外形的损毁）and to raise awareness.

    She15a Facebook group, Love Disfigure, and now runs swimming sessions at High bury pool in Islinton, north London, with the aim of helping increase the16of people with disfigurements or17and health conditions.

    For Sylvia, last year has been18. Having19her body, and had depression, anxiety and post﹣traumatic stress disorder（创伤后应激障碍）she now hopes her story will20others.

    There was a businessman who was deep in debt and could see no way out. He sat on the park bench, head in hands,1if anything could save his company from bankruptcy (破产).

    Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is2you," he said. After listening to the businessman's troubles, the old man said, "I believe I can help you." He asked the man his name, wrote out a3, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." Then he turned and disappeared as4as he had come.

    The businessman saw in his hand a check for $500,000,5by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world! "I can6my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But7, he decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the8to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

    With renewed9, he negotiated better deals. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

    Exactly one year later, he returned to the10with the uncashed check. At the11time, the old man appeared. But just as the businessman was about to12the check and share his success story, a 13came running up and grabbed the old man. "I'm so delighted I14him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's15escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller." And she led the old man away16the arm.

    The businessman just stood there,17. All year long he'd been buying and selling,18he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or19, that had turned his life around. It was his20self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

    Experts say boredom is good for kids. It forces them to be creative, 1their imaginations, and helps them discover new things. A（n）2in point is 13-year-old Luke Thrill from Dubuque, Iowa.

    Luke was 3 of playing video games and riding his bike, so he decided to build a tiny house in his back yard instead. He made money from cutting lawns and4exchanged some services, such as gaining the help of an electrical engineer5 sweeping his garage. Luke also 6 spare materials from his grandmother's house and other 7 materials from his neighbors for some of the windows and the door.

    The 89-square-foot home cost $1, 500 to build and 818 months. Inside there's a kitchenette, a back sitting room, a table and a mounted（镶嵌的）TV, and an upstairs bedroom can be easily9by stairway.

    Although Luke did the10and learned how to do all the work, he had his father's 11 throughout the project. Greg Thrill was very happy that his son learned to stay on12and deal with grown-ups. 13, he had some simple rules when Luke14 the house: "You15the money. You build it. And you own it."

    Luke is now in love with16. He has a YouTube channel and hopes to 17other kids to start building. 18, he wants to build a bigger tiny house to live in, but for now, he19 in his new home a few nights a week, does homework there, and uses it to take a20from his twin brother.

    Susie Coodall finally was discovered and rescued. She was a volunteer in the 1 Golden Globe Race accompanying sailors through the 2 every June. On Wednesday morning, Goodall was 2, 000 miles west of South America when her boat was like a drunken man in a strong wind and a broken bar knocked her 3 unconscious. But soon after that she 4 and at once rang the alarm through her emergency system and a series of troubling 5which had recorded her happenings during the journey, were 6 on her Facebook at once.

    Chile's Maritime Center received her 7 and soon ordered a ship to change is 8 to rescue Goodall. Meanwhile, all Goodall could do was wait-trying to keep her boat 9in the waving South Pacific and pumping out water that was 10 into the damaged cabin(船舱), which made her 11 her present situation

    When the Chilean ship finally 12 Goodall, lowering down a small boat to save her seemed13because up to 13 feet waves will 14 the boat at any time. 15 , crew members on board 16 another way-lowered a long thick rope from the ship, and 17 Goodall from her ship to safety. As luck would have it, the chosen method 18 worked.

    Goodall arrived at the Chilean port without any delay. On her Facebook, Goodall wrote: "They were the hardest and loneliest days I've ever had. Actually, all I wanted was a break with to 19 to the busy daily life. But I might as well 20 home instead of giving up."

    Haze Mabry has just turned 80 years old, and on his birthday, just like every other day, he reported to Pike County Elementary in Georgia where he works as a cleaner, prepared to clean.

    But to his1, that day was different from any other day. Just as he was settling in for a day of work, he was2by more than 750 people, including students, teachers and staff,3the hallways.

    The students had made handmade4and banners(横幅), and they all sang happy birthday and shouted his name as he5by.

    "They're like my children ," Mabry said in a(n)6with The Washington Post ."I'm like the old lady in the shoe."

    Mabry makes a point of interacting(互动)with the7when he can ."I know the little faces, but I don't know every8,"Mabry said ."Some of them make you know them."

    The unexpected celebration at school9Mabry how valued(珍视) he is by students and teachers alike ."He's the most10person in this whole building ,"said teacher Lori Gilreath, who11his surprise ."He won't brag(吹嘘) on himself, but it doesn't12what he's doing or where he is, he will13stop what he's doing to take care of a child if that child is having a14day."

    Haze spent the whole following weekend15the pile of handwritten cards he16!

    Maybe we can't all organize something as17as this birthday celebration, but it's a18:take any chance you get to make someone's day19, and let them know how they are valued! It can make much20.