Every year on my birthday since I was 11, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card ever came with it. Calls to the flower shop were not helpful at all. After some time I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and was just pleased with the beautiful flower, in soft pink paper.

I couldn't stop imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments werespent daydreaming(幻想 )about the sender. My mother encouraged these daydreams. She'd ask me if I had been especially kind to someone. Perhaps it was one of my classmates Perhaps it was the old man who I once helped. As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy that I had met.

    A month before my high school graduation(毕业), my father died. I was so sad that I became completely uninterested in my coming graduation dance, and I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. My mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss (过) any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia: lovely, strong and perfect.

    My mother died ten years after I was married. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

    A man and his little son spent their summer vacation walking through the mountains far from their city. One day, the little boy slipped (滑) 20-30 meters down the side of the mountain. Finally he was able to catch onto a tree branch (枝干) and hold on.

    “Help me!” he cried out.

    “Help me!” a voice shouted back.

    The boy was very surprised. “Who are you?” he shouted.

    “Who are you?” the voice shouted back.

    “You are a fool!” he said.

    “You are a fool!” the voice came back.

    At that moment, his father got to him. “Someone is talking to me but I can't see who he is,” the boy said to his father.

    “Son, that is called an echo (回音),” his father said. “But really, it's called life.”

    “You are a winner!” the father cried.

    “You are a winner!” the voice answered.

    “You are talented!” the father shouted.

    “You are talented!” it came back.

    “Son, that's how life is. Whatever you do, it always comes back to you,” the father said. “The question is: what are you sending out? Please start sending out: ‘I am strong, I am talented, and I am the best.' What you send out is going to come back to you.”

    If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. Life will give you back everything you have given to it.

    Yesterday the police were joined by more than 20 volunteers in the continuing search for the two missing teenagers, Vicky Gray and Tom Hunter, and their guide, Gavin Jones. The police said that they had disappeared during an adventure tour of Cape York Peninsula.

    This was the second day of the search and the police were now very worried about the safety of the three missing people.

    The police said that the search had covered a wide area, but the rain forest was thick and their work was made harder by the recent rain. Later on Chief Inspector (警官) Roger Fleet said, “The travellers had a radio with them. If they had been in trouble, they would have called us.”

    The three travellers left Cooktown very early on Saturday morning in a Toyota car. They took a small dirt road that runs down to the Daintree River, a dangerous river full of crocodiles (鳄鱼). Chief Inspector Roger Fleet said the tourists wouldn't have got into trouble if they had stayed on the main road.

    A photo of Vicky and Tom was found by a policeman under the “Be Careful about crocodiles” sign near the river. Why was the photo left behind? This is just one of the unanswered questions. Other questions are: Why was the photo left behind? Why was the Toyota parked and locked at the edge of the rain forest? The police said that the travellers had left a map of the area behind. Why? Why had someone drawn a cross on the point where the car is? Is this a sign? What does it mean? If anyone can give information or has seen these three young people, contact the local police in Cooktown.

    When Jason's parents saw him for the first time, they were shocked（震惊）.This lovely little baby with shining blue eyes and curly hair was born disabled（残疾的）. But soon the young couple accepted this fact: Jason's arms are just half without hands and his legs aren't fully grown either. They even forgot to think of him as disabled.

    At the age of six, he told his mother he wanted to get down from the prosthetics（假肢）and play with other kids. This was the last time Jason had worn them. He now has an electric wheelchair（轮椅）, but he never uses it at home or when it is easy for him to move using only his body.

    Jason learned handwriting and coloring at school, holding the pen between the ends of his arms. He also learned to eat with forks at home. When he was ten, he fell in love with football. He never had a pair of shoes in his life because of the shape of his feet. He only wore socks on the football field. He never won a match, but he refused to give up. His strong arms and body, as well as some fantastic ways made him a respected（受尊重的）player on the school team. He went to a famous university after high school.

    Now Jason still faces many hardships in life, but he will make you believe that you can do what he has done. “Never be afraid of any difficulty”, Jason often encourages others in his speeches.

    The class teachers thought that hobbies were important to children. So she encouraged all her students to have one, and sometimes she arranged hobby shows for their parents to see.

    One morning, the teacher told the class to have a holiday and get their hobby things to school before 5 pm. A hobby show would be held the following afternoon.

    So in the afternoon, the students with nothing to show did their lessons at school as usual, while the lucky ones had a holiday to go home for their hobby works.

    When the afternoon lessons began, the teacher was surprised to see that Tommy was not there. "I don't believe Tommy has a hobby, "she thought. However, at a quarter to five, Tommy arrived with a beautiful collection of butterflies（蝴蝶）in glass cases. The teacher liked the samples（标本）very much and put them on a desk in the classroom. But, to her surprise, Tommy picked them up again and began to leave.

    "What are you doing, Tommy?" she asked. "Those things must stay here until tomorrow afternoon. That's when the parents are coming to see them. "

    "I know that, "answered Tommy, "and I will bring them back tomorrow, but my big brother doesn't want them to be out of our house at night. ""

    But, aren't the butterflies yours?" asked the teacher.

    "No, "answered Tommy." They are my brother's."

    "But Tommy, you should show your own hobby here, not somebody else's!"

    "I know that, "answered Tommy. What surprises her most was the answer. "My hobby is watching my brother collecting butterflies."

    Betty and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party together. But this year, we had a costume party instead.

    While we were writing the invitations, my mum came in and asked, "Why not invite John?" John had been in our class for only a few months, but he was already getting better grades in Maths than anyone else in class. I wrinkled (皱起) my nose, "Mum, he wears the same pants to school every day. How could he even afford a costume?" Mum said nothing. The next day, mum gave me an envelope with a shopping certificate (凭证) in it. "I thought it would be nice for you to give this to John" Mum said. But how? We didn't want to make John embarrassed. We discussed it for a long time. Finally, Betty and I had a good idea.

    On the day of our party, kids arrived, dressed differently. John arrived, in an old sheet (床单), but still in the same brown pants as usual. We danced, ate snacks and played games in groups. Before eating the birthday cake, Betty said in a loud voice, "Now it is time for the great prize game. It is the following riddle…" It was a maths game. None of us was surprised when John came up with the right answer first and walked off with the envelope.

    Everything went on well as we planned. John wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

    When we help others, we need to find a proper way, or we may hurt them in another way.