Donna Ashlock, a 14-year-old girl from California, was very sick. She had a bad heart. “Donna needs a new heart,” her doctor said, “she must have a new heart, or she will die soon.”

Felipe Carza, 15, was worried about Donna. Felipe was Donna's friend. He liked Donna very much. He liked her freckles, and he liked her smile. Felipe didn't want Donna to die.

 Felipe talked to his mother about Donna. “I am going to die,” Felipe told his mother, “and I am going to give my heat to Donna.”

 Felipe's mother didn't pay much attention to Felipe. “Felipe is just kidding,”she thought, “Felipe is not going to die. He's strong and healthy.”

 But Felipe was not healthy. He had terrible headaches sometimes. “my head hurts,”he often told his friends. Felipe never told his parents about his headaches.

One morning Felipe woke up with a sharp pain in his head. He was dizzy (眩晕的), and he couldn't breathe. His parents rushed Felipe to the hospital. Doctors at the hospital had terrible news for them. “Felipe's brain is dead,”the doctors said, “we can't save him.”

 The parents were very sad. But they remembered Felipe's words. “Felipe wanted to give his heart to Donna,”they told the doctors.

 The doctors did several tests. Then they told the parents, “we can give Felipe's heart to Donna.”

The doctors took out Felipe's heart and rushed the heart to Donna. Other doctors took out Donna's heart and put Felipe's heart in her chest. In a short time the heart began to beat.

The operation was a success. Felipe's heart was beating in Donna's chest, but Donna didn't know it. Her parents and doctors didn't tell her. They waited until she was stronger; then they told her about Felipe. “I feel very sad,”Donna said, “but I am thankful to Felipe.”

 Three months later the operation Donna went back to school. She has to have regular checkups, and she has to take medicine every day. But she is living a normal life.

 Felipe's brother John says, “Every time we see Donna, we think of Felipe. She has Felipe's heart in her. That gives us great peace.”

                                                                         C

     Elizabeth lived with her six children in a small house. One winter, there was a big flood(洪水) ,and quite a few houses were washed away, but Elizabeth's house was high enough to escape it.
     Elizabeth helped one of the families which had lost everything. She shared her home until the family could build a new house. Elizabeth's friends could not understand her since she already had so many children to take care.
      "Well," Elizabeth explained to her friends, at the end of World War II, there was a poor woman in a town in England .Her husband had been killed in the war and she had a lot of children, just like me now .”

      “The day before Christmas, this woman said to her children, “We won't be able to have much for Christmas. I'm going to get just one present for us all .Now I'll go and get it. She came back with a little girl who had no parents .Here's our present, she said to her own children. ”

      “The children were more than excited to get such a present. They welcomed the little girl happily, and she grew up as their sister. I was that Christmas present.”

    Esperanza lives in a poor Latino(拉丁美洲的) neighbourhood in Chicago, America. She dreams of having her own house one day. Her parents told her that when they moved from their last house, they would have a new and shiny(亮闪闪的) house. But the house is small and old.

    Many people live in Mango Street, in a big old house, Esperanza lives behind it with her family. A lot of the people who have come from Mexico don't speak English. Many miss their home country. Esperanza understands their sadness, but she also feels at home in America. She is an American, but her roots(根) will always be Latino.

    Esperanza is young. Like her friends, she has to grow up fast. She is stuck between being a girl and being a woman. In the poor and dangerous area where she lives, this is difficult for her. Mexican people usually live in a close neighbourhood. This means that people live packed(挤塞的) in together. Everyone knows everyone else. So Esperanza knows other older girls that do things she is not comfortable doing. It is just a fact of her life.

    But Esperanza has good friends too. She becomes friends with two sisters named Lucy and Rachel. They ride bikes and have adventures(冒险) together. Esperanza is also friends with a girl named Alicia. Alicia is afraid of the rats in her apartment. She shares her poems with Esperanza.

    A restaurant had one falled upon hard times. Only five 1 were left: the manager and four others, all over 60 years old.

    In the town near the restaurant there lived a successful businessman who was good at managing business, so the manager2to ask the businessman if he could offer any advice that might save the restaurant. The manager and the businessman talked for a long period of time, but when he was asked for advice, the businessman 3for a while and then said, "I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the saver (救星) is one of you."

    The manager, returning to the restaurant4, told the other people what the businessman had said. In the months that5, the old restaurant workers thought carefully of the words of the businessman, "The saver is one of us?" They asked themselves. As they thought about this possibility, they all began to treat each other with6respect(尊重). And thinking that each of themselves might be the saver, they also began to treat themselves with more care.

    As time went by, people coming to the restaurant7that some respect and warm kindness were around the five old members of the small restaurant. Hardly knowing 8, more people began to come back to the restaurant. They began to bring their friends, and theirs brought more friends. Two 9 later, the small restaurant had once again become a big food company, thanks to the businessman's10. They understood that it was they themselves that were the savers.

I still remember my first day at school. My sister, Sandy, studied there too. Dad and I waited for her at the school gate after school. Every day, she ran out of the school ha ppily with her 1 . I wanted to paint too. 

I was five years old when I 2 school. Most children started school in September, but I started school in January because I was born in December. Three other children started school on the same day as me. I was really 3 about my first day. I had my new uniform* ready: a black skirt, a white T-shirt and a new red bag! When we got to school that day, a teachermet 4 at the school gate. 

Dad said 5 to me and went home. I stayed there with the other children. I didn't talk to anyone 6 I was afraid. Then Mr Wilson took us to our classroom. All the other children were there. Everyone looked 7 us when we walked into the room, I was a bit sad and really wanted to 8 . 

But soon, I began to play with children on the playground and our teacher read us some stories. Later we drew pictures with 9 . At lunch time, I made a new friend called Megan. At the end of the day, I happily 10 to the school gate just like Sandy always did. 

It's always a good thing to have a hobby. For Miss Patty, a school bus driver in Erie County, her hobby of knitting (编织) has made her really touch the community (社区). 

Miss Patty always wanted to do something with her free time to help the students. After a talk with one of the students, things took a turn from knitting one hat to knitting more hats. 

"The one boy gets on the bus, and he asks 'what are you doing?', I said, ‘I'm making a hat. 'He said, 'That would be great fun having such a warm hat in icy winter. 'So I said, 'What color would you like? That started everything, " Miss Patty told the local newspaper. 

Miss Patty has already knitted 7, 083 hats for students in her free time. Sometimes she will get the student's favourite color before she begins the project. 

What is more moving is that Miss Patty buys all the materials (材料) using her own money. Some people do give her gift cards around the holidays to help, but she still puts out a lot of her own money. 

Along with making hats for the students that will keep them warm, Miss Patty also gets praise (表扬) for being a trusted (可信的) friend to the students.