I am sitting in an empty football field after my last high school football game that finished a few hours ago. I'm the mid-field player on my team. But in fact that's not 1 now. I was the mid-field player because, as I said, this was my 2 game. That's a good way to end a high school football career (生涯), especially if you win, but even though you don't, it's 3 to leave at a high point.

    I was eight when I first started playing football. My dad 4 football, and he used to practise with me at home – passing, catching, running. We used to practise almost every evening 5 it got too dark. He tried to teach me everything he knew about the 6.  “Just remember: don't ever 7.” “Stay in the game. Don't lose your concentration (专注).” “Go out there and give 110 percent every time.” Well, that was a long time ago, but I still hear his words 8 in my ears.

    I had a lot on my mind 9 the game today. I don't like things to end, I guess, and this was the last game. I was talking to myself and warning myself about what to do and not to do. I didn't sleep at all 10, and when the sun came up this morning, I reached the point where 11 just wanted it all to be over, finished, done. But then when the game started, my mind became 12. I just lived in this game, this moment. I didn't hear the crowd, I didn't feel the cold or the pain, I never felt tired. I just kept my eyes on the 13, and it was just me and the ball and, inside, a soft, white light 14 me the way to the goal. It was a beautiful, empty feeling.

    It's all over now, and it's really getting cold here. It's starting to snow. The sun's almost gone, and I can 15 see the goal. Now it's dark and I'm sitting here all alone. Well, I guess it's time to say good-bye and move on.

    Xie Wanying (October 5, 1900-Febrary 28.1999), better known by her pen name Bing Xin, was oneof the most well-known Chinese writers of the 20^th century. Many ofher works were written for young readers. Her pen nameBing Xin carries the meaning of a pure heart, and is taken from a line in aTang Dynasty poem by Wang Changling.

    Bing Xin was born in Fuzhou, Fujian, but moved toShanghai with her family when she was seven months old, and later moved yetagain to the coastal port city of Yantai, Shandong, when she was four.Such a move had akey influence on Bing Xin's personality and philosophy (哲学)of love and beauty, as the hugeness and beauty of the sea greatly opened youngBing Xin's mind and heart. It was also in Yantai, Bing Xin first began to readthe classics of Chinese literature, such asRomance of the Three KingdomsandWater Margin, when she was just seven.

    In 1913, Bing Xin moved to Beijing. She started herwriting career as she wrote for a school newspaper at Yanjing University whereshe was a student and published her first novel. Bing Xin graduated fromYanjing University in 1923 with a bachelor's degree, and went to the UnitedStates to study at Wellesley College, earning a master's degree at Wellesley inliterature in 1926. She then returned to Yanjing University to teach until1936.

    In 1929, she married Wu Wenzao, her good friend whenthey were studying in the United States. In literature, Bing Xin founded the"Bing Xin Style" as a new literary style. Shecontributed a lot to children's literature in China such asA Myriad ofStars (1923),Spring Water (1923),Six-one sister(1924),ToYoung Readers (1926),Homeward South (1931),The Collected Worksof Bing Xin(1932-1933). Bing Xin's literary career was productive. Shewrote a lot of works — prose, poetry, novels, reflections and so on. There is aBing Xin Literature Museum in Changle in Fujian Province. The Bing XinChildren's Literature Award is named in her honour.

I saved the grain carefully and finally had enough to plant. I built a wall around my garden to keep the wild goats away. Then I killed some birds and hung them among the crop to stop others getting closer.

With my new grain to store, I found a new problem. The fine grain ran through my baskets. It took me nearly two months to form and dry two ugly pots—one for rice and one for wheat.

Next I formed a clay oven and made some other tools from hard wood and cloth to bake bread. I made and baked bread in my oven. I spent the third year on the island in farming and baking.

Soon after that, I began to think of my days sailing in a tidy boat with Xury. I wished to have a boat and explore the island by sea.

I tried to turn over the ship's boat that I had seen washed up, but failed. I still decided to have a boat. So I chose a strong tree and spent weeks cutting it down. Then it took me months to turn it from tree to boat.

When it was time to set off, I realized I had made my boat too far from the nearest stream. The boat was far too heavy for me to move. I tried bringing the water to the boat instead of the boat to the water. I soon saw it would take me twenty years of constant labor.

I celebrated my fourth year on the island with two boats, but I was no closer to a sea journey.

—Taken from The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

In 2009, Shawn Seipler worked for an American technology company. His job required him to travel and visit companies all over America. One evening, he was sitting in his hotel room. He began to wonder what happened to the soap in the bathroom once he left the hotel. There was no way that it could be left in the room for someone else to use. Curious, he asked the hotel manager and was told that the used soap was thrown away and replaced. 

Shawn could not sleep that night. A quick Internet search told him that there were about 4. 6 million hotel rooms in America. If 60 percent of these were used every night, over one million bars of soap would be thrown away every day. Was this really necessary? The young man went on to read reports about the importance of handwashing. He learned that thousands of children were dying every day from diseases related to bad hygiene (卫生) . If the children washed their hands with soap, the number of deaths could be reduced by half. The following day, Shawn left his well-paid job. He approached (靠近) the Holiday Inn Hotel in Orlando and asked if he could take away their used soap. He transported it to his home, where he and his relatives began to break it down, so it could be used again. 

Shawn started his charity, Clean The World, and began distributing his recycled soap to children all over the world. His another big task was to communicate with other hotels, so he could take away their used soap. He found that he was really doing the hotels a big favour. Not only was he putting their soap to good use, but he was also preventing millions of bars of used soap from ending up in landfill (垃圾填埋地) every year. His charity was able to raise money by charging the hotels for this service. In return, the hotels could tell everyone they were part of an amazing new charity. 

Today, the charity has offices overseas and operates in China, India and Canada. Many of the biggest hotel groups in the world are working with Clean The World, helping to save lives. 

It was a fine summer afternoon. Sam was going home from school. He walked along the road slowly, reading a book. Sam had spent all his money on the book. He liked it very much. When he came to the high road, there was a blind man, holding out his hat. The poor man said, "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday. Please give me some money. I want to buy some bread." But Sam had nothing to give. So, he just walked on, feeling very sad.

Soon after, a fine carriage(马车) came up, and in it were Harry and his mother. The blind man still stood there and held out his hat. "Let us give the poor man something," said Harry to his mom. His mother found some coins in her bag and passed them to him. However, Harry did not put them into the man's hat. He threw them into the bush (灌木丛) beside the poor man. How could the blind man find them?

As Sam turned back to look at the fine carriage, he saw Harry throwing the coins into the bush. So he walked back at once and helped look for the money until he found all the coins.

As the blind man held the coins, he smiled. It touched Sam's heart. At that moment, Sam knew that kindness wasn't always about big actions; sometimes, it was the simple act of giving a helping hand that could make a difference.