Want to boost the chance of your story being published in Reader's Digest and win $25,000? Here are a few of our favorite entries so far in our "Your life: The Reader's Digest Version" contest. After reading these, head over to Facebook and submit your own story about a special moment or lesson that shaped your life.

    "There's Always a John" By Darla Boyd

    My first year of teaching, there was a kid named John in my class. John was difficult to control and he nearly drove me crazy. While talking about him one day, an old teacher put his hand on my shoulder and said, "There will always be a John. Your job is to learn to discover what makes him different and help him succeed." The next year, there was indeed another John. But that advice taught me that there is something to appreciate in everyone.

    "An Early Key Lesson" By Elaine West

    Before I began my first teaching job, my mother, a teacher of 30 years, gave me a very special gift, five simple words that have had an effect on my entire life." Make friends with the janitor（门卫）." Her wisdom taught me the respect for all types of characters and continues to enrich my life to this day. Just five little words but what an impact they can have when you take them to heart.

    “Raising Mommy” By Jan Davis

    Being a mother can always present challenges and rewards. Someone told me early that children will teach you everything you need to know. Being a mother is being raised. Our children become our advisers. Their dreams become our professors, as we are taking notes carefully. The sounds of their laughter and smiles are a great reward to us. Their tears remind us that it is okay to fail, and that we should wipe the tears away and try again.

    The Marches were a happy family, Poverty, hard work, and even the fact that Father March was away with the Union armies could not down the spirits of Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, and Marmee, as the March girls called their mother.

    The March sisters tried to be good but had their share of faults. Pretty Meg was often displeased with the schoolchildren she taught; boyish Jo was easy to become angry; golden-haired schoolgirl Amy liked to show up; but Beth, who kept the house, was loving and gentle always.

    The happy days passed and darkness came when a telegram arrived for Mrs. March. “Your husband is very ill,” it said, “come at once.” The girl tried to be brave when their mother left for the front. They waited and prayed. Little Beth got scarlet fever (猩红热) when she was taking care of the sick neighbor. She became very ill but began to recover by the time Marmee was back. When Father came home from the front and at that joyful Christmas dinner they were once more all together.

    Three years later the March girls had grown into young womanhood. Meg became Mrs. Brooke, and after a few family troubles got used to her new state happily. Jo had found pleasure in her literary efforts. Amy had grown into a young lady with a talent for design and an even greater one for society. But Beth had never fully regained her health, and her family watched her with love and anxiety.

    Amy was asked to go and stay in Europe with a relative of the Marches'. Jo went to New York and became successful in her writing and had the satisfaction of seeing her work published there. But at home the bitterest blow was yet to fall Beth had known for some time that she couldn't live much longer to be with the family and in the spring time she died.

    News came from Europe that Amy and Laurie, the grandson of a wealthy neighbor, had planned to be married soon. Now Jo became ever more successful in her writing and got married to Professor Bhaer and soon afterwards founded a school for boys.

    And so the little women had grown up and lived happily with their children, enjoying the harvest of love and goodness that they had devoted all their lives to.

    With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives. Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dump, makes me feel good and warms my heart.

    How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker, neighbor, close friends, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy(礼貌)to speak to others that are around you.

    I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face. They don't get the joke that makes others laugh. I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?

    Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness in this present world. It drives people crazy. We all need to find a way to ignore the sadness and bring a little light into our lives. So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.

    The San Francisco Giants added a special pitcher(投球手)for the day. It was small—yet fierce—Hailey Dawson, who has a 3D-printed hand.

    The energetic 8-year-old from Nevada was invited to throw out the first pitch at the Giants game on Sunday. Dawson was born with Poland syndrome(综合症), a disorder in which affected individuals are born with missing or underdeveloped muscles on one side of the body. It affected her hand.

    With a traditional prosthetic(假肢)potentially costing thousands of dollars, Hailey's mom, Yong Dawson turned to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for help. She emailed UNLV engineering, and they accepted the challenge. Brendan O'Toole, chairman of the mechanical engineering department, said he and his team had got a lot of requests, "but this one was different." They got to work using a 3D-printer.Several prototypes(原型)and fittings later, Dawson got her first hand about four years ago.

    Hailey's mother said the hand had given her daughter a wonderful lift. "When she puts this robotic hand on, it changes her personality and confidence level," Yong Dawson told CBS San Francisco. "I love seeing that. I just wanted her to have an even playing field."

    When she arrived at AT&T Park on Sunday, Hailey got to hang out with players in the shelter at the side of the sports field. They even let her try on their World Series rings.

    Using her 3D-printed hand, Dawson threw out the perfect first pitch. Then with a wave and a smile, she headed into the stands to cheer on her newfound friends on the Giants.

Reading helps kids learn English and kids' books make it easy and enjoyable. Here are some books that are carefully picked for your kids.

Corduroy

It's about a little bear, Corduroy, in a toy shop. He has lost one of his buttons (纽扣). This makes him very sad because he wants to be taken home by a kid. So he decides to find a new button. Corduroy contains some hard words. So you'd better use a dictionary while reading it

 Price: $18; 10% discount (折扣) on Sunday

Curious George

Curious Georgp, a monkey, is a little too interested in everything, which causes humans to bring him from the forest to a big city. However, there he calls the fire department, is put into prison, escapes from prison and is carried into the sky by balloons. Though the book uses a lot of short and simple sentences, some of its words are not simple.

Price: $20; 20% discount on Sunday

The Story of Ferdinand

Ferdinand, a bull, loves to smell the flowers in the grassland. One day people come to pick a male cow for bull fights. Ferdinand doesn't want to be chosen, but a bee stings (叮) him. It causes him to jump around crazily, so he's picked. In Ferdinand's first fight, he lies down to smell the flowers instead of fighting. So he is sent back to the-grassland. The book has many similar stories that bring laughter. And it has everything that makes a children's book great for English learners — simple and hard words.

Price: $16; 10% discount on Sunday

Green Eggs and Ham

In this book, a cat named Sam really likes green eggs and meat. So he offers them to a friend. Read the book to see if his friend likes the meal or not. This book is a poem. Despite having simple vocabulary, the words are used in a way that feels smart.

Price: $15; 5% discount on Sunday

According to a new Agriculture Department report, U. S. forests could exacerbate global warming because they are being destroyed by natural disasters and are losing their ability to absorb planet-warming gases as they get older. The report predicts that the ability of forests to absorb carbon will start declining after 2025 and that forests could release up to 100 million metric tons of carbon a year as their emissions (排放) from decaying (腐烂的) trees go beyond their carbon absorption. Forests could become a "substantial carbon source" by 2070, the USDA report says.

The loss of carbon absorption is driven in part by natural disasters such as wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes, which are increasing in frequency and strength as global temperatures rise. The disasters destroy forestland, destroying their ecosystem and decreasing their ability to absorb carbon, according to Lynn Riley, a senior manager of climate science at the American Forest Foundation. Aging forests also contribute. The report found that older, mature trees absorb less carbon than younger trees of the same species, and U. S. forests are rapidly aging.

This trend is likely to continue, as forests come under increasing threat from climate change and exploitation (开采). The typical tropical (热带的) forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s, according to Simon Lewis, professor in the school of geography at Leeds University. "Humans have been lucky so far, as tropical forests are cleaning up lots of our pollution, but they can't keep doing that indefinitely," he said. "We need to cut down fossil fuel emissions before the global carbon cycle starts working against us."

U. S. forests currently absorb 11 percent of U. S. carbon emissions, or 150 million metric tons of carbon a year, equal to the combined emissions from 40 coal power plants, according to the report. The loss of forests as natural carbon absorbers will require the U. S. to cut emissions more rapidly to reach net zero. "As we work to decarbonize (碳减排), forests are one of the greatest tools at our handling. If we were to lose that, it means we will contribute that much more in emissions." Riley said.