As a child, I was told that a wise person is the one who learns from everyone. It is a great way to live by this 1 — One begins to look at people very 2 and he no longer puts others 3 in order to feel good about himself.

    Living in China 4 me with many wonderful opportunities to put this principle into practice. China is quite5 and as a Westerner, it's easy for me to consider many of the local habits as “strange” and even “rude”. However, slowly I began to  6 a lot about the culture and about where many of their 7 came from. I decided to make an effort to meet people and 8from them.

    I am living in Harbin now, a city in the Northern part of China, near Russia. Yesterday I 9to get money from the ATM and have a good cup of coffee after lunch. But I can't speak Chinese yet and there are no signs in English 10 the nearest supermarket or coffee shop. There are signs in Russian. 11 “espaciba” which means thanks, I don't know much else. 12 I decided to smile at my every attempt to13and ask for information that would 14 me to an ATM and a coffee shop. It turned out that my efforts and my 15 were met with more smiles. I learned that16is to be found everywhere even 17I cannot communicate, and that people will 18depending on what I give.

    Look around you for opportunities to learn from the most19 people. You will be surprised at what they can 20you!

    Once a man came to a wise man's house and said, “I have many bad habits. Which of them should I 1 first?” The wise man said, “Never tell lies 2 always speak the truth.” The man 3 to do so and went home.

    At night the man was about to go out to steal. Before setting out, he 4 for a moment about the promise he made to the wise man. “If he asks me where I have been, what shall I say? Shall I say that I went out 5?” No, I cannot say that, but nor can I 6. If I tell the truth, everyone will start 7 me and call me a thief. I would be 8 for stealing.” So the man 9 not to steal that night, and gave up this 10 habit.

    Next day, he 11 to drink wine. When he was about to do so, he said to himself, “What shall I say to the wise man 12 he asks me what I did during the day? I cannot tell a lie.” And so he gave up the 13 of drinking wine.

    In this 14, whenever the man thought of doing something bad, he 15 his promise to tell the truth at all times. 16, he gave up all his bad habits and became a very 17 person.

    Telling the truth is a very good 18. If you always speak the truth, you can save yourself from a lot of 19 and become a person whom everyone 20 and favors.

    Make a promise: I shall always speak the truth.

    As a child, I started learning to play the piano, my favorite musical 1,but I was forced to give up when I started my middle school 2 I could concentrate more on my studies.

    It's one of my biggest 3to stop practicing the piano when I recall sadly today. During the following years, I kept telling my piano teacher that I would4. However, I didn't keep my promise because I was 5 with my study.6 I lost touch with my teacher. Some years later, my teacher died. I was very sad because I lost such a good teacher. She was a very warm and gentle person. It hurts me to think she may have been 7 that I never returned. I haven't taken lessons since then but to be honest, I 8 to. Sitting at the piano, I couldn't help recalling many9-- times of my practising at home and playing before my teacher and one time my teacher 10 me after I played entire pieces of music wrong in front of her colleagues. I was so11 that I could hardly say anything. But her12 helped me ease my shame. These memories, 13, good or bad, never caused my 14 for playing the piano again.

    This thought then led me to think that15is like music, and that we all try to play different 16 in the instrument of our life. Sometimes the pitch(音高) is 17when we play it well, but sometimes we are out of tone. However, we all continue to create our own 18style of music. No matter what style our music is, it is 19 that we sing the songs of joy, quietness and love. Though I may never make it back to piano lessons, it doesn't20 that I've stopped making music.

    Years ago a professor gave a group of graduate students this assignment: Go to the slums (贫民窟). Take 200 boys between the ages of 12 and 16, investigate their 1 and environment and then 2 their chances for the future. The students，after 3 social statistics, talking to the boys and compiling (汇编) much data, 4 that 90 percent of the boys would spend some time in 5.

    Twenty five years later another group of graduate students were given the job of 6 the previous prediction. They went back to the 7 area. Some of the boys—now 8 —were still there, a few had died and some has moved away. But they managed to 9 180 of the original 200.They found that only four of the boys had ever been sent to prison.

    Why was it that these men, who had lived in a breeding place of 10, had such surprisingly 11 record? The researchers were 12 told. "Well, there was a 13."

    They investigated 14 and found that in 78 percent of the 15 it was the same woman. The researchers went to the teacher, now living in a home for 16 teacher. How had she had this remarkable 17 on that group of children? Could she give them any reason why these boys 18 her? "No," she said, "I really couldn't." And then, 19 over the years, she said musingly (沉思地), more to herself than to her questioners, "I 20 these boys." The researchers finally realized that it was the teacher's care that made a difference.

    After all of these years, I still remember my first moment of kindness. It was the first day of kindergarten. I walked in with my mom and was 1 at all the toys against the walls. I 2 ran over to play. Most of the other kids were doing the same.

    In the corner 3, I saw one girl, sitting by herself. She was small and looked 4. She was the only one in the class shorter than me. Her 5 eyes looked like she had been crying. None of the other children seemed to 6 her there.

    I went back to 7 the toy cars but after a minute, I looked up at her again. She seemed so 8. Something inside started to stir(搅动). After a moment, I 9 two of the toy cars and 10 her. "Do you want to play?" I asked. She smiled and 11 her head yes.

    What made me remember that first unselfish act was a 12 that little girl wrote me after we were both grown. She told me how her illness made the other kids 13 her and how that moment of kindness had 14 her life. She had valued the 15I had offered her and carried it in her 16 even after she moved away. I wrote her back and we continued our friendship through the mail for several years 17 the disease finally took her life.

    Today I still thanked my unselfish little heart for 18 me to be kind to a little girl who needed a friend. I thought of how a moment of kindness can 19 so much to another, and of how 20 act can make the world so much better. May your life be full of giving, caring and helping that bring joy to you while you bring joy to others.

In 2019, after retiring from her career as a social worker, Ane Freed-Kernis decided to build a home workshop and devote all of her free time to stone carving. "I might be covered head to toe in dust but I'm happy—it was something I needed more of in my life when I hit 60," she says.

This appeal has its origins in Freed-Kernis' childhood. Growing up on her father's farm in Denmark, she used to wander through the fields with her eyes fixed on the ground, looking for stones to add to her collection. "I've always been drawn to the shapes and textures（质地）of stones," she says.

After moving to England in 1977 and training as a social worker, Freed-Kernis soon became occupied with her busy career and the demands of raising her son. Stones were the last thing on her mind, until her father died in 2005. "He took a stone carving course in his retirement, and I always thought stone seemed so fun but never had the time to look into it myself," she says. "After he died, I became determined to learn in his honour."

Signing up for a week-long stone carving course at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Freed-Kernis began to learn how to turn a block of rock into well-designed shapes. "It was really scary at the start because you would spend hours just hammering（锤打）."

Now 65, Freed-Kernis has a thriving small business built largely through word of mouth. She creates 12 to 15 pieces a year that can take anywhere from a few days to three weeks to complete, while her prices range from £200 to £3, 000. "I'm making smaller ones," she says. "I don't have to depend on the money much, so I want to keep prices in the range that people can afford, mainly just covering costs and labour（劳动力）."