Imagine that you're a whale (鲸鱼), about 25 feet long and weighing thousands of pounds. You can 1 as fast as 35 miles per hour and may travel 100 miles in a day. The entire 2  is your home. Now picture yourself as the3 whale living alone in a small pool. You cannot dive 4  or swim great distances. There is nothing much to do 5  circle the small pool day after day.

    Now imagine you're an elephant living in a close family group. Members of the family 6 each other while travelling long distances to find the large quantities of food needed to7 the family. Now picture yourself8  in a trailer（拖车）or train moving from city to city. You're9 to perform tricks like standing on your head-things you'd 10 do in the wild.

    For many years, people watched whales and elephants 11  in circuses（马戏团）and marine（海洋的）parks. But now people are speaking up for the 12. They're saying that they deserve to live a more 13 life and not be used for entertainment. And people and some companies-are beginning to 14.

    In March 2015, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey  15  that they would no longer use elephant acts in their circuses. And on May 1, 2016, the elephants performed their last 16  . One year later, SeaWorld Theme Parks announced that it would gradually 17 using shows featuring whales performing silly 18 .

    The announcements by Ringling Bros. and SeaWorld are first steps in putting an end to using wild animals for19 . These decisions were made as a result of many people speaking out loud and clear that  20 animals deserve to live free.

    As a student in my final year of high school, I am very concerned about college. I spend most days thinking about the 1, hoping that I am on the right path.

    I am interested in a career in 2, so I decided to volunteer for service at the local hospital. I thought it would be the best of both worlds: 3 people while getting valuable on-the-job experience! So I went to the business office. 4, the hospital director was quite willing to let me help out, and he said I could 5 that summer as soon as I finished my finals. I accepted his 6 immediately, thinking to myself that here lay all the 7 I could ever want!

    Soon enough, I 8 for my first day at the 9. The director gave me a brief tour of different departments 10 we stopped right in front of maternity ward（产科病房）. "This is 11 you are going to work," he said. I was overwhelmed(不知所措的) by the sounds. Women shouted and newborns 12. I got nervous and wondered if I had been in a hurry when I was 13 to go for such a (an)14 job.

    My 15 must have shown clearly on my face because the director said, "Don't worry. You are going to help in the nursery." 16 that, we walked down a hallway filled with balloons, beautiful flowers and into the 17 room I've ever seen. The soft colors provided a quiet backdrop to the sleeping babies. The nurse in charge of the nursery 18 me, thanked me for 19, and asked me to start putting some baby things away in the drawers. The director gave me a (an) 20 look, which I returned with a quiet nod. I got right to work.

    You can never imagine how big and complex the inner world of a three-year-old child is, even as a mum. Yesterday afternoon I went to 1Nicole from her daycare center. On the way home, she looked 2in the beginning, telling me about the daytime activities, while later when the 3 and quiet came back to her, she looked tired.

    After we 4 the bus, there was still another 15 minutes of climbing up along a hill to our 5. She asked me where her daddy was. I told her that daddy was still working. She 6 the fact, and sighed with "Okay…", somewhat 7.

    On the way back, she was not as cooperative (合作的) as usual. Sometimes she 8 to walk, but to stand in the middle of the road. Sometimes she stepped 9 to the grassland and tried to kick off the snow 10 the bare grasses could be seen. And she kept 11 all the way. Finally we arrived. All of a sudden she 12 tears and lost her temper outside the door. "Why are you crying so sadly? Tired?" The last sentence caused an even louder 13, "Mummy can't carry me! Mummy 14! Daddy carry me! Daddy…!"

    My tears came out when I heard the words. Such a sweet and 15 girl she is. One month ago I had a bad movement when carrying her up and twisted (扭伤) my waist. I remember that I couldn't move at all when the 16happened and this certainly scared her. After that I 17 long-term lower back pain till now and couldn't carry her. It is 18 that she knows everything.

    No 19 she asked me where her daddy was. That was why she kept silent all the way long but 20 lost control when arriving at home. Dear parents, do you still think that our children know nothing or few about our world?

    While he was driving his Ford, he saw an old lady on the side of the road, who needed help. So he 1in front of her Mercedes and got out. He looked 2 and hungry. Even with the smile on his face, she was 3. Was he going to hurt her? He could see that she was frightened. He said, "I am here to 4 you, ma'am. By the way, my name is Bryan."

    Well, all she had was a flat tyre. Bryan crawled under the 5. Soon he changed the tyre. But he got dirty and his 6hurt.

    She couldn't thank him enough. She asked him how much she should 7him. He told her that if she 8 wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could 9 that person the help that he or she needed.

    The lady10 off. A few miles down the road she saw a small and shabby 11. She went in to eat. The waitress came over and smiled, 12 her a clean towel to wipe her wet hair.

    She noticed that the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant(怀孕). When she finished her13and the waitress went to get 14 for her hundred-dollar bill, she slipped right out of the restaurant. When the waitress 15, she saw four $100 bills on the table.

    When she climbed into bed that night, she was still thinking about the16the lady had left to her. How could she have 17 how much they needed it?

    With the birth of the baby next month, it was going to be18. And she knew how worried her19was. As he lay sleeping next to her, she said in a low20, "Everything's going to be all right, Bryan."

    One day, I drove into a service station to get some gas. It was a beautiful day and I was feeling 1 . As I paid for the gas, the attendant said, "How do you feel?" That seemed like a 2 question, but I felt fine and told him so. "You don't look 3." he replied and continued to tell me my skin appeared 4.

    By the time I left, I was a little 5 . About a block away, I 6 to the side of the road to look at my face 7 the mirror. Was everything all right? Had I picked up 8 rare disease? By the time I got home, I was beginning to feel a slight 9 somewhere in my body.

    The next time I went into that gas station, I 10 what had happened: The place had recently been painted a bright yellow, and the light reflecting off the walls made everyone inside 11 as though they were sick! That was the truth. 12 , I let that short conversation change my attitude for an entire day. His 13 observation affected the way I felt and acted.

    This experience made me think a lot. It is the same with life, in which attitude 14. The way we look at life determines how we feel and how we 15. If we expect something to turn out 16 , it probably will. But the 17 also works in reverse. If we expect good things to happen, they 18 do. An optimistic attitude, I believe, is not a luxury but a(an) 19. So after that, I chose to highlight the 20 throughout the rest of my life.

There's one patient that Sarah Rose Black still thinks about. Back in 2019, the nursing team at Toronto's Cancer Center called to ask if she could reach out to a patient who had been there for about a week. The man was struggling, and unwilling to communicate with workers or be part of any activities. 

Black isn't a doctor or a nurse. Since 2013 she has played an important role for patients at the center as a music therapist (治疗专家). On any day, she might see one person who's anxious about an operation, another who's in need of a calm moment.

So, Black walked into the patient's room and introduced herself. She asked if she could sit and offer to play some music. In an effort to persuade him, she said, "If you don't like it, you can just tell me to leave." After some gentle urging, the man in his 70s, who had lung cancer, told her a few musicians he liked and then turned away to look out the window. But as she started to play one of his favorites, a change came over him. He turned towards Black and started to cry. 

She stopped playing. "Do you want me to continue?" "Certainly," he said through tears. "It was as if the music went places that nothing else could," recalls Black. The music showed up at a moment when it felt like a hug. 

As Sarah Rose Black says, people have been connecting with music for their whole lives—she is just helping them use it again at a time when they need it most. 

"We have a heartbeat, so we have a drum (鼓) inside us; we are wired to be musical people," she says. She smiles softly as she reflects back on the experience.