One day, I drove into a service station to get some gas. It was a beautiful day and I was feeling1. As I paid for the gas, the attendant said, “How do you feel?” that seemed like a2question, 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 7the mirror. Was everything all right? Had I picked up 8rare disease? By the time I got home, I was beginning to feel a slight 9somewhere 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, bilious yellow, and the light reflecting off the walls made everyone inside 11as 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 out16, it probably will. But 17 also works in reverse. If we expect good things to happen, they 18do. An optimistic attitude, I believe, is not a luxury but a(an)19. So after that, I chose to highlight the 20throughout the rest of my life.

    After my brother died in an accident, my mother was very sad. I was only 4 years old at the time, but I still understood the 1 in my mom's attitude toward safety.2, everything around us was potentially 3.

    I grew up with a lot of 4 and rules that were meant to 5 me. For example, I was not 6 to walk home from school by myself, even though everyone I knew already did. I couldn't 7 evening parties or go to summer camp,8 what if something happened to me?

    As I got older, the list of things to 9 got longer. I became a natural 10. I was concerned about things like getting cancer, losing my wallet, being caught in car accidents and earthquakes —11 big and small, real and 12.The funny part is that you'd never know it by looking at my life, because I'm constantly 13 myself to do the things that frighten or worry me. In fact, I've developed a 14 for myself: If it scares me, then I have to do it 15 once. I've done lots of things that would have 16 my mom: I've ridden a motorcycle, I've traveled alone, and I've performed stand-up comedy.

    Courage isn't a natural attribute (品质) of human beings. I believe that we have to practice being courageous. The more 17 I do things that scare me or that make me 18, the more I realize that I can do a lot more than I originally thought I could do.

    Even though I inherited (经遗传获得) my mother's cautious19, I've also come to believe that fear can be a good thing, if we 20 it. Believing that has made my world a less scary place.

    I sat and waited for Kathleen to speak. “Annie,” she said, “A food bank that serves the elderly is asking for 1. I'd like you to organize the event.” “Well, errr…sure.” As I stuttered(结巴地说) through my 2 , all I could think was, “What? Why me?”

    I walked back to my office wondering where to 3. This was a time 4 the economy was fading. The rise in unemployment forced many of my coworkers to 5 to survive. How could I ask them for more?

    That evening I drove home, depressed. Then I remembered once my father was out of work. Mom wrote a note to Jim, the milkman, asking him not to 6 any more milk. Two days later Jim picked up the 7 and left four liters of milk. He left a message, 8, “Kids need milk.” The milk delivery 9 as usual and Jim never collected a cent 10 us.

    The memory of Jim's 11 fired my enthusiasm. Perhaps I'd be in for a pleasant surprise.

    The next morning I 12 signs about our food drive all over the cafeteria and on every notice board I could find. Each sign said, “Food drive to support the poor elderly! 13 of non-perishable(不易腐的) foods are greatly needed.”

    Within a few days I had to locate empty office space to 14 a large number of contributions we had 15. One of my coworkers, Maggie, made the rounds with me every day from one department to another to pick up the canned goods and other 16. Though over sixty, she 17 manage to push our food trolley(手 推车) around like a woman half her age.

    I asked her where she got all the enthusiasm. She said, “With the unemployment rate touching 10 percent, I can't think of a better way to be 18 for keeping our jobs 19 so many have lost theirs. Sure money is tight. But when isn't it? People need food.”

    As I listened to Maggie, the milkman's words 20 in my ears, “Kids need milk.”

    Todd Jones is a 15­year­old student from Washington, D.C. In a chat room called Webfriends, he started talking to someone 1 to be a 13­year­old junior high school student in Texas named Josh. For several weeks, they chatted online about their hobbies and quickly 2. Then Josh started telling Todd about his 3. He said that his father had lost his job and his grandmother was very ill. 4 money was urgently needed, he wondered if Todd could help. Feeling bad for his new friend, Todd transferred(转账) $50 to Josh's bank account.

    Two weeks later, Josh asked Todd for $50 to help pay for school supplies like notebooks. 5, Todd sent the money. Over the next month, Josh asked Todd for money five times, for a total of $300. Gradually, Todd was beginning to feel 6 of his chat room friend. He turned to Bob Howard, a cybercrime specialist at the police department. After some checking, Howard discovered that Todd's chat room friend was not 13­year­old Josh from Texas but 38­year­old David Klein from New York. As it 7, Klein had made friends with more than twenty middle school students in different chat rooms, using a different 8 each time. By claiming to be poor or ill, Klein had 9 more than $3, 000 from these students.

    Howard urges everyone to be 10 when they visit chat rooms: "Never send money to someone you meet online or meet online friends in person."

That morning in September, at a five-kilometer race, I waited for my 11-year-old son at the finish line. He'd run 30:34 at another 5k in late spring, so I 1 he could run a 5k in about 30 minutes. When I didn't see him at the 35-minute mark, I began to 2 .

It'd already been an 3 morning. About an hour earlier, when we drove into town, my son noticed a lovely tiny green tree cricket （树蟋） in my car. It jumped onto my son's hand where it stayed so long that we eventually gave it a name: Little Friend.

Minutes before the race, it jumped onto the sidewalk. Maybe it wanted to seek freedom, but this wasn't a safe place due to the 4 pedestrian traffic. So my son knelt and 5 his hand. Little Friend came back. But I told him he would 6 it during the race.

I ran well and felt thrilled at the finish line. However, that 7 gave way to anxiety when my son didn't show up. I 8 asking people if they'd seen him. No one had. So I returned to the race headquarters. In my confusion, I didn't even see him 9 the finish line. But there he was, just ahead of the 45-minute mark, with Little Friend 10 on his right thumb.

My 11 were wrong. My son didn't run fast, and he didn't lose Little Friend. These two 12 seemed somehow related. He 13 a cold he was getting over, but I knew it was more than that.

Sometimes life gives you something beautiful, but fragile （易碎的）. There's no need to 14 ahead. Treat it 15 and hold on when you can.

Some Ohio high school students have become winners in a national contest (竞赛) after inventing a mobile phone app that helps needy families find local food pantries (公益食品仓库).

And someday the teens, who are students at Ross High School in Ross Township, may be selling the app to food pantries and food banks across America.

The app was created as part of a computer science class — coordinated (协调) by Butler Tech career school system at the high school. Three students, Jacob Kahmann, Gunner Nonnamaker and Kyle Inderhees, recently were visited by Congressman Warren Davidson, who praised their work. Davidson lauded the teens for creating "this app to set the standard for efficient food collection and distribution (分发)".

Butler Tech IT Instructor Tom O'Neill said the students' app includes characteristics that help users locate the nearest food pantry and improve food collection processes, and that the national contest provides a real-life learning chance for his students.

The students are continuing to make additions to the app and are working on turning it into a product, said O'Neill, who in recent years has helped many Ross High School teens win national honors for their computer-science-based inventions.

"The teachers and students in the Ross School District continue to amaze me with their future-thinking and creation," said Superintendent Scott Gates. "Our students are not only thinking about careers, they are thinking about problems they want to change, solve or improve. The app that was created will make serving a population in need more efficient."