It’s been just over a year since 9-year-old Zion Harvey received a double-hand transplant(移植), and now, what he really wants to do is playing football. “I feel happy about my new hands, and I don’t feel different. I like that now I can throw a football further than when I didn’t have hands,” he said.

The nation’s youngest hand-transplant patient has been working hard to learn how to use his new hands. He lost his hands and his feet 7 years ago after suffering from a serious infection. In August, the boy showed off his new abilities by throwing out the first ball at a baseball game. Dr. Scott Levin, team leader of Zion’s operation, said Zion was faced with the operation much braver than many adults. “I’ve never seen Zion cry,” Levin said. “He’s just an amazing boy. He has such courage and determination and gives us all inspiration.”

Zion said his courage came from the two most amazing people: his mom and his grandma. His mother, Pattie Ray, said, “It’s been a long journey but now I feel like I am living in my dream. It’s his dream, and it’s mine, too. I’m just living through him, and I’m just here to support him in any way and help him do whatever he wants to do.”

However，Zion told reporters his mom wouldn’t let him try out for football. His mom said it’s too dangerous. She also pointed out that he might be playing against little kids, not professionals, and she told him they would discuss it later. Zion tried to counter her argument. “My next goal: convince Mom to let me play football,” he said.

Two weeks ago, a 7-year-old girl, Chloe Bridgewater wrote a letter to Google, expressing her interest in working for the tech company when she gets older. “Dear Google boss, my name is Chloe and when I am bigger I would like a job with Google,” she wrote. “I also want to work in a chocolate factory and do swimming in the Olympics.” The student said she liked computers and had a tablet she played games on. She even showed off a robot game that her dad gave her.

It wasn’t long before Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, replied wit his own letter on Google website. In a letter dated Feb. 3, Pichai wrote, “Dear Chloe, I’m glad that you like computers and robots, and hope that you will continue to learn about technology. I think if you keep working hard and follow your dreams, you can accomplish everything you set your mind to. I look forward to receiving your job application when you are finished with school!”

Her father, Andy Bridgewater told ABC News he was completely shocked that his daughter received a reply. But he wasn’t surprised that she decided to write the letter in the first place. “She’s got determination. She doesn’t see the barriers that we face every day,” he explained. “If she wants to do it, she will set out to do it and nothing will stop her.”

The father remarked that his daughter began jumping up and down after receiving the letter. Still, he’s not in a rush to send his eldest daughter off to work. “Now, my daughter is confident, although she hasn’t yet fully understood that it will take more efforts than finishing her study to make it with Google,” he said.

Violent winds swept the ocean, and waves thundered to shore, shaking the lookout tower at Pea Island Rescue Station. Surf man Theodore Meekins was on watch that evening of 11 October 1896. A hurricane had struck the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and the tide was so strong that beach patrols(巡逻) had been canceled(取消). Still, Meekins paid close attention to the horizon. This was the type of weather that could blow ships hundreds of miles off course.

Offshore, the ship E. S. Newman was caught in the storm. The captain, whose wife and child were on the ship, feared the Newman would soon break up. He made the decision to beach his ship, then fired a signal, praying that someone onshore would see it.

Meekins, whose eyes were trained to cut through rain and surf mists, thought he saw the signal, but so much spray(水雾) covered the lookout windows that he could hardly make out the building of the station, much less the horizon offshore. Still, he took no chances. After summoning(召集) the station keeper, Captain Richard Etheridge, Meekins set off a coston signal, a signal made by using lamps of different colors. Together, the two men searched the darkness for a reply. A few moments later they saw a flash of light to the south and knew a ship was in distress. Even before the return signal burned out, Etheridge had summoned his men and begun rescue operations.

For the lifesavers, the rescue of the Newman was nothing unusual. Over the years, so many ships had foundered off the Outer Banks that sailors called the region the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Noting the dangerous surf and wind conditions, Captain quickly decided the surf boats would be impossible to control. Instead, he decided to use another way to help the survivors.

The crew set off on the long journey down the beach to the scene of the wreck(海滩). Captain Etheridge hoped to fire a line from a gun to the ship’s mast(船桅). After the ship’s crew dragged the line onboard, the surf men would fire a second line and carried survivors safely to shore.

The surf men crossed three miles of sand to reach the ship Newman. The water was freezing, and the men often sank up to their knees in sand. Captain Etheridge noted in his diary that “ the voice of gladdened hearts greeted the arrival of the station crew,” but that “it seemed impossible for them to do anything under such circumstances. The work was often stopped by the sweeping current.”

Even when the rescue equipment proved useless, Etheridge refused to give up. Choosing two of his strongest surf men, he tied rope lines around their waists and sent them into the water. The two men, holding a line from shore, walked with an effort as far as they could before diving through the waves. Nearly worn out while swimming against the tide, they finally made it to the ship.

The first to be rescued were the captain’s wife and child. With the two passengers tied to their backs, the surf men fought their way back to shore. Taking turns, Etheridge and his crew made ten trips to the Newman, saving every person onboard. It was 1:00 a. m. when the crew and survivors finally made it back to the station.

That night, as the exhausted survivors lay sleeping and his lifesaving crew rested, Captain Etheridge picked up his pen, and in the light of an oil lantern, wrote with satisfaction that all the people onboard had been saved and were “sheltered in this station” ---- words he would write for many years to come.

Compassion（同情）is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into actions. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers, and it’s not hard to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register（收款机）with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash, had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.

     I couldn’t help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.

    Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable. “Charge it to me,” was all he said.

    What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.

Robert Owen was born in Wales in 1771. At the age of ten he went to work. His employer had a large private library so Owen was able to educate himself. He read a lot in his spare time and at nineteen he was given the job of superintendent(监工) at a Manchester cotton mill. He was so successful there that he persuaded his employer to buy the New Lanark mill in Scotland.

When he arrived at New Lanark it was a dirty little town with a population of 2,000 people. Nobody paid any attention to the workers’ houses or their children’s education. The conditions in the factories were very bad. There was a lot of crime and the men spent most of their wages on alcoholic drinks.

Owen improved the houses. He encouraged people to be clean and save money. He opened a shop and sold the workers cheap, well-made goods to help them. He limited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Above all, he fixed his mind on the childrenˈs education. In 1816 he opened the first free primary school in Britain.

People came from all over the country to visit Owenˈs factory. They saw that the workers were healthier and more efficient than in other towns. Their children were better fed and better educated. Owen tried the same experiment in the United States. He bought some land there in 1825, but the community was too far away. He could not keep it under control and lost most of his money.

Owen never stopped fighting for his idea. Above all he believed that people are not born good or bad. He was a practical man and his ideas were practical. “If you give people good working conditions,” he thought, “they will work well and, the most important thing of all, if you give them the chance to learn, they will be better people.”

 Fifteen years ago, I took a summer vacation in Lecce in southern Italy. After climbing up a hill for a panoramic(全景的) view of the blue sea, white buildings and green olive trees, I paused to catch my breath and then positioned myself to take the best photo of this panorama.

   Unfortunately, just as I took out my camera, a woman approached from behind, and planted herself right in front of my view. Like me, this woman was here to stop, sigh and appreciate the view.

   Patient as I was, after about 15 minutes, my camera scanning the sun and reviewing the shot I would eventually take, I grew frustrated. Was it too much to ask her to move so I could take just one picture of the landscape? Sure, I could have asked her, but something prevented me from doing so. She seemed so content in her observation. I didn't want to mess with that.

   Another 15 minutes passed and I grew bored. The woman was still there. I decided to take the photo anyway. And now when I look at it, I think her presence in the photo is what makes the image interesting. The landscape, beautiful on its own, somehow comes to life and breathes because this woman is engaging with it.

   This photo, with the unique beauty that unfolded before me and that woman who "ruined" it, now hangs on a wall in my bedroom. What would she think if she knew that her figure is captured(捕捉) and frozen on some stranger's bedroom wall? A bedroom, after all, is a very

private space, in which some woman I don't even know has been immortalized(使……永存). In some ways, she lives in my house.

   Perhaps we all live in each others' space. Perhaps this is what photos are for: to remind us that we all appreciate beauty, that we all share a common desire for pleasure, for connection, for something that is greater than us.

   That photo is a reminder, a captured moment, an unspoken conversation between two women, separated only by a thin square of glass.

I had known for a long time that the people around me used a method of communication different from mine; and even before I knew that a deaf child could be taught to speak.One who is entirely dependent upon the manual alphabet（手写字母）has always a sense of narrowness.This feeling always disturbed me.Finally I insisted on using my lips and voice.Friends tried to discourage this tendency,fearing it would lead to disappointment.But an accident soon occurred which resulted in the breaking down of this great barrier.

In 1890 Mrs.Lamson,who had just returned from a visit to Norway,came to see me,and told me of Ragnhild Kaata,a deaf and blind girl in Norway who had actually been taught to speak.Mrs.Lamson had scarcely finished telling me about this girl's success before I was on fire with eagerness.I decided that I,too,would learn to speak.I would not rest satisfied until my teacher took me,for advice and assistance,to Miss Sarah Fuller,principal of the Horace Mann School.This lovely,sweet-natured lady offered to teach me herself.

Miss Fuller’s method was this: she passed my hand lightly over her face,and let me feel the position of her tongue and lips when she made a sound.I shall never forget the surprise and delight I felt when I uttered my first connected sentence,"It is warm." True,they were broken syllables;but they were human speech.My soul came out of bondage（束缚）,and was reaching through those broken symbols of speech to all knowledge and all faith.

   One day after school, I went to the teacher's office to see my teacher, but nobody was there. As I was about to leave, I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. I picked it up and saw the words "Final-term Examination" at the top. I put the paper into my school bag secretly and ran out of the room.

    After I came back home, I took out the paper quickly. It was the exam paper of my worst subject, history. I felt excited. My heart beat fast. I took out my history book and started working on the answer. I had never answered any questions so seriously.

    On the day of the history exam, I went into the exam hall confidently. When the paper was sent to me, I dreamt of getting the highest mark in the whole grade and could not help smiling. "My history teacher always encouraged me to work hard and get better grades, but I let him down time and time again. This time I will give him a big surprise," I thought.

    When the teacher said we could start, I turned the paper over. To my surprise, all the questions were different. Later I felt nervous. In the end, I almost left the paper undone. After the exam, I ran to the toilet, took out the paper and carefully read it from the top. Oh! It was last year's exam paper. I read all the questions but I hadn't read the date.

    This is a lesson in which I know I have to put my feet on the ground. I regretted doing such a silly thing. After that, I told my teacher the truth and I promised to be honest. From then on, I worked harder than ever before.