One day last summer, watching the boys and girls trying to catch butterflies I remembered something happened when I was young. When I was a boy of 12 in South Carolina, something happened to me that cured me forever of wanting to put any wild creature in a cage.

We lived on the edge of a wood, and every evening the mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. No musician can sing more beautifully than the birds. I decided that I would catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and in that way would have my own private musician.

I finally succeeded in catching one and put it in a cage. At first, the bird flew about the cage, but eventually it settled down in its new home. I felt very pleased with myself and looked forward to some beautiful singing from my tiny musician.

I had left the cage out, and on the second day my new pet’s mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth. The baby bird ate everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother knew better than I about how to feed her baby.

The following morning when I went to see how my bird was doing, I discovered it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was shocked! What had happened! I had taken good care of my little bird.

Arthur Wayne, the famous ornithologist, happened to be visiting my father at the time. Hearing me crying over the death of my bird, he explained what had occurred. “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poisonous berries (干果). She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in cage.”

Never since then have I caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a right to live free.

Tens of thousands of Africans are studying in China. The country provides students with financial (金融的) help for education to develop skills that Africa needs most. And the system makes friends in Africa for the Chinese.

Violet Bwalya of Zambia is among the increasing number of Africans who are receiving financial help to study in China. She is now studying at Tongji University in Shanghai. Ms Bwalya said that before she arrived, she didn’t know she would see so many people like herself. She said the number of Africans in China greatly surprised her. The young woman said she is also excited by the level of development in China. She said Zambia does not have many tall buildings.

Violet Bwalya is studying Mandarin (普通话) during this year in China. Then, she will go to another school to study medicine. Those classes will be taught in Mandarin.

Some Africans complain some problems affect the quality of Chinese education. Stewart, a young man from Uganda criticized his studies in Wuhan, central China. He said his classes are in English. But his professors cannot answer his questions because they don’t speak English while he himself does not know much Chinese. “Generally, I think the biggest challenge for an international student who comes to China to study an English course, is availability (可用性) of lecturers who can actually speak English.”

But most African students express satisfaction with their Chinese education. JumaSalum is from Zanzibar. He says he has learned much in China. MrSalum want to return to help his country after graduation. He said he believes it is his duty to do so. And he said he wants to be a link between the Chinese and the people of Tanzania and all Africa.

In 2012, China’s Department of Foreign Assistance at the Ministry of Commerce said it had more than 27,000 students from Africa. By the end of 2013, more than 35,000 Africans had been studying in China.

Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions（探险）but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

Larry first began diving when he was his daughter’s age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children at his age were not even allowed to dive.

After the first expedition, Larry’s later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

Larry’s first expedition without his father was in theCayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them. Fortunate for him, a man offered to take him around the different spots for free. Larry didn’t even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide range of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than he had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

"Do you like my dress?" she asked a stranger. "My mum made it just for me," she said with tears in her eyes.

"Well, I think it's very pretty, so tell me, little girl, why are you crying?" The little girl answered in a low voice, "After mum made me this dress, she went away. My dad says that she's up in heaven now with Grandfather."

Finally the woman realized why she was crying. She felt very sorry for the little girl and gently held the child in her arms.

Then suddenly the little girl did something a bit strange. She stopped crying, walked back from the woman and began to sing. She sang softly. It was the sweetest sound the woman had ever heard, almost like the song of a very small bird.

After the child stopped singing, she said to the lady, "My mum often sang that song to me before she went away, and she asked me to sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop."

"See," she said loudly, "it did, and now my eyes are dry!"

Just before the lady wanted to go, the girl showed her a spot (印迹) on her dress, and said, "Right here is where my mum kissed my dress, and here," pointing to another spot, "and here is another kiss, and here, and here. Mum said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that I would forget my sadness."

Then the lady realized that she wasn't just looking at a dress, no, she was looking at a mother. The mother knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away her daughter's hurts any longer.

So the mother gave all her love to her beautiful daughter and put it into this dress. Now her child was wearing it so proudly.

The lady no longer saw a little girl wearing a simple dress. She saw a child wrapped (包) in her mother's love.

In 1977, a dead author of detective stories saved the life of a 19-month-old baby in a most unusual way. The author was Agatha Christie, one of the most successful writers of detective stories in the world.

   In June 1977, a baby girl became seriously ill in Qatar, near Saudi Arabia. Doctors were unable to find out the cause of her illness with confidence, so she was sent to Hammersmith Hospital in London. She was then only semi-conscious and on the “Dangerously Ill” list. A team of doctors hurried to examine the baby only to discover that they, too, were confused by the very unusual symptoms(症状). While they were discussing the baby’s case, a nurse asked to speak to them.

   “Excuse me,” said Nurse Marsha Maitlan, “but I think the baby is suffering from thallium (铊) poisoning.”

   “What makes you think that?” Dr. Brown asked. “Thallium poisoning is extremely rare.”

   “A few days ago, I was reading a novel called A Pale Horse by Agatha Christie,” Nurse Maitlan explained. “In the book, somebody uses thallium poison, and all the symptoms are described. They’re exactly the same as the baby’s.”

   “You’re very thoughtful and you may be right,” another doctor said. “We’ll carry out some tests and find out whether it’s thallium or not.”

   Tests showed that the baby had indeed been poisoned by thallium, a rare metallic substance used in making special glass. Once they knew the cause of the illness, the doctors were able to give the baby the correct treatment. She soon recovered and was sent back to Qatar. Later it was reported that the poison might have come from an insecticide (杀虫剂) used in Qatar.

B

The Wake-up Call

    “What’s that?” my ten-year-old daughter, Genie, asked. She’d caught me laughing at a piece of mail I’d just opened. “Wake-up service; $2.50 per call.” At the bottom was a phone number and a drawing of a rotary phone, like the one my great-aunt Sara had owned 40 years ago.

   “Is that mail funny?” Genie asked.

   “Not really,” I admitted. “It’s just outdated.”

    “What’s a wake-up call？” She frowned. I explained how, before smart-phones, people sometimes paid someone to wake them with a call.

    “Who sent this flyer?” she pressed.

   “Probably someone older,” I said, “and could use some money.”

Her eyes lit up. “Can we order a wake-up?” she asked.

    “We don’t need it.” I picked it up and headed for the recycling bin.

   “Wait!” she screamed.

     “I feel sorry for the wake-up man, if he needs some money,” she said, tearing up. “Can’t we order?”

       I looked at the flyer with its drawing of a rotary phone. I remembered, again, my great-aunt Sara and her rotary phone. As a kid, I’d visited her over Labor Day, when Jerry Lewis would host his charity event for the disabled kids. Aunt Sara would squeeze my hand, then reach for the rotary phone, dialing the number on the screen. Holding the receiver between us, we’d announce to the operator, “We’d like to help those kids.”

       Now here was my own child, showing the same big heart I’d once been encouraged to have, and how could I ignore her? I Googled the flyer’s return address. The address belonged to a man called Raymond. He was in his mid-60s. We called him and, holding the receiver between us, the way Aunt Sara and I used to, told him we needed his services. “Great!” Raymond said in a shaky but friendly voice, clearly amazed at receiving an order from a child. When I asked how to pay the $2.50, he answered, “Mail a check.”

      Genie was happy all week. Friday night, I put the phone by her pillow so she could answer Raymond’s call. She bounded to my bedroom to tell me all about how he’d wished her a good morning and told her to have a great day, which she did.

        Technology has made some things outdated. But there are still other things the world will always require. In the rush of my daily life, I’d temporarily forgotten that. I guess I just needed a wake-up call.

When I was 8 years old, I decided to run away from home after a quarrel with my mother. With my suitcase packed and some sandwiches in a bag, I started for the front door.

My mom asked where I was going. “I’m leaving home,” I said.

“What’s that you’re carrying?” she asked.

“Some clothes and food,” I replied.

“If you want to run away, that’s all right,” she said. “But you came into this home without anything and you can leave the same way.”

I threw my suitcase and sandwiches on the floor and started for the door again.

“Wait a minute,” Mom said. “You didn’t have any clothes on when you arrived, and I want them back.”

Thisinfuriatedme. I tore my clothes off — shoes, socks, underwear and all — and shouted, “Can I go now?”

“Yes,” my mom answered, “but once you close that door, don’t expect to come back.”

I was so angry that I shut the door forcefully and stepped out of my home. Then I noticed down the street two neighbor girls walking toward our house. I was so shy that I saw the big spruce (云杉) tree in our yard and jumped under the low-hanging branches (树枝). A pile of dried-up brown needles (针状物) were beneath the tree, and you can’t imagine the pain those sharp needles caused to my body.

After I was sure the girls had passed by, I ran to the front door and knocked at it loudly.

“It’s Billy! Let me in!”

The voice behind the door answered, “Billy doesn’t live here anymore. He ran away from home.”

Looking behind me to see if anyone else was coming down the street, I said, “Mom! I’m sorry. I’m still your son. Let me in!”

The door opened and Mom’s smiling face appeared. “Did you change your mind about running away?” she asked.

“What’s for supper?” I smiled back.

Last week, all the teachers and students of our school watched a special performance showed by some disabled people. The first program was a dance named “The Light of Life”. To my surprise, all the dancers had lost one of their legs. As they were performing, I could see how they had to face so many difficulties. However, they showed us many wonderful programs. From these programs, I could see how lively their minds were.

We were all shocked by the two persons who came out next. The first one was a singer. He was very young, but unluckily, he had lost both of his hands in a big fire. The song brought to us by him was “Late Autumn” and he sang it in such a low and sweet voice. Though it was warm spring, I felt a little cold when I heard the song, as if it was really late autumn. “How much love and feeling is hidden in my heart? I wish to hold your hands again.” Hearing this, I couldn’t keep back my tears.

The other one was also a young man. He lost both of his arms when he was six. From then on, his feet were used as his “hands”. However, he could do a lot of things with his feet. What we were impressed most was his feet-writing. The two words “Flying High” showed his wishes. “If your wings are gone, your heart can still fly,” said Zhang Haidi, a disabled writer.

In the world, there are many disabled people, yet most of them don’t give in（屈服）. They have strong wishes and beautiful dreams. Just as Zhang Haidi said they could still fly.

Being disabled doesn’t mean completely to fail. Once you try hard, everything you want will happen sometime. I believe where there is a will, there is a way.

Many years ago, when I was just out of school and working in Denver, I was driving to my parents’ home in Missouri for Christmas. I stopped at a gas station (加油站) about 50 miles from Oklahoma City, where I was planning to stop and visit a friend. While I was standing in line at the cash register (收款台), I said hello to an older couple who were also paying for gas.

I took off, but had gone only a few miles when black smoke poured from the back of my car. I stopped and wondered what I should do. A car stopped behind me. It was the couple I had spoken to at the gas station. They said they would take me to my friend’s. We chatted on the way into the city, and when I get out of the car, the husband gave me his business card.

I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note for helping me. Soon afterward, I got a Christmas present from them. Their note said that helping me had made their holidays meaningful.

Years later, I drove to a meeting in a nearby town in the morning. In late afternoon I returned to my car and found that I had left the lights on all day, and the battery (电池) was dead. Then I found that the Friendly Ford dealership—a shop selling cars—was right next door. I walked over and found two salesman (销售员) in the showroom.

Just how friendly is Friendly Ford? I asked and explained my trouble. They quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it. They would accept no payment; so when I got home, I wrote them a note to say thanks. I got a letter back from one of the salesmen. No one had ever taken the time to write him and say thank you, and it meant a lot, he said.

Thank you—two powerful words. They’re easy to say and mean so much.