I was driving on the freeway when I saw the sign. It (1) ______ drivers that chains would be required to cross the mountain. It took me quite sometime to get the chains on. When I got to a spot where it was no longer snowing, I took the chains off so I could drive at a(n) (2) ______ speed. Suddenly, I (3) ______ another snowy, icy patch of road. My car spun out into a snowdrift. I thought of (4) ______ some tree branches and placing them under my tires, but it was so cold outside that my hands weren't working (5) ______. I got inside the car and called American Automobile Association (AAA). A Russian man came up to my window and said hello. Before I could say too much, he and his three sons were already (6) ______ to push my car. I got out of my car and (7) ______ them. It was past midnight and they easily could have decided that AAA would (8) ______ the situation after our initial (9) ______ failed. Yet, they stayed with us for nearly 45 minutes as we kept trying (10) ______ things to get the car out of the snow, insistent that they wouldn't leave until I was (11) ______. At first, I was a little (12) ______ about being stuck in the freezing weather at such a late hour, but their cheerful attitude changed the whole (13) ______ of the situation and lifted my spirits. After nearly 45 minutes of hard work when my car was finally free, they didn't even (14) ______ around long enough for me to get their names. They just ran toward their truck, (15) ______ a bit on the ice, and yelled back "Drive Slowly", like true smile heroes!

Passage 1

Do an anonymous (匿名的) act of kindness for someone.

Leave a smile card behind to encourage them to pay-it-forward.

Share your story here to spread the inspiration.

Changed the world, one kind act at a time.

ORDER SMILE CARDS

To request Smile Cards, please fill out the form below. A volunteer will mail you an order of ten cards within two weeks. Smile Cards are offered to anyone who requests them on a pay-it-forward basis. That means there is no charge for a set of cards. Someone before you has paid for your cards, and you are invited to keep the chain going and pay-forward whatever you wish for the next person! For special events or circumstanced, you can also place a large quantity of request.

Note: When using a Smile Card, remember not to just hand it out by itself. The idea is to do something kind for someone and then leave the Smile Card behind, so that they know someone reached out to them, and that they are invited to pay-forward the kindness and keep the rippled going!

Country: *-select -                Name: * ________

There is a daily maximum order for each country. Please select a country first to make sure we have not exceeded the quota(定额) for the day.

Address: *________ City: * ________

State: *- select- Email address: * ________

Inspiration: * ________

Please tell us what inspired you to order Smile Cards, and give us an example of a kind act you'd like to do using them.

PLACE smile CARD ORDER NOW

ABOUT US

Kind Spring is a place to practice small acts of kindness. For over a decade the Kind Spring user community has focused on inner transformation, while collectively changing the world with generosity, gratitude, and trust. The site is 100 % volunteer-run and totally non-commercial. It is a shared labor of love.

Passage 2

Getting less sleep has become a bad habit for most American kids. According to a new survey（调查）by the National Sleep Foundation, 51% of kids aged 10 to 18 go to bed at 10 pm or later on school nights, even though they have to get up early. Last year the Foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7-to 12-year-olds said they felt tired during the day, and 15% said they had fallen asleep at school.

How much sleep you need depends a lot on your age. Babies need a lot of rest: most of them sleep about 18 hours a day!Adults need about eight hours. For most school-age children, ten hours is ideal（理想的）. But the new National Sleep Foundation survey found that 35% of 10-to 12-year-olds get only seven or eight hours. And guess what almost half of the surveyed kids said they do before bedtime? Watch TV.

"More children are going to bed with TVs on, and there are more opportunities（机会）to stay awake, with more homework, the Internet and the phone, "says Dr．Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University Medical School. She says these activities at bedtime can get kids all excited and make it hard for them to calm down and sleep. Other experts say part of the problem is chemical. Changing levels of body chemicals called hormones not only make teenagers' bodies develop adult characteristics, but also make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 pm．

Because sleepiness is such a problem for teenagers, some school districts have decided to start high school classes later than they used to. Three years ago, schools in Edina, Minnesota, changed the start time from 7：25 am to 8：30 am. Students, parents and teachers are pleased with the results．

Passage 3

Can a small group of drones（无人机）guarantee the safety and reliability of railways and, at the same time, help railway operators save billions of euros each year? That is the very likely future of applying today's "eyes in the sky" technology to making sure that the millions of kilometres of rail tracks and infrastructure（基础设施）worldwide are safe for trains on a 24/7 basis.

Drones are already being used to examine high-tension electrical lines. They could do precisely the same thing to inspect railway lines and other vital aspects of rail infrastructure such as the correct position of railway tracks and switching points. The more regularly they can be inspected, the more railway safety, reliability and on-time performance will be improved. Costs would be cut and operations would be more efficient（高效）across the board.

That includes huge savings in maintenance costs and better protection of railway personnel safety. It is calculated that European railways alone spend approximately 20 billion euros a year on maintenance, including sending maintenance staff, often at night, to inspect and repair the rail infrastructure. That can be dangerous work that could be avoided with drones assisting the crews' efforts.

By using the latest technologies, drones could also start providing higher-value services for railways, detecting faults in the rail or switches, before they can cause any safety problems. To perform these tasks, drones for rail don't need to be flying overhead. Engineers are now working on a new concept: the rail drones of the future. They will be moving on the track ahead of the train, and programmed to run autonomously. Very small drones with advanced sensors and AI and travelling ahead of the train could guide it like a co-pilot. With their ability to see ahead, they could signal any problem, so that fast-moving trains would be able to react in time.

A company, Interstellar Labs, believes they have created a system that can solve the food problem related to further space exploration. They have developed an ___36___（advance）system that can grow plants anywhere, even in space. They call their greenhouses managed by artificial intelligence（AI）BioPods, which ___37___（confirm）to be very practical so far.In fact, Interstellar Labs says that BioPods reduce the amount of land and water ___38___（need）to produce food by 99 percent. That is not ___39___ impossible thing. BioPods don't use any soil to grow plants, ___40___ the vast majority of water there is recycled and recirculated.

Plants are grown inside BioPods using the practice of floating plants in the air and ___41___（spray）a mist of nutrient-rich water on their roots. In this way, the BioPod system carefully conserves water with amazing ___42___（consequence）. According to Interstellar labs, BioPod-grown plants are up to 300 times more productive than ___43___（traditional）grown plants, using only a little water.

The conditions inside of a BioPod are controlled by AI, which can change anything from the lighting ___44___ the temperature to maximize growth. This makes the most of growing conditions whatever the environment is outside, including the ___45___（empty）of space.