I joined a band (乐队) as a drummer in my middle school. I thought it would be fun playing the drum and meeting new friends. At first it was easy, but a month later, it got difficult. I was the only one who couldn't keep pace (节奏) with the other players.

Our teacher, Angie, singled me out to keep practicing while everyone else got to relax. I felt ashamed (羞愧的) as my teammates watched me fail so many times. Finally I got so tired of practicing that I didn't care about doing it right.

"Are you giving up on me. Steve?" Angie asked.

"Yes, I am," I shouted. Angie sent me inside the music room where I cried out. Then she came in and said. "Don't be sad. I believe you can make it!" She told me never to give up. She left me alone and I realized Angie was right—by giving up, I was also giving up on the team and myself.

With her comfort, I decided to go on practicing. However, I still couldn't play well. Knowing my difficulties, my teammates gave me a hand. They spent about three more hours practicing with me every week. Thanks to their support and help, I began to keep pace with them. Later, we performed wonderfully in an important show.

In the whole process, I was taught that although we each had our own job to do in a show, it would take all of us working together to make the show great. I felt accepted and made great progress. I love everyone in the band. I can't imagine what my school life would be like without them.

Have you ever thought of what life is like for old people? Have you ever helped old people who live alone? Can they get help when they need it?

Six students from Beijing 101 Middle School looked deeper at this question and wrote a proposal (提案) to the China Youth Model Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (全国青少年模拟政协活动). They advised to build more old people's service stations in the neighborhood. They also gave suggestions about how governments, neighborhoods and hospitals can work together to make this happen.

An old people's service station is different from a nursing home. It offers things like daytime care, cooking, cleaning and friendship to old people who live in their own homes. The students surveyed more than 1, 100 people, about 90 percent of them said they would prefer using the stations' services to moving into a nursing home. However, there are not enough of these stations, and many are not run very well.

The six students came up with a solution after reading more than 60 surveys, interviewing 108 people and visiting 25 different organizations. Their proposal beat out almost 100 others to win the Best Proposal award (奖项) in 2021.

"This experience helps me to better understand the importance of caring old people. Also I see the light and abilities in us, "said Xu Wanqing, one of the students.

"Taking part in the China Youth Model CPPCC has been good for students," agreed their teacher Li Jie. "They've developed a sense of caring old people, as well as gotten more confidence about themselves since they've seen how much they can do for others. "

The natural world is colorful with humans, plants and animals showing different colors. Human skin can be many different colors and it changes with the sun, our feelings or ourhealth for example. This is because of pigments(色素)，which reflect light and make what the eye secs as colors, So. when we fecl excited or angry, our heart can send more blood to the face and the pigments in the skin become red. This is why we have the expression that someone "sces red"when they are angry.

Plants also have pigments. Color is important for them to live on. The bright colors of flowers catch the attention of insects(昆虫), which then carry their pollen(花粉) from one flower to another. Bees can see colors we cannot, and they follow these to the inside of the flower. Without bees visiting flowers in this way, many plants would die out.

Animals also use color for their own need. They protect themselves with different colors so as not to be seen by predators. The snowshoe hare for example, a type of wild rabbit, changes color with seasons for this reason. During summer ir is a brown color, and in winter it is white so that it can hide in the snow. However, some animals use color as a warning to make predators stay away. Bright colors such as yellow and red are often used in this way. Nature, however, is very clever, and predators also use colors to attract(吸引) the animals they feed on.

So, we can see that there may be many different reasons and uses for colors in the natural world. Some uses of color in nature remain unknown, but one thing is for sure, color not only makes our planet beautiful but it is also necessary for our planet to live on.