He really did look like a tourist, with a camera around his neck and a bottle of sunscreen sticking out of his tote bag.

The portly man sat on the terrace, sipping lemonade and pretending to look at a glossy cruise brochure. His sunglasses masked his eyes, but I knew he wasn't looking at the brochure: he hadn't turned a page for the last ten minutes.

As I brought him his clam chowder (蛤肉菜汤）, he coughed up a “thank you” and looked at me briefly. I tried not to stare at the tiny scar across his left eyebrow.

I walked back inside with my empty tray, shaking my head. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place him.Then it hit me. The car accident. The mysterious (神秘的） stranger who helped me out of my smashed car, just before it exploded. I rushed back to his table. He was gone.

I moved his saucer and found his tip, along with a card: I am deeply indebted to you. The night of your car accident, I was on my way to rob a jewelry store. Saving your life brought things back in perspective (观点） . I now live an honest life, thanks to you. God bless you! Mr. D.

I trembled. The night of my car accident, I was heading for an interview in a shady dance club. Seeing human kindness through his heroic gesture turned my life around and brought faith back into my life.

I unfolded the tip he left. Among the singles was a grand with a pen mark underlining “In God We Trust.” I said a silent prayer for him and got back to work, smiling.

Unlike many other people, who have birthmarks on their bodies, I have them on my lips and inside my mouth. I used to consider them ugly. However, my mom calls them beauty marks.

My birthmarks are caused by an genetic condition from my mom’s side of the family. This syndrome causes polyps (息肉), which are small non-cancerous growths in the intestinal tract (肠道). Every other year I have a procedure where the doctor removes them from my intestines. On the day before, I can’t eat anything solid because the doctors need my intestines to be clear so that they don’t mistake food for a polyp. I also cannot drink anything red, because they may mistake it for blood on the scan. Before the procedure they give me anesthesia (麻醉). No matter how many times I go through the process. I always get nervous — but that’s understandable. At the end of the day I always know I’ll end up okay.

My younger cousin faces a similar challenge. She has a huge birthmark that takes up her whole arm. Her birthmark is pretty noticeable and looks like faded red splotches of paint. She’s never tried to hide her birthmark or change her appearance. It really inspires me. She has always been so much more confident about her birthmark than I am. Once, her grandmother told her mom that her birthmark looked extremely prominent and suggested that she should wear long sleeves more often. If my younger cousin’s mom had actually taken that suggestion, my younger cousin wouldn’t be as confident about her birthmark as she is.

I could have covered up my birthmarks a while ago by wearing black lipstick. But I’m glad I didn’t. Using black lipstick would be straying away from accepting facial features that make me different. I am finally accepting who I am and now I won’t tolerate people making fun of me. I don’t hesitate when someone asks me about them either. I say, “They’re beauty marks”.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s love of water started at an early age. Born on 11 June, 1910 in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France, by the age of just four he’d already learned to swim. Though he was pretty bad at school, he had a gift for understanding mechanical objects. As a teenager, he bought a movie camera, took it apart to understand how it worked and then put it back together again. He used it to create home movies.

In 1930, Jacques joined the French Naval Academy and planned to become a pilot, but three years later he had a car accident and got injured. To regain his power, doctors suggested that he swim, and during his travels with the French Navy in 1936 a friend gave him some goggles (护目镜) to help him see underwater. His plans to take to the sky might have been killed but luckily his eyes were opened to a magical world under the sea.

In 1950, Jacques got hold of an old British warship and turned it into a research vessel (船) that he named the RV Calypso. He used it to sail around the world and as a base for exploring underwater habitats and shipwrecks (遇难船) — from the Antarctic to the Amazon. But he soon realized that to collect money for his research he needed to get the public interested, so he began writing books and making TV series about his adventures. He finally won three Oscars for his films.

In the 1960s, Jacques joined in three futuristic projects to build underwater labs, nicknamed Conshelf Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ. And in 1963 he and five other researchers spent 30 days living under the sea! During his many explorations, Jacques began to notice the harm humans were doing to the sea, so in 1973 he set up the Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life.

Jacques spent the rest of his life supporting environmental causes such as banning whale hunting. He died in 1997, but will always be remembered for his pioneering underwater exploration!