One thorn(刺) of experience is worth many times of warning.

    Ralph Wick was seven years old. In most things he was a fine boy, but he would cry from time to time. When he could not have what he wanted, he would 1for it. If he was told that it would hurt him, and he could not 2 it, he would also cry.

    One day, he went with his mother into the 3. The sun shone. The grass was cut. The flowers were starting to come out.

    Ralph thought he was, for once, a good boy. A 4 was on his face. He wished to do as he was told. Ralph helped his mother with the farm work and he was very happy.

    “Now you must be tired and 5,” said his mother. “Have a good rest here and eat some cookies. I will get a beautiful red rose for you.” So his mother brought the red flower to him. When he saw his mother still had a white rose in her hand, Ralph 6 it.

    “No, my dear.” said his mother. “See how many thorns it has. You must not touch it, or you would be sure to hurt your 7.” When Ralph found that he could not have the white rose, he began to cry, and 8 took it away. But he was soon very sorry. The thorns hurt his hand. It was so 9 that he could not use it for some time.

    Ralph would never 10 this. From then on, when he wanted what he should not have, his mother would point to his hand which had been hurt before. He at last learned to do as he was told.

Grandmother's Problem

    There was once a grandmother living in her grandson's house. The man loved  1 grandmother very much. However, she had some strange habits, so the man thought she needed medical help. Perhaps, he thought, it was time for her to 2 the rest of her life in a special hospital.

    "I'd like you to examine my grandmother," he told a doctor, "then let me know 3 you think she needs special care."

    "All right," the doctor said, "send her to me next Tuesday."Tuesday came and the old woman went to see the doctor. She 4 in front of him and he asked her lots of questions.  She answered them all, and the doctor was 5  .

    "There's 6 with this woman," he thought."I don't understand why her grandson has sent her to me. Perhaps he's the one  7  needs special care."

    He decided to ask her one last question. "Why do you think," he asked her, "your grandson wants you 8 special care?"

  "I like hamburgers," she said.  The doctor laughed."I like hamburgers, too!"

    "You 9 ?"the old woman said, "I'm so glad. Then you must come to my house and have a hamburger 10 me.  I've got boxes and boxes of them in my bedroom."

    Look! What's this? It is a 1of Obama's family. This man2 Mr. Obama. And 3 is two daughters' father. 4woman is Mrs. Obama. 5is two daughters' mother. Err, who6this girl and7 girl? This8 is Marlia Obama, Mr. Obama's9daughter. This girl is Natasha Obama, Mr. Obama's second daughter. Marlia is10elder sister. Natasha is the younger sister. They are good sisters.

    I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a boxcar in a freight yard in Atlantic City, and1on my head. Now, I am 32. I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is. It would be wonderful to see again But a disaster can do strange things to people.

    At the time, I was bewildered and afraid, but I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me, a potential, which I didn't see. And they made me want to fight it out with2

    The hardest3I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker for the rest of my life. When I say believe in myself, I am not talking about 4 the kind of self-confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is5of it, but I mean something bigger than that: a confidence that I am a real,6person; that somewhere there is a special place7I can make myself fit. It took me years to discover and strengthen this confidence. It had to8the most elementary things.

    I can still remember once, when a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was laughing at me, and I was9

    "I can't use this," I said.

    "Take it with you," he urged me "and roll it around."

    The words10in my head: "Roll it around, roll it around" By rolling the ball, I could11where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought12: playing baseball.

    At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind, I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it groundball.

    All my life. I have13ahead of me a series of goals, and then tried to reach them one at a time I would14sometimes anyway, but on the average, I made progress.

    I believe in life now. I don't mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me more15what I had left.

Grace lives in Oklahoma. She is only six years old, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} she already has big ideas for helping other kids!

One Saturday morning when Grace was five, she {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (pass) a lemonade stand (柠檬水摊). Some teenagers were selling lemonade. Their purpose was to raise money for some of their {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (friend). Grace wanted to have a try, so her mother explained to her {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to start a lemonade stand.

Grace wanted to help kids too, especially foster (寄养的) kids! That was because she and her brother were foster children. She thought that maybe she could help {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (they) by starting a lemonade stand!

{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (luck), Grace's first lemonade stand made $ 132! She was very excited {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (buy) things for the foster kids with her mother. She helped 24 children for {#blank#}8{#/blank#} first time. Grace wanted to help {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (many) kids so her mum helped her start a project called Grace's Lemonade for Love. So far, she {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (raise) over $ 17, 000! Someday maybe she will be able to send toys to all foster kids in her country.