Once upon a time there was a writer who liked to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the beach. As he looked down the beach, he saw someone moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that a young man was reaching down to the shore, picking something up and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

    As he got closer, he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"

    The young man stopped, looked up and answered, "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

    "I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"

    "The sun is up, and the tide(潮汐) is going out, and if I don't throw them in, they'll die."

    "But, young man, don't you see that there are miles and miles of beach, and starfish all along it? You can't possibly make a difference!"

    The young man listened politely, then picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one." And he kept throwing starfish.

    There is something very special in each and every one of us. All of us can make a difference in life. If we know that, we have the power to shape the future.

    For most of us, when we were 12 years old, schoolwork and video games may well be our only memories of those days. If we remember guns being pointed at our heads, we think that we must be remembering video games or movies.

    Unluckily, at age 12, that was Malala Yousafzai's real life.

    Malala lived a quiet life in Pakistan until 2009, when the Taliban, an Islamic organization of violence(暴力) took control of her village. They forbade girls to go to school as groups. They believe that educating girls is against Islam. But Malala didn't agree. She wrote on the BBC site, "We want all girls to get their schools back."

     However, her actions put her in danger. On Oct 9, 2012, when Malala was taking a bus a man from the Taliban holding a gun shot her in the head. Luckily, the shot didn't kill her. She was taken to a hospital in the UK, and she gradually recovered.

     The shot didn't kill her courage to carry on, either. She set up the Malala Fund, which helped put 40 girls from her former home province in Pakistan into schools.

     Malala has become an international symbol of inspiration and bravery, commented BBC News. Her survival has instilled(渗透) educators with courage and is slowly helping make Pakistani schools safer.

    Malala said in her speech, "The terrorists(恐怖分子) thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born."

    On Oct 10, the European Union awarded Malala its top human rights prize. She was considered an icon (符号) of courage for all teenagers who dared to follow their aspirations .

阅读短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    Some of the greatest problems we face today are the destruction (破坏) of our environment． Brown clouds, polluted water, endangered wild animals．．, these problems seem so huge．

    So my family does what we can． We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags． We walk where we don't have to drive．．．

    But does it do any good? When I am the only one in line at the market with cloth bags, am I doing any good? Does my walking to stores make any real difference to the world?

    I recently learned something about flamingos (火烈鸟) which like to get together in groups of a thousand or more． Every year, when the time comes for migration (迁徙), a few of them first takeoff from the lake． But none of the others seem to notice, so the small group returns．

    However, the next day they try again． This time few more fly along with them, but most of them still pay no attention, so they return again． They try for several times． Every time a few more birds join in but, since the thousands of others still take no notice, the great migration plan is once more stopped．

    Then one day something changes． The same small group of birds once again starts flying and a small number more join in just as before, then more． Finally, they all take flight and the migration really begins．

    What a spectacular sight it must be—thousands of flamingos taking off into the sky at once!

    A few can make a difference． Even if you're the one to take the first step, and continue trying, others will someday take notice and together we will solve even our greatest problems．

    Tony stops his car by the side of the road. He is very tired and wants to get some sleep. Just when he lies down on the seat, a man comes and asks him the time. He looks at his watch and says, “It's a quarter past eight in the morning. “ Tony tries to sleep again, but there is another knock on the window of his car. “Sir, do you know what time it is, please?” a woman asks. He has to look at his watch again and tells her, “It's half past eight a. m..”

    Tony can't sleep well because there are too many people knocking at his window. He writes a note and puts it on the window of his car. It says, “I don't know what time it is!”

    Once again Tony tries to get some sleep. Just at that time, a young man knocks at his window and says, “Hi, sir ! It's a quarter to nine a.m. now!”

    Chuck was not an ordinary frog. He did love eating flies, but he didn't like catching flies himself. He didn't like snapping them from the air while they were flying around. Some frogs thought Chuck was lazy. Others thought he was strange.

    That didn't matter to Chuck. Each morning, Chuck hid himself under the spider's web between the cattails. Then when Lady Eightlegs went off, Chuck ate flies from her web.

    One morning while Chuck was enjoying the flies, Lady Eightlegs returned and caught him. She cried, "Go and catch your own". Chuck jumped back into the pond.

    Now there was an idea! Why not make his own web? Chuck got some vines. He put them together until they looked like a spider web. He worked on his web for hours until mid-night. And then he fell asleep. When he woke up the next morning, he was stuck inside and couldn't move.

    "Help!" he yelled.

    Lady Eightlegs got there and saved him.

    "No matter how hard I try,I can't spin a spider's web," Chuck said.

    " Of course not," Lady Eightlegs said. "You're a frog. Frogs can't spin spider's webs any better than spiders can swim, I guess. How I wish to swim in the middle of the pond and float (漂浮) peacefully under the sun like you!"

    Chuck smiled, "I have an idea."

    From that day on, Chuck carried Lady Eightlegs out to the middle of the pond, where they floated and played together. When they returned to shore, they shared a breakfast of flies. It wasn't exactly an ordinary friendship.

    Mr. Grey was the manager of a small office in London. He lived in the country, and went to work by train. He liked walking from the station to his office if it wasn't raining, because it gave him some exercise.

    One morning he was walking along the street when a stranger stopped him and said to him, "You may not remember me, sir, but seven years ago I came to London without any money in my pockets. I stopped you in this street and asked you to lend me some money and you lent me￡5, because you said you were always ready to take a chance (机会) to give a man a start on the way to success."

    Mr. Grey thought for a few minutes and then said, "Yes, I remember you. Go on with your story!"

"Well," answered the stranger, "would you like to take another chance?"