Running a marathon (马拉松) is difficult enough. Doing it with eyes closed for 26.2 miles is more difficult. But that's exactly what Mike Bruno plans to do during the Pittsburgh marathon.

    He's doing this for his 7-year-old daughter, Cassie, who doesn't like to communicate with others and has been blind since birth. “Having a blind daughter clearly has caused me a lot of trouble,” Bruno said. “ But it doesn't matter. I love my daughter. I hope to get a better understanding of how she deals with her daily life. I hope this journey will finally make me a better father to guide Cassie through her life.”

    “When the doctor told us 'Your baby is not going to see', that was the most terrible experience we had ever had,” said Bruno.

    “Sometimes I walk around the house with my eyes closed to see what it's like for her,” said Cassie's older sister, Carly, 9 years old. “It's kind of scary. You don't know where everything is.”

    But Cassie has fought against difficulties, and her father plans to do the same. “I closed my eyes, and I got ready, and then I tried running, just to see what it is like for her,” said Mike Bruno. “I want everyone to know it's OK. It's OK to ask us questions, but it's not OK to look at us and point to us with surprise. If you'd like to ask us, we will be happy to tell you our story. ”

    Stephen Hawking was born in England in 1942. He is one of the most well-known scientists on space and time in the world. Hawking is researching how the universe began and how it ends. He is called the King of the Universe.

    When he studied math and science at Oxford University, he became seriously ill, which made him unable to speak or breathe without the help of machines. Till now, he can't move or feed himself and he is helped to dress, eat and wash by a nurse. However, he has a wheelchair with a special computer, with which he can communicate with others.

    In spite of all these difficulties, he refused to give up his hope of living and went on to study at Cambridge University after graduating from Oxford University. In 1965, he got a Doctor's Degree of philosophy(哲学). Because of his serious illness, it was difficult for him to draw diagrams or to write. So he started to think in pictures. With this new way of thinking, he is respected by people in the world. Then in 1988, he wrote his first important book, A Brief History of Time. It has been sold more than 5.5 million copies in 33 different languages. He was once invited to China to give lectures. His self-confidence and humorous conversations impressed us deeply.

    From Hawking's unusual experiences , we learn that nobody should lose hope, no matter how bad the situation is .As he once said, “Life is not fair, you just have to do the best you can in your own situation.”

    It was 8:30 and I was lying in the sun, listening to my CD.

    Then my mum came out. She wanted me to go out with her. She told me about this place called Give Kids the World. It's a special place for families to spend a vacation when a child had a life-threatening（致命的）illness. There were several jobs she did there, like gift giving and ice-cream serving. Mum said I would enjoy it, but I thought this was a boring job.

    Mum told me we were going to take a toy and an ice-cream to every child in the village. We got to the first house and I knocked on the door and shouted, "Gift Giving", and a woman answered it. Sitting in the middle of the bedroom was a boy in a wheel chair. I gave him the gifts, and his face lighted up with happiness. I walked out and thought," That must be boring, unable to jump around."

    As I came into the second house with gifts, it seemed a little strange that the child didn't see me. His mum said something was much wrong with his eyes, so I needed to go and stand in front of him.  When I did that, he became very excited and made a sign for "thanks", though his legs couldn't move at all.

    When we went back home, Mum told me these kids might not live to see tomorrow. Suddenly, I understood I should be more thankful that I don't have these illnesses. I no longer wanted to be at home listening to my CDs. I would rather be doing this, maybe making a difference in these kids' lives.

    Do you like music? Probably. But do you like all kinds of music? Want to say no? Well, before answering this q{#blank#}1{#/blank#}, you'd better have a good understanding of what music is. A music teacher wanted to tell his students the difference b{#blank#}2{#/blank#} music and noise (噪音). He brought many wooden blocks (大 块) of different sizes to class. The students were very s{#blank#}3{#/blank#} to see him throw the blocks at the wall. Everyone thought it was noise. He then took the same blocks and threw them at the wall a{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. This time, however, he threw them in a special order (次序). The students quickly found it was a tune (曲 子). "So," asked the teacher, "what is music?" The answer is that it's organized noise.

A Once there was a forest where all the animals lived happily together. 

One day a family went to spend the day in the forest, and the son left his socks there. After the family left, a bear came by, found the socks, and decided to try them on. They fit so well, and he liked them so much that he wouldn't take them off. 

All the animals talked about the bear's new look. Soon, in that forest, there began appearing squirrels in shirts, rabbits in shoes, and even rats wearing hats! The forest doctor shook his head, telling animals, "This can't be good.    △    !" But no one listened to him. They said he was just out of fashion. 

However, it wasn't long before the first results of fashion-fever came. Several times the squirrel caught his shirt on trees, stopping him in mid-jump and sending him falling to the ground from a tree. The rat couldn't go into his hole without taking off his hat first. Even the bear, because of his socks, slipped(滑倒)from the river rock and almost killed himself. 

When the animals came to see the doctor, he gave them all the same advice, "Take off those clothes before one day they are going to kill you." Those who listened to the doctor's advice stopped having accidents. And the animals realized that they didn't need clothes at all. Starting to wear them had been very dangerous, and they had only done it to make others admire them, and to get attention.