Hi, my name is Dave. I'm 8 1 old. My birthday is 2 December 12th. I have 3 birthday party every year. Today I have my 4 birthday party. I get some gifts at the party. 5 are very good and I really like them. This 6 T-shirt is from my mother. Green is my 7 color. My mother buys me a pair of green 8, too. My father buys some 9 about history for me, because I like 10 best. I think these books 11 very interesting. My grandparents 12 I like playing basketball, 13 they buy me a basketball. I can 14 it with my friends after class. I'm very happy today.

    15 is your birthday, my friend? Do you have a party, too?

    About ten years ago, both of my parents lost their jobs. Life was1 for me then. I 2at the gift shop in my university's museum in my spare time. One day 3 working in the shop, I saw an elderly couple come in with a little girl in a wheelchair.

    As I looked closer at this girl, I found that she had no arms or legs, just a head, neck and body. She was wearing a pretty white dress and a little red4. When they came closer to me, I 5 her a wink(眨眼). And the girl gave me the most beautiful 6that I had ever seen.

    All of a sudden, her handicap(残疾) was gone and all that I saw was a 7girl. I was deeply moved by her smile, and I8what life was all about. She brought me, a poor and unhappy college student, into her world full of smiles, 9and warmth.

    I'm a successful business person now. Whenever I am in low spirits and in10I always think of that little girl and the lesson about life that she taught me.

    It was a cold snowy morning after the winter vacation. And it was my first 1 at my new school. I was walking alone slowly and 2 about lots of things. It was early and there weren't many people on the road. Suddenly a girl who was 3 a bike on ice fell down. She was trying hard to get up but fell again. 4 thinking, I went over and helped her. She said “5” with a smile and then rode away. Her words warmed me a lot.

    Finally, I got to school. The teacher led me to the 6 and introduced me to the class. Then he asked me to sit down beside a girl. I felt so 7 that I didn't dare to look at her. Soon the first class, 8, started. Their textbooks were different from those in my old school. As I was wondering 9 to do, an English book appeared in front of me. “Let's share,” the girl beside me said, “Hi, I'm Carrie.” I 10. It was the girl I helped this morning. Later on, we became good friends.

    From that I learned: to help others is actually to help ourselves!

    In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France, had a problem. He'd 1 his sugar-growing islands in the Caribbean. He couldn't buy 2 from his enemies (敌人). So where was he going to get sugar to keep his people happy?

    Napoleon knew that years before, a German scientist had 3 that all plants have sugar. And he had even found one almost as 4 as sugarcane (甘蔗)—the white beet (甜菜)!

    Napoleon ordered his science team to 5 how to get the sugar out of the beets. They soon did. This 6 everything! Sugar beets could 7 in the cold north, instead of on tropical (热带的) islands. And because beets (unlike sugarcane) could be stored for a long time, they could be shipped far away. So sugar factories didn't have to be near the 8.

    Soon, sugar beet farms spread all over Europe and Russia, and later in the United States. Even Napoleon's enemies 9 cheap beet sugar.

    During WW Ⅱ, farmers in both America and Germany were asked to grow sugar beets so that their countries would have 10 sugar.

    Today, about half the table sugar in the world comes from beets, and half from sugarcane.

    At the age of 12, most of the kids like to watch TV or 1online games. But the 12-year-old Jaysea is 2teaching yoga. She finished 200 hours' teacher training and is the youngest yoga  3now.

    She teaches kids and teenagers yoga. "I want to do this for a long time 4I love so much," says Jaysea, the girl 5long blonde hair and long legs. She seems quieter6more serious than most other kids.

    She  7a twin brother and a 15-year-old brother. Their parents, Rick and Julie said, "They only go to school three days a  8. We tell them to think about  9they want to do and they have  10days to do it. And when they finish high school, they will get their favorite 11."

    Her father says she still 12her best at school. "She finishes all her homework and she13wants to miss a class."

    School doesn't 14before 9:45 a.m. or 10:30 a.m., so Jaysea has enough time to do practice every 15at home for an hour.

    Ma Yun became one of 1 men in China when his company Alibaba went on the stock market last year with a value of around 140 billion — the largest public offering in history. Here are some stories about him 2 to success.

Ma made his 3 trip to the US in 1995 and used the Internet for the first time. After 4 "beer", he saw that no results came up about China. Then he searched for "China" and still saw no results. He decided 5. A Chinese website — the seed for Alibaba was sown (播种)。

    Ma said he 6 many times in his life. He failed the College Entrance Examination in China three times and 7 companies offered him jobs, including one at KFC. And he was refused by the famous Harvard University 10 times.

    8 was difficult to learn English when Ma was a teenager 9 limited resources. 10, he found that he could learn English well by giving tourists free guides around his hometown Hangzhou. And he kept it 11 nine years. Ma said 12 new world for him because everything they said and did was so different for what he had been taught at school and by his parents.

    Ma's hero is Forest Gump 13 never gives up. When he made a speech about his 14. At Davos (达沃斯论坛) in 2015, Ma said, "Life is like a box of chocolates because you never know what you 15."