My son Joey was born with club feet. The doctors said that with treatment he would be able to walk, but would never run very well. He 1 the first three years of his life in hospital. By the time he was eight, you wouldn't know he has a problem when you saw him 2 .

    Children in our neighborhood always ran around  3  their play, and Joey would jump and ran and play,  4 . We never told him that he probably wouldn't be  5  to run like the other children. So he didn't know.

    In  6  grade he decided to join the school running team. Every day he trained. He ran more than any of the others,  7  only the top seven runners would be chosen to run for the  8 . We didn't tell him he probably would never make the team, so he didn't know.

    He ran four to five miles every day — even when he had a fever. I was  9 , so I went to  10  him after school. I found him running  11,  I asked him how he felt. “Okay,” he said. He had two more miles to go. Yet he looked straight ahead and kept  12 .
   Two weeks later, the names of the team  13  were caked. Joey was number six on the list. Joey had  14 the team. He was in seventh grade — the other six team members were all eighth graders. We never told him he couldn't do it … so he didn't know. He just  15  it.

    Everyone has dreams. Lily dreamed of being a dancer. She took 1  lessons and all her teachers thought she was an excellent student.

    One day she saw a notice. It said that a famous dancing group would be performing in her town. 2 though, “I must show the leader my dancing skills.” She waited for the group leader in the dressing room. 3 the leader appeared, she came up and hander him the flowers she prepared. The thorns (刺) hurt her fingers and blood came out. But she was too  4 to care about the pain. She expressed her strong wish to be a dancer and begged (乞求) to show her dance.

    “All right, you dance.” The leader agreed. But half way through the dance, he stopped her, “I'm sorry, in my mind you're not good enough!” On hearing this, Lily  5 out as fast as her legs could carry her. It was so hard for her to accept this. She lost heart and 6 her dream.

    Several years later, the dancing group came to her town again. She decided to find out 7the leader had told her she was not good enough.

    This was his reply, “I tell this  8 every student.”

    “You've ruined (毁掉) my life!” she shouted angrily.

    The leader went on, “I remember your present of  9and how the thorns had hurt your fingers but you carried on bravely. It was a pity that you didn't take dancing like that and stopped trying so  10 . So you are still not good enough for dancing!”

The clever monkey

    Once upon a time, there was a clever monkey. He lived on a beautiful island, in an apple tree.

    One day, a crocodile(鳄鱼)swam to the island. "I'm 1"he said. So, the monkey threw a red apple to the crocodile. The crocodile ate it 2.

    The next day, the crocodile came back. "Please, may I have two apples?" he asked. He ate one and gave one to his 3.

    The crocodile went to see the monkey every day. He wanted to be 4 just like the monkey. The crocodile's wife had an idea. "Why don't you5his heart? Then you'll be clever, just like him!"

    The next day, he said to the monkey, 'To thank you for the6, please come to my house and have lunch with me together. But when the monkey 7, the crocodile said, "I want to eat your heart, so I can be as clever as you!"

    The clever monkey thought quickly and said, "But my 8 isn't here. It's on the island."

    They all 9 to the island. "Wait here. And I will get my heart." said the monkey.

    The monkey quickly 10the tree and sat at the top. "Oh, Crocodile, you are so greedy(贪婪地). Of course, you can't have my heart. And now, you can't have my apples!" And the clever monkey laughed and laughed.

    Mike always loves ships(轮船). When he was a child, he said, "I'm going to1a naval soldier (海军士兵) when I grow up." But his eyes were not very2, so he could not join the navy(军队).

    Then he said, "I'm going to3a ship and travel around the world." But ships were very expensive, and Mike did not have enough 4.

    Last summer Mike found a swimming5. He didn't have to6much for the lessons, so he began going to the school on weekends. Now he is a good swimmer.

    Last week a little boy said to him, "You're a very good swimmer. 7do you learn to swim so well?"

    "I'm not good at all," Mike said." 8I'm in the water, I say to myself, "There are9fishes behind me!" Then I'm very afraid (害怕的), and I 10quickly."