Life is full of miracles. They surround us every day. One of these miracles happened to me recently. I was filling my car's tank at a local gas station. It was only 10 A.M. but I already felt tired. It was a cloudy, gloomy and rainy day and I hadn't slept well the night before. After I paid for the gas I turned my car towards the main road. I looked right and left then my brain sent the signal for my foot to push on the gas pedal but nothing happened. Shocked, I shook my head to clear it and gazed down at my foot.

      Just as I did, though, a truck rushed past my car doing 60 mph. My weary eyes hadn't seen it when I had looked just 2 seconds earlier. If I had been pulling out when I should have been, my little green car would have been smashed and I would have most likely been killed. I sat there for a long time quietly thanking God for sparing my life before pulling out on the road and heading home. This time both my brain and foot worked perfectly.

      As I looked back on that moment later I still couldn't understand it. Did God prevent my brain's signal from reaching my foot? Did an angel hold my toes to keep them from pressing on the gas? One question kept coming back into my mind as well: why? Why did I get this miracle? Why did God spare my life this day? Finally, I felt the answer forming deep within my heart and mind. I heard the words coming from my soul saying: “You still have more to do. Your work is not done yet!”

      Richard Bach wrote: “Here is the test to find if your mission on Earth is finished: if you are alive it isn't.” Wake up each day then knowing that your mission isn't done yet. You have more love to share, more people to help, more kindness to give. You have one more day to be the miracle God meant for you to be.

    "Colour, colour, colour!" are the words of the artist Eric Carle. Eric is like the king in the world of children's books. He has written over 70 children's books. His most famous book. The Very HungryCaterpillar, is common on children's bookshelves all over the world. What most people don't know is that Eric also makes art for adults, which is called "ArtArt". People didn't know about it, because he didn't show it to the public until he was 84 years old!

    Like Eric's children's books, his "ArtArt" is full of bright and clear colour. He says that he loves colour so much because he missed it during the war in Germany. Eric was born in New York in 1929, but moved to Germany with his family when he was 6. When he was 10, World War Ⅱ began. He noticed that all the houses and buildings in his town were painted grey, brown or dark green. It was a sad time, and it seemed like there was no colour anywhere.

    At the end of the war, "when colour came back", Eric explains, "I just loved it so much. I keep saying that I wish our eyes could see more colour. Colour is a very important part of my work."

    That's true. Eric paints bright colours on Paper, cuts out shapes, and then glues them onto another piece of paper. This method is called collage (拼贴画). In fact, it is what led Eric to his "ArtArt".

    Eric's "ArtArt" includes large collages as well as paintings, photographs and even costumes. In all these works, he uses all kinds of colours—everything from purple to light green to orange. Now that's a lot of colour!

    In 1995, Oseola McCarty gave a present of $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi. She wanted to help poor students. It was a very generous thing to do. But her friends and neighbours were surprised. McCarty was a good woman. She went to church. She was always friendly and helpful. But everyone in her town knew that McCarty was not rich. In fact, she was poor.

    How did a poor 86 year-old woman have so much money? Oseola McCarty was born in 1908 in Wayne County, Mississippi. She had to leave school when she was eight years old to help her family. She took a job washing clothes. She earned only a few dollars a day. Oseola washed the clothes by hand. Then she hung the clothes to dry. She did this for nearly 80 years. In the 1960s, she bought an automatic washer and dryer. But she gave them away. She thought they did not get the clothes clean enough! At that time, many people started to buy their own washers and dryers. McCarty did not have much work, so she started to iron clothes instead.

    McCarty never married or had children. Her life was very simple. She went to work and to church. She read her Bible(圣经). She had a black-and-white television. But she did not watch it very much. It had only one channel.

    McCarty saved money all her life and eventually had about $ 250 ， 000.When she was 86, a lawyer helped her make a will. She left money to the church, her relatives, and the university. McCarty just wanted to help others. She thought she was not a special person. But then people found out about her present to the university, She received many honours(荣誉). She even flew in an airplane for the first time! Oseola McCarty died in 1999. She was a shy and ordinary woman who became famous.

    Imagine moving to a new country. There you know almost no one and you don't speak the language. Eighty years ago, my grandmother, Jean Rizzi, did just that.

    Like so many immigrants from Europe, her first stop in America was Ellis Island, in New York. The immigration station on Ellis Island opened 125 years ago. From 1892 to 1954, over 12 million foreigners entered America through Ellis Island.

    My grandmother's journey started near Naples, Italy. Her father got a job in New York years earlier. After he saved enough money, he sent for his family to join him. In November 1936, his wife and three kids got on a ship to New York. At just 8 years old, my grandmother didn't know what to expect. "I was nervous," she says. "But I was also excited about finally getting to see my new home in big city."

    For nearly two weeks, they were at sea and couldn't see any land. They all stayed in one small room on the boat.  When the boat arrived at Ellis Island, my grandmother thought the journey was over. But she and her family still had to be examined by doctors. Finally, they were off to their new home in Queens, New York. My grandmother still lives there.

    Ellis Island is now a popular tourist attraction in New York. More than 3 million people visit it each year. To immigrants like my grandmother, the island is a symbol of freedom and the American dream.

    12-year -old American boy Maxwell Daley just grew a pumpkin(南瓜) that weighs 582. 5 pounds (1 pound is about 0.45 kg). He won first place in the seventh annual Largest Pumpkin Contest at the Kentucky State Fair. And he received the $500 (about 3, 334 yuan) top prize.

    Maxwell is a seventh grader at Grayson County Middle School. At the age of 8, he became interested in growing huge pumpkins after seeing them at the state fair.

    Maxwell is a boy of few words. But he shared his secret of growing a big pumpkin" We put lots of special fertilizers(肥料) on it. We put it in the shade(阴凉处) and put a canopy(遮篷) over it. Lots of weeds(杂草) need to be pulled," he told local media Franklin Favorite.

    His father Joe Daley also added that it started by picking the right seed this year, Daley paid $ 40 for his pumpkin seed and worked hard every day to grow it. He also needed to keep the pests(害虫) out. "It turned into a pretty big job. He did all the work," Joe said.

    This winning giant pumpkin was the only one he grew this year. According to the rule, Maxwell has to take part in the Largest Pumpkin Contest for years to come.

    Each one of us shares this planet with over seven billion others. And we all need1. People and products need to move from city to city and country to country. However, we all know2most cars, motorcycles, boats and planes cause air pollution. They are also3. This is a serious problem in many cities.4inventors are coming up with creative ideas to try to reduce the pollution and noise.

    In many cities around the world, motorcycles are very5. Now Vietnam has around 33 million motorcycles and China has almost 120 million. Motorcycles are a faster and cheaper way to get around a city than6. Yet air pollution is a growing problem. In large cities, people7it is difficult to breathe. To solve these problems, an American company designed an environmentally friendly motorcycle. It uses electricity as fuel (燃料). As a result, there is8pollution. It's also quiet and fast. This makes9a good choice for getting around a city.

    The Italian city of Venice is a city with only a few10. There are no cars in the city centre.11cars, water taxis and buses carry people along the city's canals (运河). However, they cause pollution,12to the water. English engineers Dick and Jem designed a solar-powered (太阳能的) water taxi. The water taxi13run for a day after being charged (充电).

    Planes also cause air and noise pollution. Designing an environmentally friendly airplane is a real14. Some airplane companies have15to solve the problems. Swiss engineers have gone one step further. They developed a solar airplane. This airplane even tries to travel around the world.