Life is full of surprises and you never know how things will turn out.

    Sir John Gurdon is a good example of this. As a boy, he was told he was hopeless at science and finished bottom of his class. However , the very same Gurdon shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Japanese stem cell (干细胞) researcher Shinya Yamanaka.

    Like so many scientists, Gurdon shows us where the power of curiosity and perseverance (坚持不懈) can lead.

    At the age of 15 in 1948, Gurdon ranked last out of the 250 boys at his high school in biology and every other science subject. Gurdon's high school science teacher even said that his dream of becoming a scientist was " quite ridiculous".

    In spite of his teacher's criticisms, Gurdon followed his curiosity and kept working hard. He went to the lab early and left later than anyone else. He experienced thousands of failures.

    "My own belief is that we will, in the end, understand everything about how cells actually work," Gurdon said.

    In 1962 ,Gurdon took a cell from an adult frog and moved its genetic( 基因的 ) information into an egg cell . The egg cell then grew into a clone(克隆) of the adult frog. This technique later helped to create Dolly the sheep in 1996,the first cloned mammal(哺乳动物) in the world.

    In 2006, Gurdon's work was developed by Yamanaka to show that a sample (样本) of a person's skin can be used to create stem cells. Using the technique, doctors can repair a patient's heart after a heart attack.

    "Luck favors the prepared mind," Gurdon told the Nobel Prize Organization. "Ninety percent of the time things don't work ,but when they do ,you have to seize(抓住) the chance. "

    I'm a Chinese student studying in Canada. I have been a boarder(寄宿生) with the Carsons for more than a year and a half.

    The Carsons live in their own house, which has four bedrooms including the one in the basement(底层) which I live in. Judy does all the work in the house and Andrew is responsible for the work in the garden. When they go out in the evening, they often ask me to look after their children.

    Judy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Morris, lived in another city. Judy was their only child and naturally they doted on(溺爱) Judy's children. They often sent the children presents.

    Last April Mr. Morris died. Now that Mrs. Morris was quite alone, I expected that Judy would want her to come and live with them. One day, Margaret told me grandma was coming to live with them and her daddy and mummy would want my room back. The news didn't surprise me and the next day I went to Judy and asked her about it. I said I couldn't think of living in their basement room any longer if it was needed for Mrs. Morris. Judy seemed surprised at first. Then she told me there was no deed for me to move, for they hadn't yet come to any decision about her mother coming to live with them. "Naturally I'm worried about my mother. She has been in poor health." She smiled sadly and added. "To be honest, Andrew and my mother have never got on well. We'll wait a bit and see what happens. Perhaps Moter will be all right living herself, of perhaps they will both change their minds."

    That was six months ago. During this time I've heard that Mrs. Morris has had two illnesses and that her health has got worse. A nursing home was mentioned once but Mrs. Morris refused to go there. So up to now she's still living alone and I'm still living in the basement room.

    Mr. and Mrs. Black opened a small restaurant. In order to attract (吸引) customers, they put a notice in front of the restaurant that said "Meals on the House for Three Days."

    A foreign student who didn't know much English happened to pass by the restaurant on the second day. It was lunch time and he felt very hungry. "Well, here is a restaurant. I am going to have something to eat."

    He walked towards the restaurant when he saw the notice. "American people are really strange. They even eat dinners on their houses. But how can I get up to the top of the house?" he said to himself.

    He looked around and found a ladder against a tree nearby. He started climbing up. But as he reached the top，he heard someone shouting at him.

    "Hey, what are you doing up there?" Mr. Black shouted at him. Next to him was a policeman.

    "Doesn't your notice say? "Meals on the House for Three Days'? Is it just a joke?" the foreign student answered.

    On hearing this, both Mr. Black and the policeman laughed. "Do you know what ON THE HOUSE means? Look it up in the dictionary," the policeman said.

    One can hardly imagine Chai Huilong, wearing glasses and a T-shirt, as a Chinese chive(韭菜) farmer.

    Two years ago, Chai graduated from Tianjin College of University of Science and Technology. He took over his parents' 20,000 square meter plot of land and set up a business: growing Chinese chives.

    But instead of growing Chinese chives in the traditional way, Chai plants them in garden pots and sells them directly to customers through an online sore. Now his family makes 10 million yuan a year.

    Running a business is a dream for many young graduates. Chai is one of those young graduates who have found great career opportunities in rural areas. They make good use of their agricultural knowledge and new skills, and get support form the government.

    When Chai came up with the idea of growing Chinese chives, he was not sure about running his own business. But Youth Business China, a non-profit(非盈利的) program supported by the government which helps encourage youth entrepreneurship (创业精神), gave Chai courage and confidence. The program offers 30,000 to 50,000 yuan in start-up funding to young people who have great ideas. It also assigns(分配) each of them a tutor who provides guidance on spending the money and running the company.

    "My relatives and friends regard farming as a bad job. But being a farmer is just my job," said Chai. So far, his products have been shipped to places as far as Dubai on the Arabian Gulf. Chai is confident that he can make a greater success of this job in the future.

Are you interested in robots? If so, try out robot Little Q at our science center from August Ist to August 6th. Little Q is a cute robot with a round head, two big eyes and two long legs. It's like a big toy that our children will love.