A Trip to the Forest

    One day Bob took two of his friends into the mountains. They put up their tents and then rode off to a forest to see how the trees were growing.

    In the afternoon when they were about ten kilometers from their camp（营地）, it started to snow. More and more snow fell. Soon Bob could hardly see his hands before his face. He could not find the road. Bob knew there were two roads. One road went to the camp, and the other went to his house. But all was white snow. Everything was the same. How could he take his friends back to the camp?

    Bob had an idea. The horses! Let the horses take them back! But what would happen if the horses took the road to his house? That would be a trip of thirty-five kilometers in such cold weather!

    It was getting late. They rode on and on. At last the horses stopped. Where were they?

    None of them could tell. John looked around. What was that under the tree? It was one of their tents!

    Jane Austen(1775-1817), an English novelist, started writing from an early age and completed six major novels in her life. Today Austen's books are more popular than ever. Some of her novels have been made into films while her books continue to be best-sellers

    Richard Jenkyns, a professor of English from the University of Oxford says that her novels are about marriage, friendships and the family, which are still with us today." The stories are timeless," Jenkyns says.

    Pride and Prejudice(《做慢与偏见》)(1813) is Austen' s most famous work. It is a love story about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. At first, they dislike each other. Elizabeth is pretty, smart and lively. She is proud because Mr. Darcy doesn't know about her and her family. Mr. Darcy is handsome, rich and has a better family background. So, he is proud as well. At the same time, Mr. Darcy holds a prejudice against the Bennet family. He has no understanding of why the family, especially the mother and daughters who try so hard to find wealthy and powerful husbands. He thinks they are vulgar. Anyway, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy finally fall in love and become a romantic couple but their families don't want them to do so.

    In Pride and Prejudice, some of the main things that Jane Austen wanted to teach people are as follows. Opposites can attract each other. Lovers should not only make each other feel relaxed or comfortable, but also educate and improve each other.

    Austen is often called the greatest romantic writer, so it is surprising she remained unmarried. "Maybe she was too romantic, waiting for the perfect man," Jenkyns says.

    Dreams are like stars. You may never catch them, but if you follow them, they will lead you to success. Yan Ning is such a dream follower.

Yan is a rising star in the science world. When Yan Ning was only a little girl, she dreamed of being a great scientist. After years of hard work, in 1996, she went to Tsinghua University to study biology. After graduating from Tsinghua in 2000, she went to Princeton University and finished her study abroad in 2007. Then she returned to Tsinghua and set up her own lab. At the age of 30, she became the youngest professor(教授)at Tsinghua.

    Now. Yan, 42, has become a leading biology researcher at Princeton. On April 30, she was included among the 100 new members and 25 foreign associates(院士)into the US Natinal Academy of Science(国家料学院)

    However, it was a long and difficult road for her to make such achievements. She said that in order to realize her dream, she experienced a lot of failures and pains. But she never gave up her dream. Instead, she followed her dream and fought for it.

    She usually works at least I4 hours a day. Sometimes she even forgets to eat and rest and works until late night. She never gets tired because she thinks doing research is the most "comfortable" job for her.

In a TV interview, Yan encouraged young people to work hard for their dreams. "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to follow them."

One day a little boy asked his father, "What does the word ‘great' mean? Who are great people and 1 do they become great? "

The father asked his son to bring two plants and then told him to plant one of them 2 the house and the other outside the house. The boy did as his father said.

The father asked his son, "Which one of the two plants do you think will be  3  and bigger? " The boy replied, "The plant inside the house will be safer,  4  it will grow bigger, while the plant outside the house is not safe at all. No one will be there to  5 it. It may be eaten by animals."

The father smiled and said, "Let's wait  6 .We will know the answer."

Then the boy  7  for study and after four years he came back to his house. He said to his father, "Look, 8 happens to this plant inside the house and it is safe."

When the boy went outside, he was very  9  to see a big tree. The boy couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't  10 how the plant outside was able to grow much bigger than the plant inside the house.

"The plant outside the house faced four  11  and many difficulties!" the father  12  to his son why the plant outside was bigger. "The plant inside was safe, it didn't face weather changes, and it didn't get proper  13 , so it didn't become big."

Here is the  14  to the question about being great:  15 a great person, one must have failed many times, experienced many difficulties and overcome those difficulties. After that, he is able to become great.