Long, long ago, a donkey(驴) fell in a dry well. The animal cried for hours as the farmer tried to think out what to do. Finally, the farmer thought the animal was too old and the well needed to be covered(覆盖) up anyway, so he decided not to try to save the donkey.

    The farmer invited his neighbours(邻居) to help him. They began to shovel(铲) dirt into the well. The donkey cried harder. Then a few shovelful later, he became quiet. The farmer looked into the well, and was surprised by what he saw.

    While every shovelful of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake (抖) it off and take a step on the new layer(层) of dirt. As the farmer's neighbours continued(继续) to shovel dirt on top of the animal, the donkey would shake it off and take another step up.

    Soon the donkey stepped up out the well and ran away, to the surprise of all the neighbours

    The lesson we get from this story is that life shovels some dirt on us, we must get out of the well and not let it cover us. We must learn to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our trouble is a stepping-stone (踏脚石). We can get out of the deepest well by never giving up!

    Jerry, 30 years old, owned a pizza restaurant. He lived in a flat about one mile north of the restaurant. He walked to and from work. When it was raining, he took the bus.

    Jerry loved gangster（匪徒）movies. When a new on came out, he would go to the theater and watch the new movie three or four times. Then, when it went to video, Jerry would buy the video at Tom's Video Store. Jerry had a home collection of over 1, 000 gangster videos. Old ones, new ones; coloured, black and white; English, Spanish, Japanese-he loved them all. He could tell you the name of the movie, the director, the stars, and the story.

    Jerry finally decided that he would like to own a gun, just like the gangsters. So he saved his money and one day he went to a gun store and bought one for $300. On Saturday morning, he went to the gun club to practise shooting 射击）. He was in the club for only 10 minutes when he accidentally（偶然）dropped his gun. The gun went off, and the bullet（子弹）went into Jerry's right knee（膝盖）.

    Jerry now walks with a walking stick, just like some gangsters.

Do you know Zhang Jiacheng? He is a 16-year-old boy from Guangdong. He has a dream to be a basketball 1 . But when he was 5, he lost his right arm. He felt so sad, because he couldn't realize (实现) his 2 any more. But to everyone's surprise, he didn't give 3 . He practiced very 4 after school everyday. Now he is good at playing basketball.

Two years ago, he 5 his videos (视频) on Douyin. In these videos, he showed his 6 in playing basketball. He soon became 7 . Yi Jianlian praised (表扬) him for his hard workings and wonderful skills. He said, "Heart is always the 8 part of the body." And Zhu Fangyu said "Zhang is a hardworking boy. I would like to ask him to visit our team and watch home games." Last year, he went to9 the basketball team of Guangdong and played basketball with the players. He did a good job and all the players were proud of him.

Zhang Jiacheng is a good 10 for us. We should learn from him.

Many families take their children for trips on holiday. They usually travel for days 1 weeks. But Julie and Tim Rivenbark had a longer holiday with 2 two children. The Rivenbark family had a one-year trip around the world. They 3 about 30 countries in all. 

Ms Rivenbark said they just wanted 4 as much of the world as they could. The family spent time floating (漂流) on a boat in Italy. They flew in hot-air balloons (气球) in Myanmar. They had 5 long walk to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal and also went on safari (去游猎) in South Africa. 6 fantastic trip!

Tyler, the son, said he enjoyed 7 about the people they met. And his sister, Kara, found that she liked Chinese food 8 . 

Ms Rivenbark said the trip taught the children more than short visits would 9 . 

"I think the long travel can teach them how they see the world. I'm sure they can learn so much 10 the travel. "