While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.

    The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to complete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.

    I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold—his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.

    I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.

    But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.

    No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.

    A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.

    Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.

    In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch an underdog.

    What is a big dream? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Or, is a big dream something that provides only entertainment? Children dream big dreams, but there are three barriers to realizing dreams. They often kill them before they ever have a chance to grow.

The Self

    Immediately following the birth of a big dream, a negative self-talk takes over and gives all the reasons why it cannot happen. This inside voice is the ego (自我). It's there for protecting and should be listened to. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Most people are influenced by the inside voice. That's why only a handful of people make their dream come true.

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    Family and friends are a lot like the ego. They want to protect those they love, so they will often list all the reasons why the big dreams won't come true. Sometimes, family and friends destroy dreams of those they love most, out of their own fear of being left behind.

The World

    If one gets past the first two barriers, one has to face the world.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} In the past, big dreamers were locked up and sometimes even killed when they were shown to the world. Fortunately, in most of the world today, big dreamers just get laughed at.

    The way to realize a big dream is with confidence and action. When children have confidence and then take action, they will be ready to accept any failure. The truth is that every great dreamer whose dreams have never seen the light of success knows failure well.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Family and Friends.

B. How big Dreams Die.

C. Does a big dream show one's future?

D. They simply fail until they succeed.

E. it is the last and the most terrible barrier.

F. Sometimes it is right, but more often it is wrong.

G. And their big dream is to be a rock star or a famous artist.

    A few years ago, I took a sightseeing trip to Washington, DC. I saw many of our nation's treasures, and I also saw a lot of citizens on the street—unfortunate ones, like beggars and homeless folks.

    Standing outside the Ronald Reagan Center, I heard a voice ask. “Can you help me?” When I turned around, I saw an old blind woman with her hand extended. In a natural reflex (自然反射), I reached into my pocket, pulled out all of my loose change and placed it in her hand without even looking at her. I hated being disturbed by a beggar.

But the blind woman smiled and said: “I don't want your money. I just need help finding the post office.” In an instant, I realized what I had done. I had acted with prejudice (偏见)—I had judged another person simply for what I thought she had to be.

    I hated what I saw in myself. This incident brought back my central belief. It reminded me that I believed in being humble (卑下的), even though I'd lost that belief for a moment.

    The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant (移民). I left Honduras and arrived in the US at the age of 15. I started my new life with two suitcases, my brother, my sister and a strong mother. Through the years, I have been a dish washer, roofer, mechanic, cashier and pizza delivery driver, among many other humble jobs. Eventually, I became a network engineer.

In my own life, I have experienced many acts of prejudice. I remember a time at age 17—I was busboy (餐馆工), and I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well in school, he would end up like me. I have also seen the same treatment of family and friends, so I know what it's like, and I should have known better.

    But now, living my American middle-class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am and where I have been, and to lose sight of where I want to go. The blind woman cured me of my blindness. She reminded me of my belief in being humble, and to always keep my eyes and heart open.

    By the way, I helped that lady to the post office. And in writing this essay, I hope to thank her for the priceless lesson she gave me.

    Terrafugia Inc. said Monday that its new flying car has completed its first flight, bringing the company closer to its goal of selling the flying car within the next year. The vehicle — named the Transition — has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so it can be driven like a car. The Transition, which flew at 1,400 feet for eight minutes last month, can reach around 70 miles per hour on the road and 115 in the air. It flies using a 23-gallon tank of gas and burns 5 gallons per hour in the air. On the ground, it gets 35 miles per gallon.

    Around 100 people have already put down a $10,000 deposit（定金） to get a Transition when they go on sale, and those numbers will rise after Terrafugia introduces the Transition to the public later this week at the New York Auto Show. But don't expect it to show up in too many driveways. It's expected to cost as much as $279,000. And it won't help if you're stuck in traffic. The car needs a runway.

    Inventors have been trying to make flying cars since the 1930s, according to Robert Mann, an airline industry expert. But Mann thinks Terrafugia has come closer than anyone to making the flying car a reality. The government has already permitted the company to use special materials to make it easier for the vehicle to fly. The Transition is now going through crash tests to make sure it meets federal safety standards.

    Mann said Terrafugia was helped by the Federal Aviation Administration's (联邦航空管理局) decision five years ago to create a separate set of standards for light sport aircraft, which are lower than those for pilots of larger planes. Terrafugia says an owner would need to pass a test and complete 20 hours of flying time to be able to fly the Transition, a requirement pilots would find relatively easy to meet.

    When was the last time you used plastic plates? Next time, why not try some edible ones? You'll help the environment and your guests won't go hungry. "I used to work in school catering and saw a lot of money being thrown away. I thought that was criminal, so I decided to do something about it," said Italian school chef Tiziano Vicentini.

    Now, Vicentini has an amazing range of edible plates for schools. The plates are made out of bread dough, so you can eat them afterwards. "These dishes cost a few pennies each and are either eaten by the kids, or go into recycling bins for animal food," explained Vicentini, 50, of Milan. But now other companies are developing edible plates, too. The Edible-Plate Company offers edible plates, bowls, trays and cups. Their products are environmentally-friendly, 100% biodegradable and can be used for all types of catering and home use. And they're made from a natural plant. After use, they can be fed to animals or left to degrade naturally.

    They also have a range of cutlery（餐具） made from corn and potato starch（淀粉）. These plates will also help reduce the amount of plastic; we create. Waste from plastic causes a lot of damage to the environment, as well as costing governments millions m waste management. Plastic bags often end up in landfill sites or on the street. And the burning of plastic waste causes toxic gases that pollute the air. In response to this, governments around the world are introducing tough recycling regulations. And many shops are offering biodegradable plastic bags and eco-safe packaging on their products. To help matters, the International Organization for Standardization (the ISO) has also developed a system to evaluate the biodegradability of products, with a certification and logo scheme, Meanwhile, how about a nice plate for lunch?

    On November 14, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi while trying to settle a line(边界) problem between Mississippi and Louisiana. Being an expert outdoorsman, he liked to hunt large animals.

    However, his hunt was going poorly that days, and he couldn't seem to find anything worthy of firing his gun. His followers, trying to help him, caught a Louisiana black baby bear for the President to shoot, but he refused. The thought of shooting a bear that was tied to a tree did not seem sporting, so he spared the life of the baby bear and set it free.

    A famous political cartoonist for the Washington Star, Mr. Clifford Berryman, drew a cartoon titled. Drawing the Line in Mississippi, which used the story of the President refusing to shoot the bear.

    The cartoon in the Washington Star showed Teddy Roosevelt, gun in hand, with his back turned on a pretty baby bear. Morris Michtom, owner of a Brooklyn toy store, got the idea from the cartoon and make a toy bear. Planning to use it only as a display, he placed the bear in his toy store window, and next to it placed a copy of the cartoon from the newspaper. To Michtom's surprise, he was surrounded by customers eager to buy it. He asked for and received President Roosevelt's permission to use his name for the bears that he and his wife made, and the Teddy Bear was born! Michtom soon made Teddy bears by the thousands. The money from selling Teddy bears made him, in 1903, form the Ideal Toy Company.