A Leap （跳跃）to Honor

    Leapirg on a narrow balance beam( 平衡木) is not easy. But Lola Water. a 13-year-old gymnast is an expert at it.

    To perfect her skills. Lola1 for four hours a day, five days a week. At the slate championships in March，she finished seventh  out of 16 girts. That's especially impressive. 2she is legaly blind, horn  with a rare  condition that causes her eyes to shift (转移)canstantly. She often sees double and can't3 how far away things  are.

    When she was little, her mom 4 even though she couldn't5, she was fearless. So her mom signed her up for gymnastics when she was three. She loved the 6 right away and gymnastics became her favorite.

    Though  learning gymnastics has been  more7for her than for some of  her tournaments( 锦际赛). she has never quit(放弃). She doesn't let her8 stop her from doing anything that she warts to. She likes the  determination (决心）it takes to do the sport. Her biggest 9 is the balance beam. Because she has double vision, she often sees two beams. She must use her sense of touch to help her during her routine. Sometimes she even clones her eyes. "You have to10your mind that it'll take you where you want to go”, says Lola.

    To be a top-level gymmast, one must be brave The beam is probably the most 11 for anyone because it's only four inches wide At the state competition, Lob didn 't12the beam, In fact, she got an 8.1 out of 10 一 her highest scone yet.

    Lola doesn't want to be 13, differently from the other girls un her team, At the competitions, the judges don't know about her vision14. She doesn't tell them, because she doesn't think they need to know. Her mom is amazed by her 15altitude.

    Loda never thinks about16. She is presently at level 7 while the highest is level 10 in gymnastics.  Her17is to reach level 9.She says she wants to be a gymnastics coach 1018what she s learned to other kids when she grew up.

    Lola is 19of all her hard work and  success. She says it has helped her overcome problems in her life

    Outside gymnastics, too. Her 20for others is “just believe yourself ”.

    If you want your life to stand for peace and kindness, it's helpful to do kind, peaceful things. One of my1ways to do this is by developing my own helping rituals (习惯). These little2of kindness are opportunities to be of service and reminders of how good it feels to be kind and helpful.

    We live in a rural area of the San Francisco Bay Area.3of what we see is the beauty of nature. One of the exceptions to the beauty is the4that some people throw out of their windows as they are5on the rural roads. One of the few drawbacks(缺点) to living out the boondocks（偏远地区）is that 6services, such as litter collection, are less available than those closer to the city.

    A helping ritual that I practice7 with my two children is picking up litter in our surrounding area. We've become so8 doing this that my daughters will often say to me in animated(兴致勃勃)9, “There's some litter, Daddy, stop the car!” And if we have10, we will often pull over and pick it up. It seems strange, but we actually 11 it. We pick up litter in parks, on sidewalks, practically12. Once I even saw a complete stranger picking up litter close to where we13. He smiled at me and said, “I saw you doing this, and it seemed like a good idea.”

    Picking up litter is only one of an endless supply of possible helping rituals. You might like14a door open for people, visiting lonely old people in nursing homes, or shoveling snow from someone else's driveway. Think of something that seems effortless yet helpful. It's fun, personally rewarding, and15a good example. Everyone wins.

    I grew up on a big farm in the small rural community of Catevisa, Missouri, as the sixth of seven children. My parents, Archie and Altha, often 1 during meals how everything on the table came from the 2.

    Besides running the farm, Dad was also a 3. In the fall of 1970, he was working on a house when the ladder broke 4. His back was fractured in two places and 5needed rescue.

    He stayed in the hospital for three weeks, 6 his back to align (校准) correctly so the bones would 7 perfectly.

    On Thanksgiving, Dad was still in the hospital. We always killed pigs the day after the holiday so that we had enough pork 8 for the next year, and that year my uncle 9 with a couple of cousins to help my three older brothers prepare our year's supply.

    After Dad returned home, he was in a back brace, saddened for 10 to work. Worse still, the doctor told us his chance of complete recovery was 11. I was too young to realize our family had no money coming 12 as Christmas approached.

    One night we heard a car coming up the long driveway and we kids were 13 about who was visiting. Peggy Phelan, my neighbor, was at the door, holding an envelope 14 with money which, according to her account, she had 15 in the community. And she was there to 16 it!

Dad tried to 17 but Peggy would have none of it. I can still hear her saying, "Archie, whenever someone's baler (压捆机) is broken, you help them to bale their hay. Every time someone passes away, Altha is cooking. It's our18."

    That evening, I understood what being a good neighbor was, and that 19 my parents were good neighbors, their 20 would be paid back.

    A little boy invited his mother to attend his school's first teacher-parent meeting. To the little boy's 1 , she said she would go. This 2be the first time that his classmates and teacher3his mother and he felt 4of her appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar（疤痕）that 5 nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to 6why or how she got the scar.

    At the meeting, the people were7 by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother 8the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed（尴尬）and 9 himself from everyone. He, however,10 a conversation between his mother and his teacher.

    The teacher asked 11,“How did you get the scar on your face?”

The mother replied,“12 my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was13 afraid to go in because the fire was14 ，so I went in. As I was running toward his bed, I saw a piece of wood coming down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked 15 but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us.” She 16 the burned side of her face. “This scar will be 17 , but to this day, I have never18what I did.”

    At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He held her in his arms and felt a great19 of the sacrifice（牺牲）that his mother had made for him. He held her hand 20for the rest of the day.

Sharing Hope with Refugees(难民)

    The night before she had a test at school, eight-year-old Trisha Rao was worried. To give herself 1 , she wrote a poem about believing in herself. Her words gave her courage, and she 2 the test.

    One day while listening to the news with her father, Trisha learned about the war in Syria. Conditions in the country were tough, and many people were leaving for safer regions. "I was 3 that they lost their homes and some of them lost their family," Trisha said. "They didn't have enough money to buy lunch even."

    It made Trisha think. If the poem she had written the night before her test had given her 4 , maybe it could do the same for the refugee children.

    Trisha worked on her poem and turned it into a book called Believe in Yourself. It's the story of a puppy named sunshine and his father, Papa Dog. The dogs travel around the jungle. From fellow animals, they learn 5 about persistence, teamwork, loyalty, hard work, courage, and kindness.

    Trisha illustrated (加插图) the book, too. With the help of her mother and a family friend, she 6 the book in English and Arabic.

    For a family vacation, Trisha asked 7 she and her family could go to Turkey. Many Syrian children who lost their homes in the war were living there now, and Trisha wanted to 8 their spirits up.

    Her family got in touch with Support to Life, an agency that provides emergency relief after a disaster. 9 the group's assistance, Trisha was able to meet refugee children and read her book to them.

    For every book she sells, Trisha gives away a free copy of Believe in Yourself to children around the world. Her purpose is simple but 10: "I hope it will give them hope and that they will learn many lessons from the book and believe in themselves."

    It was a mid April-a time when the planet Earth turns under the hot rays of the Sun. There was a large desert in Africa with no trace of 1 except a little rose. There was not a bird or a tree in 2. The sand dunes(沙丘) became piles of burning coal as the days 3. But the little rose 4 the cruelty of the Sun. The Sun was very 5 to have seen the rose's ability to 6 such unfavorable conditions.

    One afternoon, the Sun said to the little 7, "Dear Rose! I am the supreme power in this universe. I have the 8 to give and take life. Thousands of living things 9 every day, as they are not able to bear with my heat. But, you have been weathering even my hottest rays 10 any complaint. May I know the source that gave you this great 11?"

    "Oh, mighty Sun," the little rose said 12 , "I don't know much about this desert. But it appears 13 and there seems to be no one else in the whole world my eye could stretch. I began to feel 14 for the loneliness of this desert and 15 to help it as possible as I could. And in this process, I never 16 anything that causes pain to me. My whole 17 has been to be a good friend to this desert and 18 its loneliness."

    19 by the little rose's care for the large desert, the Sun offered a(n) 20-millions of other roses filled the desert with their sweet smells and thus turned the entire stretch into a great oasis of life.