I' m ready to do my first jump 10 months after a skydiving (特技跳伞) accident. I can't wait! That accident almost killed me and it made me stay in hospital for half a year. During the boring long days, I didn't feel glad to be alive. I was wondering how I could live without my favorite sport.

    It all started one evening after a nine-to-five day. I was sitting on the sofa when an ad (广告) came on the television. "Try skydiving," it said. The next day, I went to the skydiving school in my town. At the end of the day's lessons, I knew I found the fight sport for me.

    I will never forget my first jump. Five of us walled to the runway and got into a plane. I was scared, but the others were tailing and joking, and I started to feel a little relaxed. It was a beautiful, cloudless day and the sun was just going down. Soon it was time to jump. As I jumped from the plane, I shouted. But then everything became quiet. It was the most wonderful four minutes of my life.

    From the first jump, I was hooked. I started spending all my free time skydiving . It became my reason for living. Things were going really well. Then an accident happened on my 104th jump. I broke my both legs, right arm and nose. I stayed in hospital for six months, but I still couldn't forget skydiving.

    My mother couldn't understand why the only reason I wanted to get better was to go skydiving again. But for me, skydiving is life, and life is skydiving.

D

    Linda was Tara's best friend before, but now things are different. Tara is a member of Purple Girls Club and they have some rules about who they can be friends with. Linda isn't very pretty and doesn't wear cool clothes. So she can't be in their club. Now Tara is making a name list for her party, and she decides not to invite Linda.

    “Tara, come here.” her mother calls from the living room. Tara goes to her mother and sees the school report card in her hands.

    “Tara, what's the matter with you? You have failed(不及格)math and English and you did badly in all of your other subjects. You were such a good student before!”

    Tara sees the disappointment in her mom's eyes. She feels terrible. The activities of Purple Girls Club leave her very little time for studies. The girls get together almost daily for movies, shopping and surfing the Internet. She calls every friend in the club and asks them to help her. But they all refuse(拒绝）and say, “Who cares about studies now?” This makes Tara even sadder.

    Later, Tam's mom takes her to Linda's house across the street. Tara says sorry and Linda is glad to have her friend back. She happily helps Tara with her studies.

    Tara now has a new rule for friendship and it is that a friend that lends a helping hand is a true friend.

    A long time ago, a king put a huge rock in the middle of a roadway, and then he hid (藏) himself to watch because he wanted to know who would move the huge rock out of the roadway.  Some of the richest people came by and simply walked around it. Many of them loudly blamed (谴责) the king for not keeping the road clean, but none did anything to get the rock out of the way.

    Then a farmer came along carrying a heavy bag of vegetables. Upon walking close to the rock, the farmer put down his heavy bag and tried to move the rock to the side of the road. After much pushing, he finally succeeded. After the farmer picked up his bag of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying on the road where the rock had been. The purse included many gold coins and a note from the king saying that the gold was for the person who moved the rock away from the roadway.

    The farmer learnt what many of us never know! Every obstacle (障碍) means an opportunity to improve our condition.

    One day, a man saw an old lady sitting inside her car at the side of the road. Though it was dark, he could see she needed help. So he stopped his car and walked towards her. The old lady was worried, even though she noticed the smile on his face. Was he going to hurt her? "I'll help you start your car, madam. By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson, " he said.

    While Anderson was fitting a spare tired (备胎) to her car, the lady began to talk to him. She thanked him much for coming to help.

    Anderson just smiled as he put his tools away. The lady asked how much she should pay him. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give them the help they needed. He waited until she started her car and drove off.

    A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small restaurant. She went in and a waitress came over with a sweet smile. The old lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant (怀孕的), but she never let the pains and aches change her smile when she served her.

    The lady finished her meal and paid with a hundred-dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change, but the old lady was gone when the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she found there was a note on the napkin (餐巾), "You don't need to give me anything back. Somebody once helped me out the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do—do not let this chain (链子) of love end with you."

    Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.

    A young couple decided to go camping in the mountains to celebrate their first year of marriage. They took with them all the things they would need to go camping—warm clothes, food and a tent.

    They went up to the mountains and found the perfect place to set up their tent. After that, they decided to go for a hike(远足)to see more of the mountains.

    After a long hike, they went back to their camp, built a fire and cooked dinner. Finally, it was time to go to sleep,

    Sometime in the middle of the night, the wife woke her husband up and said, "Look up at the sky. What do you see?"

    Her husband answered, "I see millions of stars."

    His wife said, "That's right. What does that mean to you?"

    The husband said, "Well, if there are so many stars out there, that means there might also be a planet just like the planet we live on: And if that's true, then there could be life on one of those planets, That's kind of exciting!"

    His wife said, "You are wrong. It means that someone has stolen our tent!"

    Long ago, Bluebird's feathers were the colour of dust. She did not like her ugly colour. She was attracted by the colour of the lake near her home. It was as blue as the sky after a storm. Bluebird wanted to be the colour of that beautiful lake very much. Flapping her wings one morning, Bluebird flew from her tree to the blue lake. Then she bathed in the water three times. After each bath, she sang, "Blue water. Still water. I went in. I am blue." Bluebird repeated this every morning. On the third day, she came out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers.

    Now Coyote was a trickster(骗子)—and hungry too. He stayed behind Bluebird's tree for a long time every day and watched her go to the lake. He pretended(伪装)to be interested in everything she did. He wanted Bluebird for lunch, but he was afraid of the blue water. On the third morning, Coyote saw Bluebird come out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers. Impressed, he sat next to Bluebird's tree and waited for her. When she returned, he asked, "How did you get blue feathers? I want to be blue like the mountains too." Bluebird didn't believe Coyote, but she taught him how to bathe three times each morning and how to sing her song. Coyote did what she said, and after three days of bathing in the lake, his white fur turned deep blue.

    Convinced(确信的)that blue fur was even more beautiful than blue feathers, Coyote forgot all about being hungry. He ran as fast as he could to the top of the hill. Standing on his back legs, he raised his front legs off the ground and howled. But Coyote slipped(滑倒)and rolled down the hill. He couldn't stop himself, and the dust and dirt covered his new blue fur. He rolled and rolled until he hit into Bluebird's tree heavily. No matter how much he tried, foolish Coyote could not shake the dust from his fur. And so the fur of all coyotes had the dull colour of dust to this very day.