Book: No Looking Back

    Author: Shivani Gupta

    Shivani had thrown a party one evening and awoke the next morning in hospital because of a car crash. It took Shivani years of pain, struggle and determination to regain control of her life and her body. Then tragedy struck again. As the newly-married Shivani drove to Manali with her family, a truck crashed into her car. Shivani refused to give in-she wouldn't let her injury keep her from achieving her ambitions.

    Book：Courage Beyond Compare

    Author: Sanjay Sharma

    The 10 sportspersons in the book are champions in diverse fields like athletics, swimming and badminton, who have brought glory to the country. They overcame their physical limitations to reach the top of their chosen fields.

     Book: Face to Face

    Author: Ved Mehta

    Blind since the age of four，the author led a lonely childhood in India until he was accepted to the Arkansas School for the Blind, to which he flew alone at 15. America and the school changed his life, leading him to degrees at Oxford and Harvard and a fruitful writing career.

Book: This Star Won't Go Out

Author: Lori and Wayne Earl

    Diagnosed with cancer at 12, Esther Earl was a bright and talented, but very normal teenager. She lived a hope-filled and generous life. A cheerful, positive and encouraging daughter, sister and friend, Esther died in 2010, shortly after turning 16, but not before inspiring thousands through her growing online presence.

    Most painters discover a style of painting that is fit for them and stick to that, especially if people admire their pictures. But Picasso, the great Spanish painter, was like a man who had not yet found his own particular style of painting. He kept on struggling to find the perfect expression till his death in 1973.

    Some of Picasso's paintings are rich, soft colored and beautiful. Others are ugly and cruel and strange. But such paintings allow us to imagine things for ourselves. They force us to say to ourselves, “What does he see that makes him paint like that?” And we begin to look under the surface of the things we see.

    Picasso painted thousands of pictures in different styles. Sometimes he painted the natural look of things. Sometimes he seemed to break them apart and throw the pieces in our faces. He showed us what the mind knows as well as what the eyes see. At the age of 90,he remained as curious about the world as he had been when he was young. That is why people have called him “the youngest painter in the world.”

Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions(探险)but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

    Larry first began diving when he was his daughter's age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children his age were not even allowed to dive.

After the first expedition, Larry's later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to come to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

    Larry's first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them .Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different spots for free. Larry didn't even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

    The impression you make at the beginning of an interview is very important. Employers often decide to hire someone in the first three minutes of the interview. They judge you by your appearance, attitude and manners.

    A friendly smile when you walk into the room is important. A smile shows a confident and positive attitude.

    When you introduce yourself, make eye contact with the interviewer. Some interviewers offer a handshake. Others don't.

    Try to be as natural as possible. But pay attention to your body language. The way you sit, walk, gesture, use your voice and show feelings on your face is all part of your body language. It makes the interviewer know how you feel about yourself and the situation you are in. Are you feeling positively about yourself? Your abilities? Your interest in the job?

    Speak clearly and loudly enough. Show interest and enthusiasm in your voice. When you speak, look at the interviewer. Also, don't say negative things about yourself, or former employer.

    Listen to questions carefully. If you don't understand a question, ask the interviewer to repeat or explain:

    "I'm sorry, but I didn't catch that."

    "I'm not sure exactly what you mean."

    Almost everyone is nervous in a job interview. Interviewers know that. They don't expect you to be totally calm and relaxed. But they expect you to try to control your nervousness. They expect you to show confidence in your ability to do the job.

    At the end of the interview, thank the interviewer for her or his time.

    It's a good idea to send a short thank-you letter right after the interview, or deliver it by hand.

    Phone the company if you have not heard anything after one week. Ask if they have made a decision about the job.

    Good luck!

    It was a cold winter. The wind blew all night and the snow was blinding. When morning came, my three children and I got up and made our way to the windows. As we looked out of the window, we saw that the henhouse was gone. Our three hens had been blown away by the cold wind.

    I looked at the emptiness outside. Then I saw all three chickens sitting around the edge of a white bucket. I couldn't believe my eyes! How was this violent wind not blowing them into the field beyond？I quickly pulled on long snow pants and heavy winter coat, wrapped a scarf around my neck and stuck my feet into large boots.

    I shouted at the wind as it blew. I was alone, struggling in the snow. They stared out the window into the vast white sea of snow, peering at any sign of movement. Outside I heard the sound of my boots as I walked against the wind.

    As the snow circled around me, I steadily made my way to the soft cluck-cluck-cluck sound my hens always made. When I reached them, I saw that their little feet were holding on to the edge of the bucket, heads bent forward and away from the wind. I gently lifted each hen and put it carefully into the warm inside. Then I began the freezing walk back to the small shed directly behind our house. One by one I laid my chickens on the cold floor, and they began to cluck softly.

    As I shut the shed doors, my eyes went directly to the window where my children were watching. They jumped up and down cheering, and so did I! I wasn't some dragon slayer(屠龙者) from a fairy tale. I was simply a mom, but the look on my children's faces told me that they thought I was a hero mom.

    When 12 girls from San Fernando high school in California received a grant (助学金) to develop an invention to solve a real-world problem, they decided to create a solar-powered shelter. Now for over a year, the girls have been working after school and over the winter and spring breaks to complete their project. "They have this amazing drive that I've never seen before," said Violet Mardirosian, a math teacher at San Fernando High. "I thought at the beginning that maybe some of them would give up, saying 'I didn't expect this much work,' but they don't. They're just working hard and they're not giving up."

    Living in a low-income community (社区), the girls have seen the problem of homelessness first-hand, which is why they chose that population to create a product for. Many of them are also from immigrant families and hope the solar-powered shelter might help refugees (难民). Seventeen-year-old Maggie Mejia said that while she had no engineering experience, the girls figured out as a team how to create the prototype (雏形), using how-to videos and books that taught them how to code. But the most important lesson she's learned over the course of the project isn't technical. "I've learned a lot about helping others, helping the community and showing a better world to other people," she said.

    The girls have been invited to MIT to show their invention. Mardirosian says all the participating students have expressed interest in going into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields and that students from lower grades are already expressing interest in being involved next year. She says, "Many of them didn't think about engineering before. They thought maybe they're not made out to be an engineer. But working together, now they realize they're all needed in this field. Everyone has found their importance in this picture."