If life were a book and you were the author, how would you like the story to go? That is the question that 1 my life forever.

    One day I went home from the training of snowboarding with what I thought was the flu, and less than 24 hours later, I was in a 2 on life support with less than two percent 3 of living. It wasn't until days later that the doctors diagnosed me with a 4 blood infection.

Over the 5 of 2.5 months, I lost the hearing in my left ear and both my legs below the knee. When my parents 6 me out of the hospital, I 7 that I had been put together like a patchwork(拼缝物) doll and I had to live with 8 legs. I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken, 9 streaming down.

    But I knew in order to move forward, I had to let go of the Old Amy and 10 the New Amy. It was at this moment that I asked myself that significant 11. And that is when it 12 me that I didn't have to be five-foot-five anymore,13 I could be as tall as I wanted. And 14 of all, I can make my feet the size of all the shoes. So there were 15 here.

    Four months later, I was back upon a 16. And this February, I won two Board World Cup gold medals, 17 me the highest ranked snowboarder in the world.

    So, instead of looking at our 18 and our limitations as something 19 or bad, we can begin looking at them as a wonderful 20 that can be used to help us go further than we ever know we could go.

    Children all round the world are familiar with fairy tales such as “The Little Mermaid”(美人鱼), “The Princess and the Pea” and “The Emperor's New Clothes”. The colourful 1 from the stories made us laugh and cry throughout our 2.

    The stories are the creation(创作) of Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson. He was born into a 3 family in Odense, Denmark, on April 2, 1805. His 4 life was not easy. His father was a shoemaker and his mother a washerwoman. He 5 very little education. As a child he was very6 and was laughed at for being feminine (女性化的) and tall.

    In 1816 his father died and Anderson was 7 to go out to work, first in a tailor's shop and 8 at a tobacco factory. 9 the age of 14 Anderson moved to Copenhagen to start a career as a singer and actor. He struggled for three years 10 he had to leave the theatre when his voice 11 in 1822.

    12, Anderson went to a grammar school. Having done well, he was admitted to Copenhagen University in 1828. He began to publish his fairy tales in 1835. They 13 in small volumes (量) until his death.

    14 Anderson lived a 15 life, he tried to make people 16 in all his stories. He wrote because he didn't want children to have a 17 childhood as he did. The works 18 Anderson world fame(声誉), but he remained a 19 man. He never married and his friends were the people who paid for his work. Anderson 20 on August 4, 1875. His home in Odense is now a museum and thousands of people visit it every year.

    It was a very cold Thursday. When I observed the1falling onto my car, I really began to wonder if I was going to2it on time. Of course I must, because I have no3

    About two weeks ago, what my4Ellen had talked about was her Christmas concert to be held in her school and some rumors about it. “Mom, Rachel was5to sing alone, but she's not! Linda will replace her to do it.” “Mom, you won't believe it,6Lexie's whole family is coming to the concert, even from another7” Making a long way out of state to see third graders sing Christmas carols seemed to be a pretty big deal(待遇) for her.

    When I sat in traffic, I thought about all the school8I had attended alone. Ellen never mentioned it, but I wonder9she felt about me being the only one who ever came to her events. My own family lived out of town, and her father and his family10quite succeeded in fitting those things into their schedules, I11if it bothered her.

    At eight o'clock the12was scheduled to begin. With only a few minutes to13 I found myself running: first, through the snow-drifted parking lot, then through the school passage. I entered the14hall and found a vacant seat near the front. From her place onstage, Ellen saw me15for the chair, and she smiled. I was16enough to hear the loud conversation of the children onstage.

    “Look, Ellen, there is my uncle and my cousin. They came all the way from West Virginia. I can't believe my whole family is here!” Ellen17at Lexie and said, “My whole family is here, too! Look, there she is!” Ellen gave me a big smile. I smiled back at her, never once18the melting snow dripping off my head. It19occurred to me that while we tried to teach our children all about20 they actually taught us what life was all about.

    My parents always made extra Christmas specials for my sisters and me. Of course the big 1 was that my sisters and I would run down the stairs to see our Christmas tree surrounded by mountains of 2. We got bikes, microscopes, cameras, and 3 else a kid might want. They were great, though I didn't 4 appreciate all that my parents did. It was quite common for me to be trapped in 5 the endless gifts. As a result, I'm unable to remember everything I 6.

    As my husband Joe and I were ready to welcome our first child 7 the world, we thought about how to give Christmas gifts in advance. Finally we 8 the decision to set the three-gift 9 for our holiday celebrations. I had ever 10 about the idea in a few magazine articles. And I really liked how it made the 11 decide the things they truly wanted. Mostly, I loved the idea of 12 our holiday. I would see my kids get the same 13 of gifts. I expected a Christmas day when we could actually 14 each other's company, as well as the gifts and the spirit that our children were given.

    15 those ideas that Joe and I came up with before they were born, such as never letting them eat junk food, or 16 TV time to only one hour a day, the three-gift rule is one thing that 17 the test of time. We've done it each year since Tom was born 18 years ago, 18 it's actually done in the way that we had hoped. Joe and I are less 19 because we just need to focus on giving each child the top three things that they desire. And we find the kids do 20and enjoy the gifts.

    Last year, I received an e-mail from my dad, under a subject line: "Mystery creature?" There was no body text, but1was a ten-second video, shot in the dead of night. It2a furry creature charging away from the camera and down a driveway. Midway through the video, the animal3abruptly, turns slightly and stares back. Then it runs into the4. Watching it again, I noticed that the driveway looked5. It was my childhood home. There soon came more e-mails with more videos. And the mystery creature6to be a raccoon(浣熊) without its tail.

    For many years, my parents had been7about setting up some camera traps, just to see what sorts of animals were quietly moving around the8. But my dad had always thought the camera were a little too9and complicated. About a year ago, my dad finally10two cameras at reasonable prices that were easy to use. He first11them toward a place where he had noticed a particular pile of scat (动物粪便), which always appeared in the same12. After leaving the cameras on for only one night, he13. To his amazement, right in front of a bench where he'd 14 one camera, a fox arrived. It 15 to the center of the sight line and squatted (蹲下), briefly, in the exact spot. "Can you 16 it?" he said, playing the video for me again.

    I could not, 17 there it was, clear to see. For me, the pleasure in watching these videos was that they would never be 18 believable and that the 19 would always be beyond my imagination. Rather than making the world more knowable, they seem to make it more 20. They've turned a backyard into a place full of mystery.

    It's about 250 miles from the hills of west-central lowa to Ehlers' home in Minnesota. During the long trip home, following a weekend of hunting, Ehlers 1about the small dog he had seen 2 alongside the road. He had 3 to coax（哄）the dog to him but, frightened, it had 4.

    Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that 5 dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove 6. After a long and careful 7. Greg saw, across a field, the dog moving 8 away. Ehlers eventually succeeded in coaxing the animal to him. Nervousness and fear were replaced with 9. It just started licking（舔）Ehlers' face.

    A local farmer told them the dog sounded like one 10 as lost in the local paper. The ad had a 11 number for a town in southern Michigan. Ehlers 12 the number of Jeff and Lisa to tell them he had 13 their dog.

    Jeff had 14 in lowa before Thanksgiving with his dog, Rosie, but the gun shots had scared the dog off. Jeff searched 15 for Rosie in the next four days.

    Ehlers returned to Minnesotan, and then drove 100 miles to Minneapolis to put Rosie on a flight to Michigan. “It's good to know there's still someone out there who  16 enough to go to that kind of 17," says Lisa of Ehlers' rescue 18.

    I figured whoever lost the dog was probably just as  19 to it as I am to my dogs,” says Ehlers. “If it had been my dog, I'd hope that somebody would be 20 to go that extra mile.”