Who is a great person? To answer this question, we often think of someone 1, such as the South Africa hero Nelson Mandela or the NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant. But often a great person is2next to us—but we never see the greatness unless a difficult 3 comes up.

    In May, 2008, a high school girl in Beichuan, Sichuan, 4 a hero just next to her. When the earthquake hit, her school 5on top of the students. Just next to her was her classmate Li Anqiang. Li worked to move rocks to make 6for her. Before rescuers reached them,7, aftershocks brought down 8rubble(碎石) around them. Li's earlier efforts kept his classmate9 from danger, but the new rubble that fell on his legs crushed (压碎) them beyond 10.

    Today, Li is in a wheelchair; he is missing both of his legs, but he is not missing the good 11 that made him a hero during the earthquake. He still12 the sports he played before the earthquake, table tennis and basketball—and still13his hero, Kobe Bryant.

    Kobe Bryant, however, considers Li a hero. In reply to Li's 14  letter, Kobe praised Li as “a strong boy whose attitude toward15was amazing”. He encouraged Li in his love of basketball, telling Li that he looked cool in a photo of his 16a basketball from his wheelchair.

    So 17that we have great people next to us every day—in school, at work, on the bus. There may not be a 18 to show us who they are, but we can be sure they are19 . Who knows?  20 you are one yourself.

    Today, I saw a video of a teenager giving shoes to one of his classmates. The day before, he had heard the student on the phone with her mother 1that she needed new shoes. Her mother 2said that she couldn't afford to 3 the Vans, but that she would buy new shoes in Walmart. He 4to go Vans that afternoon and buy the girl a new pair of shoes. The next day, in front of the class,5that a friend was recording the good deed, he6the new shoes to her.

    Let's start with the 7of the situation. The girl got new shoes, and the boy felt like his behavior was an act of8. But let's look at some of the results that he may not have9thought of. The girl could have been very 10. What's worse, it showed that her family was 11 which might set her apart from her classmates.

    Here's12 the situation should have gone. The boy could buy her new shoes,13give them to the teacher instead. The teacher could give them to the girl with 14. He should not have put the15on the Internet. The 16goes for donating to homeless people. Give them some respect and 17 it off the Internet.

    Doing a good deed is supposed to be18to someone else. But if you're doing it so that you can be popular on social media, you're doing it for the wrong19 The next time you 20to do something nice for someone, ask yourself why you really want to do it.

    After my brother died in an accident, my mother was very sad. I was only 4 years old at the time, but I still understood the 1 in my mom's attitude toward safety.2, everything around us was potentially 3.

    I grew up with a lot of 4 and rules that were meant to 5 me. For example, I was not 6 to walk home from school by myself, even though everyone I knew already did. I couldn't 7 evening parties or go to summer camp,8 what if something happened to me?

    As I got older, the list of things to 9 got longer. I became a natural 10. I was concerned about things like getting cancer, losing my wallet, being caught in car accidents and earthquakes —11 big and small, real and 12.The funny part is that you'd never know it by looking at my life, because I'm constantly 13 myself to do the things that frighten or worry me. In fact, I've developed a 14 for myself: If it scares me, then I have to do it 15 once. I've done lots of things that would have 16 my mom: I've ridden a motorcycle, I've traveled alone, and I've performed stand-up comedy.

    Courage isn't a natural attribute (品质) of human beings. I believe that we have to practice being courageous. The more 17 I do things that scare me or that make me 18, the more I realize that I can do a lot more than I originally thought I could do.

    Even though I inherited (经遗传获得) my mother's cautious19, I've also come to believe that fear can be a good thing, if we 20 it. Believing that has made my world a less scary place.

When I was young, my mom only had one eye. I hated her. She was such an 1.She ran a small shop at a flea(跳蚤) market and 2 old clothes and some other things to sell for the money we needed. Once during elementary school, it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed and 3 how could she do this to me？I threw her a 4 look and ran out. The next day at school, my schoolmates asked me, "Your mom only has one eye?!" and 5 me.

I was so angry with my mom and wished that she would just 6 from this world. So I said to my mom, "Why don't you have the other eye?! If you're only going to make me a laughingstock(笑柄)!" My mom did not respond, I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, I felt so 7 to have had said what I wanted to say. Maybe it was 8 my mom hadn't punished me, I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly.

    For the words I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my one-eyed mom and our 9 poverty. I told myself that I would become 10 in the near future, 11 I studied very hard. Later I got accepted by the Seoul University, I left my mother and came to Seoul to study. Then I got 12 there.

    I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I am living 13 as a successful man. I enjoy the 14 in Seoul because it's a place that doesn't 15 me of my mom and my past. This kind of happiness was getting bigger and bigger, 16 one day someone knocked at my door. It was my mom! And still with her one eye! It felt 17 the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl 18, scared of my mom's eye.

I screamed at her, "Who are you? I don't know you! How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter!" To this, my mom quietly answered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the

19 address," and she disappeared out of sight. I was quite relieved.

    One day, I went back to participate in a reunion. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack(窝棚), which I used to call a house, just out of 20. Unexpectedly, there I found my mom fallen on the cold ground. Then a piece of paper in her hand came into my eyes. It was a letter to me.

    My son,

    I think my life has been long enough now, and I won't visit Seoul anymore. I miss you so much. I'm so sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you.

    You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident and lost your eye. As a mom, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye. So I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son to see a whole new world for me with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. During the couple of times that you were angry with me, I thought to myself, it's because he loves me.

    My son…oh, my son…

    Don't cry for me because of my death. I love you so much.

    Mr. West wanted to buy his wife a Christmas present, but he was always very 1, so he was never able to find time to go to the shops. At last, when it was the week 2Christmas, and the shops were very crowded, he decided that he could not 3 any longer. He worked in an office, and 4 had lunch in a restaurant, but one day he bought some sandwiches, ate them 5 and went out to a big shop near his 6during his lunch hour.

    The shop was full of women, who were also buying 7during their lunch hour. Mr. West stood 8at the edge of a crowd of 9 who were pushing forward to try to get to the people who were 10necklaces and earrings. He tried to move forwards slowly, taking his turn with the others, but more and more women were 11into the shop the whole time and pushing selfishly 12him. After half an hour, he was just as 13 from the people who were selling the necklaces as he had been when he came in, and his lunch hour was coming to 14, so he decided to change his 15of doing things: he put his head down, gave a sudden loud shout and started to 16 his way towards the 17 of the crowd as hard as he could. The women around him became very 18 when they saw what he was doing,  and began to scold(责备)him. "Why can't you behave like a 19?" they shouted.

    "Ladies," he answered them, "I have been behaving like a gentleman for the past half hour, and it has got me 20, so now I am starting to behave like a lady!"

    There were once two 1 sharing the same hospital room. One man was allowed to 2in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain(排空)the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the only wall in the room that had a window. The other man had to spend all his time lying 3 on his back,4 at the white, dull ceiling.

    The men talked for hours 5 with each other. Best of all, every afternoon when the man by the window described all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour 6 where his world would be 7 by all the activity and colour of the world outside.

    The window 8 a park with a lovely lake. Around the lake there were couples 9 romantically arm in arm. Mothers were pushing their baby carts. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.

    One warm afternoon, although the other man couldn't hear the 10 -- he could see the parade in his mind's eye as the man by the window 11 it with descriptive words. He knew now 12 he had to get better, and get out there to see all the wonderful things outside again, as soon as possible! 13, the next morning, the nurse found the man by the window had passed away 14 in his sleep. As soon as it seemed 15, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse agreed to make the 16. Slowly, painfully, he supported himself on one elbow to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a 17 wall. The man asked the nurse what could have 18 his 19roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse 20 that the man was blind. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."