I'm a 34-year-old man, married, lived in a nice house, and have a successful career as an educational consultant. But my life was not always so great. I had a learning disability from an early age. I went to a special school where I got plenty of extra help. Still, I suffered the rest of my school days in public schools.

       My life improved remarkably when I discovered art. The art world gave me a chance to express myself without words. I went to a workshop and gradually got good at making things with clay(黏土). Here I learned my first important lesson: disabled as I was in language. I could still be smart and well express myself with clay. And my confidence came along.

I got my next lesson from rock climbing. It was a fun thing but I was scared from the start. I soon noticed it wasn't a talent thing; it was practice. So I did it more. After about five years of climbing, I found myself in Yosemite Valley on a big wall. I learned that if you fall in love with something and do it all the time, you will get better at it.

       Later I decided to apply my previous experience to learning how to read and write. Every day I practiced reading and writing, which I used to avoid as much as possible. After two hard years, I was literate.

       Having gone through the long process with art, rock climbing, and reading and writing, now I've got to a point in my life where I know I am smart enough to dive into an area that is totally unknown, hard, but interesting.

Walk Out of the Comfort Zone and Try New Things

    For most high school students, free periods are useless. From what I have seen, few do homework, instead many are on their phones and talking, making it impossible for those who actually want to do work to complete any. As a senior next year, I think extra periods should be used to take optional subjects.

    Our school offers many classes. Now is the time to experiment in different fields of study. We will never know if we are interested or talented in a subject if we don't try it.

    In my 8th grade, I was told that I had to take an art class as a graduation requirement; so in the 9th grade I took Studio and Art. One of the projects was to build a clay pot, but I built mine incorrectly, so it broke in the kiln (窑). I found out that I have no artistic ability at all, and now I know for sure that I do not want to be an artist. However, the class was one of my favorites that year. I was able to try new activities and test my ability.

    Walk out of our comfort zone and try new things! College is when we should focus on a specific major, but high school is when we have to figure it out.

    Half of all college students change their major at some point. By doing that hundreds of dollars are wasted on classes that they would have never needed to take. So use our extra periods to find out what we want to do in college. The classes we choose can impact us in future. Taking optional subjects will enrich our mind. It will also show colleges we are diverse students.

    Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics.A graduate of Yale University,she is writing her first book.She owes her success to her parents' support.

    “I started skating when I was 3 years old.Competing in the Olympic Games had been my dream from the beginning.When I was 12 years old,my mother was hospitalized with breast cancer.I was on the way to making my first national team.Seeing my excitement at each stage gave her strength through her illness.On days when she was too weak to walk,she would think,‘I have to make it through.I have to be there for my kids.' My mom was able to leave the hospital to come to Philadelphia from New York to watch me win the Junior Ladies title.That day I was skating for more than just the judges.My parents' support made all the difference when I performed on the skating stage.When I won the Olympic medal,I was able to share more than just my skating experience with the people who were with me all along.I was raised in a stable,supportive environment."

【写作内容】

1）.用约30个单词写出上文概要；

2）.用约120个单词阐述你对“父母支持”的看法，并用2~3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。

【写作要求】

1）.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；

2）.作文中不能出现真实姓名；

3）.不必写标题。

    Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was born in Kingfish, Oklahoma on March 29, 1918. He was raised in Missouri where he worked in his father's store while attending school. This was his first retailing (零售业) experience and he really enjoyed it. After graduation, he began his own career as a retail merchant.

    He soon opened his first Wal-Mart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart specialized in name brands at low prices and Sam Walton was surprised at the success. Soon a chain of Wal-Mart stores sprang up across rural America. Walton's management style was popular with employees and he founded some of the basic concepts of management that are still in use today.

After taking the company public in 1970, Walton introduced his “profit sharing plan”. The profit sharing plan was a plan for Wal-Mart employees to improve their income dependent on the profits of the store. Sam Walton believed that “individuals don't win, teams do”. Employees at Wal-Mart stores were offered stock options (认股权) and store discounts. These benefits are commonplace today, but Walton was among the first to implement (实现) them. Walton believed that a happy employee meant happy customers and more sales. He also believed that by giving employees a part of the company and making their success dependent on the company's success, they would care about the company.

    By the 1980s, Wal-Mart had sales of over one billion dollars and over three hundred stores across North America. Wal-Mart's unique decentralized (分散的) distribution system, also Walton's idea, created the edge needed to further encourage growth in the 1980s during growing complaints that the “superstore” was stopping smaller and traditional stores from developing. By 1991, Wal-Mart was the largest US retailer with 1,700 stores. Walton remained active in managing the company, as president and CEO until 1988 and chairman until his death. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom shortly before his death.

    When Jenny Brown, 10, developed bone cancer, her right leg below the knee was cut off to save her life. During the treatment, Jenny had a cat named Boogie, which seldom left her side as she got used to life with a prosthetic（义肢）leg. “My relationship with Boogie showed me animals think, feel, and suffer as we do,” says Jenny, now 44.

    In 1994, Jenny graduated from college and began her film career in television. She also volunteered for animal rights groups. In 2002, having learned about some shocking mistreatment of farm animals, she knew she needed to help them. A year later, Jenny gave up her job to work as an animal caregiver at Farm Sanctuary（农场动物庇护所）.

    The next year, she opened the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization aiming to rescue farm animals and help them recover. It gives tours of the farm from April to October and asks for volunteers and support through www.woodstockfarm.sanctuary.org. The farm website describe the backstory and the character of each of the animals living there.

    In September, 2016, the sanctuary was moved to a new farm, which has an equipped kitchen, a dining hall and other buildings in High Falls, New York. The new place has allowed her team of 17 to host vegan（素食的）cooking classes and a kids' camp.

    “People love spending time with the animals.” says Jenny. “There's a magic that happens here.”

    On my first job as a sports editor for the Montpelier Leader Enterprise(MLE), I didn't get a lot of fan mail, so many attention was caught by letter on my desk one morning.

    When I opened it, I read: "Sweet piece of writing on the Tigers. Keep up the good work." It was signed by Don Wolfe, the sports editor. Because I was a teenager, his words couldn't have been more inspiring. I kept it in my drawer until it got old. Whenever I doubted I had the right stuff to be a writer, I would reread Don's note and walk on air again.

    Later, when I got to know him, I learned that Don made a habit of writing a quick, encouraging note to people in all walks of life. "when I made others feel good about themselves," he told me, "I feel good, too."

    Over the years, I've tried to copy Don and write uplifting words, in a world too often cold and unresponsive, such notes bring warmth.

    Why are positive note writers in such short supply? My guess is that people who shy away from the practice are too self-conscious. They are afraid they will be misunderstood. Thus, it may cause troubles and problems. And it sounds insincere on the phone. Also, writing takes time; it is far easier to pick up the phone.

    The drawback of phone calls, of course, is that they do not last. A note attaches more importance to our well-wishing. It is a matter of record, and our words can be read more than once, savored and treasured, and they bring strength and love to us.

    Today I sent a warm letter to my old boss. I don't know if it will make his day, but it made mine. As my friend Don Wolfe said, "Making others feel good about themselves makes me feel good too."