It is hard to imagine how a person is to spend the whole life when only the head and hands are able to move.

    Xu Ruiyang, an 18-year-old student from Kunming, has suffered (遭受) from spina muscular atrophy (脊柱肌肉萎缩)1she was 2 years old. At that time, the doctor said that most children with spinal muscular atrophy will only live a few years.

    The family did not give up, or even just2. To help Xu Ruiyang live with dignity (尊严), her parents 3her living and learning skills strictly. Opening a book or raising hands, some very easy actions for common people,4, are big challenges for Xu. She had to use her head or5to work together with hands to finish these actions.

    When she started learning to write, she couldn't even6a pen. But she never gave up. Once she lost the pen, she picked it up and7writing. Xu finally could write 500 Chinese characters before becoming a primary school student, after8 thousands of times.

    Over the past few years, Xu has overcome (克服) many problems, including the 9 caused by the disease. Her parents worried about her health and 10her to drop out of school, but Xu's answer was no. "11I read a book and do my homework, the pain is gone," said Xu.

    When asked by reporters on how to deal with difficulties, Xu calmly said, “Patience. When you can't change anything, crying is useless, so just be12."

    In Xu's opinion, her sunny and self-confident13comes from the love of her parents.

    "If we are not able to make her live longer, we can make her life wider," said Xu's father. They travelled across China and more than 20 14 over the world, including Italy, Thailand and Singapore. During these trips, she developed an interest in learning a 15language. "I think it's cool to learn about other countries' culture and express your feelings to others," said Xu.

    Last June, she finished China's Gaokao and received an offer from Sichuan International Study University.

    Smiling is the best way of making friends.

    When I was thirteen 1 old, my father found a job in the city. So my family moved there. I also came to a/an2school near where we live. My old school was far away. At first, I did not know anyone in my class. I was very lonely 3I was afraid to make friends with my classmates. I 4talk to anyone about my problem, and I didn't want my parents to 5me.

    Then one day, something good happened. I was sitting at my desk 6as usual while my classmates were talking happily with each other. At that moment,7 came into the classroom. I only knew he was my classmate but didn't know what his name was. He passed me and then turned back. He looked 8me and, without a word, smiled. Suddenly, I felt happy, lively and warm. That smile changed my school life. I started to talk with the other classmates and make friends. Day by day, I became 9to everyone in my class.

    10the smile, I have moved on to a new life. Now, I believe that the world is what you think it is. So smile at the world and it will smile back.

Something unexpected happenedin the summer of my eleventh year. The home I had grown up in burned to the groundin the middle of the night. Thankfully, my mom, dad, grandma, brothers and I escapedalong with my dogs. Yet, we had nothing but the night clothes we were sleeping in.I spent the rest of that night with a friend of my family. I tried unsuccessfullyto sleep in the bed in his house. I was too scared.

    The next day my mom brought me a few T-shirtsand pairs of jeans that another friend gave to her. One pair of them was too shortand the other pair was too long, but I didn't care. At least I had some clothesagain. My dad returned to our broken home to see what he could find. The only thinghe could save was my mom's rings.

    To spend the summery dad rented us a big houseon the same road as our old house had been. As we moved in, our friends and ourcommunity continued todonate (捐赠) all they could to help us to get back on our feet. There were moreclothes, furniture, food money, and even some books for me to read. Love was aroundus.

    Looking back now I am thankful for all we wentthrough that summer because it taught me so much about life, love and people. Itshowed me that when you have nothing left but love, for the first time you see thatlove is enough.

Today I turned eight. Today whatever I say goes. 

My grandma is cooler than most grandmas and laughs a lot,1 is the exact opposite. He's that old and serious. "Kids are impolite these days, and have no 2 ." he always says. "All they do is playing video games all the time." But I 3 play video games on weekends!

Anyway, the minute we park on the driveway, I get out and run straight to Grandma 4 Dad, who's still on the phone dealing with his business in the car as usual. "Happy birthday, honey!" Grandma holds me into her arms and says 5 that she's made my favorite chocolate cake.

And then I 6 Grandpa, who is asleep in a rocking chair, snoring （打鼾） like thunder. Can you believe it? On his only grandson's birthday! 

"7 , sleepyhead!" I call out. But more snores followed. An angry storm is coming up inside me.

"Oh, it's Parker's 8 !" Grandma calls out to Grandpa. He coughs. It seems to be ages for him to get to his feet and say, "boy, come here." But I don't 9 . 

"You and I," says Grandpa，rising slowly, "are going on a walk." 

"All right." I know what he's about to say: respect the elders, blah blah blah. But to my 10 , he says in a soft voice, "your parents are always very 11 , aren't they?"

"Hold my arms and help me into that chair. "For a second, I stood still. 12 when I see his legs shaking as he bends his knees, I rush over to hold his arms, I set him down nice and slow. "13 ," he says. He's breathing hard, like he's just climbed a mountain.

I sit down next to him. He covers my hand with his warm one. "Tell 14 all about the video game you like," he says. "Then I'll tell you some stories of my own. And we'll both listen to each other and ask good questions. Deal?"

I 15 in disbelief. And for some strange reason, it feels more like my birthday than ever.

It was a cold afternoon. I was training（训练） a football team for first graders. It was the day of our first practice. I seated the kids on a long bench on the grass. Any time I was training a new team, I spent a few minutes getting them to 1 one another, each kid saying his name and the names of all the kids sitting to the left of him.

A few minutes later, I decided to choose Alex to start at the end of the bench, go up to each kid, say that kid's 2 and then shake his right hand.

Alex was doing well and he went down the row（一排）—Dylan, Micah, David and Beau—until he reached Ben. He said Ben's name and reached out his right hand, but Ben just 3 there with his right hand 4 in his jacket. "Ben, why don't you let Alex shake your hand?" I asked. Ben stood up and said, "But I don't have that 5 ." He pulled his jacket away from his right shoulder. Ben's arm ran from his right shoulder but his arm 6 at the elbow（胳膊肘）. No forearm, no hand, no fingers! I got shocked（震惊） and could think of 7 to say, but the little kids were curious（好奇的）.

"What happened to your arm?" Alex asked. "Does it hurt?"

Ben took off his jacket to 8 the kids what they all wanted to see. He explained（解释） to them that he had always been that 9 and that there was nothing special. What he meant was that he wanted to be treated（被对待） like everybody else.

And he was. From that day on, he was 10 Ben, one of the players on the team.

This is a story about a storm in Moscow. It happened several years ago. It was my first time that I had seen such a 1 storm.

It was a sunny day in July, and I was at home watching TV. The window was open 2 the weather was so hot. Suddenly, I felt a strong wind from outside. I looked out of the window and saw a black sky and trees 3 over because of the strong wind. I tried to 4 the window, but the wind made me fall down. I was afraid that the glass might break. I stood up and tried to close the window again. 5 , I made it.

Then I looked outside. I found that the big tree in front of my house was going to fall to the ground and its 6 had broken off. There was frequent（频繁的）thunder and lightning. I started to 7 all the appliances as quickly as possible.

After a while, the wind stopped, but it began to hail （下冰雹）. After about ten minutes, everything stopped, and the Sun came out again. How 8 the weather was! A few minutes later, the phone began to ring. It was my friend. We asked each other how it was and how we felt after the storm.

In the streets, many trees died because of the 9 . For a few days, people helped clean parks and gardens. Some people's cars were damaged by trees' falling branches on them. The 10 tells me that in the face of natural disasters, human beings are insignificant（微不足道的）. We can't stop them, but we must protect ourselves from them.