I used to abandon myself to despair. Last year my mother 1from stroke(中风)and had an operation on her brain. I felt my whole world turn upside down and I had no2what I could do to help her to reliever her3 . Tears welled up in my eyes whenever I was alone.

    Last month I4 a precious watch, which was an 18-year-old birthday gift from my father. I could not fall asleep for a couple of nights because I felt 5about the loss.

There have been many6like these in my life. I could never figure out how to deal with such tough things 7I read "If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade" by American writer Dale Carnegie.

"When the wise man is handed a lemon, he says, What 8can I get from this? How can I 9my situation? How can I turn this lemon into a lemonade?" he wrote.

    I suddenly10that life is full of ups and downs, so I need to stay 11all the time.

    Now when I think of my past, I wish I could have handled things 12. When my mother was fighting for 13, I should have held her hands in mine, telling her things would get better instead of 14and crying.

    Several weeks ago, I took part in a campus singing competition. I didn't15a prize. If I had not16this article, I would definitely have felt 17again. But instead, I smiled after the competition. I was happy that at least I had got some stage18.

    Life is not just a bed of roses. There are thorns（刺）as well, but these thorns help us become 19and strong. When life20us a lemon, let's try to make a lemonade.

    Jay Ruckelshaus won a full scholarship to Duke University. Then, just weeks before he was 1 to arrive on campus, he broke his neck in an accident.

    At the Shepherd Center, Jay had eight hours of exercise a day,2 his muscles and working on his 3. “Before, was 4 setting goals and achieving them. But this was not what you could achieve.”

    5the breakthrough came: He was able to 6 on his own, eat, and use an iPad. “The iPad was great, ”he said, “That gave me 7 to the world.” To stretch his mind further, he 8 for courses online.

    Most people, he said,9 he would change his plans to study after his accident. But throughout his 10 his place at Duke University was what kept him going. For Jay, there was never any 11 he would go to Duke. “There was also no doubt from the university, which was wonderful, and wouldn't have been the 12 at some other schools.

    Finally getting into Duke a year later than planned,13being in a wheelchair, he was 14 to have a fun college life. He needed 15, but soon made great friends. In 16 studying for a degree and sitting co-editing a journal, he was able to hang out with friends.

    Also, he thought of other wheelchair users and decided to help them. “I 17I was having an amazing time and meeting amazing people,” he said. The feeling was almost 18. Therefore, he started a charity called Ramp Less Traveled to spread the 19 that college is 20 for students with spinal cord (脊髓) injuries.

    I am an American living in France for twenty years. I used to complain about how the French were 1 for friendship. I had a(n)2 time making a living here.

    When I came I felt a need to meet people,3 I went to the cinema night for women's day. I was excited about the way to connect to French women through the 4 we would have after the film, perhaps to make friends and get more chance of 5.

Outside the cinema was a woman with long gray hair who had a slightly 6 smell and was asking for money. I 7 my wallet to give her a Euro and then something made me stop and enter into 8 with her. I said, "Look, people are seeing a film that could 9 your life. I'd rather buy you a ticket than give you money."

    So she came in,10 behind me because she said people 11 the theater didn't like her. She sat next to me in the cinema. Then I noticed some women were looking at me, with expressions of 12.

I encouraged the women to come the following night to an event. I 13 her to an agency that helped women in her 14. Then, a woman came towards me and said, "Did you buy a ticket for the woman?" When I said yes, she said, "Please come to the community center to 15 other employees there."

    This was the 16 of a deep friendship and colleague relationship. The woman I took to the cinema that night wasn't 17. Actually, she was a secretary and spoke English.

    For me, though, she was18 my angel. I made a great friend 19 reaching out to her, also got a great job, and 20 myself of many previous negative judgments about the French.

    We have five fantastic children. As they've grown older, from high school to college and so on, we found ourselves cleaning out our home of furniture only to replace it with something new. We had this living room set (一组) 1 a sofa, love seat and chair go 2 a couple of the kids, dragging it up the stairs to their third floor apartments and back down again to the next apartment. Our son was the last to have the set when 3 he asked for a place to 4 it because he was going out of town for a semester. We told him we would 5 it for him in our garage. So we picked the furniture up and 6 it back to the house.

    One day, while at 7, I heard a couple of people talking in the hallway. A mother and her two children were 8 out of their own house by her husband, with 9 but the clothes on their backs. Some warmhearted people found them a place to stay, but no belongings, clothes, food, or furniture.

    Our colleagues and I 10 all we could to help her. I went to the store and bought some clothes for the children and some 11 essentials. I came home that day after work and looked at the furniture in the garage sitting there, 12. I called my son and told him what I wanted to do. He agreed.

    The next 13 was to the mother of two. She came to my house within an hour to pick up the furniture and the bag of clothes. She said she would 14 the furniture as soon as she would be able to.

    I looked at her and said, "15 you are done with the furniture, give it to someone else in16."

    She cried, 17 by the generosity and thanked everyone greatly for all that 18 did to help. It makes me so happy to know that the 19 that grew with our family was being 20 to good use.

I was ready for bed. My eyes fell on the musical 1 on my bedside table. In it was a photo of Dad smiling, and once opened, it would play his 2 song recorded before his death. It was propped(支，撑)open just enough so the recording wouldn't play.

Dad was a 3 man. He was always singing me his little made-up songs to share joy although he was 4 off-key, not hitting every note.

Dad was a man with big heart. When my house burned down a few years ago, Dad 5 my family into his home. When we tried to offer some 6, he said with his characteristic voice, "Don't be 7!"

With happy 8, I fell asleep.

"Beautiful and marvelous-!"

Suddenly, was awoken hours later by the 9 song. The card! I snapped it shut(啪的一声合上).

How did that card just start playing? I checked the windows, all tightly shut. But why couldn't I 10 the feeling that something was wrong?

I decided to 11 downstairs. Opening the door to the laundry room, I was hit with a strong smell of 12. The heat lamp had fallen, and the carpet was burning.

The 13 wasn't too bad. I let out a shaky breath with 14. What could have happened? Perhaps another house fire. . . But we were safe. All thanks to Dad's one-of-a-kind 15.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China's leading aircraft maker, created the country's first fully solar-powered drone (无人机). The large drone, Qimingxing 50, took off at 5:50 pm on September 3rd, 2022, from an airport in Yulin of Shaanxi Province and stayed in the air for 26 minutes before landing on the same runway. AVIC said that all systems of the unmanned plane functioned well on its first flight.

Powered by six electric motors with solar batteries, the drone is designed to conduct long-time operations in near space. Near space is that part of Earth's atmosphere at altitudes of 20 to 100 kilometers. It is above the top altitudes of commercial airliners but below orbiting satellites.

Qimingxing 50, also called "quasi-satellite", features high operational efficiency and eco-friendliness and will be tasked with high-altitude reconnaissance (侦察), forestry fire monitoring, atmospheric environmental inspection, aerial mapping, communication signal relay and other operations.

"Thanks to its capability to conduct very long endurance flights in near space, the drone can essentially become a substitute for satellites," a Chinese aerospace expert said. Satellite services are not always available due to the limited number of satellites and relatively fixed schedules of overhead passes. In time-sensitive missions, near-space drones can offset these disadvantages, the expert said, noting that satellite services could also be damaged in wartime, so near-space drones could replace them in this occasion.

The successful first flight of the Qimingxing-50 lays a solid foundation for the development of key technologies in the country's new energy field, the composite (复合的) material field, which will enhance China's ability to perform tasks in near space and over far oceans. AVIC will seize the opportunity to increase investment and speed up the development of large solar-powered unmanned aircraft.