Grandmother's Problem

    There was once a grandmother living in her grandson's house. The man loved  1 grandmother very much. However, she had some strange habits, so the man thought she needed medical help. Perhaps, he thought, it was time for her to 2 the rest of her life in a special hospital.

    "I'd like you to examine my grandmother," he told a doctor, "then let me know 3 you think she needs special care."

    "All right," the doctor said, "send her to me next Tuesday."Tuesday came and the old woman went to see the doctor. She 4 in front of him and he asked her lots of questions.  She answered them all, and the doctor was 5  .

    "There's 6 with this woman," he thought."I don't understand why her grandson has sent her to me. Perhaps he's the one  7  needs special care."

    He decided to ask her one last question. "Why do you think," he asked her, "your grandson wants you 8 special care?"

  "I like hamburgers," she said.  The doctor laughed."I like hamburgers, too!"

    "You 9 ?"the old woman said, "I'm so glad. Then you must come to my house and have a hamburger 10 me.  I've got boxes and boxes of them in my bedroom."

    Mr. Brown, a teacher in a primary school, often fell asleep in class, but he didn't want his1 to know and do that. One day he again fell asleep2 .When he woke up, one of the3 , Tom, asked him, “Why did you fall asleep in class just now, dear sir?”

    Mr. Brown's face turned4 . “I…I…The Sungod (太阳神) asked me to visit him in my dream.” he said.

    Tom wanted to say something,5 he said nothing. The next day, Tom also6 in class. When the teacher saw him, he7 Tom up and asked him, “Why did you fall asleep in class and not8 me, Tom?”

    Tom answered with a smile on his9 ,“The Sungod asked me to visit him, too. ” The teacher became10 when he heard this and asked, “What did he say to you, then?” “He told me he didn't see you yesterday.” Tom said.

    Jadav Payeng is a forestry worker from Jorhat, India. Over the past 38 years, he has planted trees on a sandbar (沙洲) of the Brahmaputra River and has1 it into a forest. One day in 1979, 16-year-old Payeng was walking

    2 the bank of the Brahmaputra River. He saw many snakes on the sandbars. These snakes died in a few days' time

    3the heat and the absence (缺失) of trees. Payeng felt very4when he saw this. He decided to plant some trees. Single-handedly, he started planting bamboo trees, as only bamboo trees could survive (存活) in the sandbars.

    To water the trees was a difficult5for one man. With his hard work and great effort, day by day the6 bamboo trees grew into a forest. His tree planting has changed the soil (土壤). Now the sandbar is a thick forest and7 to thousands of plants and animals. A large group of around 100 elephants visit the forest every year and8 there for a few months.

    Payeng is now in9ifties. He has planted close to 1,400 acres (英亩) of forests and is 10 as the Forest Man of India. In 2015, he was honored with Padma Shri, one of the top awards (奖) in India.

    A girl complained to her father about her hard life. She didn't know 1 she had to do and wanted to give up. She felt 2 of fighting and fighting. One problem had been finished but another came. Her father 3 was a cook took her into the kitchen. He poured water into the pan（锅）and boiled it. While the water 4, in the first pan he put carrots, in the second he put some eggs and in the last he put some coffee. He waited for them for 5 minutes without any words. The girl closed her mouth and waited 6. She didn't know why her father was doing that. After about 20 minutes, her father turned 7 the stove, took out the carrots and put them in a bowl. He took out the eggs and put them into another bowl. After that the coffee8 into a cup. Turning back to 9 daughter, he asked, “What do you see?” “Carrots, eggs and coffee,” she answered.

Her father told her to close her eyes and let her 10 the carrots. She did and felt that the carrots were soft. After that he asked her to take eggs and break them. Then, she got boiled and hard eggs. At last, the father told her to smell the coffee. “What's the meaning, Father?” He explained that each one had 11 same unlucky experience—the boiled water,12each had a different reaction（反应）. The strong and hard carrots had become soft and weak after13in the boiling water?” The eggs became hard in the boiled water. The coffee was very special and it 14 change the water. “Who are you?” asked the father, “When calamity（厄运） 15 at your door, what's your reaction? Are you carrots, eggs or coffee?”

    One day a young man Jeff asked a wise man why he wasn't able to reach all of his goals.

    1a smile，the wise man listened to Gary's story and told him，"First come to help me boil a kettle（水壶）of water!"

    Gary saw a big kettle2next to small stove（火炉），but he didn't find any wood.He3 up the kettle with water and started a fire. Because the kettle was too4 when the wood burned up, the water did not boil. He ran out of 5 when he returned, the water had 6 turned cold.“How can I boil the water?”he asked himself. Then he learned his 7 and prepared more wood in advance (提前). This time the water boiled quickly.

    “if there is not enough wood8would you boil the water?” the wise man asked. Jeff thought for a moment but shook his head.

    “Well, just pour out some water!” the wise man said. Jeff nodded9 .

    “At first, you set too many goals,”said the wise man, “it's like the large kettle full of water. You didn't have enough wood10 you couldn't boil the water. If you want to make the water boil, you will have to either pour some out or prepare more wood!”

    I try to be a good father. Give my kids love. Work nights to pay for their schooling. But1with Michael Hoyt, I am nothing.

    This love2began in Winchester, 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled (勒住) by the umbilical cord (脐带) during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to3his limbs (四肢).

    "He'll be a vegetable the4of his life," Doctors told Michael and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old.

    But the Hoyts weren't5it. Because they noticed that Rick's

6followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. But doctors told the parents that there was7going on in their son's brain.

    "Tell him a joke," Michael said to the doctors. They did and Rick8. Actually a lot was going on in his brain.

    Equipped(装备) with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor (光标)9the side of his head, Rick was10able to communicate. What is his first word? "Run!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed (瘫痪) in a(n)11and the school organized a charity run (慈善跑) for him, Rick typed, "Dad, I want to do that."

    Yeah, right. How was Michael, a man who never ran more than a mile12going to push his son five miles?13he tried. Surprisingly, that day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't14anymore!"

    And that sentence also changed Michael 's life. He wanted to give Rick that feeling as15as he could. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times in triathlon (铁人三项).

    "No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Strongest Dad in the World."