You might think that Olympic athletes are the healthiest people in the world. It's true that many are. However, it's also true that many Olympic athletes had to overcome (克服) illness early in their lives.

    One excellent example is Wilma Rudolph. She competed in track-and-field (田径) events in the 1960s Olympics. She didn't win just one gold medal (奖章).She won three. At the time, people called her ”the fastest woman in the world”.

    Actually, as a young child, Wilma could not take part in sports. She had serious illnesses, and then, at the age of 4, she got polio (小儿麻痹症).She lost the function of her left leg, and the doctor said she could never walk again.

Wilma's family did everything they could to help her walk again. Wilma and her mother used to travel 100 miles to get treatments for her leg. Her brothers and sisters took turns to give her leg a daily massage (按摩).Four times a day, they helped her do special exercises for her leg. Amazingly, by the time Wilma was 9 years old, she was able to walk again. Before long, she started playing basketball and running. In high school, she was a track star and then she went to the Olympics.

    Wilma stopped being a runner when she was 22 years old. She then became a teacher and a track coach. Her story encouraged many people to work hard and to overcome difficulties.

    Once there is a boy in London. His name is Jimmy. He starts painting when he is three years old, and when he is five years old, he is already very good at it. He paints many beautiful and interesting pictures, and a lot of people buy his pictures. They say, “This boy is going to be famous when he's a little older, and then we're going to sell these pictures for a lot of money.”

    Jimmy's pictures are different from others' because he never paints on the whole of the paper. He only paints on half of it, and the other half is always empty.

    “That's very clever,” people say. “No other painters have ever done that!”

    One day someone asks Jimmy, “Please tell me, Jimmy, why do you only paint on the bottom (底) half of the paper, but not on the top half?”

    “Because I'm small,” Jimmy says, “and my brushes can't reach very high.”

    Walt Disney was born in 1901. The Mickey Mouse created in 1927 made him very famous. He died in 1966.but his work and his dreams did not die. Now people all over the world enjoy his Mickey Mouse and other cartoons.

    Wait Disney was a man who did not give up easily. One summer, Walt wanted a job in a post office, but they told him that he was too young. He went home, drew some lines on his face, and put on his father's suit and hat. Then he went back to the same office and told them he was 18. He got the job finally.

    Later in his lire, Disney had a dream, that is, to build a new kind of amusement park. It would be clean and beautiful. There would be rides for children and nice hotels for adults. It would be fun for people of all ages. Disney drew a plan for this park. It was called Disneyland. Engineers told him it was an impossible dream His family and friends thought he was mad, but Disney did not give up his idea. In 1955, Disneyland opened to the public and it became the most successful amusement park in the USA. Walt Disney's dream came true.

    An eighty-year-old couple were having trouble with their memories. One day, they decided to see a doctor. The doctor told them that there was nothing serious, but he suggested that they should start writing things down to help them remember things. The couple thanked the doctor and left.

    Later that night while watching TV, the old man got up from his chair and his wife asked, "Where are you going?" "To the kitchen." "Will you get me an ice cream?" asked the wife. "Sure." Then his wife asked him to write it down. "No, I can remember that," replied the husband. "Well, I also want some strawberries and cream on top. You'd better write it down, or you will forget that," said the wife. "No, I can remember that," the husband got a little unhappy and went into the kitchen.

    After about 20 minutes, the husband returned with a plate of fish. The wife laughed, "Haha! Your bad memory! I wanted some bread with cream."

    Yasutaro Koide, the world's oldest man, died at the age of 113, in Nagoya, Japan on January 19, 2016. But along with his many years, Koide also left us with a piece of advice for a long and fruitful life.

    Koide was born on March 13, 1903. He learned sewing and worked as a tailor(裁缝) for a men's clothes shop in most of his life. He moved to live with his daughter when he was 107 years old. When he turned 110, Koide could still read newspapers without glasses and could eat well without dentures(假牙). In August, 2015, Guinness World Records confirmed(认证) that he was the world's oldest man.

    Koide always loved sitting in front of his sewing machine, enjoying making all kinds of clothes by hand. Being a tailor was his only and last job before his death.

    When he was given the world record in 2015, he told reporters about his secret of living a long life, "No smoking or overdrinking! Be happy about everything. Never overdo things. Work and live with happiness.