When US teenager Jake Olson isn't playing football or golf for his high school, he's often offering inspiration(灵感)through his new book about his own life.

    These activities might be too much for the average 16-year-old to deal with, but Jake is blind. When people ask him how he can possibly play golf without being able to see the ball, he says he is thankful for his father's guidance.

It seems apparent that his early experience playing sports as a person with sight and muscle(肌肉) memory— repeating behaviors over and over until they become second nature — have also enabled Jake to hit the ball quite well.

    Jake was born with a rare kind of eye cancer that took away the vision from his left eye when he was a baby and eventually his right eye, in 2009, when he was 12 years old. Rather than letting the disease hold him back, Jake used his loss of sight and his faith as sources of motivation(动力).“If I was going to sit on the couch all day, feeling sorry for myself, I wasn't going to do anything. I decided that I was going to go out and persevere (坚持不懈).” he said.

    It was with that mind-set that the student from Orange Lutheran High School in California was able to write his first book, Open Your Eyes: 10 Uncommon Lessons to Discover a Happier Life. “It's about opening the readers' eyes to their true talent in life and making sure that they use all the abilities that they have,” Jake said.

    Jake's father, Brian Olson, said the family is impressed with what he has done with his life, including showing people that they can get through hardships. “Your darkest hour can soon become your brightest, and with every setback, there's a setup,” Jake said. “In every one of us, there's more potential than we can ever imagine, and it really is a choice.”

    One day, I saw a boy shop alone at the shop I worked. He chose some school things he wanted and went to the checkout (付款台).

    The young shop assistant (店员) told him he needed to pay $37.60. The boy became very sad and said he only had $20. He took out one thing at a time, and at last he got down to his $20. He cried and asked if he could call his mum to pick him up. He called his mum. However, his mum was too busy to pick him up in a minute.

    He tried to stop crying and walked outside to wait on the chair in front of the shop. This was too much for the young assistant. She looked outside all the time to see if the boy was all right. Then she said, "I hope I can pay for the rest (剩余部分) of his things." One of the other girls said she had some money. Then two others said they could help too.

    These four young girls pooled their money and found they had more than enough to pay for the boy's things. Then they chose more school things, and gave them all to the boy. The boy smiled happily~ His mum arrived much later, but he didn't just run to the car; he ran back into the shop and called out, "Thank you!"

    I was so proud (骄傲的) of my team that day. They did something wonderful for that boy and also found the pleasure (快乐) of giving.

    Do you suppose Darwin, one of the greatest scientists of all time, really did fools' (傻瓜的) experiments? Or did he do experiments that were so simple and basic (基础的) that other people just thought they were foolish?

    Sometimes, people think they already know the answer to a question or a problem．Sometimes, they really do know an answer, but without thinking it is important．

    Charles Darwin didn't just think he knew something．And, he believed all things could be important no matter how simple they seemed to be．

    Suppose you drop pieces of paper that are of exactly the same size and shape．If you drop them at the same time in the same place, they will fall in the same way．Now make one of the sheets of paper into a tight little ball and let it drop along with the other pieces．What happens? You have done an experiment that is so simple that you might think it couldn't be worth anything．

    But this simple experiment is important．It explains part of our present day understandings of physics (物理学) ideas that were worked out long ago by Galileo and Newton．And these understandings set aside some of ancient Greek (古希腊的) physics．

    The scientist sometimes stops to look at very simple things and to think very hard about them．Even the simplest idea, which we might think is foolish, can shake the foundations (基础) of science．

    Here is a story told an American general (将军) who was a very important figure in the American army during the First World War. Everybody in the Untied States knew him and many people wished to have a picture or something of his in their homes. Soon after the war the general returned to Washington. One day he went to a dentist (牙医) and had six teeth pulled out. A week later the general heard that his teeth were being sold in curiosity shops (古玩店) at $5 each. On each of the teeth there was a label (标签) with the name of the general and words, “Buy these teeth and show them to your friends at home.” The general got angry. He rushed to his office and ordered six officers to go around the city and buy all his teeth. The officers went out and visited every curiosity shop in the capital. They were away from the office all day. In the evening they returned and put on the table in front of the general the teeth they had bought. They had collected 175 teeth.

    Uncle Li and Uncle Wang are good friends. They live next to each other and their farms are both at the foot of the mountain. So they can help each other. But neither of them likes to use his head. They're both poor though they work hard. Most villagers have built new houses，but they still live in the low and broken houses. They never find out why.

    Once Uncle Li went to town to buy some medicine for his wife. In the town he heard the apples in a city were expensive. He told Uncle Wang about it as soon a she went back. They decided to carry some apples to the city. They borrowed some money from their friends and bought nearly 1, 000 kilograms of apples in the villages and carried them to the city on a tractor. Bad luck！A lot of apples have already been carried there when they arrived. A few days later they had to sell them at a low price. They felt unhappy and returned to their village.

    "I can't understand why we sustained（蒙受）losses in business while others always profit（盈利）. "Uncle Li asked one day.

    "The tractor was too small，"Uncle Wang said without thinking. "We'll carry more apples on a truck next time！"

    "I agree!" said Uncle Li. "How foolish we were!"

    Mick Polly, an owner of a toy store, lives with his teenage daughter Carolina in Kentucky. He is known as the Bike Man. Over the past five years, Mick has built hundreds of bikes for needy kids.

    One day in 2012, a 13-year-old boy with a broken bike walked by Mick's house. "I was working in my garage(车库); and he asked if I could fix it," says Mick, now 53.

    The boy's bike had a broken wheel. Mick sent a post(帖子) on Facebook, asking his friends if they had the needed part. One friend saw the post and gave away two used bikes. Mick took parts from each to build a new set of wheels for the boy.

    Soon after, Mick repaired a bike for the boy's brother and fixed one for his sister. Word spread, and during the year, he had fixed up lots of bikes for local kids whose parents were not able to afford new ones.

    "People are throwing away bikes day and night," says Mick.

    Mick puts the bikes and bike parts in his garage. "I take off the good tires or the handlebars or the seats and use them," he says.

    Up to now, the bike man has repaired hundreds of bikes and given away nearly 700 newly repaired bikes. They're free, but the kids must agree on two things: They have to learn how to put waste things to good use and they have to try their best to study in school.

    If a kid's grades are low, Mick requires a teacher's note "saying that you're doing your best". Mick also hopes the bikes will get kids off the sofa. "When I was growing up, we all rode our bikes," he says. "Hopefully these kids can get some exercise."