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.

Once there was a teenage boy who was known as a fast runner in his village. He only cared about winning every race and becoming more successful.

One day,the boy took part in a running race in his village. He won the 200, 100 and 50-meter races without any problem. He was proud of himself and received great applause (掌声). But his grandfather stepped in and challenged him to a race with two unexpected competitors, an old man and a blind girl. The boy thought it was unbelievable but accepted. In the race, the boy finished first, while the old man and the blind girl were still at the starting line. With joy, he waved his hands at the crowd. But they kept silent.

"Why are people not cheering for me like before?" he asked his grandfather.

"Start the race again with them. But this time, all of you should cross the finish line at the same time," the grandfather replied.

The boy was surprised but agreed to the race. During the second race, the boy took the hands of the old man and the blind girl and walked slowly with them to the finish line. The crowd gave them a standing applause.

The boy asked his grandfather, "For whom are the people cheering? Is it for me, or them?" The grandfather smiled and said. "The crowd did not cheer for any one of you. They cheered for how you all ran the race together. Facing the race of life, what matters is not just winning, but how you run the race."

Ever since "Mother Nature" gave me life, I expected to grow tall and big.

As a young 1 , I was well protected in the forest. I used to 2 a good time with my friends under the blue sky and 3 the river. Our only purpose was to stand high. My pal, Tim often said, "All I ask for is to be 4 the whole day."

365 days passed and we grew straight. On that day, it was our 5 birthday, people came, moved us from the 6 and put us on their trucks. "I don't want to go!" Tim cried.

After a long journey, we arrived in a completely different place with 7 green. Here we were planted in a line. 8 the wind blew strongly, I could not even open my eyes to see Tim 9 beside me. So we needed enough 10 to grow thicker and higher to stop the wind.

As time went by, we finally 11 much stronger. I could keep my eyes open in the wind! I even found the blue sky was back!

This was no longer a no-man's-land, and hundreds of visitors came here. A man took a picture of us with his 12 . "Thank you. We can enjoy clear days 13 worrying about sand storms." A young girl jumping up and down came over and 14 me. "Thank you," she said. "It's you that have turned the desert into a green land!"

Tim and I smiled at each other, feeling 15 . The sun was shining brightly in the bluer sky.

David was a bit too fat. He went to buy an exercise machine. He tried to 1 some weight(减肥).

At first, he put it in the basement (地下室).2 he did not use it often. He hardly (几乎不) went into the basement.

Next, he moved it into his 3 . But he still didn't use it very often. That's because he would only go into the bedroom when it was time for him to go to 4 . Finally, he moved it 5 the living room. He put the machine next to the 6 . His wife thought maybe this would finally work. He could exercise and 7 outside at the beautiful garden at the same time.

After about a week, his wife 8 David how his exercise was going. He said," Well, yes, I do 9 exercise these days. Every time I want to10 the window, I have to walk around the exercise machine."

Rick, a school boy, had a love for playing video games. Every day, his 1 reminded him to take some exercise instead of playing video games. However, he didn't always 2 .

Once again, Rick's mom told him seriously that his eyesight(视力) might get poor if he spent too much time on video games. It was a pity that he still didn't listen 3 . He kept playing. One day, during a math class, Rick's teacher got 4 when he couldn't give an answer to a question like"2+2=?". After class, the teacher asked him why he couldn't solve such a 5 problem. Rick said that he knew the answer but couldn't see the board clearly. His teacher was worried and 6 his parents. Realizing what had happened, Rick's mom warned him again that it was harmful to his 7 to play video games too much. And Rick's dad took him to an eye doctor for a check-up. The 8 showed that his eyesight

had weakened. After asking about his habit of using eyes, the doctor advised Rick to take action to protect his eyes.

From that day on, Rick decided to 9 playing video games and take some exercise every day. Later Rick fell in love with sports and 10 his school soccer team. Now he has become stronger and healthier. His eyesight has also got better.