Hi, friends! What do you like to do after school? In my school, we have different things (不同的事情) to do.

    Li Ming is staying with the Wang's family for the weekend. Today it is warm and fine. The family are having dinner in the garden. They often have dinner in the garden on a warm and fine spring day. Now Mr. and Mrs. Wang are sitting at the table with Li Ming under a tree.

    "It's great to have dinner out here on such a lovely day," Mrs. Wang says. "What's the weather like in your hometown, Li Ming?" Mr. Wang asks. "It's not very warm in spring. But I like the spring there best." "Help yourself to some cakes, Li Ming,"Mrs. Wang says. "Thanks," says Li Ming. "The cakes are very nice. I enjoy the dinner very much."

    Athena was born and raised in Ukraine. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer or a doctor. But she always knew she wanted to paint. She also realized a career in painting would not be possible if she stayed in her country.

    Even though she was painting in her whole life and it was her passion(热情)but it was only a hobby. And she never really took it to the next level because back in the country all the artists were hungry artists. So she knew for some reason she never took art as a career because she would never be able to make money and be successful in it in several years.

    So. Athena came to the United States when she was 14 years old to pursue(追求)an American Dream. She was clear on her goal. Athena first worked at a health food shop. She began to paint on the shop's menu boards. A customer praised her skill and asked if she would help paint faces at street fairs. Athena says it was a good start. Then she went to FABAIC to start body painting.

    Body painting is quite different from plain painting. And she loves it very much. She says. "With body, you work with the people factor and it's not only you. Maybe they want to talk or move, and they cannot stand still for several days while the painting will last three to four days. When I paint. I can't stop."

    A young woman turns around and around quickly, and jumps high. In the background, a young girl reads a rejection(拒绝)letter from a ballet school." You have the wrong body for ballet," it says, " and at thirteen, you are too old." This was one of the most popular advertisements(广告)of 2014 and it describes American Ballet Theatre's principal(主要的)dancer Misty Copeland.

    This was not a real letter. But Copeland says it is very similar to letters from her childhood. While many dancers start at the age of three, Copeland only began to study ballet in 1995 as a thirteen­year­-old girl. People often told her that she was too old，or that she didn't have the perfect body type(She is only 157 cm tall). Her family moved a lot, and it was sometimes difficult for her to attend ballet classes. But Copeland loved dancing and did not want to give up. She stayed with her ballet teacher during the week and spent time with her family only at the weekend. This was a difficult life, but she worked hard and won her first national competition when she was fourteen years old. Copeland joined the American Ballet Theatre in 2000 and performed in many ballets over the next few years. In 2007, she became a solo(单独的) performer, and in 2015 she became its principal dancer.

    Copeland is now a dancer, author and Broadway performer. She also starred in the 2015 film A Ballerina's Tale. So what's next? According to Copeland, anything is possible：My career(职业)really is just now beginning.

In a small town，there was a young boy named Ted. He was always curious about how things worked，and loved to take things apart（把……拆开）1 back together. Usually he succeeded，but sometimes he2 . Still，he enjoyed what he did. One day，while he3 his mother cook，he realized how hard it was to stir（搅拌） the sauce. He thought that there must be 4 way to do this，and he decided to think of a better way. 

Ted took out his tools and began to work. After a busy afternoon，he created a new invention. He took apart a broken wood mixer（搅拌器） and then connected a motor （电动机），it was able to stir things by itself 5 it got power from the motor. It was so convenient that anyone 6 stir the sauce easily and quickly. 

The next day，Ted showed his 7 to his mother. She was 8 and allowed him to spend more time improving it. He tried，failed and then tried again. Finally，he added some new ideas to make it even9 ，like a timer，so that the user could leave the tool on the table and not have to10 the sauce burning. 

11 mum's support，Ted decided to bring it to school and introduce it to his eight 12 schoolmates. Suddenly，Ted's invention became a big hit in his school. They used it 13 drinks or stir any kind of sauce at lunch，and it was also easy to clean and store. In School Science Festival，Ted even received 14 prize from the school principal for his creativity and intelligence. 

Perhaps not everyone can be an inventor. However，it is always meaningful to15 what you are really interested in and keep going like Ted. 

Life is like the four seasons. Now I am very old, but when I am young, it is the spring of my life. I play a lot, and I grow bigger and bigger day by day. There are sweet days and heartbroken (心碎的) days. Some days the sun shines. I have a good job. I am strong and happy. Then I marry (结婚) and have a child. In those days, I am busy and work hard. I start to get gray hair. It's the summer of my life and it passes quickly.

Then the days get shorter. Leaves fall down from the trees. My child is a university（大学） student and then an engineer. My home is much quieter. I start walking more slowly. One day I leave my job, and I retire. I have more time. I know this is my autumn, a beautiful time when the trees change colour and give people delicious fruit. But the days are getting shorter and colder. Winter comes. I am older and weaker. I know I do not have many days, so I will enjoy them to the end.