Life is full of surprises and you never know how things will turn out.

    Sir John Gurdon is a good example of this. As a boy, he was told he was hopeless at science and was at bottom of his class. Now, aged 79，the very same Gurdon shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Japanese stem cell (干细胞) researcher Shinya Yamanaka.

    Like so many scientists, Gurdon shows us where the power of curiosity and perseverance(坚持) can lead.

    When he was 15 in 1948，Gurdon ranked last out of the 250 boys at his high school in biology and every other science subject. Gurdon's high school science teacher even said that his dream of becoming a scientist was "quite ridiculous".

In spite of his teacher's criticisms(批评), Gurdon followed his curiosity and kept working hard. He went to the lab early and left later than anyone else. He experienced thousands of failures.

     "My own belief is that we will, in the end，understand everything about how cells actually work，"Gurdon said.

    In 1962, Gurdon took a cell from an adult frog and moved its genetic (基因的) information into an egg cell. The egg cell then grew into a clone of the adult frog. This technique later helped to create the sheep Dolly in 1996，the first cloned mammal(哺乳动物) in the world.In 2006，Gurdon's work was developed by Yamanaka to show that a sample(样本) of a person's skin can be used to create stem cells. Using this technique, doctors can repair a patient's heart after a heart attack."Luck favors the prepared mind," Gurdon told the Nobel Prize Organization. "Ninety percent of the time things don't work, but when they do, you have to seize(抓住) the chance.

    Do you know any 9-year-olds who have started their own museums? When Theodore Roosevelt was only nine and two of his cousins opened the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History". The museum was in Theodore's bedroom. It had a total of 12 specimens(标本). On display were a few seashells, some dead insects and some birds' nests. Young Roosevelt took great pride in his small museum.

    Born in New York in 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was not always healthy. "I was a sickly, delicate boy, "he once wrote. Roosevelt had a health condition called asthma (哮喘). He often found it hard to breathe. Instead of playing, he watched nature and then read and wrote about it.

    Roosevelt's interest in nature sometimes got him into trouble. Once, his mother found several dead mice in the icebox. She ordered him to throw them out. This was indeed "a loss to science", Roosevelt said later.

    Because Roosevelt was often sickly as a boy, his body was small and weak. When he was about 12, his father urged him to improve his body. Roosevelt began working out in a gym. He didn't become strong quickly. But he did decide to face life's challenges with a strong spirit. That determination stayed with Roosevelt's whole life. And finally his body did get strong. As an adult, he was an active, healthy person. He enjoyed adventures and loved outdoors.

    In 1900, at the age of 41, Roosevelt was elected Vice President. A year later, President Mckinley was shot and killed. Roosevelt became the 26th president of the USA. At 42, he was the youngest leader the country had ever had.

    In 2017, the Chinese action movie Wolf Warrior 2 won a big success. It has received much attention and positive reviews after it was shown in China and oversea markets including Australia and the US. The film had earned about 5.68 billion yuan in China.

    The major actor Wu Jing is also the director of the film, who played the role of Leng Feng, a soldier serving for China's Special Forces.

    At the age of six, Wu Jing was sent to the Beijing Sports Institute at Shichahai. Both his father and grandfather were also martial artists. Like Jet Li before him, he competed as a member of the Beijing Wushu Team. Two years later, in 1982 he won the National Wushu Championship. He won first place in several national level Wushu competitions at the junior level and continued to compete as an adult.

    Why has Wolf Warrior 2 gained so much popularity? Besides great scenes and wonderful performances, many Chinese were inspired by the patriotism of the Chinese soldier Leng Feng during the mission(任务). He couldn't finish the mission successfully without the love for our country.

    At the end of the film, Leng Feng led some people to go back to China and then a short message was showed: Citizens of the People's Republic of China. When you encounter danger in a foreign land, do not give up! Please remember, at your back stands a strong motherland.

    John, David and James were three brothers. Every year on their mother's birthday, they sent her expensive presents. They liked to show her how rich they were.

    The oldest brother , John, decided to give his mother a perfect(完 美的) present. He thought it must be more expensive than his brothers'.

    So he put an advertisement(广告) in the newspapers: WANTED THE PERFECT PRESENT FOR A RICH WOMAN. For many days people phoned him from all over the country. Each of them wanted to sell him" the perfect present". But John didn't like any of them.

    Then, less than a week before his mother's birthday, a man came to his office. He was carrying a cage with a large bird in it. "This bird," the man said," can speak ten languages (语言) and sing any popular songs. There's no other bird like it in the world." With these words, he asked the bird to speak to John in French, tell him a joke in Japanese and sing a famous popular song. John was very happy.

    "I'll buy it. How much do you want?" John said." One hundred thousand dollars," the man said. This was a lot of money, but John paid him. Then he sent the bird to his mother with a birthday card.

    The day after his mother's birthday he phoned her." Well, Mother," he asked," what do you think of the bird?" "Oh, very delicious, dear," she answered.

    I was driving after school on Monday from Dublin to Drogheda and on my way home, I saw a wallet lying on the roadside. I thought the wallet must belong to the driver in front of me, because he had smoked there. I sounded the horn twice but he didn't hear. So I stopped and picked up the wallet. I checked the wallet to see if I could get any phone number to call. I found and called two numbers but I was told they were wrong numbers.

    Later, I found a driving license and decided to drive to his house in Termonfeckin according to the address on the license. It is a 30-minute drive away from Drogheda. When I got to his house, I saw his wife and the first thing she asked was if I had found a wallet. I started smiling and said yes. The lady was really happy and called her husband. He ran to us at the gate and welcomed me to their house. After giving the wallet to him, he checked to see whether everything was inside. They offered me 20 dollars for gasoline(汽油) but I refused.