Bradley's Bicycle

    When our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was missing. Having a bike was a big deal to our children. They spent hours and hours on their bikes, 1 up and down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode as a 2 at holidays, when all the members enjoyed staying together. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and into the fresh air 3 spending any money.

    Bradley discovered that his bicycle had been 4 from our backyard when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He couldn't 5 that someone would do this. 6, none of the other bicycles were touched and nothing else was missing.

    Bradley painted a sign (告示) on a large piece of cardboard,7 for the bicycle to be returned, and 8 it to the letterbox. The following morning, when I went out to collect the mail, I found a white 9 with the magical words, "Buy yourself a new bike." It took me a little while to 10what it was inside it. It was a $100 banknote.

    We were very 11that someone had the heart to do this. We've never been able to thank the person but we 12 that it may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big "Thank you" on the sign and we 13it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards in case it was someone who drove down our street.

    Bradley was able to 14 a new bicycle. As the years went on, bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as 15 for those family bicycle rides. Now the kids have grown up and cars have 16their bicycles. Bradley is twenty-five this year. Sometimes I 17 the days when receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.

    All these years later we are still grateful to that incredibly kind 18. A young boy's sorrow turned to joy when he got his19. We were a young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk about it and, even now, 20who actually gave us the help.

Running for a Dream

    I will never forget that November day. It was hotter than normal. This was the 1 my father and I had waited so long for, because we had been working towards this race for three years. Dozens of familiar faces from church and school flashed across my view. They had come2 me. I saw worry and 3 on my father's face. Then the race began!

For the first two and a half miles, I felt4. I had never before been so ready for something. The weeks leading up to the race were filled with controlled 5 and a strict diet. My friends hadn't seen me in weeks, but they understood the 6 required to make my dream a reality. As in all of my races, I didn't 7out in the front. I loved the pleasure of passing people as my strength overtook their premature speed.

    Then without warning, my strength began to decrease. Neck and neck with one of my greatest competitors, I 8 see the finish line. I had begun the final dash into9 when my knees became weak and my legs gave way. Nothing I could do would make them 10 my weight.

    I watched as runners rushed by me. 11 I knew my dreams of victory were destroyed, I had to finish the race. However, my legs hurt badly. With all of the12 left in me, I got on my hands and knees and crawled(爬), inch by inch, across the finish line. Voices, both 13and familiar, cheered me on. They gave me the courage to keep 14 until the very end.

    The doctors were there in seconds, but my eyes searched the crowd for him. There was only one person I wanted to 15 to. I whispered, “I'm so sorry, Dad. I'm so sorry I 16 you." He looked at me, saying, “You could never disappoint me. Sometimes these things just  17. All that matters is that you did your best."

    "But we worked so 18. What about our dream?" He reached over for my hand and said, "Don't you know that you are my dream and it has come true?"

    It wasn't long before my running shoes were back on, marking a 19 path for my journey. I learned that all of the miles, the tears, the sweat, and the pain my dad and I experienced together were not for a  20. What I realized, though, was that to him, I was the greatest prize he had ever won.

    On a cold winter night, when the moon was shining clearly, and the snow lay on the ground, two foxes started out on a hunt to obtain something to satisfy their hunger. In order to 1 time on the boring way, they sang and frisked, as they walked along.

    For some time, they were 2 in their hunt. Neither in the wood, 3 on the plain, not in the valley, nor on the hill, could they discover even a goose（鹅） or a 4. At last, they came to a farmer's barn, standing by the roadside. Looking 5 in, their eyes 6 as they saw the farmer's fattest chickens sitting inside, without a thought of the approaching 7.

    Finding a hole 8 which they could enter with 9, they hurried in, and speedily secured those unprotected chickens.

    One of them, too much 10 for a second thought, abandoned(放纵) himself without limit to the 11 before him. The other, however, having looked carefully about him, concluded it best to control his appetite.

    In fact, he had noticed that the opening which had just permitted them to 12 their way through was extremely small. He thought that if, slim and half-starved, they could barely enter, but to pass out at the same place after a rich meal could be totally 13. What, then, would become of him, if suddenly 14, and he had to escape for his life?

    Just as morning began to dawn, who should appear 15 the farmer himself? His eye instantly fell 16 the two foxes, and seizing a wooden pole, he 17 the trembling criminals hard.

    The cautious one, who had denied 18, escaped through the opening by which he had entered. But the other, attempting to follow him, 19 firmly, and, being unable either to get through the hole or 20 back, was easily killed by the angry farmer.

    I believe that life's toughest lessons are best learned through personal experience. Throughout my childhood, my grandmother 1 me with unconditional love but always stressed, "You're not 2 than anyone else, but you're just as good as anyone. Treat others with 3, and you would earn respect 4."

    However, I never really 5 it until I was seventeen and got a summer job as a janitor. As I 6 floors and toilets, I watched people walk right by me and ignore my 7. This made me feel angry and wonder why they treated me so poorly.

    When I 8 to my grandmother, she offered me some words of 9 and reminded me never to forget the feeling of being "10" and to do the best job, because it was still my work, in which I should take 11. She added that it would make me a better man someday.

    Make me a better man someday? She must be 12, I thought to myself. But I needed the job to 13 college and there were few other jobs available, 14 I bit my tongue and kept on working as best as I could for the 15 of the summer.

    Today, when asked what job helped prepare me to gain the 16 of a key university, I tell people it was my summer job cleaning restrooms that 17 me as a man and, down the road, as an educator.

    As you can see, 18 can only be understood by walking in a lot of different shoes. So I suggest students 19 of their comfort zones and get deeply involved in different work and community experience. It's essential for people to find 20 in every person, no matter who they are or what they do for a living.

For nearly two decades, a thin, sun-burnt postal worker could frequently be seen carrying packages along a dangcrous mountain trail in the Taihang Mountains.

The 10-kilometer-long route, which is between 20 centimeters and 1 meter wide, is known as the "cat road" by locals, meaning that it is so dangerous that only cats could walk on it. Whereas, Zhao Yuefang, a postal worker in Ewu township in Huguan county, Shanxi province, had to walk the route every day to deliver mail.

Every day at the crack of dawn, he would start his journey along the "cat road". From picking up the day's post to delivering it to villagers and returning along the same route, it took Zhao four days. During rainy and snowy seasons, the mountain road, part of which hugs the cliffs, would become slippery and dangerous. One day in the winter of 2003, the "cat road" was covered in thick snow and he slipped off the trail. Fortunately, he was able to stop his sharp descent by grabbing a tree branch and slowly managed to climb to safety.

By 2012, Zhao had walked more than 300,000 km and delivered over 800,000 pieces of mail. Born and raised in the deep mountains, Zhao truly understands the significance of mail deliveries to villagers. "They depend on the mail to keep in touch with the outside world," he said. "Their sheer joy written on their face while receiving any post struck me," he added.

In 2012, a 67-km-long tourist highway was built and gone were those days when Zhao risked his life to walk on the "cat road". But Zhao was even busier than before. "The number of packages I handle daily now exceeds the number I used to deal with in the past," said Zhao, adding that villagers are turning to online shopping and ordering more and more goods by post.

Bergl doesn't consider himself the next Thomas Edison, He's just a man loving animals, Africa and adventure, Yet, Bergl might have invented a tool as great as the light bulb (灯泡) ―a tool that uses modern-day technology to solve an almost prehistoric (史前) problem.

The tool is called the SMART. It is designed to be waterproof (防水的) , shockproof and poacher (偷猎者) proof. Bergl worked with worldwide wildlife groups to develop it in 2011. Since then it has been seen in more than 55 countries where poachers have forced the best-known but most endangered animals to nearly die out .

SMART works as a very simple smart phone―it lets the user record what they see, like animal sightings. changes in animals and illegal activities If a park ranger (管理员) sees something that is very important, that information can be sent to the cloud (云) and sent out to the base camp so they can take action and stop the killing 

Bergl and his workmates travel to African wildlife reserves now and then They teach park rangers in some of the most remote countries how to use SMART. "SMART makes collection of information easier It allows us to pay attention to the things that really important. according to what the information is telling an,"Aid Skim Young, manager of the Etosha National park in Namibia, "thanks to SMART, most of Africa's endangered animals seem to be coming back." 

Bergl never plans to make money from his small but great invention. SMART is free and doesn't even have a patents(专利).