When Cherryl was at primary school, nobody ever called her by her real name. There was always someone making fun of her size. That continued for several years and it made her feel upset.

But one day, when she was eleven, as she was building a tree house in her garden, Cherryl realized she had more physical power than all the boys. She could lift heavy things and do things that other kids couldn’t. So, she decided to try weightlifting.

Cherryl was really good at weightlifting, so her coach encouraged her to take part in competitions. Her talent began to shine. She held every American record in her age group and she also won a bronze medal (铜) at the 2000 Olympic Games.

Cherryl is not only strong but also crazy about her sport. She usually practices for three hours a day. However, this doesn’t mean that weightlifting is her only interest. Just like other teenagers, Cherryl enjoys spending her free time with friends and her two sisters. She also likes drawing and painting and she’s a very talented artist. Her portraits (画像) have won prizes in competitions.

Cherryl’s success has made her an idol, especially among oversized teenagers. She says, “Hopefully, I can set an example to other people who feel they are far from normal and encourage them to do things that are challenging. We’re not all going to be supermodels. What’s important is how you feel and how you act towards others.”

By any standard, Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go! is a great book. And Martin is hardly the first parent to buy the book for his graduating high-school. But Martin did something special—he added to the book’s pages 13 years’ worth of hand—written teachers’ comments and impressions about his daughter, Brenna.

When Martin first told Brenna, 18, that he had a present for her, Brenna thought she was getting some graduation card. But then she opened the book and realized that it was filled with personal memories. “Every year, for the past 13 years, since the day you started kindergarten（幼儿园） I’ve gotten every teacher to write something about you inside this book,” he told her. Brenna’s eyes filled with hot tears.

She described her happiness at her graduation gift online, “He managed to keep this book a secret for 13 years, and surely everyone else in my life knew about it! I was moved to tears. Sitting there reading through this book there are encouraging and sweet words from every teacher I love and remember through my years in this small town. My early teachers mention my ‘laughs’ while my high school teachers mention my ‘intelligence’. But they all mention my humor and love for life. It is astounding to receive something this touching and thoughtful. I can’t express how much I love my Dad for this labor of love”

Millions of people have checked out Brenna’s Internet message on her father’s gift, which has been considered “unbelievable” and the “best graduation gift ever”. It sure beats a bunch of roses.

How to help yourself relax before bed

Having trouble sleeping lately? There are a great number of things that can keep a person up at night. Some causes of sleeplessness are beyond our control.     16    .

Mindful meditation (冥想)

You may not be able to force your mind to quiet down, but a moment of mental silence just might sneak (潜入) up on you.     17    . Then it is much easier to pursue that feeling and cause it to take place.

    18    

It's silly to expect your mind to stop worrying. You can write about all the things that are worrying you and how you will deal with them. By putting those solutions on paper, and trying to carry out them, you can reduce the number of troublesome things in your mind.

Create a pre-sleep routine

It's hard to change from worrying to relaxing if you jump into bed as soon as you finish answering work emails.     19    . For example, you can have a warm shower, followed by going to bed with a glass of warm milk while listening to some soft music. The best part of this is that such things tend to become more powerful over time.

Stay healthy

There are some vitamin (维生素) and hormone imbalances that can mess up your energy levels.     20    . Such imbalances can be eased by the use of moderate vitamin supplements and keeping fit through taking natural remedies, such as exercise, healthy diet, good relationships, and so on.

We live in the countryside. My mother is a ________ housewife. She takes care of a big family of 8, ________ she has to go to the grocery store in the town at least once a week. One afternoon, she went to the grocery store in a hurry and________ a cart to feed our big family for the coming week. She had a number of errands (差事) to run, but when she ________ buying everything she needed and pushed the cart out to the parking lot, she found she had ________ her keys in the car. She called a locksmith (锁匠), who ________ the car door for her. After ________ the locksmith a check, my mother got in the car and ________ in a hurry as she had a lot of housework to do.

About ten minutes later, my mother suddenly ________ that she had done something terrible — she'd ________ to put her cart full of hundreds of dollars worth of groceries into the car before getting into the car. You know that was a ________ sum of money for our family at that time. She hurried ________ and looked everywhere for her cart of the newly bought food. It was ________ to be found, and she was sure it had been stolen by someone else.

My discouraged mother made the 45 minute ________ back to our home. She felt ________ and couldn't help shedding tears. When she pulled up in the driveway, however, to her ________, she saw all the bags of the groceries in front of our home. In one of the bags, she noticed a ________, which said the ice cream was in the neighbor's fridge. One ________ person had seen my mother drive off and leave her cart behind, so she got my mother's ________ from the locksmith's check and drove all the way to deliver the groceries — to a complete ________.