Willie the parrot, saved the baby

The two-year-old baby, Hannah, was eating when something got stuck in her throat. Her mother was in the bathroom at the time. She suddenly heard the bird screaming（尖叫）and making noises with its wings. “Then he started saying ‘mama baby’ over and over and over again until I came out,”the mother said. “I saw the baby’s face was blue. I quickly removed the food from her throat. My baby was saved but Willie was the real hero.” Willie later received an award for saving the baby’s life!

Buddy, the dog, saved her owner

Buddy was a clever German shepherd（德国牧羊犬）. When he was eight weeks old, Buddy came to live with Joe. Joe suffers from seizures（中风发作）that make him unable to move easily. Joe taught his new dog to do something around him, such as, to bring him the phone. Joe also trained Buddy how to call 91l when he started to experience the seizure. So when Joe had a really bad seizure, Buddy was the one who called for help and began making sounds into the phone. Emergency rescue（急救）workers arrived within minutes and found Joe. They took him to the hospital where he recovered. Joe later said, “Buddy’s my world. He’s my best friend, no doubt. He’s always there, and I just hope I can be as good to him as he’s been to me.”

Winnie, the cat, saved the family

One night, the gas at Cathy’s home began to leak（泄漏）. The family was sleeping. Their cat, Winnie, began to push her owners and made loud meowing sounds. “It was a crazy meow, almost like she was screaming,” said Cathy. Cathy woke up and was already feeling sick. It was hard for her to wake up her husband and son because they already breathed in a large amount of gas. But thanks to their heroic cat Winnie, Cathy was able to call 911 and get help before anyone was hurt. The family says that Winnie is the one who saved their lives.

Have you ever wanted to see the Great Wall of China, or win an Oscar for Best Director, or swim with dolphins? If so, you are not alone. We all have things we want to do or achieve. These are part of our “bucket lists”. A bucket list is a list of things that someone wants to experience in his or her lifetime. These things can be big or small. Have you ever thought about what is on your bucket list?

Lindsay Doran, 15, created her bucket list when she was 14. She has given her list serious thought. “I’ve always wanted to travel into space, “she says. “I don’t really want to be an astronaut. But I do want to go to space as a tourist. I want to see the Earth from above. “Other things on her list include being on TV, seeing her favorite band in concert, learning how to speak Portuguese, and living in a foreign country. “I’ve always wanted to live in Brazil. As part of my bucket list, I want to attend Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro,” she says.

Jose Noriega, 16, recently created a list of things he wants to achieve. It changes sometimes— he adds and removes things because he wants to keep the number of things at seven. One thing has stayed at number one, though: he wants to visit a movie set. He would like to see the Harry Potter or The Hobbit movie sets. Other things on the list include being on TV, meeting his favorite sports star, living in a foreign country, skateboarding down a mountain, attending the World Cup, and backpacking across Europe. He would like to spend two months visiting Eastern Europe with his best friend Adam. “Maybe after I graduate from college,” says Jose.

Carrie Kincaid, 14, also has a bucket list. She first created it when she was12. She would like to live in a foreign country for at least two years. She also wants to learn as many foreign languages as possible. But the number one thing on her list is to see her favorite band in concert. She also wants to go on safari and to visit a movie set. Her favorite movies are the Hunger Games and Star Wars series. Carrie is confident she will do most or all of the things on her bucket list “I’m only 14,” she says. “I have my whole life ahead of me!”

Most people hate change, which is sad since we often go through big changes in life. And for some of us, even the smallest changes can upset one day. So the question is: Why do most of us find making changes to our lives so hard?

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Fear of change is nothing new. Over a century ago, people of Paris were unhappy over a particular addition to their city: the Eiffel Tower. In fact, people were so angry about the plans for the tower that they protested（抗议）it.     17    . They were given no choice about the huge change that was going to be made, so they became angry. But we get upset over changes even when we do have a say in the matter. Changes are brought about every day by the decisions we make: which school to attend, which job to take, whom to marry. Voluntary（自愿的） changes also make most of us uneasy because we don’t know how those changes will affect our future.

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People have discovered that the key to overcoming the fear and anger of change is to be flexible（灵活的）.     19     Being flexible is especially important in the 21st century as technology makes change take place faster than ever before. Those who refuse change, especially with technology in the workplace, may find themselves out of a job.

When change comes, and you have no choice but to face it, accept it. A positive attitude helps a lot. In fact, the change may turn out to be the best thing for you. That new job you got may end up being much better than your old one. You may make the best friends of your life in the new city you moved to.     20     The change is the reality（现实）, and it’s up to you whether the change will be a success or a failure. You never know – your next change may be your life’s Eiffel Tower!

There is an old English saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Norman Cousins was the person who agreed with this.

Norman Cousins was the editor of a magazine for almost forty years. He also wrote and spoke about world peace, traveling to many different countries to     48    .

In the 1960s, after returning to the United States from a busy and tiring trip to Europe, Mr. Cousins     49    . He discovered he had a rare disease（罕见的疾病）.

In less than a week after he got back, he could not stand. Every move that he made was painful. He was not able to     50    . The doctors told Mr. Cousins that they did not know how to cure his problem and he might never get over the illness. Mr. Cousins, however, refused to     51    .

Mr. Cousins thought that the illness could be caused by     52    . He did not want to take medicine to cure himself. Instead, he felt that     53     or laughter might cure his illness.

He began to try on himself while still in the hospital by     54     on television. Mr. Cousins quickly found that ten minutes of real laughter during the day gave him two hours of pain-free sleep at night.

Deciding that the doctors could not help him, Mr. Cousins left the hospital but he continued his experiments with     55    . For eight days, Mr. Cousins rested in the hotel room watching comedy shows on television, reading funny books, and sleeping whenever he felt tired. Within three weeks, he felt     56     to take a vacation to Puerto Rico where he began running on the beach for exercise.

After a few months, Mr. Cousins was able to carry on his work. He had laughed himself back to     57    .