Karl Marx was born in Germany on May 5th, 1818. When he was a child, he was forced to leave his ________ again and again. He lived in Belgium, England and some other countries. And at school he learned French and English, but he felt his English was poor. So he ________ up his mind to improve his English. He began to work hard ________ it. He made so much progress that he ________ soon read English newspapers and write English articles.

However, there were ________ things that he thought were too difficult for him—the grammar and some of the idioms（习语）. He often encouraged himself by saying “________ I keep on trying, I’ll make even greater progress.” At the same time, his close friend, Engels, often wrote to ________ him for his hard work in learning English.

In one of Marx’s books, he gave people who were learning a foreign language some ________ on how to learn it well. He said a foreign language was ________ for a person to have a better future.

In April, 1841, he received his doctor’s degree. After that, he began to write articles for a newspaper. He wrote about the housing problems of poor people and their hard life. ________ he tried, he did his best.

During the 1840s, Marx and Engels wrote a book together. These words of theirs became very famous: “Working people of all countries, unit（联合）!”

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 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 thirteen-year-old. 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 stars 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.