There were only two tickets to the big basketball game. All three of us paid our attention to the tickets in Dad’s hand. Marcus, the oldest, asked the question running through everyone’s mind. “Only two tickets? But Dad, which of us gets to go with you?”

“Yeah, Daddy, who gets to go?” repeated Caleb, the youngest. “Dad, can’t you get any more tickets?” I asked. I was the in -between sister, but I also wanted to go out with Dad. “I’m Afraid not,” Dad answered. “Mr. Williams only had two tickets. He was thoughtful enough to offer the tickets to me when he found out he’d be out of town this weekend.”

Dad was lost in thought. “Caleb, don’t you think you ‘re too young to enjoy a professional basketball game?” “No!” Caleb shouted “I know all the best players! I know the team’s record! I know…” “All right, all right,” Dad finally had to agree. He turned to me and tried again. “Jill, since you’re a girl…” Before I could reply, Mom said, “Jill’s out there practicing with Marcus and all of his friends, and she’s better than quite a few of them!”

“Okay, okay,” Dad held up his hands. “I guess I’ll have to find out a fair way of choosing among the three of you by tomorrow morning. I’ll have to decide who deserves it most.”

The next morning, Marcus hurried into the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast table. “Where’s Dad?” he asked as he reached for a box of biscuits. “He and Mom went to pick up some books from the library,” Caleb answered, reaching his hand out for a biscuit. “And he said we should all get started on our Saturday chores (家务) as soon as we finish the breakfast,” I added, enjoying my apple juice. “Chores? He must be kidding,” Marcus said. “How can we do the chores when the big game is only eleven hours away? I’m going to play basketball.” “Wait for me!” Caleb added, drinking the last of his milk and running after his brother.

I looked at the messy breakfast table in front of me.

Suddenly, a white envelope on the left side of the breakfast table caught my attention.

A shop owner placed a sign above his door that read:”Puppies for Sale”. Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children,and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner.

“How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked in a low voice.

The store owner replied, Anywhere from $ 30 to $ 50.

The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. “But I only have $ 2.37,”   he said. “Can I please look at them?”

The shop owner smiled and in no second whistled. Out of the kennel came a lady, who ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping（跛行）puppy and said, “What's wrong with that little dog?”

The shop owner sighed and explained that the vet had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn't have a hip socket（髋臼）. It would always limp.It would always be lame.

Hearing these words, the little boy became excited, “That is the very puppy that I want to buy.”

“No, you don't want to buy that little dog. If you really want him,I'll just give him to you,” the shop owner said, a little bit confused. The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner's eyes, pointing his finger, and said, “I don't want you to give him to me.”

I had a problem. Talent Night was coming up, but I had no talents.

Kate can make anything using origami (折纸). Tommy creates breath-taking beats on overturned plastic buckets. Olivia trains her petty dog to do tricks. And those are just my friends. My grade also boasts four dancers, a gymnast, two bakers, a yoga expert, six singers, and five artists, among others.

Every day my teacher asked if I’d decided what to do. And every day I reminded her that I had no talents.

“Nonsense, Benjamin,” she said. “You’ll think of something.”

“I’ll just have to be sick the day of the show,” I announced to my friends one afternoon. “If you get a cold, be sure to cough on me.”

“You must have a talent,” said Kate. “Let’s make a list. What are you good at?”

“Eating,” I answered. “Watching TV.”

Kate rolled her eyes. “Benjamin, be serious.”

“Tormenting (捉弄) my little brother.”

“Are you kidding me?” Kate looked at our friends. “Come on, guys. What are Benjamin’s talents?”

“He’s good with dogs,” said Olivia. “My dog adores him.”

“Oh, great,” I said. “I can sit on the stage while he licks my face. Benjamin Belinski, Human Dog Toy.”

“Benjamin’s funny and humorous,” said Tommy. He turned to me. “You could do a comedy routine.”

“Yeah. Every joke could be about how I have no talents,” I said.

“Benjamin,” said Kate, “maybe you don’t know how to juggle (变戏法), but your birthday parties are the best.”

“Yeah,” agreed Olivia, “and you always get us together to do stuff. Like having game nights or riding bikes after school—or when we held that yard sale. The week you had the flu we didn’t do anything fun.”

“You’re like the glue that holds us together,” added Tommy.

“Oh, great,” I said. “Benjamin Belinski, Human Glue Gun.”

But their comments got me thinking. Lying in bed that night, I came up with a plan so exciting that it took me two hours to fall asleep.

In the morning, I couldn’t wait to tell my teacher.

On the night of the big event, I felt so nervous that I had to force myself to eat dinner.

Winter break was approaching, and all Scott wanted to do was go snowboarding. Unfortunately, Scott's parents had different plans. They had booked a weeklong tropical cruise (热带船游). Scott hated warm weather and asked if he could just stay at his best friend's house so he could snowboard every day at the local mountain. His parents didn't want to hear anything of it. He kept debating them about the topic, but they would not change their minds. Family time was important to them, and it was tradition that they spend winter break together.

The week of the cruise arrived, and Scott continued to mumble (咕哝) his complaints as he and his family left their house to head south. Scott's dad told him that he would only make the vacation worse for himself if he didn't change his attitude and open his mind to a new experience. Scott still couldn't stop thinking about all of the snow he was leaving behind.

When they arrived at the port to board the ship, Scott had a hard time admitting that he was actually impressed with the size of the ship. He had seen the brochures but seeing the ship in person was a whole different animal. Then he remembered that the brochure said something about a surfing pool. Maybe surfing would be somewhat like snowboarding. After all, it involved riding a board.

Scott climbed aboard the ship with his parents, and then they walked around to check everything out. He couldn't believe how fancy the accommodations were. The dining room looked like a royal hall; the game room had all of his favorite games; the ship's deck (甲板) had several different swimming pools for different purposes. Then Scott saw the surfing pool. It was incredible. It wasn't a big pool, but it had big waves, and the young man who was demonstrating how to ride the waves made it look like a ton of fun.

Scott asked his parents if he could try surfing.

Gradually, Scott began to love the cruise.

My parents love the saying “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" so much that they even bought a pillow with those words on it. But I was recently in a situation where I was SO ready to give up.

It started last week when my friend Ollie and I were helping his grandmother Mary to carry boxes from her garage to her car for the homeless shelter rummage sale (义卖).

At the sight of a big old trunk (行李箱)，we asked Mary what was inside. But she told us that as she had lost the key, she had to find a master locksmith to figure it out. "Let me have a try!" said Ollie. “I bet I can open that lock in two minutes flat! Maybe there's a treasure inside, like gold or diamonds or an ancient map!"

Mary smiled. "I'll tell you what. If you two treasure hunters can open this trunk, you can have it, along with whatever is inside."

Ollie got a tool kit and we set out to open the lock. But he definitely lost that bet. Those two minutes turned into two hours, with no luck at all. We had tried every tool in the kit, but the lock wouldn't move slightly.

“It's no use." Ollie sighed. "I guess we have to give up."

“But we can't give up!" I said. "What about 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"?"

Ollie shook his head. "Unless you know a magical key fairy, we're never getting this unlocked."

Just then, my little brother Tex showed up. He showed great interest in the trunk. "It looks like an upside-down boat! Can I turn it over and pretend I'm sailing in the ocean?"

"Sure," Ollie replied. "It's no good for anything else."

“Ahoy!" Tex said, climbing on top after Ollie and I turned it over. “I’m the captain!” He giggled as he jumped up and down. And right then, a screw (螺丝) from a hinge (铰链) came loose and rolled to the floor.

“That's it! I know how to open it!" said Ollie.

Oh! There were only lots of shoes in the trunk!

Last Saturday afternoon, when I was on my way to school, I saw a mother and her son preparing to go across the street.

10 . The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.

On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, ________. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and from in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost ________ on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just ________ to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of ________ or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor(倦怠)had ________ this passionate struggle.

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet(铅锤) and sounding-line(测深索), and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ________ before my education began, only I was without   ________ or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the ________ was. "Light! Give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.

I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I would to my mother. Someone ________ it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to ________ all things to me, and more than all things else, to love me.

The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until ________. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word "d—o—l—l." I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to ________ it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I ________ with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this ________ way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a ________.