2 . Lou, a 20-year-old mathematician (数学家) with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) (脊肌萎缩症), is studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

He had SMA when he was born. He has had to deal with large physical challenges since he was a baby. This disease takes away his ability to walk, eat, or use the restroom without help. In the past two decades of his life, he has gone through several operations. However, these struggles can’t stop him from enjoying freedom in the field of math.

He loved math when he was a fourth-grader. He was always addicted to many questions like “Why could we prove anything meaningful in math? Why could we make predictions (预言) about the world through math?” These endless questions made him win a few successes. In the fifth grade, he scored in the top one percent on the AMC 10, a competition for students at senior high school. He also won a gold medal at the World Mathematic s Team Championship.

Now, he is a mathematician. He said, “It is clear to me that math isn’t only about numbers. Rather, it is the very language of the world itself. And it is the language that has allowed me to go beyond the physical limitations of my body.” As time goes by, his body weakens, but his enthusiasm for understanding the world through math has only deepened. He always believes that no matter how bad life may seem, there is always something one can do, and succeed at it.

3 . Mount Everest (珠穆朗玛峰), located in Asia, is the highest mountain in the world. Many climbers have tried to climb to the top of Mount Everest’s about 29,028-foot peak and about 900 people have _________ the climb to Mount Everest’s summit. One of the most successful climbers is Erik Weihenmayer because of his _________.

Erik Weihenmayer was _________ an eye disorder. As a child his eyesight became _________ and then he lost his sight eventually. However, he did not lose his _________ to lead a full and active life. Erik began climbing when he was 16. Having climbed the tallest mountains on five continents, Erik became the first blind person to reach the peak of Mount Everest.

_________ the age of 32, Erik began his climb as part of a team. His team wore bells that he could follow during his climb, and fellow climbers could quickly warn him of such things as a big drop on the right or a big stone to the left. Erik _________ his own method for climbing mountains. He also carries two long climbing poles to feel his way _________ him. Erik is a good team member. He does his _________ of the job, such as setting up tents and building snow walls.

During his climb, Erik faced many dangers. He __________ through 100 m.p.h winds and sliding masses of snow, ice and rock. Because the air became thinner the higher Erik climbed, he wore an oxygen __________ that helped him breathe as he climbed higher. It took Erik about two-and a-half months to reach the top of the mountain.

Although he couldn’t __________ the view, Erik felt the __________ of being on the summit of Everest. He hopes that his success will change __________ people think about the blind. “When people think about a blind person, now they will think about a person standing on top of the __________.”

5 . Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Marilla, live on Green Gables farm, in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. They want to adopt an orphan boy, but Matthew doesn’t find the boy at the train station. Instead, he is attracted by a sweet, talkative 11-year-old girl called Anne. Having heard about Anne’s poor childhood, they think Anne might not be the “useful boy” they’ve wanted to work on the farm, but she needs their sympathy. Anne is overjoyed to be allowed to stay.

On Anne’s second morning at home, however, Matthew abruptly suffers from a heart attack. Soon, Marilla sees a specialist and learns that unless she takes measures to prevent her eyesight, she will be blind within six months. Anne finds herself involved in a dilemma.

Anne, anyway, gradually gets familiar with the beauties of Green Gables, the household duties she will have to fulfill. Even though Marilla often scolds Anne for daydreaming and ignoring her chores, both she and Matthew find Anne’s imaginative talk amusing, and soon they can’t picture the farm without her.

In the fall, Anne starts off well at Avonlea School, but then she’s teased by Gilbert Blythe, a handsome boy in her grade, for her red hair. Anne hits Gilbert on the head, and she is punished by her teacher and refuses to attend school for a while. After Anne returns to school, she takes a renewed enthusiasm in her studies and a growing academic competition with Gilbert. Besides, Anne forms a story club to help her friends improve their imaginations.

When she is 16, Anne studies for the entrance exam to Queen’s Academy. With intense effort, Anne and Gilbert both get the highest exam scores in Prince Edward Island, broadening Anne’s ambitions for the future. The following September, Matthew and Marilla, both tearful over Anne’s growing up, say goodbye when Anne settles into Queen’s for the year. Anne earns teacher certificate, and though she’s defeated by Gilbert for the highest academic honor, she wins a scholarship.

7 . Brie Peters had a passion for music. She grew up singing in school choirs, learning piano and ________ people with her musical abilities. It was almost a ________ for her to pursue a degree in music, although she recalls now that she also thought about going into ________ at that time. But many people in her life ________ her to major in vocal performance, so she did. “I always felt like I was told what to do, never having a choice for myself,” she recalls.

Her music career showed instant ________ after she graduated from college. She sang in front of thousand of people worldwide. But soon she began to feel that there was more she could do. “Working with thousands of people in large groups ________ a time wasn’t ________ enough for me,” she says. “I ________ the eye contact and the personal care that truly makes a difference,” She adds. She wasted no time and began ________ her degree in nursing right away.

Peters is now celebrating her ________ into the Master of Nursing program at the University of Minnesota. She’s ________ beginning her nursing journey later.

She admits that nursing is hard work and can be ________, but has ________ doubted that it’s worth it. “People come into a hospital ________ for help. It is such an ________ to be a part of that and spend my life caring for those in need,” she says.

10 . We’re about 4 miles from Gallaudet University, where Solomon is a professor of biology. She and a student -Anna McCall -are taking a small boat to collect water samples from the Anacostin River. The river is no more than 8 miles long, but it goes through and around Washington DC.

For months, Solomon and her students have been testing for oxygen, salt levels and chlorophyll (叶绿素) in the river to judge is present state of health, which unfortunately appears to be poor.

To McCall, who was born deaf, Solomon is more than a role model. She’s a great teacher, strict but fair. McCall said, “if it weren’t for Solomon, I couldn’t imagine doing this kind of work.”

Solomon was the only deaf person in her family. In school, she was always good at math and science, but her interest in the environment didn’t develop until she was a teenager.

“When I was in high school, my dad was a visiting professor at the U. S. Naval Academy,” Solomon said. “We rented a house by a small river. We weren’t able to swim in the river because it was too polluted. ”

Solomon, who won 13 gold medals in swimming in the Deaflympics, would never forget that polluted river near her house. A career in science and environmental studies became her passion. But she also found another passion (热情): “How can I influence other deaf and hard-of-hearing students?”

It was a question based on Solomon’s own experience as a college student, first as an undergraduate (本科生) at Harvard, then as a graduate student at the University of Washington.   These were schools where she was usually the only deaf person in the class.

Training the next generation of biologists who happen to be deaf has become Solomon’s goal, and for that she has received high praise at Gallaudet. Not because she’s an especially gifted teacher, but because she has learned how to get her students to focus on what they’re capable of not what they’re limited by.