5 . My son Joey was born with club feet (足内翻). The doctors _______ us that with treatment he would be able to walk _______ — but would never _______ very well. The first three years of his life were spent in surgery, casts and braces._______ the time he was eight, you wouldn’t know he had a problem when you saw him walk.

In seventh grade he decided to _______ for the cross-country team. Every day he _______ with the team. He worked harder and ran more than any of the others — perhaps he _______ that the abilities that seemed to come _______ to so many others did not come naturally to him. Although the _______ team runs, only the top seven runners have the ________ to score points for the school. We didn’t tell him he probably would never ________ the team, so he didn’t know.

He ________ to run four to five miles a day, every day — ________ the day he had a 103-degree fever. I was ________, so I went to look for him after school. I found him running all   ________. I asked him how he felt. “Okay,” he said. He had two more miles to go. The ________ ran down his face and his eyes were glassy from his ________. Yet he looked straight ahead and kept running.

Two weeks ________ , the names of the team runners were called. Joey was number six on the list. Joey had made the team. We never told him he shouldn’t ________ to make the team. We never told him he couldn’t do it...so he didn’t know. He just ________ it.

6 . Recently I spoke to some of my students about what they wanted to do after they graduated, and what kind of job prospects they thought they would have.

Given that I teach students who are training to be doctors, I was surprised to find that most thought that they would not be able to get the jobs they wanted without “outside help”. “What kind of help is that?” I asked, expecting them to tell me that they would need a relative or family friend to help them out.

“Surgery (外科手术)”, one replied. I was pretty alarmed by that response. It seems that the graduates of today are increasingly willing to go under the knife to get ahead of others when it comes to getting a job. One girl told me that she was considering surgery to increase her height. “They break your legs, put in special extending screws, and slowly expand the gap between the two ends of the bone as it regrows, you can get at least 5cm taller! ”

At that point, I was shocked. I am short, I can’t deny that, but I don’t think I would put myself through months of agony (痛苦) just to be a few centimeters taller. I don’t even bother to wear shoes with thick soles, as I’m not trying to hide the fact that I am just not tall! It seems to me that there is a trend toward wanting “perfection”, and that is an ideal that just does not exist in reality.

No one is born perfect, yet magazines, TV shows and movies present images of thin, tall, beautiful people as being the norm (基准). Advertisements for slimming aids, beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery clinics fill the pages of newspapers, further creating an idea that “perfection” is a requirement, and that it must be purchased, no matter what the cost. In my opinion, skills, rather than appearance, should determine how successful a person is in his chosen career.

7 . In the short time Steve and Zach had been inside their tent packing their tools, wind-blown flame had skipped from the top of one tree to another. The long dry summer had turned the forest into a tinderbox.

“Let’s go! We can make it back to the river we crossed today!” Steve kept Brady on the lead and their heads down against the fire-wind. But Brady barked a sharp warning. Ahead of them lay a thick curtain of smoke across the track. They would never make it through that. The dog was pulling at his lead trying to draw them away from the smoke, and yet Steve was uneasy. It seemed to him that they were moving away from the river.

Suddenly, Zach cried.

“Zach!” Steve shouted. “Are you OK? Where are you?”

Then Brady pulled Steve down a sharp slope (坡). At its base, Zach was rubbing his ankle.

As Steve helped his friend to his feet, Brady lifted his head and snuffed (嗅) the smoke-laden wind. Next moment, the dog bounded away and disappeared. The boys shouted for him, but he didn’t come back. Steve couldn’t blame Brady for panicking. He himself wanted to run even though he didn’t have a clue which way.

Steve and Zach hadn’t gone far when there was a familiar bark, and Brady came bounding, stopped directly in front of Steve and hit him with his head, pushing him back toward the slope they’d just climbed. But Steve didn’t get it. Then Brady grabbed the boy’s jeans and started pulling. The message was clear, but Steve hesitated. Of course he remembered Brady saving his uncle’s life when the dog was much younger. Was he still sharp enough to get them through this?

Nearby, a pine went up in a whoosh of smoke. Brady pulled again, urgently. “OK, big guy,” Steve gritted(咬紧牙关). Brady led them back down the slope and into the trees. Not far from them fire was touching underbrush. Several times the big dog stopped. Often he changed directions. Steve was so tired that he just wanted to rest, but Brady wouldn’t have it. The dog bullied both boys to go on. How long they’d walked Steve had no idea. He was almost numb when he heard it—the wonderful sound of rushing water!