1 . Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. She let her eyes lazily scan the landscape for wildlife. Then a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them. “Dad, there’s a deer there!” Alexis said. It was a male deer with sharp antlers (角) on each side of its head.

As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer’s head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer’s head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44-year-old mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged closer. “I knew I was in trouble,” Sue says. She went to pick up a stick for self-defense, and the deer charged. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue could feel blood flew down her leg. Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road.

When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman’s terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer. “I was kicking it to get its attention,” she says. Then her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the woman.

Alexis helped Sue into the car, and then applied a piece of cloth to Sue’s injured leg. “We’re going to get you to a hospital,” Alexis said. Then she heard her father shout loudly. He had been knocked to the ground. Alexis took hold of a hammer from the car and ran to where her father lay on his back. She beat the deer’s head and neck, but the blows didn’t scare it away. “I was losing faith,” she says. “A couple more strikes, Alexis,” said her father. “You can do it.” Turning the hammer around, Alexis closed her eyes and beat the deer’s neck with all her strength. When she opened her eyes, the deer was running away. Alexis got in the driver’s seat and sped toward the nearest hospital.

After Sue was treated, she tearfully thanked her rescuers. “You expect a teenage girl to get on the phone and call for help,” she says, “not to beat up a deer.”

Last Saturday, David was taking a walk in the park near his home when he noticed a woman with a boy of about eight years old. When David passed them, he heard the woman yell. “How stupid you are! You’re good at nothing.” David stopped and looked at the little boy. The boy said nothing. He just stood there, looking upset.

David was reminded of his English teacher Mrs Brown in middle school. After he entered a middle school, David lacked self-confidence because he was often made fun of by others. He was often told that he was good at nothing, which David behaved. But one day it all changed.

One day, in an English writing class, Mrs Brown asked them to read a novel. They were asked to write a new chapter of the novel after they finished reading it. A few days later, David handed in his story. He didn’t give it much thought. But the next day, to his surprise, the comment “well done” from Mrs Brown came into view the moment he turned to the page where the story was written. When David read that, he almost burst into tears. He never expected to be praised one day. He suddenly gained some self-confidence.

That day after he returned home, he wrote a short story and gave it to Mrs Brown the next morning. And again he was praised. David became very interested in writing. He often wrote short stories and asked Mrs Brown to read them improve writing skills. One year later, David joined the school newspaper and became an editor of it. He was no longer that boy who lacked self-confidence. He gained his confidence, and was hopeful about his future.

He succeeded in entering a college and kept writing. Several years after graduating from college, he had his first book published. With some more books coming out, he became famous as a writer in his country. And he owed his success to Mrs Brown’s encouragement. Without her encouragement, his life might be very different now.

Inspired by his own life story, David decided to do something for that boy.

The mother was ashamed when she heard that.

3 . The Hard Truth

One day, Marissa noticed a spider web, shining in the sunlight. A spider was spinning _________ on it. The spider wasn’t trying to be something else, like a butterfly or a bee, Marissa thought. It was happy to be exactly what it was and to do what it was good at.

What came naturally to Marissa was _________. She could paint or draw all day long and never get bored. However, a few weeks ago Marissa signed up for high jump. Because her mother had been a high jump _______ in school, she thought it would make her mother happy. But now she _______ that however hard she worked, she would never be a high jump star like her mother.

One night, halfway through her homework, Marissa fell _________. When she woke up, the clock read 1:00 A. M. Marissa got into a panic. There was still so much _________ to do, but she really needed her rest for track practice. Marissa had always been a good student, but now track was risking her _________.

Then a dark thought crossed Marissa’s mind. If she _________ some of her classes, she would be off the track team. That was one way to solve her problem.

After a week of _________ her homework, letters had been mailed out to parents listing grades, and Marissa knew the letters would show that her grades had __________ a lot. She walked home with slow heavy steps, knowing her __________ plan had worked.

Just as Marissa had __________, her mother was waiting with the __________ in her hand. “What’s happening to your grades? And more importantly, what’s happening to you?” she asked.

With tears in her eyes, Marissa admitted her __________. “I only joined the track team to make you proud of me. I hated it, __________ I didn’t want to disappoint you. I thought if I were failing in my classes, Coach would kick me off the team. What a __________ I’ve made of everything.”

Marissa watched her mother’s face turn from anger to __________. “Marissa, I was always proud of you. You didn’t need to do the high jump to make me happy. Now you have a lot of hard work in front of you because you made a bad __________.”

Marissa thought again about the spider. She realized she had lost sight of her __________ and twisted her web. Now she had to go back and __________ that web.

5 . Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren’t _______ but this was one of those celebrations that I didn’t mind. They are a bunch of young, single guys and I would have felt out of place.

What _______ me was the way they behaved. Ono of the young men came over _______ in the day to “warn” us of the upcoming event and said it would be over at about 11 p. m. That was the first step. Even more _______ was what they did next. “Here’s my _______”, offered our neighbor _______ “Text me if it’s too noisy.” That was a level of _______ I had never experienced in all my years of being a neighbor!

And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the _______ end time, even when the music reached high decibels(分贝), and even when we couldn’t get through to the phone number, we felt no _______. We knew they would stop and ________ to it eventually.

It takes such little effort to make people feel that they ________ and get people on your side. Everyone needs to ________ every now and then, especially in these uniquely tough times. But people who do it without disturbing others are few and far between. I hadn’t fully ________ my neighbors until this week. But now I see them in a new light and with greater ________ . They didn’t just bring the noise to the neighborhood; they showed us a good manner of ________ in life.

9 . What Is a Boy?

Between the innocence of babyhood and the seriousness of manhood we find a delightful creature called an “boy”.     1    . They all believe that the pleasure of life is to enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day and to fill the air with noise until the adult males pack them off to bed at night.

    2     When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly, or else he becomes a wild creature bent on destroying the world and himself with it.

    3     He has the stomach of a horse, the digestion of stones and sand, the energy of an atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the imagination of a superman, the shyness of a sweet girl, the brave nature of a bull, the violence of a firecracker, but when you ask him to make something, he has five thumbs (拇指) on each hand.

He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, woods, water (in its natural habitat).     4     He is not much for Sunday schools, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults, or bedtime.

    5     Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs and breezes. Nobody else can put into one pocket a rusty knife, a half eaten apple, a three-feet rope, six cents and some unknown things. A boy is a magical creature — he is your headache but when you come home at night with only shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with two magic words, “Hi, Dad!”

10 . A cancer survivor has become the first woman to complete an exhausting “Sea to Summit” triathlon (三项全能运动), which saw her swim, cycle, and run over 330 miles in just five days. Andrea Mason was overjoyed when she crossed the finish line early Wednesday morning.

The race was set in the French Alps. Setting off at 6:15 am on Friday, 39-year-old Mason battled through severe pain, and hallucinations (幻觉), but she pushed on — managing to complete the race in an impressive four days, 23 hours, and 41 minutes. Andrea had been diagnosed with cancer and needed life-saving surgery. Following a successful operation, she is now hoping to raise awareness of women’s health. In the past year, Andrea set up her own charity, Lady Talk Matters, in order to improve surrounding females’ health.

Andrea, from Blackpool in Lancashire, England, said, “I am so happy all went according to the plan as there were so many things that could have gone wrong. I wanted to do it in five days and I did so, but it was very tough. I had some low moments, particularly when I couldn’t sleep in my limited rest periods, and when I couldn’t keep any food down as I was running. For sure, I had some doubts along the way as I was exploring the unknown with such a huge run, particularly as large parts of it were in the dark. It was bigger than I imagined. The impact on my body was huge. But every time I felt like giving up, I thought about all the women out there in pain or who still hadn’t been diagnosed. That is why I put myself through this.”

Andrea had to swim 23 miles around Lake Annecy, cycle 205 miles with 30,000 feet of vertical climbing around Mont Blanc, and run 105 miles with 4,000 feet of vertical climbing around The Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. You could say Andrea’s actually spent a lifetime training for an event like this. She completed her first three-mile race “powered by chocolate bars” when she was just four.