3 . When I was four, I lost my sight by falling off a box car and landing on my head. Now I’m thirty-two. I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is. It’d be wonderful to see again, but a disaster can do strange things to people.

    1    . The loss of my eyes made me appreciate more what I had left.

It took me years to discover and strengthen this belief. It had to start with the most trivial things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. “I can’t use this,” I was hurt, thinking he was teasing me. “Take it with you,” he insisted, “and roll it around.” The words stuck in my head. By rolling the ball I could feel where it went.     2    —playing baseball. Later, at Philadelphia’s Overbrook School for the Blind, I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.

    3    —I believe it! The more readily you are able to make them, the more peaceful your private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was once puzzled and afraid, knowing nowhere to go. But I was lucky, for I have my parents, teachers and others who saw in me a potential to live.

The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. Had I not done that, I’d have broken down and become a chair rocker for the rest of my life. And the path to the belief is never smooth.     4    .

4 . The Secret Garden-A Classical Novel about Hope and Redemption

The Secret Garden is a popular work of children's literature.The novel is set in theearly1900s! The main character is Mary Lennox, a 10-year-old British girl.     1    Mary is then sent to live with her wealthy uncle Archibald Craven, who owns a large estate in the countryside. At first, Mary is bored by the people she meets as well as the slow pace of rural life. One day, a maid tells Mary about a hidden garden that Mrs.Craven kept before her death.The tale of Mrs. Craven's secret enclosure awakens Mary's curiosity. She makes it her mission to find out more about the mysterious garden.

While exploring the property, she sees a robin resting on a mound of dirt. Mary digs through the soil and finds the key to the locked garden door.     2     She decides to do whatever it takes to bring the secret garden back to life.

Meanwhile, Mary starts to hear haunting cries on the estate at night. One evening, she follows the sounds and discovers Mr. Craven’s son, Colin. Mary learns that Colin is ill and can’t walk.    3    

Mr. Craven ordered his servants to care for Colin but would never visit because his son reminded him of his wife.

Mary and Colin become good friends. Mary convinces Coin that he can use his mind to overcome his illness.     4     There, they meet Ben Weather-staff, one of Mr. Craven’s servants. They all decide to work together to restore the area. When their work is finished, they plan a surprise for Mr. Craven. He arrives at the garden and finds the flowers in bloom, just like they were when his wife was alive. More importantly, he’s overjoyed to lean that Colin has become a healthy boy. Their relationship is repaired, and they look forward to a brighter future.

6 . I was grocery shopping recently in my hometown, N.Y., when I heard a young voice rise. “Mom, come here, you’ve gotten see this! There’s this lady here my size!”

The mother was mortified and rushed to a boy she called Mikey, who looked to be about seven; then she turned to me to apologize. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

I smiled and told her, “It’s okay.” Then I looked at her wide-eyed son and said, “Hi, Mikey, I’m Darryl Kramer. How are you?”

He studied me from head to toe, and asked, “Are you a little mommy?” “Yes, I have a son,” I answered.

“Why are you so little?” he asked.

“It’s the way I was made,” I said.

It takes only one glance to see my uniqueness. I stand three feet, nine inches tall. I am an achondroplasia dwarf (软骨发育不全的侏儒). Like most achondroplasia dwarfs, I have two average-height parents, as well as an average-height brother. When I was born, my mother was told in the hospital that I was a dwarf. Not knowing a lot about dwarfism, my mom’s main concern was my health. Our family doctor put her mind at ease when he told her he felt I would not have any major medical concerns. He was right.

When I was growing up, my parents encouraged me to do all the things the kids around me did. So when my neighbors got two-wheel bikes, I got a two-wheel bike. When they roller-skated, I roller-skated. I didn’t see anything different in my parents’ eyes about me. Why should I look   at myself differently? Therefore, I just tried to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. I was determined to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. And when I accepted myself as I was, life wasn’t that difficult after all. Most people around me were friendly and protective.

I’m 47 now, and it’s the children’s questions that make my life special. “Why are you so short? How old are you? Are you a mommy?” When I talk with children, they leave content that their questions have been answered. My hope is that in taking time with them, I will encourage them to accept their peers, whatever size and shape they come in, to know that every human deserves due respect.

7 . Smith had to drive across the Sahara Desert. It was a journey across hundreds of miles of empty desert.

After he had been driving for a few hours, there was a sandstorm. His car left the road and then broke down.

Smith began walking north across the hot sand under the scorching sun. He hoped he would soon reach the road again. Soon, his tongue was thick with thirst. He needed water, but everywhere he looked there was nothing except sand.

Smith kept walking. Then, about an hour later, a man riding a camel came into sight. Smith waved to him. The man on the camel rode up to him and stopped. “Please,” Smith said, “I am dying of thirst. Let me have some of your water.” The man slowly shook his head. “You can’t have any water,” he said, “but I’ll sell you a necktie.” “I don’t want a necktie,” Smith shouted at him furiously. “I need water.” But the man turned away quickly and rode off.

Smith continued walking. Two hours later, he met another man riding a camel. This time he asked if he could buy some water, but the man refused, saying, “No, but I’II sell you a necktie.” Angrily, Smith turned away from him and continued walking.

Three hours later, by which time he was near death, Smith saw a large luxury hotel in the distance. It stood alone in the middle of the desert, surrounded by palm trees.

Smith managed to reach the main entrance. He was about to enter the hotel when the doorman stopped him. “Hey!” he said. “This is a first-class hotel. You can’t come in here without a necktie.”

10 . People always regret asking me and my wife how we got together. It's a long story, involving other relationships and several countries, and to be honest, it's not that interesting, so I'll spare you the details. We were at a restaurant in Tuscany on our summer holiday last year though, when we met another English couple who had a far more interesting story than us. Lynn and Andy had actually met online before they got together, or at least they thought they had. After a few casual conversations through an online dating agency, they decided to meet for real. Lynn arrived at the restaurant first, and shortly after was approached by Andy, who thought she was someone else. It turns out they'd both arranged to meet different people, but liked the look of each other, and that was that!

And they're not alone. It seems there are all sorts of places you might meet that special someone. Lukas met Sofia for the first time when he crashed into her car — on his bicycle. It was raining and I was coming downhill really fast, so I couldn't really see where I was going. Sofia opened her car door and I went straight into it, and off my bike,explains Lukas. I was unconscious for a few seconds, and when I came round there was this beautiful young woman asking me "Are you OK?" Well, after that, she went to the hospital with me and was just really kind, really caring, and we hit it off. ”

Every cloud has a silver lining, so they say, and Nick McKiddie would most likely agree. He was leaving the office late one night when he got robbed by a group of young men. He wasn't hurt, but they stole his phone and wallet, so he called the police. Susan Harris, a young police officer at the time, attended the call. Nick explains, I don't know whether I was in shock because of what had happened, but I think it was love at first sight. I would never usually be so confident, but I just asked if she wanted to go for a drink sometime, and to my surprise, she said yes! Nick and Susan got married last December.

Animals don't have the same social inhibitions (抑制；顾虑) as humans do, and this was certainly the case when Ri took her dog, Ben, to the local dog park. “As soon as I took his head off, he ran straight to another dog on the other side of the park, and started getting very friendly indeed,” she laughs. “I actually had to pull him away, and that was when I met Ben, the other dog's owner. We had a good laugh about it all, especially when we realised he had the same name as my dog. We became friends after that, and well, the rest is history.”