Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: “Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today—and 45minutes each day for the rest of the week.”

  A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see what the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.

  Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect(感染) other students.

   Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, “But I’m just not creative.”

 “Do you dream at night when you’re asleep?”

 “Oh, sure.”

 “So tell me one of your most interesting dreams.” The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. “That’s pretty creative. Who does that for you?”

 “Nobody. I do it.”

 “Really—at night, when you’re asleep?”

 “Sure.”

 “Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?”

When others get off the train to finally go home,Leonie Muller slays behind.That’s because she is already home: The train is her apartment,and she says she likes it that way.The German college student gave up her apartment in spring.“It all started with an argument I had with my landlord,”Muller told The Washington Post via e-mail.“I immediately decided I want to live there anymore and then I realized: Actually,I didn’t want to live anywhere anymore.”

Instead,she bought a subscription (会员费) that allows her to board every train in the country for free.Now, Muller washes her hair in the train bathroom and writes her college papers while traveling at a speed of up to 190 mph.She says that she enjoys the freedom since she gave up her apartment.“I really feel at home on trains.It’s like being on vacation all the time,”Muller said.

“I want to inspire people to question their habits and the things they consider to be normal,” Muller told The Post.“There are always more opportunities than one thinks there are.The next adventure is waiting just around the comer-provided that you want to find it.”

Muller frequently travels late at night,although she tries to sleep at the apartments of relatives or friends. Often, she is accommodated by her boyfriend,her mother or grandmother.“Normally,we would have to have a long-distance relationship,but living on a train enables me to see him all the time,” Muller told German TV station SWR regarding her boyfriend.“Most of ray friends really like the idea,although some consider it to be quite adventurous. Others, however,have reacted more negatively.They feel offended by the fact that I question the ordinary way of life and living.”

The only problem? “Possessing a headset that reduces most surrounding noises is important,” she said.

Never been on an airplane? Here’s your chance to   (1)   one for just one US dollar, or even for   (2)  if you don’t have the money. Retired pilot Bahadur Gupta will be happy to show you   (3)  . The plane, which never   (4)  , is giving an opportunity to poor people to

  (5)   what it is like to sit in a jet.

When Gupta started his career many years ago, people from his tiny home villages in India   (6)   asked him what it was like to be in an aircraft. None of them had ever

  (7)    areal airplane and they wanted a look at the aviation industry through Gupta’s   (8)  . For security reasons, Gupta was never   (9)   to take his fellow villagers inside an actual aircraft. But saying no always made him feel uncomfortable and   (10)   and he always wanted to do something that would give them a   (11)   of flying.

Finally, in 2003, Gupta sold some land, bought an old airplane and started offering

  (12)   “flights” to the public, charging them only what they could   (13)  .

To make the experience   (14)   real, the “passengers” are given boarding passes and even shown safety   (15)  . What   (16)   the amazing in-flight experience is when the kids

  (17)   slide down the airplane’s emergency landing slide, which many of the most frequent flyers have luckily   (18)   experienced.

The retired pilot says he hopes all his customers can   (19)   fly in a real plane, but in the meantime he is enjoying putting a(n)   (20)   on their faces.

At my heaviest I weighed 370 pounds. I had a very poor relationship with food: I used it to   (1)   bad feelings, to make myself feel better, and to celebrate. Worried about my health, I tried many different kinds of   (2)   but nothing worked. I came to believe that I could do nothing about my    (3)    .

      When I was 50, my weight problem began to affect me   (3)   . I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with this   (4)   weight any more.

      That year, I    (6)     aseminar where we were asked to create a project that would touch the world. A seminar leader shared her  (7)    story—she had not only lost 125 pounds, but also raised $25,000 for homeless children.

        (5)   by her story, I created the As We Heal(痊愈), the World Heals   (6)  . My goal was to lose 150 pounds in one year and raise $50,000    (10)   amovement founded 30 years ago to end hunger. This combination of healing myself and healing the world (11）     me as the perfect solution.

    (7)  I began my own personal weight program, I was filled with the fear that I would  (8)   the same difficulties that beat me before. While the   (9)   hung over my head, there were also signs that I was headed down the right   (10)  . I sent letters to everyone I knew, telling them about my project. It worked perfectly. Donations began     (16)    infrom hundreds of people.

      Of course, I also took some practical steps to lose weight. I consulted with a physician（内科医生）, I hired a fitness coach, and I b）gan to eat small and   (11)   meals. My fund-raising focus also gave me new motivation to exercise   (12)  .

      A year later, I  (13)   my goal: I lost 150 pounds and raised $50,000! I feel that I’ve been given a second life to devote to something that is   (14)   and enormous.

A

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.

In 1849, after graduation from medical school. she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.

Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital , she also set up the first medical school for women.

One summer day my father sent me to buy wire and fencing for our farm in Marion County,South Carolina. At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our Chevy pickup, but thistimeit made me low in spirits. My father had told me I’d have to ask for credit at the store.

Sixteen is a prideful age, when a young man wants respect, not charity. It was 1976, and the uglyshadow of racismwas still a fact of life. I’d seen my friends ask for credit and then stand, head down, while a store owner questioned whether they were “good for it”. I knew black youths just like me were watched like thieves by the store clerk each time they went into a grocery.

My family was honest. We paid off our debts. But before harvest, cash was short. Would the store owner trust us?

At Davis Brothers General Store,Buck Davisstood behind the register, talking to a middle-aged farmer. When I brought my purchases to the register, I said carefully, “I need to put this on credit.”

The farmer gave me a cynical look.But Buckˈs face didn’t change. “Sure,” he said easily. “Your daddy is always good for it.” He turned to the other man. “This here is one of James William’s sons.”

The farmer nodded in a friendly way. I was filled with pride.James William’s son. Those three words had opened a door to an adult’s respect.

That day I discovered the good name my father and mother had earned brought our whole family the respect of our neighbors. The desire to keep the respect of a good name urged me to become the first in our family to go to university. Eventually, it gave me the initiative to start my own successful public relations firm in Washington, D.C.

 It was Easter 1990, and my family was on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Solomon Islands for my sister's wedding.

   I was traveling with my husband, my four-year-old son and my daughter, who was nearly two. We'd been ____  (1)  ____ that it was very hot in the Solomon, so we ____  (2)  ____ lots of light cotton clothes and were wearing the same as it was summer. The only problem was that we had to catch an overnight bus that ____  (3)  ____ at midnight for the airport so we could make our early morning ____  (4)  ____ to Honiara. It was cold on the bus! My husband and I were snuggling (依偎) our children as close as we could, trying to keep them ____  (5)  ____. The bus stopped many times as passengers got on and off, and we didn't take much ____  (6)  ____. The little ones were ____  (7)  ____, unable to sleep for the biting cold. Then at one stop, an older lady came forward from the back of the bus and paused by our seat. I sat forward to see what she wanted and she ____  (8)  ____ a small blanket. My little girl reached ____  (9)  ____ for it and pulled it tight around her. The lady said she'd made the blanket herself and, seeing that we were cold, she wanted us to use it. After she went back to her seat, our now-warm children ____  (10)  ____ off, and they slept comfortably all the way to the airport. Just a stop or two ____  (11)  ____ we arrived, the lady made her way to the door to get off. I tried to ____  (12)  ____ the children to return her blanket, but she protested. “No,” she said, “____  (13)  ____ it. I can always make another one!” Over the years, that little blanket became a ____  (14)  ____ to me and to my children of the kindness of strangers. I told the story to the children over and over and hung the blanket on the end of my daughter's bed so we would see it ____  (15)  ____. That blanket was handmade with the colors carefully chosen. Yet its maker ____  (16)  ____ with it to keep my family warm for a night. If ever people were bad or ____  (17)  ____, it served as a reminder that there is goodness in the world.

   I am forever ____  (18)  ____, not just for the warmth that night, but for the lifelong reminder of the ____  (19)  ____ of people. That blanket has warmed my ____  (20)  ____.

It was a busy morning about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s came to the hospital. I heard him saying to the nurse that he was in a hurry for an appointment at 9:30.                 The nurse had him take a   (1)   in the waiting area,  (2)   him it would be at least 40 minutes  (3)  someone would be able to see him. I saw him  (4)  his watch and decided, since I was  (5)  busy ---my patient didn’t  (6)  at the appointed hour, I would examine his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment. The gentleman said no and told me that he   (7)  to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his  (8)   . He told me she had been  (9)  for a while and she had a special disease. I asked if she would be  (10)  if he was a bit late. He replied that she  (11)  knew who he was, and that she had not been able to   (12)   him for five years. I was  (13)  , and asked him, “And you  (14)   go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?”  He smiled and said, “She doesn’t know me, but I know who she is.” I had to hold back  (15)  as he left.

Now I  (16)   that in marriages, true love is  (17)  of all that is.  The happiest people don’t  (18)   have the best of everything; They just  (19)  the best use of everything they have.   (20)   isn’t about how to live through the storm,  but how to dance in the rain.

Tu Youyou, an 84-year-old female（女性）scientist, became the first Chinese to win a Nobel Prize in science on Oct 5. Before that, she ever won the 2011 Lasker Award for finding out artemisinin (Qinghaosu), which saved millions of lives. She was grateful（感激的）for the Lasker prize, but said, “It is just a scientist’ duty. I will go on fighting for the health of all humans.” 

Tu kept her work in the 1960s and 1970s. In that age, Malaria (疟疾) could took away people’s health. Scientists all over the world had already tried over 240 000 times t but failed. Tu Youyou, a member of theAcademyofTraditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, began to study Chinese herbs. 

Before 2011, people didn’t know Tu very much. Many friends played jokes with her “the Professor of Three Noneˈs” : no degree（学位）, no study experience abroad, not a member of any Chinese national colleges. But she is hard-working. She read a lot of traditional Chinese medicine books and did a lot of researches on the disease.

InFebruary, 2012, Tu was named National Outstanding Females (One of the Ten) Tu is now a model of Chinese medical workers.