阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
         Born in 1949，Diana Nyad took an early interest in swimming as a sport and was a Florida State High School swimming champion. Like many young athletes，she had Olympic dreams，but a serious illness kept her from competing in the Games. The disappointment didnˈt stop her from going forward. Instead，she became interested in marathon swimming. A brilliant athlete，she was well­conditioned for spending long periods of time in the water. As a long­distance swimmer，she would compete against herself and the obstacles presented by distance，danger，cold，and exhaustion.
         For ten years Nyad devoted herself to becoming one of the worldˈs best long­distance swimmers. In 1970，she swam a ten­mile marathon in Lake Ontario，setting the womenˈs record for the course.In 1972 she set another record by swimming 102.5 miles from an island in the Bahamas to the coast of Florida. Then she broke a third record when swimming around Manhattan Island in 1975.
         Nyad attempted to swim the distance between Florida and Cuba in 1978.Though the span of water is less than 100 miles wide，it is rough and dangerous. After battling the water for two days，she had to give up for the sake of her own health and safety. Even so，she impressed the world with her courage and strong desire to succeed. For Nyad her strength of purpose was just as important as reaching Cuba. That is how she defined success. It did not matter that her swim came up short；she believed she had touched the other shore.
         When Nyad ended her career as a swimmer，she continued to try new things — travelling the world as a reporter，writing books and giving public speeches about her life. Diana Nyad works to inspire others，just as she did when she swam the waters of the world.

Mike, a US video game fan, and I got to know each other playing computer games together online. We have known each other for years and played Warcraft, Red Alert, Starcraft, FIFA, NBA, all versions of Super Mario Bros, as well as DOTA, DOTAⅡ.

Everything was okay until we started playingKing of Glory(王者荣耀).

He kept asking questions which appeared quite silly to me: Who is Zhao Yun? Wasn’t Li Bai a poet? If so, why does he carry a sword in the game? My friends say in history textbooks Jing Ke is a man.

At first, I tried to explain everything. But the questions were trying my patience. Why didn’t Mike get hold of a Chinese history textbooks to find the answers?

Suddenly, I realized why. King of Glory is the first Chinese computer game Mike has played, so he never thought of learning Chinese history before. Almost all the previous games we played together were European or US products, based on Western legends or history.

While playing these games, we learned the stories behind them without realizing why, which is a kind of soft power of the West, because itmotivates  people to learn about Western legends and history.

King of Glory, on the other hand, attracts large numbers of Westerners to play, and inspires them to learn about Chinese history and legends.

Since King of Glorydoes not have an official English version yet, many foreigners learn the Chinese language just to play the game. A foreigner is reported to have learned Chinese intensively for 33 days, because he wanted to understand his partners’ orders in the game.

Mike has already bought a Chinese history textbook to know the true stories of the heroes. With King of Glory becoming increasingly popular, we can assume China’s soft power will gain in strength.

Mark’s brother, Jamie, rang Mrs. Grady’s doorbell. “You know her better than I do, Mark. You do the talking.”

“Hi, Mrs. Grady,” said Mark when their neighbor opened her door. “Would you like us to shovel (铲雪) your sidewalk and driveway?”

Shoveling was Jamie’s idea, a way to earn enough money for the new Ocean Kingdom video game that came out the next day.

Mrs. Grady touched her hand to her heart. “That would be wonderful, boys. I think the job is getting to be too much for me.”

“It will cost 10 dollars,” Jamie said.

“If that’s OK,” Mark added.

“Oh dear.” Mrs. Grady sounded disappointed. “I haven’t been able to get to the bank. I can offer homemade cookies, but I realize that’s not what you had in mind.”

Mark was going to say that Mrs. Grady could pay them another time, but Jamie cut him off. “We’ll come back later.”     ①    

As they struggled through the snow out of Mrs. Grady’s driveway, Mrs. Grady stood at her window, watching them.

At the same time, Mark was confused. She didn’t look like the person who’d come to his rescue last summer when Mr. Dunn’s collie (牧羊犬), Goldie, escaped from her backyard.      ②     Goldie had just wanted to play, but Mark didn’t feel comfortable around big dogs. And Goldie had boxed him in between the wooden fence and the cedar hedge.

     ③      Then Mrs. Grady’s front door had flown open. Mrs. Grady must have seen him from across the street. “Hold on, Mark. I’m coming!” Her apron had flapped in the wind like a banner as she strode across the street holding a kitchen broom. “Goldie!” she’d called. As soon as Goldie had turned her head, Mrs. Grady had slipped between Mark and the dog. She wasn’t much taller than Mark, but she’d stood firm as a rock in front of him as she flung her arm out toward Mr. Dunn’s house. “Goldie, go home!” Then she’d swept her broom to hurry the dog along. “Get!” Goldie had obeyed.     _④             

When Mark’s father had appeared at their side, he’d said to Mrs. Grady, “That was very brave! Thank you.”

Mrs. Grady had laughed. “It was nothing. Good neighbors watch out for each other, don’t they?”

And now Mrs. Grady needed Mark as much as he’d needed her last summer.

He smiled and waved at Mrs. Grady, then thrust his shovel deep into the snow. He lifted snow over his shoulder.

“Hey!” Jamie shouted. “What are you doing?”

Mark couldn’t explain about Goldie and watching out for neighbors. “I like Mrs. Grady’s cookies,” he said and scooped up another shovelful.

“It’ll take you all day,” his brother sighed. “We’ll never get that game.”

Mark shrugged and kept digging.

He heard Jamie’s annoyed sigh and then, surprisingly, the bite of Jamie’s shovel against the snow. Mark grinned. Jamie had known all along it was the right thing to do.

“Once the other neighbors see the good job we’ve done, they’ll line up to hire us,” said Jamie. “We’ll make money soon enough.” As usual, he had it all worked out.

Surviving Hurricane Sandy(飓风桑迪)

Natalie Doan,14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the waves from her house. “It’s the ocean that makes Rockaway so special,” she says.

On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned fierce. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie’s family escaped to Brooklyn shortly before the city’s bridges closed.

When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie’s friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, people were suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie’s school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.

In the following few days, the men and women helping Rockaway recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others rebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.

“My mom tells me that I can’t control what happens to me,” Natalie says. “but I can always choose how I deal with it.”

Natalie’s choice was to help.

She created a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to help. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collecting when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick’s collection was replaced.

In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-need supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the White House and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.

Today, the scars(创痕)of destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. “I can’t imagine living anywhere but Rockaway,” Natalie declares. “My neighborhood will be back, even stronger than before.”

I recently bought a house and moved in the first weekend of July.
    Since I have been in my new neighborhood, I have had the pleasure of meeting a few of my neighbors who seem to be extremely nice people. For Christmas, I thought I would do something nice for each of the neighbors that I know. I sat down and counted. There were nine neighbors but I decided to add one more person to my list for a total of ten. This lady that I decided to add lives down the street from me. I meet her every morning walking to work as I drive down the street. She always manages a sweet smile and a hearty wave. I had no idea what her name was and was not even sure which house she lived in.
    My gift idea was to make small fruit baskets and leave them on each of my neighbors’ front porches or door-steps the night of Christmas Eve for them to find, either that night or the next morning. I signed the cards—“Happy Holidays from 5104 Northumberland Road.”
    My neighbors really appreciated the baskets and would tell me as they saw me in the yard or they would call, and a couple even came by to thank me.
    This morning on my way to work, I placed my mail in the mailbox and noticed a small note inside. It was addressed simply “Resident, 5104 Northumberland Road.”
    I opened the envelope and took out a Thank You card. I opened the card and read the message which really caught me by surprise.
    The card said：“Thank you for the lovely fruit basket you left on the porch of Richard Kelly. It was very thoughtful. Richard Kelly passed away less than a month ago. He never stopped talking about how nice it was that someone remembered him in his time of illness. He really appreciated it.”
    I was sincerely moved. I had no idea who Richard Kelly was or that he had been seriously ill. I had left that nice lady’s basket on Mr. Kelly’s porch by accident.