Steve knew he'd been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he'd try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he'd been adopted gave him his mother's name: Tallady. But online searches didn't turn up any results about it, and Steve had to let it go.

    In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe's store where Steve, then 22, worked as a deliveryman. When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, “You mean Tallady, who works here？”

    Steve and Tallady, a cashier, had said hello to each other a few times at the store, but they'd never really talked. He hadn't even known her name. Steve thought there was no possible way she was his mother though they shared the same name. For a few months, Steve avoided Tallady. “I wasn't sure how to approach her，” he told a local reporter. Finally, the agency volunteered to arrange their reunion.

    When Tallady realized that the nice guy she'd been waving at was his son, she sobbed. She'd always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearby bar. She'd given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. “I wasn't ready to be a mother，” she told him. Married with two other children, Tallady says, “I have a complete family now.”

I was looking for a house on sale one morning. While I was driving along the street I saw something heartbreaking: a bloodied and limping(跛行) dog was half-running alongside my car on his way home. I knew he was on his way home because after trying to get him into my car by offering him something to eat, he just gave me a look and continued on his way to a front yard where he finally stopped. Without thinking, I immediately pulled over and grabbed a First Aid kit I kept under the passenger seat.

With the First Aid kit in hand, I knelt in front of the injured dog which weighed more than 80 pounds and looked sympathetically at him. He licked my hand. Holding a gauze pad(纱垫), I proceeded to treat his wounds. He had lost a lot of blood and I was worried about dehydration(脱水)from the extreme heat.

Although my actions merely cleaned his wounds and wrapped them up with bandages, I had done enough to inspire his owners. The owners wondered why there was a stranger kneeling down and touching their dog and came out to find out what was going on. They didn’t even know he had gone missing. I explained I had followed him, and that he had been injured from what I considered to have been a dog fight. They said they lacked the money to take him to a vet, so I coached them on how to clean and treat his wounds. They thanked me for my help and showered their injured dog with love, promising to keep a better eye on him and do what I had advised.

 Most times, what people accept as hope is a feeling or thought that something desired may happen. The word hope is a guarantee of happiness without doubt. Hope is the Greek word “elpis” meaning “to expect or look forward with pleasure”. Sam Jonah says “There is no medicine as great and powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.”

    Sam Jonah is one of the world's most influential thinkers of this century. At a time, mining(采矿) for Africans was hell (地狱) on earth, because they were treated very badly and there were no certain key positions in the industry for them because there was this belief then that “the blacks can not manage their affairs successfully”. Even in the face of all these challenges and discriminations, Sam Jonah hoped to head the industry someday. When he told his friends and parents about his hope, he became a laughing stock. Not giving up his hope, he worked hard toward it and at last he became CEO of Anglo Gold Ashanti.

    Hope without doubt helps you to struggle hard until you finally achieve your aims. Hope keeps one alive and also helps us persevere (坚持) to succeed. Someone may say“ I have tried and failed several times”. As a matter of fact, failure is unavoidable sometimes but that doesn't affect your ability to succeed. The key is that you can't give up your hope. Our history has seen many great achievers. Though they hoped they could make it, they also failed; however, they didn't give up their hope. They worked even harder and eventually succeeded.

    Today when we can celebrate so many of them lot their courage, remember “faith without work is dead”, so is your dream or hope. Sam Jonah says“ Hope is the companion of power, the mother of success; we could succeed with hope in our hearts one day.” So don't let your hope down.

B

    It would be a success story if Fullerton Union High School senior Fernando Rojas，the son of Mexican immigrants whose schooling stopped in the eighth grade，was accepted to college．But the 17 year old made a surprising clean sweep of every lvy League(常春藤联合会的)college．

    “I didn't think I would get into any，”Rojas said on Saturday．“When I was accepted by all the eight Ivy League colleges，it was a surprising joy．”The first call came from Yale University in February．Within weeks，calls，emails and letters followed from Dartmouth College，Brown University，the University of Pennsylvania，Cornell University，Columbia University，Harvard University and Princeton University．Rojas was also accepted by Stanford University and two nearby schools，the University of California，Irvine，and the California State University，Fullerton．

    He is one of four children of Raul Rojas and Maria，who moved to Fullerton from Jaliseo，Mexico，in the early 1980s．As a national speech and debate champion，Rojas thought that if he applied to the eight Ivy League colleges，he might get into one．Sal Tinajero．Rojas' speech coach at Fullerton，said，“His biggest motivation was to let his parents know that their hard work meant something．”

    After visiting several campuses，he settled on Yale，which costs $ 64，000 a year with room and board(膳宿)．He is responsible for $ 6，000，and Yale scholarships cover the rest．“I loved Princeton，”Roias said．“It was a beautiful campus，but it felt very stressful．Stanford was too big．”

    Rojas owes his academic success to hard work and the guidance of his elder brothers．Before heading to Yale，he's considering majoring in Latin American studies and perhaps a career as a lawyer in international affairs．

  A lawyer and a young lady were sitting next to each other on a long flight. The lawyer asked if she would like to play a fun game. The lady just wanted to take a nap, so she politely refused.

The lawyer explained that the game was actually very easy. He explained “I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me, and vice versa（反之亦然）.” Again, the lady politely refused and tried to get some sleep.

The lawyer added eagerly, “Okay, if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $50!” Considering that there would be no end to this suffering unless she played, the lady agreed.

The lawyer asked the first question, “What is the distance from the earth to the moon?” The young lady didn’t say a word, pulled out five dollars from her purse and handed it to the lawyer.

Now, it was the lady’s turn. She asked the lawyer, “What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?” The lawyer was greatly puzzled. He took out his computer and searched all of h is references. He searched the Net and sent e-mails to all of his friends, but it was all to no avail. After over an hour, he woke up the lady and handed her $50. The lady politely took the money and turned away to get back to sleep.

The lawyer, very puzzled now, woke the lady up again and asked, “Well, what on earth is the answer?” Without a word, the lady reached into her purse, handed the lawyer another $5 and went back to sleep.

Mr. Lang worked in a factory. As a driver, he was busy but he was paid much. His wife was an able woman and did all the housework. When he came back, she took good care of him and he never did anything at home. So he had enough time when he had a holiday. A few friends of his liked gambling and he learned it soon. So he was interested in it and hardly forgot anything except gambling. He lost all his money and later he began to sell the television, watches and so on. His wife told him not to do it but he didn’t listen to her. She had to tell the police. He and his friends were punished for it. And he was hardly sent away. After he came out of lockup, he hated her very much and the woman had to leave him.

It was New Year’s Day. Mr. Lang didn’t go to work. He felt lonely and wanted to gamble again. He called his friends and they came soon. But they were afraid the police would come. He told his five-year-old son to go to find out if there were the policemen outside. They waited for a long time and didn’t think the police would come and began to gamble. Suddenly opened the door and in came a few policemen.

“I saw there weren’t any policemen outside, daddy,” said the boy, “so I went to the crossing and asked some to come.”

The whole family objected when my brother and I said we were going to spend our Christmas holidays abroad. Mother said that as there would be a family reunion party，we would have to be present. Though we always enjoyed these occasions，nothing could persuade us to stay.
    Two days before Christmas，we went to a small town in southern Germany. We spent the whole Christmas Eve sightseeing. There was so much activity in the town that it led to our excitement. The streets were crowded with people and the shops were full of wonderful things.In the evening，we went to listen to Christmas songs sung by children and the brightly lit trees in the main square.  We returned to our hotel late that night，greatly looking forward to the next day when we planned to have a meal at the best restaurant in town. But in the morning the streets were deserted. To make matters worse，all the shops，including the restaurants， were shut.  We returned to our hotel，feeling very miserable. All we had was a bag of fruit which my brother had happened to buy the day before. Our thoughts sadly turned to home where，at that moment，the whole family must have been wishing us a “Merry Christmas”．

  I took my first gymnastics class at age 3. The gym was my life. The Special Olympics practice started right when mine ended. Someone at the gymsaid, “We think you’d be a good fit. Would you mind staying an extra hour?” I was 14. I was putting in about 40 hours at this point. Staying there an extra hour—why wouldn’t I? Here were these people who wanted to learn more about gymnastics

. I want them to experience what I experience. My role, when I first started, was to bring the technical expertise. I didn’t have any experience working with athletes with disabilities. But because I was so young, I didn’t let that trip me up. When I was applying for colleges much later, I remember people saying, “Oh, that’s going to look so good on your application. ”I had never ever thought of it like that. I wanted to be there.

    I blew my knee out. That’s what ended my career. With one bad landing, I broke my leg, and had four operations. I went through weeks of depression. Everything I’d worked for was gone. I didn’t know what to do. I was always on the move. That’s who I was. I’d coached before then,  but the Special Olympics became something much deeper when I could no longer compete.

    Sport, inany context, is about pushing yourself to the limit. In the Special Olympics context, we have athletes who have had so many limitations placed on them. If you expect instant results, this is not for you. On the other hand, you are coming into a family. For example, right now I have a voice mail from Mandy, an athlete in Texas, just talking about how much she’s looking for ward to seeing me. It pulls me right out of whatever is trying to bring me down. I bounce right back to what’s happy in my life. My athletes keep me balanced.

After a terrible electrical accident, which caused him to become both blind and deaf, the whole world became completely dark and quiet for Robert Edwards for almost ten years. The loss of sight and hearing threw him into such sorrow that he tried a few times to put an end to his life. His family, especially his wife, did their best to tend and comfort him and finally he regained the will to live.

One hot summer afternoon, he was taking a walk with a stick near his house when a thunderstorm started all at once. He stood under a large tree to avoid getting wet, but he was struck by the lightning. Witnesses thought he was dead but he woke up some 20 minutes later lying face down in muddy water at the base of the tree. He was trembling badly, but when he opened his eyes, he could hardly believe what he saw: a plough and a wall. When Mrs. Edwards came running up to him, shouting to their neighbors to call for help, he could see her and hear her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.

The news of Robert regaining his sight and hearing quickly spread and many doctors came to examine him. Most of them said that he regained his sight and hearing from the shock he got from the lightning. However, none of them could give a convincing answer as to why this should have happened. The only reasonable explanation given by one doctor was that, since Robert lost his sight and hearing as a result of a sudden shock, perhaps, the only way for him to regain them was by another sudden shock.

King Midas used to love gold. One day he met a fairy who allowed him to make a wish for something. The king replied at once, ‘‘I love gold. I want everything I touch to change into gold”. ‘‘Very well, tomorrow morning, everything you touch will turn into gold.” Saying this, the fairy disappeared.

  The king waited excitedly till the next morning. To his joy, everything he touched changed immediately into gold. ‘‘I’m the richest man in the world now.” He shouted.

  Soon Midas became hungry. He sat down at his table. All the foods and drinks turned into gold in his hand.  ‘‘I’m dying of hunger.” He cried.

  Just then his daughter came running in.  ‘‘Why are you so sad, dad?” she asked, putting her arms around him. There and then she became a golden statue. The king loved his daughter very much .Seeing this, he began to cry. He looked up and suddenly saw the fairy before him.  ‘‘Don’t you like the golden touch?” asked the fairy. ‘‘Please take it away,” begged the king, ‘‘give me back my daughter.”  ‘‘Well, you have learned your lesson. Go and wash in the river. Then the golden touch will be gone.”

  The king ran quickly to the nearby river.