A tone-deaf (五音不全的) teenager has surprised his family by suddenly being able to play music after suffering a concussion (脑震荡).
Gordon, a high school student, now can play 13 instruments1he has never learned music.
As a small child, he loved sports, dreamed of playing lacrosse (长曲棍球) as a career, and had no2in music.
"He really had3musical talent (天赋)," his mother told the reporter. "When he played lacrosse with a local team in Grade Six, he4backwards and hurt the back of his head5the ground."
"I remember6and then I felt really dazed (恍惚的)," he told the reporter. "I didn't really understand something7had happened."
The doctors told him he could return to the field. He did so, but8he went on to suffer9couple of hard hits to the head, which sent him to the hospital again.
After that the doctors told him he couldn't play sports any more, but there was one good side effect: his new-found10.
"Now I can play many instruments, such as piano, guitar and violin. Music is the thing that gets me up in the morning," he said.
The idea for the book Harry Potter and thePhilosopher's Stone came to J. K. Rowling in 1990. She spent seven yearsfinishing writing it. During those seven years she had a number of jobs,including one job as an English teacher. Rowling sent the book to fourpublishers before one of them bought it. She was very happy because it was herdream to be a published writer. Before she sold her book, she was living in asmall flat with her daughter. She was so poor that she could not pay the heatin winter.
Harry Potter became a great success withboth children and adults in England. After her second and third books werepublished, the books were made into popular movies. Rowling's life hadcompletely changed, in just three years.
Harry Potter books have become one of themost popular books across the world. People translated them into more than 60languages so far.
My interest in cooking started when I was11, partly thanks to my mother. She didn't really like cooking and when she didcook, I didn't like her food. Once I was watching something about cooking on TVand I thought I could do this, so I went to the bookstore and looked for thebiggest cookbook I could find.
During a year, I had produced most of itsrecipes (食谱) and was ready for a big challenge (挑战). Iwanted to create my own dishes and I started cooking for more people than justmy family. To my joy, my parents allowed me to build a test kitchen. I did muchcooking to test my dishes init and my skill improved quickly. Later, mymum and I set up a dinner club that organized monthly events inside my home.Now as a teen chef (主厨), I have also cooked in top-classrestaurants around the country. I am not doing it for the money, but because Ilove cooking.
Now I know that when you stop caringwhether you'll be famous or do well, your dream will come to you.
I love to go biking! Two years ago I bought an exercise bike (健身脚踏车). But soon I got bored with being at home, so I bought a used bike and started going for short rides. Now I plan day trips in my neighborhood (街区). When you drive a car, you miss many things. It's surprising how much more you can see when you're biking.
—Sam
My favourite thing to do at weekends is to go to the beach. The beach is beautiful all through the year. I usually drive there. If the weather is cold, I wear some warm clothes and go for long walks on the beach. When the weather is hot, I enjoy swimming or lying in the sun.
—Barbara
At weekends I like to read books. If the weather is nice, I'll take a good book to the park and stay there reading for hours. I think there's nothing asdelightful as reading a good book.
—Bill
Weekends are for going hiking (徒步旅行) with my parents. We live near some beautiful mountains. Sometimes we camp out at night. We really enjoy cooking dinner over a campfire and spending a night under the stars!
—Grace
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become a writer make up of come true learn something more useful give up |
As young students, you have many dreams. These dreams can be very big, such as winning the Nobel Prize. They can also be small, such as becoming one of the best students in your class. Once you find a dream, what do you do with it? Do you ever try to make your dream ?
Andrew Matthews, an Australian writer, tells us that making your dreams come true is life's biggest challenge. You may think you're not very good at some school subjects, or that it's impossible for you . Those kinds of ideas stop you from realizing your dream.
In fact, everyone can realize his dream. The first thing you must do is to remember what your dream is. Don't let it leave your heart. Keep telling yourself what you want every day and then your dream will come true faster. You should know that a big dream is, in fact, many small dreams.
You must also never your dream. There will be difficulties on the road to your dream. But the biggest difficulty comes from yourself. You need to decide what is the most important. Studying instead of watching TV will help you to get better exam results, while saving five yuan instead of buying an ice cream means you can buy a new book.
As you get closer to the dream, it may change a little. This is good as you have the chance and find new hobbies.
Mary likes to run. When she was in thirdgrade, she began training to run long distances. When she was in eighth grade,her parents agreed to let her run in the Banana Classic. The Banana Classic isa ten-kilometre race. It takes place every year in Mattydale. The winners get alifetime supply (提供) of peanuts and fruit juice.
Marypractised by running ten kilometres, twice every day. On the average run, shewould finish in thirty minutes. Last year's winner finished the race intwenty—six minutes and ten seconds!
On the day of the race, Mary ran fasterthan she ever had in the past. As she came across the last kilometre, she wasin the fourth place. She picked up the pace (步伐) and quickly reached the second place,just as she could see the finishing line. She ran as fast as she could in a maddash (冲刺) to the finishing line, but she just wasn'tfast enough to catch up with the first runner.
