Every time I passed boys who were playing basketball, I stopped silently to watch them. I really envied them. But as a girl, I once thought that I could never play basketball.

I like playing basketball though I’m not good at it. I’ve had a basketball since I was a child. At first, I could play freely because no one cared when I was just a kid. But as I grew up it seemed harder and harder for me to enjoy basketball.

At school, it was always the boys who played basketball during P.E. classes. The girls were only allowed to play volleyball or badminton.

My parents did not let me play basketball at home. “Basketball is not for girls,” they said. Even when I went to play basketball with my friends, boys stared at me on the court as if I were an alien.

I was feeling down and had hope of playing basketball. Unexpectedly, something changed the first day of high school. I made some friends who also enjoyed playing basketball. They encouraged me to get back on the court.

One of them told me with a smile, “Go your own way, let others talk.” This girl would always play basketball with me. Even the boy who sat next to me in class talked about basketball with me almost every day.

I was inspired by them. Confidence and passion (激情) returned to my heart. I am ready to stand up and play. I will play as well as I can, and for me, even the sky is boundless.

Basketball has become an important part of my life. I am interested in it. I watch and play almost every day. Through basketball, not only do I feel happy and confident, but also learn a lot.

I have heard the NBA star Tracy McGrady say “Nothing is impossible.” It is from an advertisement on TV. I have come to realize that life is just like playing basketball. You should have an aim. After that, just be confident and keep going. Never give up and you will make it sooner or later.

I love the motto of the NBA. It can express my strong feelings for basketball, “I love this game!”

In today’s world of email and IM, my 9-year-old son doesn’t even know what it costs to mail a letter, let alone the rich history of stamps and the joys of stamp collecting.

All that is about to change.

We arrive at the Spellman Museum of Stamps Postal History, located on the campus of Regis College. The museum’s mission (使命) is “to be a center of learning and activity that enables those of all ages to appreciate diverse cultures and peoples by exploring the ways they communicate through the world’s postal systems”. Central to the museum’s philosophy is that real objects, direct experience, and enjoyment are gateways to understanding and learning.

There are many ways they deliver on this mission. Children can engage in numerous hands-on activities, including museum-wide Stamp Scavenger Hunts, an interactive “Stamp or No Stamp?” quiz game and special activities on Family and Homeschoolers Days.

“We see kids come in the door with no knowledge of stamps, and walk out with a whole new view of their world and an excitement about stamp collecting,” says Henry Lukas, the museums director of educational programs.

“Some kids sit here for hours and search through,” says Lukas. “Butterflies, pets, Olympics... if they are interested in a certain topic, we can pull out a box and they can start hunting.” My own son is excitedly hand-picking stamps with animals from other countries, eagerly starting his own themed stamp collection.

But there’s more to stamps than simply collecting them. “You can learn a lot from a corner of an envelope,” Lukas says. “They are an invention; someone had to think up an idea. They come in all different shapes. Some are made of material other than paper, like wood. There’s a Brazilian stamp that smells like coffee.”

We leave the museum with lots of bits of paper, and a boy who continues his fascination with his stamps once home, glued with fascination to his tiny treasures.

I was reading these interesting stories behind a group of great logos (标识) in the world. Personally Nike is my favorite one - it's so simple. And I liked the stories behind them, which made me forget all other things. McDonald's, Apple, Mercedes Benz and Adidas own great logos as well, and they are among my favorites.

In the Greek myth, Nike is the goddess of victory and the source of inspiration for soldiers. This logo represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek goddess. Nike's logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for $ 35, and was registered as a trademark in 1995.

The logo was designed in 1962 by Jim Schindler to resemble the arch-shaped (拱形的) signs on the side of the company's then walk-up hamburger stand. Later on, the two golden arches were combined together to form the M. The McDonald's name was added to the logo in 1968.

There are different stories behind Apple's logo. The first logo was a reference to the religious story of Adam and Eve, in which the apple represented the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One year later, the second logo was designed in 1977 by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and it described Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. This logo didn't stay long. One year later it was replaced almost immediately by graphic designer Rob Janoff's“rainbow apple", a rainbow-colored silhouette (轮廓) of an apple with a bite taken out of it. And then the rainbow-colored apple was replaced by the one-colored logo in 1998. It has not been changed so far.

The Mercedes Benz logo, which was originally created by Gottlieb Daimler in 1909, consists of a simple description of a three-pointed star that represents its rule of the land, the sea and the air. The company was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Mercedes is the name of Maybach's elder daughter, while Benz came as a result of a combination with Benz, Cie and DMG in 1926.

The Adidas logo, which was created by the founder of the company Adi Dassler, represents mountains, pointing towards the challenges that are seen ahead and goals that can be achieved. The logo was used for the first time in 1967.