Abel, Natalie, and Zach looked through the fence at the empty lot (场地) .

Abel spoke first. “This place looks like a dump,” he said.

The lot was littered with trash and old tires. Weeds grew everywhere, and dirty water dripped from a broken fountain.

“It’s ugly now, but it could be beautiful,” said Natalie.

Zach looked a this friends. “Let’s clean it up,” he said. “People should be able to come here and enjoy this place,” “I think the extra help will make a big difference,” said Abel. The other friends agreed with him, put together a plan and asked other children to help.

On Saturday morning, the children picked up the trash all over the lot. After lunch, some of them put the tires into a wheelbarrow and pushed it to a truck. Then, they loaded the tires into the back Zach’s mom drove the truck to a place that recycles tires. Later, some boys and girls pulled out the weeds. Natalie’s uncle lent them a lawnmower (剪草机) to cut the grass.

On Sunday morning, everyone came back to keep working. They gathered the bags of trash and placed them in the truck. By late afternoon, it was finally time to rest.

Abel’s dad came with snacks and water. He also brought his tools. “This fountain worked when I was your age, but it broke years ago,” he said. “I’ll try to fix it.”

“You played here when you were younger? asked Natalie.

“I sure did,” answered Abel’s dad.

“Look at the lot again,” said Abel. “Now it is beautiful. And we did it together.”

Soon, the fountain was working again.

Now, the lot was a place for people in their community to meet and play. Abel and his friends       6       because they 6 .

Have you ever heard the saying “Don’t rest on your laurels”? “Laurels” means the achievements you have already got. The saying suggests that you shouldn’t be so satisfied with your achievements that you’ll no longer try to improve.

As to this saying, Mike Perham has set us a good example. Born in 1992 in Hertfordshire England, Mike was just 14 when he became the youngest person to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. You might think the achievements are good enough, but Mike doesn’t think so. At the age of 17, he became the youngest person to sail all by himself around the world on a nine-month voyage.

Mike is now over 20, and he is still trying his best to break the records and push himself further. For his next adventure, he plans to fly around the world on his own, making him the first person of all ages to both sail and fly around the world.

Mike wants his achievements to encourage young people to realize their dreams. Since his adventures, he has travelled widely, speaking at schools and youth clubs in the UK, Hong Kong and Australia on the theme of “Live the Dream”.

Amazing Facts:

Mike started sailing when he was seven.

His transatlantic crossing began at Gibraltar and ended in Antigua.

His round the world yacht(游艇) was called Totally Money.com.

Chen Qingyue, 13, is a common student in Grade 8 in the United States. But he has made himself a “star” on Wechat!

He has a public Wechat account (微信公众号) to share his life in the us, from study to after-class activities. He has about 1,200 followers. All his posts are original 原创的) and he updates (更新) them almost every day.

Chen moved to the US four years ago. He studies at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School, Califomia. He started using Wechat this time four years ago.

To write high quality (高品质的) articles every day, Chen worked very hard. He watched life more carefully. And he read more books and learned how to design (设计) pages. “I found everything in life could be written about. The key is to find a point and make it clear,” he said.

The latest article he wrote is about the difference between the first school day in the US and China. Through pictures, he showed that US students would receive many materials (资料) on the first school day, including the head teacher’s letter and different forms to fill in.

Many readers encourage and thank him by sending messages and money. So far he has received about 1,500 yuan. “I will keep writing at least until high school I won’ t let my followers down,” he said.