Darrius was born with three fingers on his right hand and one on his left hand. He had to work hard to do things that were easy for others. Every time his classmates tried to help, he would say, “Thanks, but I can do it myself.” He learned to use the four fingers to do different things.

When Darrius was 10, he told his father that he liked piano music very much. “It’s too bad, you can’t play,” his father said. But the boy took that as a challenge. “I will show people that I can,” he said to himself.

Months later, a neighbor gave him an old piano when she moved away. He taught himself to play the piano and practiced for hours a day.

Darrius’s favorite piano music is River Flows in You by Yiruma, a South Korean musician. It took Darrius a year to learn it. “I have to come up with my own way with only 4 fingers,” he said.

When he succeeded, he felt so proud. Later he was lucky enough to play the music together with Yiruma at a famous concert hall! Yiruma encouraged Darrius to follow his dream of playing his own music. Darrius has made it. And his music is popular today.

“I may have a disability,” he say, “but I don’t let it hold me back from anything.”

Amy wanted a mobile phone as her birthday gift, because most of her classmates had one. But she knew her parents couldn’t afford it.

One day, when she woke up, she found a new mobile phone on her desk. How excited she was! This was the phone that had appeared in fashion magazines. She played with the phone on the way to school. And the teacher was already there when she arrived at school. Amy was very embarrassed. She looked at her new mobile phone and said in a low voice, “I didn’t want to be late…”

Everything changed with her thought. She went to school on time with her new mobile phone. She was surprised at that. She turned on the phone and found there was a sentence on the screen, “Every dream will come true.” Since then, she always asks the phone for help. As a result, she has become lazier and lazier. Her teachers and parents were very disappointed with her and her classmates didn’t like her any more.

When the term exams came, Amy asked the mobile phone for help again. But things turned bad. She got the lowest mark in the class. She wanted to throw it away, but when she did, the phone would come back into her hand. Amy was so scared that she cried out, “I don’t want the mobile phone anymore.”

She woke up to find that the terrible experience had been just a dream.

Jerry is a world-famous mountain climber. He has climbed many high mountains in the world. Starting in 2015, he and his friends spent two years on an adventure (探险) in South America, covering 7,800 miles. He was even named Adventure of the Year by a famous geography magazine in 2018.

Although Jerry had achieved great success, he didn’t feel fulfilled. He asked himself, “Is it enough to climb the highest mountains? Am I doing something helpful? How can I turn my adventures into something that can help the world?”

Jerry learned that scientists need plants, rocks and water samples (样本) from the places far away to do research. But scientists can’t get there themselves as such places are hard to reach—only the bravest adventurers can make it. Jerry thought himself could do something to help. He then came up with an idea. He set up a team of top adventures to collect samples for scientists. By studying the samples, scientists could know more about the earth and find ways to protect it.

Recently Jerry and his adventurer friends have discovered a special plant life of Mountain Qomolangma. The samples they brought back have helped scientists how plants live in extreme (极端的) conditions.

For Jerry, this kind of adventure is the most satisfying. “Such adventures had made us see life in a different way. Now, being the best climber isn’t important for me, what matters is doing something helpful while climbing the mountains. There is still much more we can do.” Jerry said to a newspaper.