We all know that getting the flu is not fun. There are headaches, coughs, fevers, and other terrible feelings. To help us get better, we take some medicine and get much rest. We also drink lots of water and eat healthy food to make us feel better.

In fact, no one wants to fall ill. So many people get a flu shot before the flu season starts. The flu shot is in fact a vaccine (疫苗), not usual cold medicine. It will protect (保护) them from the flu.

The vaccine gets some of the flu into the body. But don’t worry, the flu is dead (死的) and won’t make you fall ill. It will teach your body to know the disease and fight it off in the future. Vaccines not only protect you but also others. That’s because they help stop diseases from spreading (扩散) from person to person. When fewer people have the diseases, the chances of getting them go down. Sometimes, the diseases just go away.

Vaccines are quite safe, but some people are still afraid of them. They worry that the vaccines will cause serious side effects (副作用). Vaccines may cause side effects, but they are usually not as ________ as people think. For most people, vaccines are safe and can make them better. So they want them in their bodies.

Yi Xiaoyuan, a student at Tsinghua University, says that his health problem has made him stronger. “Disabled people in China don’t need money or sympathy(同情心),” Yi says, “What we need is a chance.” He has been in a wheelchair for eleven years, since he was eleven years old.

Yi was born in Yuxi, Yunnan Province. For the six years of his life, he developed normally. However, at the age of six, the trouble started. By eleven, walking had become too hard for him, and he had to use a wheelchair. From then on, Yi’s parents did everything they could to give their son a chance to overcome(克服) his disability.

“My parents gave up many chances because of me,” he says. “My father could have been promoted(升职), but he would have gone to Kunming, away from Yuxi. So he turned it down.” Guo Qiongfen, Yi’s mother, left behind her job as well as her 10-year-old daughter and her husband in Yuxi, to care for her son in Beijing. Although the school has done a lot to help them, without Yi’s mother, life would still be too hard for him. Every day, his mother helps him wash, dress and help him to go to class in his wheelchair.

Although with health problems, Yi was a good student at school. He got the 16th highest grade in Yunnan Province and entered Tsinghua University. His dream came true. And at university, he also does very well. He has joined the debate team(辩论队) as well as study groups. He has made many friends. When he is late for class, his teachers wait.

This is what Yi wants. Give him an opportunity, he says, and he will show you he can succeed. “Most people in China will show sympathy for the disabled, thinking that they need to help us,” Yi says. “But that’s not what we need. We need the chance to create our own future, the chance to try our best.”

When you cut your skin, you bleed (流血). If a person loses a lot of blood (血液), he will become ill and may die. Blood is very important. People have always known that. At one time, some people even drank blood to make them strong!

When doctors understand how blood goes around inside the body, they try ways of giving blood to people who need it. They take blood from healthy people and give it to people who need it. This is called "blood transfusion" (输血). The blood goes from the arm of a healthy person into the arm of a sick person.

But there are two problems. First, it does not always work. Sometimes people die when they have blood transfusion. Later, doctors find that we do not all have the same kind of blood. There are four groups---O, A, B and AB. We all have blood of one of these groups. They also find that they can give any kind of blood to people of group AB. But they find that they can only give A-group blood to A-group people and B-group blood to B-group people. I have O-group blood and the doctor told me that I could give blood to anyone else safely.

There is another problem. To give blood of the right kind, doctors have to find a person of the right blood group. Often they can not find a person in time. If they have a way to keep the blood until someone needs it, they can always have the right kind of blood available. At first they find they can keep it in bottles for fifteen to twenty days. They do this by making it very cold. Then they find how to keep it longer. In the end they find a way of keeping blood for a very long time. We call a place where we keep money a "bank".

We call a place where we keep blood a "blood bank". One day, when you grow up, you may decide to give blood to a "blood bank". In this way you may stop someone from dying. Or perhaps one day you may become ill. You may need blood. The "blood bank" will give it to you in time.