One day a professor (教授) entered her classroom and told her students about a surprise test. The students took their seats and waited for the test to begin. The professor put a test paper on each student’s desk with the text facing down. She then asked them to turn the paper over and begin.

The students were surprised to see no questions, but just a single black dot (圆点) in the center of the page. The professor said. “I just want you to write down what you see on this paper.”

The students were confused (困惑的), but did as they were told. At the end of class, the professor took their tests and started reading their answers aloud. Each student tried to describe the black dot — its size, its position on the paper. After the professor finished reading, the class was silent.

She started to explain. “Don’t worry. I won’t grade this test. But I want you to think about something. All of you focused on the black dot on this test and wrote about it, but no one wrote about the white area around the dot.”

“Imagine that this paper represents your life. The white area represents all of your life experiences — the black dot just stands for the bad things you’ve gone through. Life blesses us with many things —loved ones, enjoyable moments, and even wonders from time to time. And yet we are likely to focus on the negative. Our problems and difficulties can beat us.”

“From now on, I want you to think about the big picture more often. Don’t just focus on the black dots in your life. Remind yourself how lucky you are sometimes.”

By the time he was 13 years old, a serious illness had taken away Erik Weihenmayer’s eyesight. Though he had lost his sight, he did not lose his courage. On May 25th, 2001, the 32-year-old from Colorado became the first blind person to climb the world’s highest mountain. The interesting story of Weihenmayer’s journey up Mount Everest is told in his own words in a book called “Touch the Top of the world”.

As well as being a world-class mountain climber, Erik is also a good skier and skydiver. He has taken part in long-distance cycle races and run several marathons. He hopes to reach all of “Seven Summits”, the highest mountains on each of the world’s seven continents（大洲）. Probably the best thing he has done, however, is show the world that it is possible to overcome even the greatest difficulties.

Sally loved cars more than anything else. This spring she thought of building a go-kart to enter for the Go-Go Race. So she asked her dad for help.

“Well”, he said. “How about this: you do some research(研究) first and then come back to me with a design?”

A week later, Sally brought her notes and drawings to Dad. She named her go-kart “Blue Lightning”. Her dad looked over her work, thinking. “Well, that’s interesting,” he said. “Have a try. Just build Blue Lightning as you’ve designed.”

Over three weekends of hard work, Sally turned her design into a real, working go-kart and painted it light blue. Dad asked her to take it for a test drive. Sally agreed.

After she did that, Sally drove back to Dad. “Well,” she said. “Now I know why you wanted me to have a test drive.”

“Oh, do you?” he said. “Please share.”

“When I drove fast, there was a lot of push-back(回推力),” she said. “I think it’s because of the lightning bolt shape.”

“Very good!” Dad said.

“So, why didn’t you tell me about that problem in the first place?” Sally asked.

Dad laughed. “Where’s the fun in that? If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.”

Sally said, “I see. Anyway, designing is half the fun!”

Dad smiled. “Good. Sometimes, learning happens during the process(过程). We learn how to do something right by doing it a few times first and making mistakes along the way.”

That encouraged Sally and she worked even harder. When she showed Dad her new go-kart, he nodded with pride.

Finally came the race. Sally wasn’t worried about whether she would win—in her mind, she had already won, by building something better than ever before.