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(钢琴) music very much. “It's too bad you can't play,” his father said. But the boy took that as a challenge(挑战).“I will show people that I can,” he said to himself.

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

Darrius's favourite piano music is River Flows in You by Yiruma, a 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 says, “ but I don’t let it hold me back from anything.”

Once there was a piano player in a bar(酒吧).People came just to hear him play. But one night, a lady asked him to sing a song．

“I don’t sing,” said the man．

But the lady told the waiter, “I’m tired of listening to the piano. I want the player to sing!”

The waiter shouted across the room, “Hey, friend! If you want to get paid, sing a song!” So he did. He had never sung in public before. Now he was singing for the first time! Nobody had ever heard the song Mona Lisa sung so beautifully!

He didn’t know that he could sing so well! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar. But once he found, by accident(偶然地), that he could sing well, he went on working hard and became one of the best-known singers in the US. His name was Nat King Cole．

You have skills and abilities, too. You may not feel that your talent is great, but it may be better than you think. If you work hard , most skills can be improved. Besides, you may have no success at all if you just sit on your talent．

Long ago, there was a monster (怪兽). Its name was Nian. It was big and strong. It looked like a lion. Every Chinese New Year’s Eve, Nian would go to a village by the sea. It would eat its crops, animals, and even people.

Everyone was afraid of Nian. So, they would run and hide in the mountains. One year, a stranger came to the village. A kind old woman gave him something to eat. Then, she told him about Nian.

The stranger said, “Let me stay in your house this evening. I could help you fight against the monster.” Soon, night came, and Nian showed up. It was going to the old woman’s house. However, the monster saw three red banners (横幅) around the door and they stopped it.

Suddenly, there were loud bangs (巨响) and fires everywhere. It was the stranger who lighted firecrackers (鞭炮). He was in all red. That scared Nian, and it ran away.

The villagers copied the stranger’s actions year after year, and Nian never returned. Today, people celebrate Chinese New Year the same way.