Ryan Hickman is only seven years old, but he’s already been saving for his college fund with profits he’s making from his recycling business.

When Ryan was three-and-a-half, he went with his dad to the local recycling center and made money from a few bags of cans and bottles. When he learned money can be made from that, Ryan decided recycling was his future.

“We had gone to the center with a couple of bags, and he really loved the actual act of putting all the cans and bottles into the machine and getting the money from it, and that kind of act got him hooked, ” described Damion Hickman, Ryan’s father.

Ryan told his parents that he wanted to give empty plastic bags to all the neighbors and hoped they would save their recyclables for him. Not only did the neighbors save their cans and bottles for Ryan but so did their co-workers, families, and friends. Soon after, Ryan started his own business, Ryan’s Recycling, and has since recycled over 200,000 cans and bottles. Every week, he and his family sort through bags of recyclables and they take them to the local recycling center where they are sorted and weighed.

So far, Ryan has saved more than $ 10,000 for college from his profits and he also sells T-shirts on his website and donates the profits to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. “For the sea lions to get food and medicine,” he said.

Ryan has an important message for everyone, “If you already recycle, just keep on recycling. If you don’t recycle, start recycling.” Always a great businessman, Ryan added, “If you want to buy one of these T-shirts, it’s $ 13 on ryansreecycling.com.”

   Caroline Solomon was on her high school's swim team. But at times she could not go into the creek（小溪）near her home. It was simply too polluted. "I decided I wanted to do something about it，"she recalls. So she studied environmental science and public policy at Harvard University in Cambridge. Later，she went to graduate school. Some of her classes could be challenging，though，since she couldn't hear her teachers. "I've been deaf since I was 15 months old，"Solomon notes.

Today she teaches biology at Gallaudet University in Washington，DC. She has no trouble communicating with her students. They，too，are primarily deaf or hard of hearing. That's why all classes at Gallaudet are taught in American Sign Language. Solomon also has an active life outside the classroom. She especially enjoys hiking，biking and other activities with her family.

Her research takes her to the Anacostia River. "It is very close to Gallaudet，and I easily bring my students there，"she says. Water running through local forests and marshes drains into this river，so does water running off urban streets，golf courses and industrial sites." The river's watershed（流域）kind of concentrates all the things that happen when humans mess with the natural landscape，"she explains. Not surprisingly，this river has developed a reputation for being quite polluted.

Solomon has been focusing on how pollutants affect tiny organisms that form the base of the river's food web. "I am now looking at the bacteria population，" she says，"to see what types there are."

Solomon wants to see more students who are deaf or have other disabilities make a difference in environmental science and other fields. As she often says, "If I can do it, you can do it."

   One year after Tom was born, his parents had a car accident. They never _____. Tom's 85-year-old grandmother was too _____ to take care of him. As a result he was put up for adoption（领养）. He was adopted by a middle-aged couple who had no _____ of their own. They were not rich and received little education, but they were _____ people.

As Tom grew up, he _____ a lot of problems at school. He didn't learn _____ and had trouble in reading. His _____ sometimes laughed at him. What they said made Tom _____.

As he couldn't _____ the other students at school, he dropped out of school and came back home. But he didn't stop learning. He had big dreams. Though he didn't learn fast he kept ______ himself at home.

After many years of learning at home, he ______ overcame his difficulties. Today he is a very ______ speaker and author. While he was at school, his self-esteem（自尊）and ______ were low because of others' making fun of him. It took him many ______ to realize his dreams.

When listening to his videos and tapes, we can feel his confidence. He tells his ______ and how he overcame the challenges in his life. He has a very ______ sentence, "You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present situation ______ you change. "

For those who have low self-confidence, I suggest you ______ reading about Tom's world. Many people have so much potential（潜能）to be discovered. If you have a dream, then start today to ______ yourself towards it. If someone like Tom who has ______ in learning can make such achievements, why can't you succeed？

   Saja Pahad, a small village in Chhattisgarh, India, has been dealing with severe water shortages for as long as anyone can remember. With only two wells available, locals were barely able to secure enough water to feed their cattle, let alone irrigate their crops. Villagers didn’t know what to do and the government ignored their difficult situation, but one “crazy” teenager took matters into his own hands.

Shyam Lal was only 15 when he took it upon himself to solve his village’s water problem. He identified a spot in a nearby forest and decided to dig a pond to collect rainfall that could then be used by the entire village. Lal shared his idea with the rest of Saja Pahad, but instead of volunteering to help, they just laughed at his crazy plan and called him a lunatic (疯子). But the young man didn’t let the people’s reaction get him down. Instead, he grabbed a spade (铁锹) and started digging the pond himself. He kept on digging for the next 27 years.

Now 43, Shyam Lal is considered a hero by his community. That small hole he started digging nearly three decades ago is now a one-acre, 15-feet-deep pond filled with precious water that serves the entire village.

“No one helped me in my work, neither the government nor the villagers,” Lal told the Hindustan Times. “It was my dream to secure enough water for the whole village and their cattle.”

The story of Shyam Lal’s determination recently went viral in the whole of India, and prompted authorities in Mahendragarh district to finally acknowledge his achievement. A member of the government recently visited Saja Pahad and offered Lal a $ 156 prize for his contribution to the village.

   Suffering the bone-weakening disease, Gary Rosheisen was a wheelchair-bound man living alone.His house felt_________and he brought home Tommy, an orange cat that soon became his best_________.

Because of his significant___________problem including seizures（疾病的突然发作）, Gary always kept the___________in the living room on the floor, and it had a speed-dial button_________to call 911. Gary trained Tommy in how to_________that button whenever he felt better___________there were any emergencies.

Then one day, while in his bedroom, Gary had a seizure which_________him to fall out of his wheelchair and onto the floor. Once the seizure_________, Gary soon realized he was unable to   _____. What made him feel terrible was that he__________to put his cell phone on the bed. So he lay there,__________and desperate.

Meanwhile, the police received a call from Gary's  _______. No one said anything. The line was__________，and then disconnected. And the dispatcher（调度员）__________, hoping to get an answer. When the phone just rang and rang, police were sent to______________.

Officer Patrick Daugherty entered the home and found Gary and his__________cat, Tommy. Tommy was lying next to the phone, while Gary was_________on the floor in his bedroom， And so, the only_________was that Tommy's training had been far more_________than Gary thought.

Thanks to the call made to the police! Both he and the police considered Tommy a hero.