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.”

   After a year at sea, 16-year-old Laura Dekker can finally say, "Mission accomplished！"Last month, she finished a daring trip around the world aboard her 38-foot boat, Guppy. Dekker, who is from the Netherlands, traveled more than 30,000 miles all by herself. She is the youngest person ever to sail around the globe alone.

Dekker had wanted to take on this challenge when she was even younger. She first tried to set sail at the age of 13, but a court in the Netherlands stopped her. They said that she was too young to make such a risky trip by herself. But Dekker insisted she had the navigation skills and patience of an adult sailor.

She finally started on August 21, 2010. During her trip, Dekker battled loneliness, storms, and worries about pirates. But she also got to surf, scuba dive, and started a new hobby: playing the flute. Although Dekker didn't spend all of her time at sea—she stopped at ports along the way—she did spend her 16th birthday on the open ocean. To celebrate, she ate doughnuts for breakfast.

But Dekker didn't sail into the record books. Guinness World Record and the World Sailing Speed Record Council no longer recognize records for "youngest" sailors. They dropped the category in 2009 to discourage children from attempting such dangerous feats(壮举). But that didn't stop Dekker, who was born on a yacht(大游艇) during a seven-year world voyage undertaken by her parents.

Dekker doesn't mind that she won't hold an official record. She says it was a personal goal, and she is happy she achieved it.

"I am not disappointed at all that Guinness World Records won't recognize my attempt, "Dekker wrote on her website, "I did not start on my trip to achieve any record. I did it just for myself."

   Mrs. Green told her pupils to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful. She thought what these little children in a worsening neighborhood had to be _____ for. Most of the _____ drew pictures of turkeys or Thanksgiving tables full of everything _____ to eat. That was what they believed was _____ from them.

What made Mrs. Green _____ was David’s picture. David was so disappointed and _____ in his own world as other students went outside for break. David’s drawing was _____ this: A hand. Whose hand? The class were strongly attracted by his _____. “I think it must be the _____ of the cook ______ our food,” said one student.

“A hand of a ______,” said another, “because he raises the turkeys.”

“It looks more like a policeman’s, and he ______ us.” “I think,” Lucy said ______, “it is ______ to be all the hands that help us, but David could only draw one of them.”

Mrs. Green had almost forgotten David in her ______ of finding the class so responsive (积极的). Having the others working on another project, she bent over his ______ and asked whose hand it was.

David whispered, “It’s yours, Mrs. Green.”

Then Mrs. Green ______ she had taken David by the hand from time to time; she often did that with the children. But what surprised her was that it should have ______ so much to David…

Perhaps, she thought this was her Thanksgiving, and everybody’s Thanksgiving — not the things ______ to people, but the ______ that others give something to people.