“Mum, I want to make you a bet,” I said. “If I go a whole year without TV, will you give me a hundred dollars?”　　
“Well, if you can   1  do it, …”
“Of course I can,” I replied, trying to convince   2 .
In fact, all this started from my   3  of a picture in the newspaper. I couldn’t bear to look at that boy. He said that he had   4  one year without TV for a hundred dollars,   5 me with mocking eyes. It seemed he was saying, “I did it,   6  you can’t!”. I glared at the boy’s face.
That year I did a lot of things. For example, my father taught me to   7 , which became my favorite sport.   8  winter afternoons snowball wars with my neighbors offered daily drama. I went on bike trips with my friends and swam as much as a fish.　　
It was unbelievable how much   9  I had without TV. I learned so many new games. I guess the   10  thing I learnt, though, was self-motivation(上进心).　　
I started to do my homework. I went from a D student to an A student within a couple of   11 .　　
I used to   12  reading if there were no   13 , but now I began to read and enjoy it. I could arrange off all the pictures just the way I wanted them—my own little TV, right   14  my head!
I’m surprised what I did. I got a lot more from the   15  than just the 100 dollars!

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　　 I used to watch a little girl playing basketball every day from my kitchen window. One day I asked her why she practiced so 　　1　 . She said, “I want to go to college. The only way I can go is 　　2　　 a scholarship（奖学金）. I like basketball and I want to be the 　 3　 player in college. My dad told me, “If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.”

She never changed her mind. I watched her through those high years and into senior high school. One day before she graduated from high school, I saw her sitting on the grass

　 4　 . I asked her what was wrong. She told me that her coach said she was too short to be a good basketball player, so she should stop 　5　 about going to college. She was heartbroken and it made me feel bad, 　 6　 . Then she smiled and told me her father said that coach was wrong. He did not understand the power of dream.. Her father said to her, “If you 　　7　 want to play for the scholarship of a good college, nothing but you 　 8　 can stop your dream.” He told her again: “If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.”

The next year, she and her team went to a big game. She 　　9　 by a coach of a famous college team and was offered a scholarship to the 　 10　 basketball team of their college. She was to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years.

“If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.” It is true.

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