28 Young and amazing

CHAPTER 1 The Girl That Everybody Loved AT THE AGE OF 17, OLGA KORBUT WAS THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS GYMNAST. SHE TAUGHT PEOPLE TO LOOK AT THE SPORT DIFFERENTLY. Before 1972, not many people watched gymnastics. But a young girl from Belarus in the Soviet Union changed that. Olga Korbut started learning gymnastics when she was only eight. It was very difficult. She had to work hard for very long hours. But she was a fantastic student. In 1972, Olga went to the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. She was 17, but she was very small and thin, and she looked like a child. People all over the world watched when she danced on the beam. Then she jumped and did a back somersault. Her legs went up above her head and came down behind her! Without using her arms! And she didn't fall, she stayed on the beam! Everybody loved Olga. No other gymnasts could do what she did. Before, people thought that Soviet gymnasts did not show how they felt. But when Olga did something wrong, she cried! They loved her because of that, too. In Munich, Olga was first in three competitions. She was second in another. Some people were angry with the judges. They thought that she was best in that competition, too! Olga was a great example. In 1972, many little girls saw her and wanted to be gymnasts, too. She made the sport popular!

十七岁的奥尔加·科尔布特是世界上最著名的体操运动员。 她教会人们用不同的眼光看待这项运动。 1972年以前，没有多少人看体操。 但是一个来自苏联白俄罗斯的小女孩改变了这一切。 奥尔加·科尔布特（Olga Korbut） 8岁时开始学习体操。 这是非常困难的。她不得不长时间努力工作。 但她是个很棒的学生。 1972年，奥尔加参加了在德国慕尼黑举行的奥运会。 她17岁，但她又小又瘦，看起来像个孩子。 当她在平衡木上跳舞时，全世界的人都在观看。 然后她跳了起来，做了一个后空翻。 她的腿升到头顶，然后落在身后！不用她的胳膊！她没有掉下来，她站在横梁上了！大家都喜欢奥尔加。 没有其他体操运动员能做到她所做的。 以前，人们认为苏联体操运动员没有表现出自己的感受。 但当奥尔加做错事时，她哭了！他们也因此而爱她。 在慕尼黑，奥尔加在三项比赛中获得第一名。 她在另一场比赛中名列第二。 有些人对法官很生气。 他们也认为她在那场比赛中是最好的！奥尔加就是一个很好的例子。 1972年，许多小女孩看到她，也想成为体操运动员。 她让这项运动流行起来！

CHAPTER 2 Catching the Wind A YOUNG AFRICAN BOY LEFT SCHOOL AT 14, BUT HE USED THE WIND AND SUN TO HELP PEOPLE. TODAY HE IS FAMOUS. William Kamkwamba is from Malawi, a country in Africa. He had to leave school at 14. His family did not have money to pay for his lessons. So, he began to learn without a teacher, from books. One book was about windmills. In 2002, there was very little rain in Malawi, so there wasn't much food. Many people died, and many others were hungry. William wanted to help. So the 14-year- old boy made a windmill to give his village electricity. He made it from trees and parts of bikes and other things that nobody wanted. At first, people thought he was crazy. But his windmill worked! William made two more windmills. But people needed water in his village more than electricity. Someone wanted to help and gave William a pump. The pump used the light of the sun to bring water up from under the ground. In 2006, a newspaper wrote about William's work. Then William wrote a book. People read about him and sent him money to work and study. He went back to school, in South Africa and the USA. "I want to use the things I learn. I want to help my country," he says. "There's a lot of work to do."

一个年轻的非洲男孩14岁就离开了学校，但他利用风和太阳来帮助人们。 今天他很有名。William Kamkwamba来自非洲国家马拉维。 他必须在14岁时离开学校。 他的家庭没有钱支付他的学费。 于是，他开始在没有老师的情况下，从书本上学习。 有一本书是关于风车的。 2002年，马拉维很少下雨，所以没有多少食物。 许多人死亡，还有许多人挨饿。 威廉想帮忙。于是，这个14岁的男孩做了一个风车给他的村庄供电。 他用树木、自行车的零件和其他没人想要的东西做的。 起初，人们认为他疯了。 但是他的风车工作了！威廉又造了两个风车。 但在他的村子里，人们更需要水而不是电。 有人想帮忙，给了威廉一个打气筒。 水泵利用太阳光把水从地下抽上来。 2006年，一家报纸报道了威廉的作品。 然后威廉写了一本书。 人们读到有关他的报道，给他寄钱去工作和学习。 他回到了南非和美国的学校。 “我想用我学到的东西。 我想帮助我的国家，”他说。 “还有很多工作要做。”

CHAPTER 3 A Life at Sea LAURA DEKKER IS A VERY SPECIAL GIRL. AT THE AGE OF 15, SHE TOOK HER BOAT AROUND THE WORLD ALONE. Laura Dekker is a sailor from the Netherlands. She was born on her parents' boat in New Zealand in 1995. She was at sea for the first four years of her life! Then, when Laura was six, her parents gave her a boat. In May 2009, Laura sailed alone from the Netherlands to England. She was only 13 years old. A judge told her father to come to England to take her home. Three months later, Laura told a newspaper that she wanted to sail around the world alone. But another judge said she could not. She was too young. She had to wait. A year later, on August 21, a month before her 15th birthday, Laura left Gibraltar for Saint Martin in the Caribbean in her boat. On January 20, 2011, she sailed from Saint Martin. She went to Australia and South Africa. Then she sailed her boat from there back to Saint Martin. She was back a year and a day after she left. She was the youngest person to sail around the world alone! "I was good friends with my boat in the end," said Laura. "And I learned a lot about myself."

劳拉·德克尔是一个非常特别的女孩。 15岁时，她独自乘船环游世界。 劳拉·德克尔是一名来自荷兰的水手。 1995年，她在新西兰父母的船上出生。 她生命的头四年是在海上度过的！然后，当劳拉六岁的时候，她的父母给了她一艘船。 2009年5月，劳拉独自从荷兰航行到英国。 她只有13岁。 一位法官让她的父亲来英国接她回家。 三个月后，劳拉对一家报纸说，她想独自航海环游世界。 但另一位法官说她不能。 她太年轻了。她不得不等待。 一年后的8月21日，也就是她15岁生日的前一个月，劳拉乘船离开直布罗陀前往加勒比海的圣马丁。 2011年1月20日，她从圣马丁起航。 她去了澳大利亚和南非。 然后她从那里乘船回到圣马丁。 她离开一年零一天后又回来了。 她是独自航海环游世界的最年轻的人！“最后我和我的船成了好朋友，”劳拉说。 “我对自己也有了更多的了解。”

CHAPTER 4 Money for Jam FRASER DOHERTY LEARNED TO MAKE JAM AT HOME WHEN HE WAS 14. IT BROUGHT HIM MILLIONS OF DOLLARS BEFORE HE WAS 20! One day in 2002, when 14-year-old Fraser Doherty from Edinburgh, Scotland, was at home, it rained. It often rains in Scotland, and this day Fraser was bored. So, his grandmother (his father's mother) taught him to make jam. Her jam was very good, and he learned quickly. Fraser then thought he could make some money with jam. He made a lot of it and took it to people's houses. They bought it! He began to make more and more jam: thousands of jars each month. People bought a lot of jam from him, so he opened a business on the Internet. Then he learned that people ate less jam than before because there was too much sugar in it. So, he made a better jam. He used fruit juice— not sugar— to make it sweet. He called it Super Jam. Big British supermarkets asked for his new jam. He began to make it in a factory. Soon, people bought hundreds of thousands of jars every year! Before he was 20, Fraser had millions of dollars! But Fraser is not only interested in making money. He uses his money to help other people. He loves to help old people— like his grandmother helped him!

第4章果酱的钱弗雷泽·多尔蒂14岁时就学会了在家做果酱。 这让他在20岁之前就赚了数百万美元！2002年的一天，14岁的弗雷泽·多尔蒂（Fraser Doherty）来自苏格兰爱丁堡，当时他正在家里，天下雨了。 苏格兰经常下雨，这一天弗雷泽感到很无聊。 所以，他的祖母（他父亲的母亲）教他做果酱。 她的果酱弹得很好，他学得很快。 弗雷泽认为他可以用果酱赚钱。 他做了很多，把它带到人们的家里。 他们买了！他开始制作越来越多的果酱，每个月制作数千罐。 人们从他那里买了很多果酱，所以他在网上开了一家公司。 后来他了解到，人们吃的果酱比以前少了，因为果酱里的糖太多了。 所以，他做了一个更好的果酱。他用果汁——而不是糖——使它变甜。 他称之为超级果酱。英国大型超市都想买他的新果酱。 他开始在一家工厂制造它。 很快，人们每年都会买成千上万的罐子！不到20岁，弗雷泽就拥有了数百万美元！但弗雷泽感兴趣的不仅仅是赚钱。 他用他的钱去帮助别人。 他喜欢帮助老人——就像他的祖母帮助他一样！

CHAPTER 5 Making Movies TANVI WAS A 12-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLGIRL LIKE ALL THE OTHERS. BUT THEN SHE WAS IN A MOVIE. IT MADE HER FAMOUS! Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar is an actor from Mumbai in India. She was born in 1995. Her mother works in a hospital, and her father works in a bank. When Tanvi was only 12, her uncle told her that people wanted actors for a movie. She went to see them. At first, they did not choose her. But then they heard that she was a great dancer. So they asked her to be a person called Latika in the movie. The movie was called Slumdog Millionaire. It is about a very poor young man from Mumbai. He wins a lot of money on a TV show. People all around the world loved the movie. In the USA, it won eight Oscars. Tanvi was famous at 13! Tanvi went to the Oscars in California. She met Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt there. "What more can I ask for?" she said. She really enjoyed her time there. Three years later, she was in another movie, a love story called Teenage. She is now working on a third movie. Tanvi is doing great things— and she is only 17!

坦维和其他女孩一样，是一个12岁的女学生。 但后来她出演了一部电影。 这让她出名了！Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar是印度孟买的一名演员。 她出生于1995年。她妈妈在医院工作，她爸爸在银行工作。 当坦维只有12岁的时候，她的叔叔告诉她，人们想要演员拍电影。 她去看他们。起初，他们没有选择她。 但后来他们听说她是一个伟大的舞者。 所以他们让她在电影中扮演一个叫拉蒂卡的人。 这部电影叫做《贫民窟的百万富翁》。 它是关于一个来自孟买的非常贫穷的年轻人。 他在电视节目中赢了很多钱。 全世界的人都喜欢这部电影。 在美国，它赢得了八项奥斯卡奖。 坦维13岁就成名了！坦维去了加州的奥斯卡颁奖典礼。 她在那里遇到了安吉丽娜·朱莉和布拉德·皮特。 “我还能要求什么呢？”她说。 她在那里过得很愉快。 三年后，她出演了另一部电影，一部名为《少年》的爱情故事。 她现在正在拍摄第三部电影。 Tanvi正在做着伟大的事情——而她只有17岁！

CHAPTER 6 If You Can't Walk, Drive MICHAEL JOHNSON HAD A VERY BAD ACCIDENT AT THE AGE OF 12. NOW HE CANNOT USE HIS LEGS— BUT HE DRIVES CARS IN RACES! When Michael Johnson was a child, he rode bikes in races in the USA and Canada. He was very good and he often won. Then at the age of 12, he was in a very bad bike accident. After that, he could not use his legs. But Michael did not want to stay home and do nothing. He loved playing sports. So later on, he began to drive cars in competitions. "Never tell him that he can't do something," says Michael's mother Kathi. "He'll show you that you're wrong." Race drivers use their feet to drive their car faster or slower. Michael cannot do that. He needs a special car. He uses his hands to do all the driving. Somebody helps him get in and out. But he goes very fast: more than 170 kilometers an hour. And he wins competitions! At 19, Michael is a professional race driver. Michael wants to win the biggest car race in the USA: the Indianapolis 500. He often practices in Indianapolis. Michael says that he forgets his problems in his car. "When I'm winning races, I'm the happiest I can be."

迈克尔·约翰逊12岁时发生了一场非常严重的事故。 现在他不能使用他的腿了——但是他可以在比赛中开车！当迈克尔·约翰逊还是个孩子的时候，他就参加了美国和加拿大的自行车比赛。 他很厉害，而且经常赢。 然后在12岁的时候，他遭遇了一场非常严重的自行车事故。 从那以后，他就不能使用他的腿了。 但是迈克尔不想呆在家里无所事事。 他喜欢运动。所以后来，他开始驾驶汽车参加比赛。 “永远不要告诉他，他不能做什么，”迈克尔的母亲凯西说。 “他会证明你错了。” 赛车手用脚把车开得快或慢。 迈克尔不能这么做。他需要一辆专车。 他用手来驾驶。 有人帮他进出。 但他开得很快：每小时超过170公里。 他还赢得了比赛！19岁的迈克尔是一名职业赛车手。 迈克尔想赢得美国最大的汽车比赛：印第安纳波利斯500。 他经常在印第安纳波利斯练习。 迈克尔说他把自己的问题忘在车里了。 “当我赢得比赛时，我是最快乐的。”