[00:00.00] Look at the following two sayings and then see if the story of Michael Stone bears out the points they make.
[00:07.31]The greater the obstacle,the more glory in overcoming it.
[00:15.07]When it is dark enough,you can see the stars.
[00:22.36]TRUE HEIGHT by David Naster
[00:26.28]His palms were sweating.He needed a towel to dry his grip.
[00:32.16]The sun was as hot as the competition he faced today at the National Junior Olympics.
[00:38.92]The pole was set at 17 feet.That was three inches higher than his personal best.
[00:46.32]Michael Stone confronted the most challenging day of his pole-vaulting career.
[00:52.56]The stands were still filled with about 20,000 people, even though the final race had ended an hour earlier.
[01:01.13]The pole vault is truly the highlight of any track and field competition.
[01:06.61]It combines the grace of a gymnast with the strength of a body builder.It also has the element of flying,
[01:14.76]and the thought of flying as high as a two-story building is a mere fantasy to anyone watching such an event.
[01:23.07]As long as Michael could remember he had always dreamed of flying.
[01:28.08]Michael's mother read him numerous stories about flying when he was growing up.
[01:33.78]Her stories were always ones that described the land from a bird's eye view.
[01:39.92]Her excitement and passion for details made Michael's dreams full of color and beauty. Michael had this one recurring dream.
[01:49.74]He would be running down a country road.As he raced between golden wheat fields,
[01:56.17]he would always outrun the locomotives passing by.
[02:00.29]It was at the exact moment he took a deep breath that he began to lift off the ground,
[02:07.03]He would begin soaring like an eagle.
[02:10.46]Where he flew would always coincide with his mother's stories.
[02:15.47]Wherever he flew was with a keen eye for detail and the free spirit of his mother's love.His dad,on the other hand
[02:25.01]was not a dreamer. Bert Stone was a hardcore realist. He believed in hard work and sweat.
[02:33.57]His motto:If you want something,work for it!
[02:38.35]From the age of 14, Michael did just that. He began a very careful training program.
[02:45.83]He worked out every other day with weightlifting, with some kind of running work on alternate days.
[02:53.43]The program was carefully monitored by Michael's coach,trainer and father.
[02:59.80]Michael's dedication,determination and discipline was a coach's dream.
[03:06.10]Besides being an honor student and only child,
[03:10.20]Michael Stone continued to help his parents with their I farm chores. Mildred Stone, Michael's mother,
[03:18.35]wished he could relax a bit more and be that "free dreaming" little boy.
[03:24.12]On one occasion she attempted to talk to him and his father about this,but his dad quickly interrupted,
[03:32.22]smiled and said, "You want something, work for it!"
[03:37.91]All of Michael's vaults today seemed to be the reward for his hard work.If Michael Stone was surprised,
[03:46.32]excited or vain about clearing the bar at 17 feet,you couldn't tell.
[03:52.75]As soon as he landed on the inflated landing mat,and with the crowd on its feet,
[03:58.58]Michael immediately began preparing for his next attempt at flight. He seemed unaware of the fact
[04:06.31]that he had just beaten his personal best by three inches
[04:11.27]and that he was one of the final two competitors in the pole-vaulting event at the National Junior Olympics
[04:19.34]When Michael cleared the bar at 17 feet 2 inches and 17 feet 4 inches,again he showed no emotion.
[04:29.22]As he lay on his back and heard the crowd groan, he knew the other vaulter had missed his final jump.
[04:37.26]He knew it was time for his final jump.Since the other vaulter had fewer misses, Michael needed to clear this vault to win.
[04:47.14]A miss would get him second place. Nothingto be ashamed of,
[04:52.75]but Michael would not allow himself the thought of not winning first place.
[04:57.85]He rolled over and did his routine of three finger-tipped push-ups.
[05:03.52]He found his pole,stood and stepped on the runway that led to the most challenging event of his17-year-old life.
[05:12.29]The runway felt different this time.It startled him for a brief moment. Then it all hit him like a wet bale of hay.
[05:21.57]The bar was set at nine inches higher than his personal best. That's only one inch off the National record,he thought
[05:30.89]The intensity of the moment filled his mind with anxiety.He began shaking the tension.
[05:38.26]It wasn't working. He became more tense. Why was this happening to him now, he thought. He began to get nervous.
[05:47.53]Afraid would be a more accurate description.What was he going to do? He had never experienced these feelings.
[05:56.49]Then out of nowhere, and from the deepest depths of his soul, he pictured his mother. Why now?
[06:04.90]What was his mother doing in his thoughts at a time like this? It was simple.
[06:11.38]His mother always used to tell him when you felt tense, anxious or even scared, take deep breaths.
[06:20.24]So he did. Along with shaking the tension from his legs,he gently laid his pole at his feet.
[06:28.18]He began to stretch out his arms and upper body. The light breeze that was once there was now gone.
[06:35.65]He carefully picked up his pole.He felt his heart pounding. He was sure the crowd did, too.
[06:43.91]The silence was deafening. When he heard the singing of some distant birds in flight, he knew it was his time to fly.
[06:53.75]As he began sprinting down the runway,something felt wonderfully different,yet familiar.
[07:01.36]The surface below him felt like the country road he used to dream about.
[07:06.68]Visions of the golden wheat fields seemed to fill his thoughts. When he took a deep breath, it happened.
[07:14.65]He began to fly. His take-off was effortless. Michael Stone was now flying,
[07:22.93]just like in his child- hood dreams. Only this time he knew he wasn't dreaming.
[07:28.99]This was real. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.
[07:34.69]The air around him was the purest and freshest he had ever sensed. Michael was soaring like an eagle.
[07:43.10]It was either the eruption of the people in the stands or the thump of his landing that brought Michael back to earth.
[07:50.62]On his back with that wonderful hot sun on his face,he knew he could only see in his mind's eye the smile on his mother's face
[08:01.33]He knew his dad was probably smiling too, even laughing.
[08:06.35]What he didn't know was that his dad was hugging his wife and crying.That's right:
[08:12.93]Bert "If You Want It, Work For It" Stone was crying like a baby in his wife's arms.
[08:20.82]He was crying harder than Mildred had ever seen before.
[08:25.13]She also knew he was crying the greatest tears of all:
[08:29.52]tears of pride.
[08:31.95]Michael was immediately surrounded by people hugging and congratulating him on the greatest accomplishment of his life
[08:40.41]He later went on that day to clear 17 feet 6 1/2inches: a National and International Junior Olympics record.
[08:51.88]With all the media attention and sponsorship possibilities,Michael's life would never be the same again.
[09:00.06]It wasn't just because he won the National Junior Olympics and set a new world record.
[09:06.61]And it wasn't because he had just increased his personal best by 9 1/2inches.It was simply because Michael Stone is blind.
[09:18.71]Language Sense Enhancement
[09:21.84]Read aloud the following poem written by the American deaf-blind writer and educationist,Helen Keller(1880-1968)
[09:35.53]Facing Fate
[09:40.23]Security is mostly a superstition It does not exist in nature nor do the children of men as a whole experience it
[09:52.51]Avoiding danger is no fafer in the long run than outright exposure Life is either a daring adventure,or nothing
[10:03.64]To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable
[10:13.80]3 Read the follwing quotations.Learn them by heart if you can.You might need to look up new words in a dictionary
[10:23.18]Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. Helen Keller
[10:32.16]No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. William Penn
[10:44.23]AII rising to great place is by a winding stair. Francis Bacon
[10:52.15]If we face our tasks with the resolution to solve them,who shall say that anything is impossible. Wilfred Grenfell
[11:03.09]Read the following humorous story for fun.You might need to look up new words in a dictionary
[11:10.96]A missionary unexpectedly met a lion in the jungle. Not seeing any way to escape
[11:19.16]he fell to his knees in prayer.He was comforted by seeing the lion kneeling next to him
[11:27.33]"Dear Brother, how delightful to join you in prayer when only a moment ago I feared for my life," the missionary said.
