The boy was 1.7 meters tall when he just started his third year at primary school. As his feet had outgrown even Father's shoes, his parents had to look up and down the streets for size-46 shoes. At 16, he shot to height of 2.2 meters, and no store or market in the whole of China had stock of size-53 shoes for his big feet. The parents watched rather worriedly their son shooting up wildly like sapling.

      The young giant felt sorry for his parents, who needed to take extra care of him for his food, clothing and traveling. Time and again he expressed his"great aspiration"to his good friend, teammate and rommate Liu Wei, "I will do my best. Once I enter the Shanghai NO.1 Team, I won't have to worry about my shoes.

       That boy was Yao Ming.

      Today's Yao is a great basketball star. Back then, however, his dream was not championship, NBA, or a star. He trained like mad, stuggled hard, all for a pair of shoes that would fit his feet, only to relieve his parents of their worry about his shoes. Sucha simple goal may seem completely unimaginable for a star like Yao. Yet it was exactly this simple idea that encouraged Yao to get today's glory. He sets the goal for every stage of his life and spares no effort to reach it, and to surpass it.

       It is not a diffcult thing for anyone to set a goal. The tough part is to know how to pursue and reach it. Many people leave their high goals in blue prints forever. If we take a look at those abandoned causes and goals along many people's life joureys, we should remind ourselves of Yao Ming: travelers first need a fitting pair of shoes, and then take one firm step at a time towards their goals.

      Words:

outgrown [aut'grəu] v. 过大而不适于,出生,长出

sapling ['sæpliŋ] n. 树苗,小树,年轻人

aspiration [ˌæspə'reiʃən] n. 热望,渴望

championship ['tʃæmpjənʃip] n. 冠军赛,冠军

unimaginable [ˌʌni'mædʒinəbl] a. 不能想象的(想象不到的,难以理解的)

encourage [in'kʌridʒ] vt.鼓励，激励，怂恿；促进，助长，激发

abandoned [ə'bændənd] a. 被抛弃的,无约束的