东莞市实验中学高一（15）班学生 梁正 指导老师 蒋坛军

    Liang Zheng, Class 15, Senior 1, Dongguan Experimental High School Instructed by Jiang TanjunIn August, I traveled with adults and teenagers to a poor rural village in a mountainous area of Sichuan Province.

    At one point, a big stone stood in front of us along a narrow path. It was 15 centimeters high and had a width that almost blocked the whole path. Passers-by, especially villagers carrying heavy loads, could easily trip over the stone.

    At first, some of us thought the stone was a part of the mountain rock that’s hard to crack and likely had stood there for ages.

    But after careful observation of its formation, one of us thought the stone stood independently from other rocks and could probably be moved away.

    Nobody agreed with him, but he began to remove the soft soil covering the stone with his hands. Ten minutes later, he said: “The stone is an isolated one. It can be removed.”

    We were surprised and excited at his discovery, and we joined him to dig up the soil around the big stone with some sticks.

    Soon, we were out of breath and soaked in sweat. But 15 minutes had passed, and the stone remained firm in the earth. Someone complained that it was hard labor to remove the stone and was skeptical that it could be moved. But most of us just continued digging.

    After about an hour, more people lost patience with the job and one person even kicked the stone out of anger. Unexpectedly, it shook slightly.

    “Wow! It can be moved!” many said.

    We all cheered up and kept digging. We eventually moved the stone away. At the time, we were all exhausted but were happy with our work.

    On our lives’ paths, we often meet some roadblocks in disguise, which stop our steps ahead. We might easily be fooled and shy away from them. But if we can stop and work on them carefully, we’ll find our sweat worthwhile.