A man once had four sons     1     never stopped quarrelling with one another. He was always telling them how much     2     (easy)life would be, if they worked together, but they took absolutely no notice of him.

One day he decided     3    (show)them the message. He called all the sons together and put a     4    (tight)tied bundle of sticks on the floor in front of them. “Can you break that?” he asked a son.     5     boy put his knee on the bundle (一捆). Although he pressed and pulled with his arms, he could not bend the wood. The father asked each son in turn to try to break the bundle,     6     none of them could do it. Then he untied the string and scattered (分散)the sticks. “Now try,” he said to the young     7     (man). The sticks in their hands     8    (break)easily.

“Do you get what I     9    (mean)just now?” asked the father. “If all of you stand together, no one can hurt you. If you all disagree the whole time and insist on going your separate ways, the first enemy you meet will be able     10     destroy you.”

【推荐2】A young man, while traveling through a desert, came across a spring of clear water.     1     water was sweet. He filled his leather container so that he could bring some back to an elder    2     had been his teacher. After a four-day journey, the young man    3    (present) the water to the old man. His teacher took a deep drink, smiled    4    (warm), and thanked his student very much for the sweet water. The young man went home    5     a happy heart.

After the student left, the teacher let    6     student taste the water. He spit it out,     7    (say) it was awful. Apparently, it was no    8    (long) fresh because of the old leather container. He asked his teacher, “Sir, the water was awful. Why did you pretend to like it?” The teacher replied, “You tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of     9    (kind) and love. Nothing could be     10    (sweet).” We understand this lesson best when we receive gifts of love from children. Whether it is a cheap pipe or a diamond necklace, the proper response is appreciation. We love the idea within the gift rather than the thing.

It was a cold and cloudy afternoon. I was on the bus with my children, aged four and two,    1    (head) home when it started to rain. I realized this would mean a wet walk home     2     the bus stop.

    3     my house was only two blocks away, it was not a pleasant walk with one small boy asleep in the pram (婴儿车), the other in a raincoat and no umbrella for myself. A pick-up truck passed us on the road. I tried to thumb a ride but failed. My little boy woke up and began to cry. I was     4    (convince) that things might become worse and nobody would bother to help on such a terrible day. A few minutes later,     5    truck drove by, but to my surprise, I saw it moving back and the driver looking directly at us. A young man put the window down. “Hey, here’s an umbrella for you, please take     6    ,” he called out. I stood there    7    (astonish), barely believing that the man     8     existence was unknown to me only moments ago, could be so considerate. “Come on, give this to     9    (you) mummy,” he said to my older son. I accepted the offer and expressed my gratitude to him.

This man might have needed the umbrella for himself later during the day but preferred to give it to me. It was a lesson     10     it’s possible to give without expecting anything in return.