【推荐1】One of the easiest things in the world is to become a fault-finder. However, life can be great when you are not busy finding fault with it.

Several years ago I _________ a letter from seventeen-year-old Kerry, who described herself as a world-class fault-finder, almost always _________ by things. People were always doing things that annoyed her, and _________ was ever good enough. She was highly self-critical and also found fault with her friends. She became a really boring person.

Unfortunately, it took a horrible accident to change her _________. Her best friend was seriously hurt in a car crash. What made it almost impossible to deal with was that the day before the _________, Kerry had visited her friend and had spent the whole time criticizing her _________ of boyfriends, the way she was living, the way she related to her mother, and various other things she felt she needed to _________. It wasn’t until her friend was badly hurt _________ Kerry became _________ her habit of finding fault. Very quickly, she learned to appreciate life rather than to judge everything so harshly. She was able to transfer her new wisdom to other parts of her __________ as well.

Perhaps most of us aren’t extreme at fault-finding, __________ when we’re honest, we can be sharply __________ of the world. I’m not suggesting you __________ problems, or that you pretend things are __________ than they are, but simply that you learn to allow things to be as they are—at least most of the time, and especially when it’s not a really big deal.

Train yourself to “bite your tongue”, and with a little __________, you’ll get really good at letting things go. And when you do, you’ll get back your enthusiasm and love for life.

【推荐2】As the train picked up its speed, the passengers slowly settled down on their seats, I ______ the lower berth (铺位), so that I could enjoy the ______ of outside from the moving train. I don’t know why I always preferred to get the ______ seat. An elderly lady ______ the front seat of mine. I looked at her. She must be in her eighties, I guessed. At one point, our   ______ met. She smiled at me and I gave her a response. Both of us were ______. By that time, the train was in its full speed.

It was 4:50 pm, evening time. So, ______ time was still in a long way, 1 couldn’t ______ myself any longer and asked, “Auntie! Where are you going?”

She looked at me and friendly said, “______ camp, dear.”

Suddenly my enthusiasm ______ to know the reason. I politely said. “Auntie, you are ______ someone?” She smiled and said, “Yes!”

Just to continue the conversation, I talked to her in a very cheerful ______. “Auntie, you must be feeling so ______ to see your child and your grandchildren.”

____ this question hurt her a little but boldly (大胆地) she answered, “Oh, dear! You are so sweet! Anyway, I had only one son who was ______ and was killed in a battle just a few days ago. I bought so many new clothes for him. So, I thought why not ______ my son’s clothes for some other soldiers, so that I would control my ______ and would be happy thinking that my own son has ______ it.

I was shocked hearing her heartbreaking story! But I ______ the old lady from the core of my heart, I was thinking of her ______ heart!

【推荐3】I was successful at my job. I worked very hard, but it _________ me and my family a fabulous lifestyle. I’d worked for the same company for twenty years and had worked my way up to department director. _________, one afternoon last May, I was called to the office, and it was _________ explained to me that they were letting me go. I just sat there _________ they talked on and all I could think was, “I’ve _________ .” I’d been so well respected, but _________ I was of no value.

For six weeks, I was in a very _________ place. I wandered around my house like a zombie(僵尸). I could _________ things needed doing, but would not do anything. My beliefs in looking forward and seeing the positive in everything deserted me.

Then, in late June, my youngest son’s football team _________ the city cup final. The year before, he’d been very sad when I __________ the same final, so he was __________ when I told him I’d go. Not only did they win, but the look on his face as he saw me __________ him on lit up with joy. From then on, I spent the summer enjoying my sons and their passions(激情). I attended match after match and performances of my elder son’s band—I __________ went to another city to watch him play. These moments were so __________. My life had been so much devoted to __________ for so long, and I felt __________ that my sons were happy to welcome me into their world.

__________, being unemployed gave me back a sense of purpose—I was someone’s mum! I felt a sense of being __________ again. Now I feel more positive about my professional __________ and I’m getting on better with my family than I ever have. Losing my job made me realize just how __________ it is to achieve real balance in life.

【推荐1】I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the _______ at a young age. Sometime in the middle of the fourth grade, I _______ trying. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I was lazy, rebellious, _______.

It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the _______ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was _______ lost, and using drugs as a way to _______ the fact that I had no education and was _______ in a dead-end job carrying heavy construction materials up a ladder all day.

_______, now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any _______ in your life, if you have the right __________. Mine came from a surprising source.

It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of __________ responsibility, now I was in charge of something so __________. Over the years, as I grew into the __________ of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. In a way, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books. __________, I practised reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role __________, so after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I __________ my GED test on my son’s fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I’m surely not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done __________, but all things considered it was one of the best days in my life. Today, I’m a full-time college student, studying to __________ sociologist.

It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great __________ stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they __________ to me. Now I believe it’s a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.

【推荐2】One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried ______ for hours as the farmer tried to figure out ______ to do. Finally he decided the animal was ______ and the well needed to be ______ up anyway, so it just wasn't ______ it to rescue the donkey.

He invited all his ______ to come over and help him. They all grabbed (握起)a shovel (铁铲)and began to shovel ______ into the well. At first, the donkey ______ what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's ______, he was quiet.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked ______ the well and was ______ at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that ______ his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would ______ it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors ______ to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take another ______ up. Pretty soon, everyone was surprised as the donkey stepped up over the ______ of the well and ran off.

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The best way of ______ out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our ______ is a stepping-stone. We can get out of the deepest ______ just by not stopping, never ______! Shake it off and take a step upward!

【推荐3】It was a cold day, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road to my daughter Carolyn’s house. But she had insisted that I come to see something at the ________ of the mountain.

So here I was ________ to make the two-hour journey through ________. By the time I saw how thick it was near the top, I’d gone too far to turn back.

“I’ll stay for lunch, but I’m heading back down as soon as the fog lifts,” 
I ________ when I arrived.

“But I need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car,” Carolyn said. “Could we at least do that?”

“How ________?” I asked.

“About three minutes,” she said. “I’ll drive—I’m used to it.”

After ten minutes on the mountain road, I looked at her ________. “I thought you said three minutes.”

She smiled. “This is a different route.”

Turning down a narrow track, we parked the car and ________ out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black-green pines ________over us. Gradually, the peace and silence of the place began to ________ my mind.

When we stopped, I took a deep breath in _______.

From the top of the mountain were rivers of flowers in bloom. A mix of _____from white to lemon to red — unfolded like a carpet before us. At the center was a waterfall of purple flowers and here and there were coral-colored ones. And western bluebirds flew ________ the heads of the flowers happily.

A series of ________ came to my mind. Who created such beauty? How? When?

As we approached home, we saw a sign that read: “I ________ Answers to Your Questions.”

The first answer was: “One Woman—Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain.” The second was: “One at a Time.” The third: “________ in 1958.”

As we drove home, I was so ________ by what we had seen, I could hardly speak. “She changed the world,” I ________ said, “one flower at a time. She took her first step almost 60 years ago, probably just the beginning of an idea, but she kept at it.”

“Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a(n) ________ like her and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have ________?”

Carolyn looked at me, smiling. “Start tomorrow,” she said. “ ________ yet, start today.”