A teacher was giving a speech to his students on stress (压力) management. He held a glass of water and asked, “How _______ do you think this glass of water is?”

The students’ answers were from 20g to 500g.

“It _______ how long you hold it. If you hold it for a minute, it is OK. If you hold it for an hour, you will _______ an ache in your arm. If you hold it for a day, your arm will become paralyzed (麻痹的). It is the same _______, but the longer you hold it, the heavier it will become.” The teacher said, “What you should do is to put the glass down to _______ for a while before picking it up again.”

The students became silent, lost in thought.

After a moment, the teacher _______, “The stresses and worries in life are _______ this glass of water. Thinking about them for a while and _______ happens. Thinking about them all day long, you will feel “paralyzed” _______ you can’t do anything.

It’s important to let go of your ________. You should put them down before going to sleep and wake up every day with a fresh start.

Once there was a little boy who became seriously ill. He had to stay in bed all day, not being able to move. To make things worse, other children weren’t allowed to come near him, he felt ______ and blue.

As days went by, his feeling of hopelessness just ______ until one day he saw something strange in the park. It was a bird eating a sausage sandwich. The bird flew in through the window, said “good afternoon” to the boy, turned around, and left.

Of course, the boy was very surprised. He was still trying to ______ what had happened. Outside his window, he saw a monkey blowing up a balloon. After a while, as more and more crazy-looking characters ______ outside the window, he laughed happily. After all, everyone couldn’t help ______ when seeing a pig playing the guitar or a dog wearing a pair of glasses and singing. The little boy didn’t tell anyone about this, ______ no one would have believed him. Even so, those strange characters ended up putting joy back in his ______, and in his body. Before long, his health had improved so much that he was able to go back to school again.

There he got to talk to his friends, and told them all the ______ things he had seen. While talking, he saw something sticking (伸出) out of his best friend’s school bag. The boy asked him what it was, and finally his friend had to ______ him what was in the bag.

There, inside, were all the fancy-dress suits and disguises (伪装) that his best friend had been using to try to ______ the little boy up!

From that day on, the little boy always did his best to make sure that no one felt sad and alone.