Life Is a Cup of Coffee

A group of graduates（毕业生）got together to visit their old university professor （教授）.

The ________ soon turned into complaints（抱怨）about stress（压力）in work and life. To offer his guests coffee, the professor went to the ________ and returned with a large pot of coffee and cups of different ________ —paper, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, some cheap-telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee ________, the professor said, “You see, all the nice-looking ________ cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. ________ it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source（源头）of your problems and stress.”

“What all of you really want is ________, not the cup, but you consciously（有意识地）went for the best cups…and then you began ________ each other’s cups.”

“Now think about this. Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain（装）life, and the kind of cup we have does not decide, or change the quality（质量）of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating（集中注意力）only on the cup, we ________ to enjoy the coffee. Don’t let the cups ________ you. Enjoy the coffee instead.”