Secret Power

It was Peter’s first day of preschool. His mother, Linda, was worried about how he would adjust (适应) .

As they arrived at the school, Peter suddenly turned to his mom and said, “Mom _____ now. ” His mom was surprised, but she just gave him a kiss on the cheek and left.

During the day, Linda _____ herself busy with work, but she couldn’t help thinking about how Peter was doing.

But as she came back to pick her son up in the afternoon, she was _____ to see that Peter was laughing and playing with a group of kids. When Peter saw his mother, he ran up to her and hugged her, “Mom _____ so many new friends! And we got to do all sorts of fun things. We painted, sang songs and played games. ”

As they walked back to the car, Linda asked Peter, “So, I can’t wait to see my new _____ again and learn more new things. ”

Linda was more than happy to see her son having such a great time on his first day at preschool. But the real twist (转折) came when Peter told her that he had“secret power”. “What is your secret power?” Linda asked. “I used it to make anyone I met relaxed and _____, and want to be friends with me. ” Peter said.

At that moment, Linda _____ that her worries about Peter’s first day were unnecessary (没必要) because every child has the natural power to adjust to new _____, and her son had done so with flying colors.

Abdul loved making people laugh, and his dream was to become a professional comedian (职业喜剧演员).

One day he saw a notice for a competition called “Make Me Laugh”. The winner would get the chance to perform (表演) in front of a large audience (观众). Abdul immediately decided to take part in it because he wanted to perform in public. He began preparing for it, and practicing with different styles.

The day of the competition came. Abdul was very nervous. But he took the stage with his head high. As soon as he made his first joke, the audience started to laugh. When he finished, they gave him a standing ovation (鼓掌). Abdul became the winner of the competition.

From then on, Abdul became a professional comedian. However, the road to success was not an easy one. There were times when he wanted to give up. No matter how hard life was, always looking for new chances to show his talent. He was always trying to connect with his audience and make them laugh.

Gradually, Abdul learned for the first time that the true value (价值) of his talent was in the joy and happiness it brought to others.

Do you have a fear (恐惧) of public speaking? Do you ever get nervous when speaking in front of a group of people?

I remember I used to be deathly afraid of public speaking. My legs would get weak as I made my way in front of the audience. My mouth would tremble (发抖) as I would begin to say the first few words. I would avoid eye contact (避免眼神接触) unless I find someone with a smiling face, there is a way to overcome a fear of public speaking.

Understand the cause of the fear

Find out why it’s a fear in the first place. The main reason is the fear of being embarrassed (窘迫的). Most of you are afraid of being laughed at, doing anything foolish or having the audience judge (判断) you. When there are other people who might judge you or think badly of you, this causes you to get nervous.

Change your mindset (心态)

Try not to think about yourself and what the audience might think of you. Instead, think about the audience and how you can best deliver (传递) your message across. Then, you will be able to get over this fear.

Practice

It’s best to practice in front of a supporting (支持的) group of people. This will not only make public speaking easier but also help you gain confidence. The more you practice it, the easier it will get.

The way I was able to get over my fear of speaking came in two periods (时期). The first period was in high school. I entered the speech class, and all I wanted was to get passed. I didn’t care about winning. Even when I forgot what to say, I didn’t get nervous. The next period was during my job as a trainer. My job was to motivate (激励) people. So gradually, my focus went from thinking about myself to not caring about that, and finally to thinking about my audience. In the two periods, my mindset changed from the mindset of fear to the mindset of power.

So overcoming a fear of public speaking comes down to having the right mindset and practice.

The experience itself is the best way to learn, because otherwise (否则) it wouldn’t be us who learned, but those who lived the experience. Only through experiences and accenting mistakes and failures (失败) can we move forward.

We could say that life is a journey of learning, and the only way to get the better of it is by living. We never learn through the experiences of others. It is true that at birth we depend on adults to survive (生存) but it is also true that we try our best to have our own experiences to learn, and then grow.

To learn, we need to discover, fail and be right. That is learning by trying and making mistakes until we find our way to success. Since we were very little, we learned more from our own experiences than from the advice of adults. By living the experience itself, we internalize (内化) it meaningfully and deeply. So, most of these teachings will stay in our memory.

If we want to learn, grow and improve ourselves, we are going to fail. However, getting up and moving on makes us stronger, braver and smarter. It gives us a collection of reasons to feel proud. Blaming (指责) ourselves for failing is not accepting our human condition and losing the opportunity to continue learning and moving forward. We could say that the more mistakes we make, the more we are living.

We are becoming stronger after our failures, getting up after falling and getting back on feet even when being wrong hurts. So, the best way is living different experiences, without fear of the result. In order to grow, we must move forward and move on.

Falling is inevitable. We do it from the time we are very small, when we learn to walk, ride a bike. Failing is inevitable when we want to move forward, reach our goals or change something that does not make us happy. However, it is wonderful to learn and discover our power.

42. 运动是一切生命的源泉，运动是健康的保证。

假如你是李华，你们学校英语社团正在开展以“我运动我健康”为主题的线上交流活动。请你写一篇短文，谈谈你最喜欢的体育运动，并结合自身运动经历给其他同学提出一些关于运动健身的建议。

Hello, everyone. My name is Li Hua. I’d like to share my favorite sports with you. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________