It was our first Thanksgiving in the new house and I wanted everything to be perfect. But my plan for everyone to contribute some preparation work couldn't be carried out for my husband's business trip. Even worse, I had to ______ two days of planned vacation finishing the extra work. By Wednesday, since I didn't get an ideal table with fresh flowers, beautiful drinking glasses and various homemade desserts, I just hoped that I'd find a clean tablecloth and eight ______ forks.

In my perfect Thanksgiving, there wouldn't be any orange in my salad because I hadn't made the shopping list. There would be no perfect family photos to record that day because I hadn't got the broken camera ______. Someone had brought home the wrong toilet paper, which made me break down.

I don't remember what my son asked me as he was vacuuming (吸尘), but I do remember my serious mom-face before barking out an ______. The noise and anger are terrible to kids everywhere that they might as well ______ me. But he didn't.

Instead of disappearing from my view, my second-grader turned off the vacuum and walked across the room to face me. He never said a word. He just put his arms and around me, making me feel a deep sense of ______ of myself until today.

The end result was that it was a(n) ______ Thanksgiving. The people I loved gathered around my table and dined just one choice of the pie. My dad used a mismatched fork without ______. My daughter drew a picture of us where everyone smiled.

My son took a(n) ______ to teach me that sometimes we need a hug (拥抱) most when we are at least huggable. This is the best gift you can give. One size fits all and no one ever minds if you ______.

Little Women

Chapter 1     Four sisters

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled (嘀咕) Jo, lying on the rug (地毯).

"It's so awful to be poor!" agreed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

"It's not right for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and others to have nothing at all," added little Amy, with a sad sniff (轻哼).

"We've got father and mother, and each other," said Beth gently.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, "We haven't got father, and shall not have him for a long time." She didn't say "perhaps never", but each silently added it, thinking of father far away at the war in the South.

Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said: "Mother advised not having any presents this Christmas because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone; and she thinks we shouldn't   spend money for pleasure when our men are suffering (受难) in the army. We can't do much, but we can make our little effort. But I am afraid I don't"; Meg shook her head thinking regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted.

"But I don't think the little we should spend would do any good," said Jo. "We've each got a dollar, and that won't help the army much. I agree not to expect anything from mother or you. Let's each buy ourselves what we want, and have a little fun. We work hard to earn it."

"I do, teaching those tiresome children nearly all day when I really want to enjoy myself at home," complained Meg.

"You don't have half such a hard time as I do," said Jo. "How would you like to be shut up for hours with a nervous, fussy old lady, who is never happy, and worries you till you're ready to fly out of the window or cry?"

"It's naughty to fret; but I do think washing dishes and keeping things tidy is the worst work in the world. It makes me cross; and my hands get so stiff to practice my music at all"; Beth looked at her rough hands with a sigh that anyone could hear.

"I don't believe any of you suffer as I do." cried Amy, "for you don't have to go to school with rude girls, who laugh at your lessons or your dresses, and say bad words because your father isn't rich."

Alone in the wilderness. Nothing but jungle. A word of shadow with the rays of light falling like blonde hair from the crowns of the giant trees. Jungle in the middy sun. Everything motionless. Not a sound from sky or earth. Complete silence. Only some coconuts falling, very far away. The world reduced to the soft touch of cool grass along my naked back, and a sweet smell of rich soil and vegetation. Lying with closed eyes beside my heavy fruit and firewood, I enjoyed the feeling of fresh blood streaming through every part of my body and fresh jungle air filling every corner of my body.

Resting motionless, I could see the sun through my closed eyelids, alone in the sky, as lonely as I, and as motionless and silent as everything else. The earth had surely stopped turning and somewhere on this planet there was supposed to be noisy traffic in busy streets. What a crazy, unbelievable thought!

Another coconut fell, to make the world come to a complete standstill. I had to roll over onto my stomach to feel that at least I could move and make noises. Then I found company (陪伴). A little brown ant was struggling (挣扎) to find its way with a bit of dry straw (草) through the jungle of leaves and grass below my nose. I wondered if I could give the little fellow a lift with its burden (重负), but it showed not the slightest sign of tiredness and struggled on with all six legs, head first or head last, waving its feelers energetically as if the trip had just started. Who ever saw a tired ant? Tiredness, disagreeable tiredness, is impossible to hunted animals, slaves and modern man. It is as great an effort for an office to walk five blocks with a heavy brief-case as it is for a farmer to cross a valley with a goat on his back. It is as hard to get up and climb or run when you have been seated for years as it is to get up and walk when you have been in bed for months. The body is strange. Spare it, and you get really tired for almost nothing; use it, and almost nothing makes you really tired.

I rose to my feet. I had heard a horse neighing down in the valley. Above me, on the open highland places, there were wild horses. But down in the valley there was never a horse if there wasn't a man on it. Somebody was making his way up the valley and my wife was alone.

Fear may be in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.

Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting (收缩) and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain reacts to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.

Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: "Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart."

The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr. Garfinkel said, "The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see-and guide whether we see fear."

To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner (扫描仪) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.

"We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain 'speak' to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear, "Dr. Garfinkel said.

"We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety (焦虑) disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder."

Many people often lose their chance to live life to the fullest because of procrastination, which means that they always delay (推延) doing something that must be done at once. Moreover, because they often put off their plans till "tomorrow", they are less likely to achieve their goals and will give up their dreams and goals finally.

Why do some people not take immediate action? Depending on someone else rather than doing by oneself is one of the reasons. Another cause of procrastination is that people do not value each moment in their day. In fact, it's surprising how much you can do if you just decide to do little things with the little time you have. Also those who often procrastinate can always find a good reason for something they refuse to do at once. If you are one of those who often delay, then it's time for you to make a decision to act now because things happen only when we decide to act.

Once you have made your decision, write down the plan and take action at once. Making plans can help you think carefully about how you are going to do what you need to do. After understanding how to do what you want to do, get doing with the plan. No matter how small the move you make is, the little things you do accumulate (累积) over time will move you to be closer to your goals.

Here is a challenge that will also move you to be closer to your dreams and goals if taken seriously. Make a list of ten things you have been putting off. And then try to develop the habit of doing them at once!

63. 青少年在成长过程中经常遇到各种问题。假如你是李平, 你的外国好友Erick 写信询问你在平时的生活和学习中遇到问题是如何处理的。请你根据以下流程图用英语写一封回信, 分享你的经历。

Thank you for writing to me. It's a great pleasure to share my experiences.

What about your problem? How did you deal with it? I'm looking forward to your reply.

Best wishes,             

Li Ping