Planting flowers is my favourite hobby because I     1     something new from it.

I bought a flower pot(盆) and some flower seeds(种子) last week. Then I     2     some seeds in the pot. After a few days nothing     3    . But I     4     up watering. Another ten days later, I saw the young plants came out. I     5     very excited because I could grow something.

Just like     6     flowers, we can also plant happiness. Our life     7     like an empty pot. We have lots of things     8     but we never do them. That     9     we lose many things. What are the lost things? Yes, they’re the seeds of health, love and dreams.

What should we plant in life? If we plant negative thoughts(消极思想) inside our hearts, we will feel unhappy in the future days; if we plant seeds of hope, we     10     happiness.

On a snowy evening, a rich lady was standing by the road. She was very worried. Her car broke down and she couldn’t fix (修理) it by     1    . Just then a poor man called Robert came. He was on his way back home from work as usual. The lady wondered     2     the man was going to help her because he looked very cold and hungry. But to her     3    , he stopped and said with a smile, “What’s wrong, madam?” The lady told him what was     4    .

After 40 minutes, the car was at last fixed by Robert. The lady wanted to pay him. “No, that’s nothing, madam,” he said. “I was just helping someone     5     need. If you really want to pay me back, I hope whenever you see someone in trouble, please give him a     6    .” A few minutes later, the lady saw a shabby (破旧的) house by the road. She     7     of Robert’s words, so she stopped. The hostess (女主人) asked her in. The lady could see that the family were so poor that they     8     help. When the hostess was making tea in the kitchen, the lady put 500 dollars on the table and went away quietly.

Robert came home     9     than before, thinking how hard their life was. Their baby was to be born the next month but there wasn’t     10     money. His wife went up to him, kissed him and said softly, “Don’t worry, dear! Everything’s going to be all right. A stranger has helped us out.”

I stood at my grandmother’s front door with my son. Holding a bottle of soapy water, he was blowing bubbles (泡泡). He blew and blew, but     1     bubbles came out. He handed     2     the bottle sadly and said, “Daddy, can you make bubbles?”

I hadn’t blown bubbles for years, so I said, “ I’ll     3    .”

I blew hard at first, but failed. After     4     tries, I changed the way I blew. Instead of blowing hard on the loop (环状物), I breathed on it gently (温柔地), I made it. My son     5     up and down as a big beautiful bubble came out.

I     6     to him. “Son, you can’t blow hard, you must breathe gently on the loop to make bubbles.”

He followed my     7     and big bubbles came out.

There are some things that you can get with force, but there are other things that     8     come with the gentleness of a soft breath. Too often, we try to force love. It won’t come. It just breaks before the bubble can ever form     9     we put too much force on it.

The closer something is to higher spirit, the more it is like bubbles. It can’t be forced and is more often     10     in the soft things of life.

To blow beautiful bubbles, you just need to breathe.

I used to be the shyest person in the world. I hid behind my elder sister when I had to speak to a     1    . When I was asked to speak in class, I could hardly breathe. Even     2     the few friends, my low, timid(怯怯的) voice made me jokes- about being a girl.

Then in the seventh grade, my sister suggested I attend voice lessons and I followed her advice.

After a few     3     exercise, I finally got confidence and courage in my voice.

Then one day I was asked to sing for some old people.     4     of the voice lessons, I thought I would do better than before. I opened my mouth but I couldn’t remember the words! My face     5     red. The kind pianist gave me a prompt(提示), and I remembered just enough to keep     6    . Then it made me realize: There’s really nothing else to lose. So in my second song, I just relaxed and felt the energy of the song lift me. And I did much     7    .

After that, I started singing to     8     as loudly as I could in my own room. That’s something I would never have     9     before. One classmate even said I should be in the school’s talent show.

Singing has made me more outgoing. Today, I can also stand in front of the whole class and give a big speech. I am     10     of myself. I am no more a shy person.

It was a hot sunny summer day. A tired man was walking through a desert with no more water. He felt     1     and thought he would certainly die. Suddenly, he saw a small house and decided to walk     2     to have a look. The house was abandoned (废弃的), but had a hand pump (泵) inside.

“What a blessing!” the man thought. However his     3     soon came down when he saw no water coming out of it. As he was about to     4    , he noticed a bottle of water in the corner of the room. There was a niece of paper under that bottle. It said, “Use the water to start the pump. Don’t forget     5     this bottle.”

What should he do? He could simply drink that bottle of water and save his life. In that case, he couldn’t carry along any water on his way     6    . Also, no one else would turn up there to get a     7     to save his life. But if he follow the instructions and that didn’t work, he would simply die.

He closed his eyas and picked the     8     choice finally. In any case, he had to take a risk. To his great     9    , cool clear water came out of the pump. He drank it like a thirsty cow, refilled the bottle and put it back in the corner. Moreover, he     10     some words on the paper, “Believe me, it works.” with a smile on his face.