1 . See Me

The sun prepared to rest for the evening. Saying goodbye to the clan (家族), I headed back to camp. I looked forward to setting my _______ aside for an evening to reflect on my time in Ethiopia.

“Photo, photo”, a voice behind me called. A young Surma boy followed closely at my heels as I breathed a tired sigh. Over the past four days, many in the camp had wanted their photograph _______. I had no energy left after this long day, but the boy kept appealing, “Photo, photo.” He managed to catch my gaze. With eyes full of _______, he asked me once more: “photo?”

As I looked at him, an idea flashed before me. I knelt in the cornfield and instructed the boy how to _______ . Suddenly, he became shy, losing his _______. No matter how I instructed him, I couldn’t capture the shot. Frustrated, I _______. I looked at the boy, who seemed _______.

In an effort to cheer him, I said, “You were great.” Others from his clan gathered around, cheering and clapping. The boy’s face broke into a smile. I intuitively took shots of the moment. That photograph turned out to be better than the arrangement I’d imagined because it was _______.

Reflecting on my experience, I realized I had been caught up in my own ideas and wants. When I agreed to take the shot, I was looking for a particular end _______ for myself. But all the boy had really wanted was to be __________. That was the moment that needed to be captured.

2 . Jeremy Locke, who owns a roofing and construction company, had always been wanting to _______ the roof of Jeanette MacDonald’s home. Whenever he drove past the woman’s home, he _______ that another group of repairmen had taken on the job. But as weeks wore on, the roof continued to worsen without any _______ of repair.

“I had it in my mind that if no one steps up to help this lady in our community, I’d love to,” said Locke to his wife.

When Locke finally _______ MacDonald about fixing her roof for free, however, she politely turned him down because she did not like to accept _______. She told Locke, “I applied for a government grant (补助金) to fix the roof and I’ll be more than happy to _______ you once the grant application was approved”.

_______, the approval never came.

So Locke changed tactics (策略). The sympathetic construction worker played a/an _______ trick to make her accept his help. He invited MacDonald to enter a raffle (抽奖) that his business was holding for a free roof. After MacDonald got one of the raffle tickets, Locke told her that she was the _______. Not until the new roof was finished did MacDonald know that she was the only one who had entered the raffle.

MacDonald said that she didn’t know how to express her ________ to Locke, saying that he was her “guardian angel”.

3 . One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun flying their kites. Multicolored creations, various shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing. As the strong wind blew against the kites, a_________kept them in check.

Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great_________. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upwards and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to be saying, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be_________!” They soared beautifully even as they fought the control of the string. Finally, one of the kites_________in breaking loose from it. Free at last, it seemed to say, “Free to fly with the wind.” Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the _________of the unsympathetic wind. It dropped ungracefully to the ground and landed in a mass of weeds. Free at last, free to_________powerless, and to be blown helpless along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.

_________like kites we sometimes are! Life gives us adversity(逆境),_________and rules to follow from which we can gain strength. Restraint is a necessary opponent to the winds of opposition. We can never rise high enough to achieve our goals if we lose our necessary_________or the rules.

Let each of us rise to great heights,__________that some of the restraints that we may chafe under(因…而感到恼怒) are actually the steady force that helps us ascend and achieve.

5 . Famous people often say that the key to becoming both happy and successful is to “do what you love”. But mastering a skill, even one that you deeply love, _________ a huge amount of dull work. Anyone who wants to master a skill must run through the cycle of practice, _________ feedback, modification, and increasing improvement again, again and again. Some people seem able to concentrate on practicing an activity like this for years and take pleasure in their gradual improvement. Yet others find this kind of focused, time-intensive work to be _________ or boring. Why?

The difference may _________ the ability to enter into state of “flow,” the feeling of being completely involved in what you are doing. Since Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi developed the _________ of flow in the 1970’s, it has been a mainstay of positive-psychology research. Flow states can happen in the course of any activity, and they are most common when a task has well-defined goals and is at a(n) _________ skill level.

Csikszentmihalyi suggested that those who most _________ entered into flow states had an “autotelic (自成目的的) personality” — a disposition to seek out challenges and get into a state of flow. While those without such a personality see difficulties, autotelic individuals see opportunities to build skills. With their capacity for “disinterested interest”, such people have a great _________ over others in developing their innate abilities.

Fortunately for those of us who aren’t necessarily blessed with an autotelic personality, there is evidence that flow states can be _________ by environmental factors. By giving ourselves unstructured, open-ended time, minimal __________, and a task set at a moderate level of difficulty, we may be able to love what we’re doing.

6 . There came Bryan’s game time. He sat back on the sofa and began to _______. “Don’t let the video game turn you into a couch potato (电视迷).” Mom said. That didn’t distract Bryan and he _______his eyes on the flashing television screen.

Soon, Bryan’s _______began to hurt. He was having trouble moving his fingers. Bryan tried to stretch out his hands, _______it felt like his fingers just wanted to curl back around the controller. Bryan _______back into the couch. It was so comfortable that he felt like he was sinking deeper into the cushions (靠垫). He felt a little thirsty, but it would be too much trouble to get up and _______the game. Then Bryan thought about _______Mom had said. Was his body really becoming part of the couch? He tried to concentrate_______his back and legs to feel where his body ended and the couch began, but he _______ feel much of anything at all.

Bryan looked down at his hands. They felt stiff now, and it seemed like they were stuck around the controller. Bryan felt ________. Could he really be turning into a video game controller? Would he just disappear into the couch before supper? Suddenly, Bryan ________ the controller and made himself stand up. He reached his hands down to touch his toes. His body tingled (感到刺痛) as he moved.

Bryan ran to the kitchen to tell his mom what had happened. “Well, at least we know that video games haven’t ________your mind,” Mom said. She smiled, but Bryan still felt very serious. “I think I should take a break from video games and go outside ________,” said Bryan. And that was just what he did.

That day Bryan got a ________. It’s wise to play video games in an appropriate way. Otherwise a man will end up with a couch potato, or even, a ________of video games.

7 . I had not hugged a friend or a family member for more than two years until recently when my sister-in-law flew in for a brief visit. For everyone’s safety, we met outside. Despite the wintry weather, her hug_________me from the inside out. It’s strange, but only now do I truly realize how much I’ve _________embracing loved ones — the warmth that remains long after our arms have untwined (松开).

Growing up through war in my hometown of Sarajevo, Bosnia, every moment was full of_________. On one peaceful morning, I had begged my mom to let me go outside. She finally_________. I was outside for only 10 minutes when I was caught in an explosion. I ran to my neighbor’s house for _________ before my legs collapsed. She hugged me with both arms and_________me into her house. I was still in her arms when the ambulance arrived. Thankfully, I made a full physical_________, but the emotional scars never left me. Years later there was another _________ near my house. I was safe, but my father had left to buy a loaf of bread. He had only just _________ the blast. When he came back, I gave him the biggest hug __________. I was caked in tears as I held him __________. That same night my parents __________ to arrange my escape from our war-torn city. They __________ wanted at least some of my childhood to be normal. I was 16 and came to America on my own. A __________ host family took me in and I began learning English and going to school. They had a large dog called Oscar. Over the next several months, I secretly struggled with feeling __________and worried about my family back home. Despite getting on quite well at school, I couldn’t __________ my feelings. The only way I shared how I felt was by giving Oscar a big hug.

Perhaps we have undervalued the__________of a simple hug. As I look back on my past, I __________myself truly lucky to have been held,__________ and encouraged at some of the most key moments of my life by the almost otherworldly (超世俗的) power of a hug. I pray that in the not-so-distant future we can safely __________ one another again-a friend, relative, or even a stranger.