4 . My family moved into our home nine years ago. We spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to get it looking like the way it does today. In front of the house, the rocks appear to be just thrown up onto the dirt as if someone were in a hurry to finish. We called this area our “rock garden”. Denise and I would also plant some flowers between the rocks, just to bring some color to the area.

Last summer I found, in the rock garden, a tiny little plant that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either. We decided to let it continue growing until we could figure out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the strange plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. It looked thin and tall with only one head on it. I decided to baby it along and weed(除杂草)around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something unusual. The sunflower had not started where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.

That’s when I realized that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t allow a big rock to stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability to do the same thing. Once we believe in ourselves like that little sunflower, we can attain the same nourishment(养分)for growth as well.

Stand tall like the sunflower and be proud of who and what we are, then the environment will begin to support us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to achieve our goals.

5 . Daniel Lamplugh remembers going shopping with his dad on Black Friday. “Waking up at a. m. the day after Thanksgiving is what I grew up doing, ” says the University of New Orleans film student.

A lot has changed since those childhood days. Online retailers(零售商) have forced many chains out of business. Consumers are increasingly shopping with their smartphones. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future: Most shoppers are not going all-digital(全数码化的). Surveys show they’re eager for good experiences at retail stores.

This November and December, for the first time ever, retailer websites will get more traffic from mobile users than computer users, predicts Adobe Digital Insights. “We live our lives with a combination of the physical and the digital,” says Kit Yarrow, author of the book “Decoding the New Consumer Mind.” “Retailers have to understand it’s not question of either/or. It’s a question of combining the two. ”

Heather Howe, an MBA student, said, “Consumers like shopping on their phones and online because it’s more convenient and because there are more options. I went to the Vans store to try on shoes and then I actually purchased them online while I was in the store. ” While mobile sales are growing, the widest use of smartphones in stores is researching products or looking up product information (58 percent), closely followed by checking or comparing prices (54 percent), according to a survey.

“My phone plays a huge role in online shopping, because I am on the email list for all of my favorite brands, so I get many emails daily informing me of sales, says Rachel Lynch, who works at a Boston public-relations agency.” Also, a store has an app that allows me to chat with other users about the products, and read reviews. Online reviews are one of the first things I look at when I am about to buy a new product.”

“Electronics and kitchen equipment are definitely online purchases for me, since they’re heavy to get home on the subway and often cheaper online,” says Michael Miller-Ernest, a manager in Brooklyn, N. Y.

6 . Home party marketing originated in America in the early last century. At that time, direct selling had become a very common part of American life. Door-to-door salesmen would travel throughout the country selling anything from sewing machines to cure all medicines. In 1931, a man named Frank Stanley Beveridge who had dug enough gold by doing this selling started a company called Stanley Home Products. The company sold cleaning supplies to housewives.

Soon after Mr. Beveridge began his company, one of his salesmen began selling Stanley products at home parties. The salesman would organize a Stanley Party where he could give a cleaning demonstration(演示) to a room full of guests. It allowed him to sell Stanley products to many different customers at once, and it proved to be much more effective than standard door-to-door sales. The practice quickly became the main marketing strategy of Stanley Home Products.

Next, during the 1940s, many housewives started selling Stanley products to make extra money for their families. The job was perfect for housewives because Stanley sellers could work from home and set their own schedules. A single mother named Brownie Wise took full advantage of this opportunity and quickly became one of Stanley’s top sellers.

Not long after that, she started her own direct selling business called Tupperware Patio Parties, which focused on selling a new type of plastic food container, Tupperware, using the Stanley home party system. Wise had realized Tupperwvare was perfect for the home party system. She could show her customers its patented airtight seal, and she could also take away their anxiety about the safety of plastics -- a fairly new invention at the time. Wise’s company was very successful, and it was soon selling more Tupperware than department stores.

Today, many other companies have adopted home party marketing plans. So, next time you leave your friend’s party with a hundred dollars’ worth of new Tupperware or jewelry, you can thank Frank Stanley Beveridge and Brownie Wise for your unintended purchase.

7 . I was at a crowded grocery store not long ago. It was a weekday evening, cold and tense. People were carelessly _________ aisles (过道) and at one point, two women_________ for several minutes after running into each other.

Things got _________ at the checkout line. The cashier scanned a man’s discount card, but he misread the savings on her screen as an additional _________. He decided she was acting _________ and began to argue. The cashier tried in vain (徒劳地) to reason with him. She _________ a manager, who accompanied him to customer service, and moved to the next _________ in line.

We’ ve all witnessed (目击)_________ scenes like this in public places. My reaction when I see them is both personal and _________. I am a sociologist who studies how and why people communicate with one another-or why they __________ not to. To me, the grocery scene was another example of how our __________ in others has declined. But it was also a teachable __________ on how we can rebuild our faith- __________ with just one person.

I __________ the nervous cashier. I got a bottle of water from a nearby cooler and handed it to her. “I felt__________ about how that man treated you and wanted to buy this for you, ” I said. Her face lit up, and we __________ as she scanned our items. She told me she had been __________ that evening through severe foot pain and would be having an operation later that week. I wished her well in her __________ and she thanked me as I left.

Those are the balancing __________ that will add up to restore (重建) trust between people. You can start that pattern in someone else’s life, even in a __________ as ordinary as the neighbourhood grocery store.

8 . One of my neighbors used to have a beautiful tree in her front yard. Her dad had planted it for her _________ it was nothing more than a little branch and several years later it started to _________ towards the sky at an amazing speed. Soon it blessed her with cooling _________ in the summer and glorious, golden leaves in the fall.

When the two-day snowstorm struck our town, heavy snow _________ the tree’s branches that were still full of leaves. The weight split that lovely tree down the _________. It was so sad seeing half of it _________ on the ground after the storm. When I talked to my neighbor later, she said that the damage had been too much and that the _________ tree would have to be cut down. _________, she had saved a few seedlings from it that she hoped to _________ in the future.

Still, it was a shock to drive by her house the other day and see __________ but a stump (树桩) in her front yard. I missed that tree. I missed its branches, its leaves __________ in the afternoon sun. I missed seeing its limbs (树枝) reach towards the heavens. I thought that the stump would be a sad __________ of its loss for a long time to come.

My wonderful neighbor had another plan, __________. When I drove by her home today I saw a tiny bird feeder sitting on that stump and a colorful songbird having its __________. It was such an affirmation (肯定) of life. It was such a joy to __________. I could feel my heart __________.

Life by its very nature is a __________ bag. It hands us both beauty and tragedy, love and loss, __________ and pain. What we do with it, however, is up to us. We can let it __________ us in two, or we can use even its hardest times to make our __________ stronger and our hearts more loving. We can spend it complaining or we can use it to help others.

9 . The United States seems to have become extremely enthusiastic about competition. The famous Scripps National Spelling Bee—an annual spelling contest—now allows kids who last in regional competitions but whose parents agree to pay an entry fee (费用) along with their own food and accommodation to compete. And while some kids are working for what they call a spelling “career”, others are approaching chess competitions, dance competitions, cooking or other passions that previous generations developed somewhat later in life.

I’m disturbed by the phenomenon (现象), which seems to be getting worse and more intense.

My teacher always warned us that competition is a destructive quality; that the goal is never to beat anyone else. I think he’ll be cheered by author Peggy Noonan’s idea that a lot of us are running our own races, trying to rise to the occasion and beat some past and limited conception of ourselves by doing something great.

I heartily agree. Instead of paying attention to the accomplishments or possessions of others, we need to focus on our own potential, our own growth and take pleasure in our own particular set of circumstances. The battle for life is not against anyone else but against the darkness inside that tries to bring us down. I wish you only well. Your good doesn’t reduce mine. Your bad gives me no pleasure

Ms. Noonan also suggests that “you’re running your own race alongside others running theirs, and in the same direction. You’re doing something great together.” If we stop worrying about what our neighbor is earning or driving, the size of his house, the success of his marriage, the accomplishments of his children, we can sit back and enjoy our own lives. And if we all focus on what we each can achieve, regardless of anyone else, we have a chance of working as one, of actually being united.

Competition divides us. There are winners and losers. But that’s a very limited picture of reality. It may apply to spelling bees and soccer matches and even in some college classes, but life isn’t about triumphing (战胜) over someone else; it’s about triumphing over ourselves. The only acceptable competition is one where we encourage each other to be the best human being possible, and that’s the only game where “everyone is a winner”.