1 . Just several days ago, a violent storm hit our community. I looked out of the window and witnessed a tree being abused by the fierce winds. The branches bent, and swayed (摇摆) back and forth, thanks to their _______ to avoid breaking. The leaves desperately _________ the branches because their life depended on the tree. The powerful trunk that held the tree upright bent slightly backwards from the force in a battle to _________ its position.

After the storm passed, the tree gracefully returned to its _________ position standing tall among the mess. It managed to _________ the storm. It didn’t look the same as leaves had been shed from its branches, but what _________ was that the tree won the fight for its life. For a long time I couldn’t understand why this tree _________ my attention the way it did. As time passed, it became _________ that it wasn’t just about the tree but about the roots, which, although unseen, went deep into the soil providing stability and nutrition. The roots helped the tree to be able to suffer from the fierce winds because they were there _________ it.

I can’t but ask myself how deep the roots are in my life. Accordingly, the next time you catch your kids __________, the job is driving you crazy, you are underpaid and the money is __________, and the storms of life are heavy, go back to your roots. Life is full of __________. They will make you sway, make you ________ and make you lose some leaves. But the deeper your roots are, the stronger you stand.

Faced with challenges, you might bend but don’t __________. No matter how hard the wind blows don’t let life force you into an uncomfortable position. Your __________ lies in your roots.

2 . In the corner of my desk is a note, slowly yellowing from time. It is a card from my mother, containing only four sentences, but with enough impact to _________ my life forever.

In the card, she praises my abilities as a writer. The word “but” never appears; _________, the word “and” is there almost a half dozen times.

Every time I read it, I am _________ to ask myself how many times I’ve “but-ted” my own daughters. Although our eldest daughter usually got all A’s on her report card, teachers would always suggest that she talked too much in class. I would come home and _________ her with, “Congratulations! Your Dad and I are very _________ of your accomplishment, but could you try to _________ in class?”

The same was _________ of our younger daughter. She treats the floor of her room as a closet, which has often caused me to say, “Yes, that project is great, but _________ your room!”

I’ve noticed that other _________ do the same thing. “Our whole family was together for Christmas, but Kyle skipped out early to play his new computer game.” “The hockey team won, but Mike should have made that last __________.”

But, but, but.

Instead, what I have learned from my mother is to start thinking “and, and, and”. __________, “The hockey team won, and Mike did his best the whole game.”

Now, I am firmly __________ that “but” feels bad, “and” feels good. This is not to say that children don’t need or won’t respond to their parents’ __________. They do and they will. When those expectations are consistently __________, amazing things happen.

“No more buts!” is a call for __________. And if I ever forget, I have my mother’s note to remind me.

4 . When I was a college student, I did a lot of traveling abroad. That was because a professor _________ me to do so. She said, “Now is the time for you to travel around the world, _________ your knowledge through actual experiences and have fun!” I _________ her.

Since I started to work for a food company, _________, I have done most of my traveling through the Internet. By using the Internet, I have seen the _________ of many cities on my computer screen. And I have really made business _________, too. With the help of the Internet, I have also got _________ about food from different countries.

Therefore, I was beginning to feel that actual trips were _________ necessary when I happened to read a famous chef’s comment on the Internet. He said, “It is very difficult to have real Italian food in a foreign country, because we enjoy food and the _________ around us at the same time.” Those words __________ me of my professor’s advice. With information technology advancing, you might be able to do without making some real trips. But this also means that you will miss the various __________ you can get from traveling.

Today, people __________ direct communication with others and spend much of their time on the Internet. I do not think that they are taking good advantage of information technology. We should use information technology as a tool to make our daily communication more __________. Besides, we should never let it __________ our time for face-to-face communication. Let’s make use of information technology more __________ and have great fun in experiencing the actual world.

7 . Even now, I have vivid memories of my last day of high school. In my mind’s eye, I’m cleaning out my locker, and then staring at the emptiness for a few extra beats before slamming it shut for the last time. I’m wandering around the halls with my best friend, blissfully ignoring the bells going off every 50 minutes on schedule because, just today, we’re allowed to break the rules. I’m sitting on my desk, swinging my feet, and shooting the breeze (闲聊) with my English teacher, Mr. Carr, in a way that makes me feel almost grown up.

It was maybe my favorite day of the whole year. Like the final layer of watercolor, the freedom and lightness I feel seeps (渗透) into the rest of my memories of that day and turns them just a shade rosier.

If the school year hasn’t yet ended for you, consider what you can do to make the finale count. Why? Because when it comes to human memory, not all moments are created equal. Instead, our remembered experiences are disproportionately (不成比例地) influenced by peaks (the best moments as well as the worst) and endings (the last moments). Nobel Prize winner Danny Kahneman, who discovered this phenomenon, called this the peak-end rule. It suggests that our judgment of a past experience is largely based on its most extreme point and its endpoint.

I took advantage of the peak-end rule years ago, when my girls were young enough to want a bedtime story each night. I remember thinking that whatever disagreement and stress had occurred that day, I could make the last moments count. I could end on a note of calm and act like the patient mom I hadn’t quite managed to be just hours before.

Don’t mistake all moments as equal insignificance. There’s a reason why yoga classes end with savasana (挺卧式). There’s a reason we eat dessert last. Do organize endings carefully. As Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll might say: Finish strong. Last impressions are especially lasting.

8 . Sometimes the people who give you warmth are strangers. They brighten your day or your life. Snow makes everything white. But a ________ on a cold winter morning made my heart ________.

For several days snow fell heavily. It lay many inches thick on the ground. My home is not far from the Hill Park station. Every morning I ________ to the station and caught the eight o’clock train. When I got out of the train, I was about to ________ out of the railway station when my eyes got ________ on one old guy. The morning cold winter ________ were piercing (刺入) through my woolen ________. I felt it cutting through my flesh and bones．

I was walking quickly when I ________ the old man wasn’t wearing anything on his ________ nor scarf around his neck, ________he was sitting in freezing winds. I don’t know how he was going to ________ those cold winters.

I went to him and asked the reason for not wearing any hat. He gave me a strange ________ and said nothing. I got the sign that probably he felt embarrassed about the question that I asked him. So I ________off my woolen hat and handed it to him. I told him to keep wearing it. He then smiled. I smiled ________ and left. Actually, after you do a favor or offer a convenience, you will be deeply ________ by others. We said nothing, but we all enjoyed the warmth, friendship and generosity from each other.

9 . The text from my son said it all, “Dad, there’s an article you were born to write that the world is finally ready for: Bring Back the Handkerchief (手帕)!” As my son knows, there’s no “bring back” for me. For me, the handkerchief never left.

My mother raised me with several fixed rules. One was that a gentleman always has a clean handkerchief in his right rear pocket, a piece of simple cotton, roughly 15 inches square and less than four inches when folded. I was a dutiful son, but as a child, I had been wondering what it was there for. After 60 years, my body weight now feels wrong if I’m heading out of the house with an empty back pocket.

I am sure this habit has sometimes struck friends but in polite company nobody comments on somebody else’s business. Children like my kids think of my hankie ridiculously old-fashioned and they have their arguments. If you have to be prepared every day for allergies or a cold, why not choose a little packet of tissues (纸巾), which saves you from that disgusting business of blowing your nose in the thing and then stuffing it back in your pants?

I understand their point. But a handkerchief is more durable and has a far wider variety of uses. Can you grab the handle of a pot that’s boiling over with a Tempo tissue? Or do you recall the cases of skinned knees and drippy noses that hankie wiped? In fact, my wife gave me several new handkerchiefs as gifts. Neither of us can count the number of times she wiped her tears at a movie, or, as it happens, she’s needed to blow her nose.

Yet not even my mother could have predicted the hankie’s new role as an Essential Public Health Appliance. All of us have learnt how hard it is to follow advice from medical experts about not touching your face. Here is an answer. Use your hankie. In case of emergency, your handkerchief can become a makeshift DIY mask that can be pulled over your lower face like a robber entering a bank.

And it will certainly give me the chance to lift my chin and look at my adult children through one eye, asking in her good-hearted way, “What do you have to say now, smarty-pants?”