2 . It has been heard for years: technology is ruining our lives. We are often told that it weakens our eyes light and productivity. I don’t buy into that mindset(心态) because we all have free will and can limit our technology intakes responsibly. However, one of the strongest bad effects of the technological age has been the downfall of reading books.

Before we had phones, books were sources of entertainment. I know I’m not the only one who spent nights as a child with a flashlight hidden under my covers so that I could finish a book when I was supposed to be sleeping. I still remember one of my favorite novels was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, from which I learned about the value of friendship.

Reading a book often feels even more pleasant than watching a movie. We create our own worlds, pictures of the characters and views of the events described. Reading requires complete focus, so it pulls us out of our daily lives, our fears and our problems. Reading a book brings us into a state of peace and adventure, letting us dive into others’ worlds.

Reading a book takes time and requires attentions, which is almost impossible in a world in which plenty of distractions(使人分心的事) exist at the mere opening of a phone lock screen. Many people even report feeling distracted by their phones while watching TV. If people are feeling distracted when watching TV shows, how can they focus on reading a novel, a task that requires complete attention?

I was recently on vacation and found myself on an eight-hour plane ride with no Internet access. At first, this seemed unbearable, but then I remembered I had packed a book in my bag. I started the book, and within minutes, I was totally absorbed. I spent the rest of my journey reading it.

I advise anyone wanting to rediscover the joys of reading, to simulate(模拟) the environment I was forced to enter into by getting on the airplane. Turn your phone off and find a quiet space. Pickup an old favorite book from childhood or a new one. Then, sit down and begin to create your own world.

3 . Around Thanksgiving, I flew to visit my family. A woman across the aisle________to push her suitcase into the tight overhead bin. When we landed, she was pulling, but the suitcase didn’t ________. I asked if I could help, ________ she replied, “It’ll come. I got it in, and there has to be a way to get it out.”

Her calmness and confidence inspired me, ________ me as a recipe for cultivating (培养) resilience (抗逆力) in life. Resilience is the ability to ________ challenging circumstances, refocus and find ways back into a positive life. The woman’s reaction to her ________ luggage was a beautiful example of cultivating resilience: “________ seeing crises as unsolvable problems. ”

The ________ situation might not be a “crisis”, but you know how ________ a plane aisle can be when everyone is trying to get off the plane. The woman never kept herself ________ by recognizing her problem had a solution.

The ________ reminded me of something that happened to me this past fall, when I took a solitary (单独的) hike along a rocky ocean path. I was enjoying myself in the fresh air, feeling________ as I picked my way from rock to rock and congratulating myself when I reached the end of the dock. Then I turned around and saw how ________ I had traveled, I felt myself slipping into nervous self-doubt. What if I ________ and twisted my ankle?

I took a deep breath and, like the woman on the ________, realized with relief that I could certainly make it ________. When I finally stepped back onto the shore, I not only felt ________, but also confident and accomplished.

When ________ plant seeds of “I can’t” in your mind, maybe you’ll remember the woman on the plane. Wherever life has brought you, consider that there is a(n) ________ to coming back to yourself. You have the power of resilience within you whenever you are ________ it.

4 . As a child, I was fascinated by the world of theater and began taking classes at the age of 7. Throughout my teenage years, I actively _________ plays, television shows, and movies. _________ provided me with an opportunity to _________ things that I may not have had the courage to attempt in real life. One of the most significant ___________ of acting was the ability to step outside of my comfort zone and ___________ myself into someone else, confident and bold on stage.

Despite this, in my everyday life, I was often plagued (困扰) by ___________ and hesitance. Acting allowed me to explore different time periods and _________ , as I put on various costumes and immersed (投入) myself in different eras and worlds. I played a variety of _________ , ranging from aliens to ringmasters, and _________ a diverse set of skills along the way.

Performing was an excellent way for me to __________ my shyness. I gained a newfound confidence in myself and learned to be more __________ . __________ , after a while, I grew tired of living inside someone else’s __________ and was ready to forge (打造) my own path. I was fortunate to have received unwavering________ from my family, who had always __________ me of the importance of education and self-worth.

Looking back, my time as a __________ actor was a period of significant self-discovery and __________ . Through acting, I gained __________ insights into myself and the world around me. I will always be ________for the experience and lessons I __________ during my time in the spotlight.

5 . My community and state are still recovering from the disaster that hit the area recently. A wall of storms with hurricane force winds _____ late on a Friday evening knocking down trees, _____ roads, damaging homes, and destroying power lines. Hundreds of thousands of people suddenly _____themselves in the dark without water, electricity, air conditioning, telephones, internet, and television. They were _____ from the modern world suffering unbearable 90 degree plus heat with no help and no idea _____ it would be over.

The most _____ thing happened, however, as the reality of the crisis sank in: it brought out the best in us. While there were a few acts of _____ and stealing, they were overwhelmed (压倒) by the wave of _____ and compassion that came from the hearts of so many. People shared their food, ice, and gasoline. People who still had _____ opened their homes to those who had none. People rushed out to _____roads and homes of fallen trees. Selfless power crews worked around the clock to repair the damage and _____ electricity.

Life’s disasters strike all of us from time to time. No one is _____. We all get hurt. We all get _____. How we respond to them, though, is up to us. We can let them bring out the worst in us or we can let them bring out the best in us. We can _____ them like devils of selfishness or like angels of love. May you always bring the best from your heart and soul to whatever life may _____ at you then. May you live all of your days here with so much love that you sing and smile.

7 . Being good at something and having a passion for it are not enough. Success________fundamentally on our view of ourselves and of the________ in our lives.

When twelve-year-old John Wilson walked into his chemistry class on a rainy day in 1931, he had no________ of knowing that his life was to change________. The class experiment that day was to ________ how heating a container of water would bring air bubbling (冒泡) to the surface. ________, the container the teacher gave Wilson to heat_________held something more volatile (易挥发的) than water. When Wilson heated it, the container________, leaving Wilson blinded in both eyes.

When Wilson returned home from hospital two months later, his parents________to find a way to deal with the catastrophe(灾难) that had________their lives. But Wilson did not regard the accident as a________. He learned braille (盲文) quickly and continued his education at Worcester College for the Blind. There, he not only did well as a student but also became a________ public speaker.

Later, he worked in Africa, where many people suffered from________for lack of proper treatment. For him, it was one thing to________his own fate of being blind and another to do something in his power to help those________. He acted on the thought and tens of millions in Africa and Asia can see because of the________Wilson made to helping________their sight.

Wilson received several international________for his great contributions. He lost his sight but found a________. He proved that it’s not what happens to us that________our lives-it’s what we make of what happens.

8 . I’ve noticed that conversations with my children have started to turn into something I don’t like. It could be my _______. I don’t always _______ before I open my mouth. For example, my kids would call to tell me about something that’s been _______ them. As soon as they’re finished, I go into mom mode.

“You should...”, “You need to consider...”, “If I were you, I’d...” “Mom!”

The tone is full of _______ and annoyance.

When I get one of my adult kids on the phone, I become a(n) _______ on everything, which I’m obviously not. I want to be part of their lives and _______ them from making mistakes that seem so obvious to me.

I’m hardly _______ in this. Over lunch the other day, a friend told me that her son _______ listened to anything she said. “It’s like talking to a wall!” I know that feeling well. But I’m learning slowly that talking at is not the same as talking with.

Giving advice to children can be full of problems. Though we may see ourselves _______ the wisdom of our years, they see something else. They see a ________ parent who hasn’t accepted the fact that they’re adults with their own thoughts and feelings. They’re not ________ any tips. They may not even want a(n) ________ solution to a difficult problem. What they’re hoping for is a safe place to talk with a person who loves and ________ them no matter what.

Because of this, I’ve given myself the ________ of becoming a better parent by being a better listener. It’s not an easy task for parents like me but I’m ________.

9 . As a child growing up in a suburban town in the Northeast of the United States, the arrival of spring had little meaning for me. Sure, we had a week-long spring vocation from school, but the key word there was vacation, not spring.

For the kids in my neighborhood, the arrival of spring was a non-event. There were two important seasons: winter, when we could go skating and sledding or build snow forts, and summer, when we could finally make proper use of the beach about 100 meter east of my family home. Spring and autumn were just technical details, weeks and weeks of waiting for the good times’ return.

Admittedly, spring later developed its own attractions for me. “In the spring a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love”, as the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson noted. However, it was not spring itself, but the other stuff that got my attention.

In short, I never thought much at all about spring and then I arrived in China. I had been in Beijing for about three months when my first Spring Festival rolled around, and it could hardly be ignored. Aside from the random bursts of fireworks at any time day or night, what stood out most for me was that the capital seemed to be empty.

It was as though the crowds and streams of cars and trucks commonly seen in the capital had all gone into hiding. My puzzlement cleared up when I returned to work. My colleagues explained that Chinese traditionally travel, if necessary, to visit their families during Spring Festival, and that many Beijingers were not natives of the capital.

I also got my first knowledge of something about Spring Festival that never ceases to amaze me. Regardless of when the holiday is set to begin, there is an almost immediate and sudden change for the better in the weather. Spring really does arrive.

I can’t begin to figure out how the ancient Chinese could create a system that would almost always accurately predict when the season would shift year after year after year. But they did.

10 . Several weeks ago, I pulled an old road map out of the glove box and passed it to my children. They had never seen the province of Ontario laid out like that before. They stared at the map, asking about all the towns, parks, and other landmarks we’d visited, and I pointed them out on the map.

Digital maps and GPS are modern wonders that have gotten me out of many confusing places, but paper maps still have a role to play in our lives. Most of us adults learned to read them out of necessity, but it’s up to us to pass on that skill to children whose need may not be so obvious, but who still will benefit from it.

As Trevor Muir wrote in an article on this topic, “When kids learn how to create and use paper maps, they are doing more than just learning how to get around. They are actually developing a fundamental skill that they will use for the rest of their lives. Map skill still belong in today’s classroom.”

As a child, I had National Geographic Maps taped to my bedroom walls. This aroused my curiosity and imagination about those places and thus made me eager to remember my geography and history lessons because they were tied to places I’d “seen”. Even now as a mother of four, I’ve also spared time to travel to many of the countries whose maps I studied as a child.

Additionally, in this fast-changing world, unexpected events can rapidly influence one’s usual way of life. When GPS satellites or Internet connections are affected, this old-fashioned skill can get you out of a mess without requiring a smartphone. Last but not least, paper maps arouse big picture thinking, showing kids that there’s a much bigger world out there and helping to direct them within it.

So, now is a good time to pull out those dusty old maps and lay them on the kitchen table.