1 . While I was riding a bike, I notice a man about a half mile in front of me. He was traveling at a lower speed, so I decided to _______ him. I had about a mile to go on the road before turning off .

I started _______ faster, and every block, I gradually closed the distance. Finally, I _______ him and passed him. I felt like a winner, _______ he had no clue that we were even in a _______.

After I passed him, I realized that I had been so _______ on competing against him that I had _______ my turn, had gone nearly six blocks past it and had to turn around.

Isn’t that what _______ in life? We spend most of our time competing with neighbors, friends and family, trying to _______ them — while there was ________ a competition in the first place.

We use most of our time and energy competing with others instead of ________ our destination, and we miss out on our own paths to our fate ________.

Unhealthy competition is a ________ process, a never-ending cycle, a race of life. No matter what you do, someone will always be ________ you: someone with a better job, a nicer car and more money .

Feel grateful for what life has offered you. Stay focused on your path, and live a healthy life . There’s no ________ in fate. Run your own race of life and wish others well!

2 . Someone recently asked me when I became more confident about my abilities as an entrepreneur. I thought it was a funny question, _________ I’m not very confident at all, and constantly filled with _________ about every decision I make.

It doesn’t exactly hold me back in my work; it is just that I am very _______ of what I do, and I’m always _______ on the way I work, think and talk. I have also learned over the years that making a decision is often more important than making the right decision. Preferably your decisions are the right ones, but inaction or indecisiveness is more _______ than making the wrong decision every now and then.

There is one thing I have learned over the years that I wish I had learned earlier in my career. And that is the _______ that I am not stupid.

It sounds logical, but I often sat in on meetings and heard people explain things and then _______ to myself, “I don’t understand that. Maybe I’m stupid?” or I would hear about a startup and I would not _______ their business model and think I’m stupid. Or I would hear an entrepreneur speak and think, “That all _______ like bullshit, but I must be stupid, because other people seem to love it.”

A couple of years ago, I came to the ________ that I was not stupid at all. When people in meetings say things I don’t understand I speak up and tell them so. Usually, I hear a sigh of ________ in the room and find out nobody understood what was being talked about.

When I don’t understand a business model it usually means there is not one, or it sucks. Turns out I’m not stupid and ________ I don’t understand it, most people won’t understand it at all. ________ doubting my own abilities I’ve learned to trust my “bullshit radar” a bit more and not understanding something is a clear sign that something is off.

My advice to young entrepreneurs is this: you are not stupid! If something does not make ________, if it sounds stupid, if you do not understand it, something is wrong! Trust your gut (本能的) ________. Feel free to not know and be honest when you don’t understand something!

3 . My daughter loved dancing until she didn’t love it. After an _________ first year, I noticed her interest fading week by week. Then one day, she slowly walked to me before class and asked if she could just _________ it.

My first reaction was to advise her to “finish what you start”. _________, sticking with something difficult can teach perseverance, discipline and confidence. But watching my first grader _________ herself into each ballet position, I started to question how much _________ that “blanket advice” made. Is it really in my kid’s best _________, or even practical, to make her stick to every commitment through until she reaches a bitter end? What if there are different but _________ valuable qualities, which can be gained by _________ the things that are not right for her.

After a few days’ consideration, she decided dance wasn’t for her — a choice I _________. Quitting is never a black and white issue. Sometimes, it means __________ a barrier in your way to love something else. In my daughter’s case, ending dance made space for her new hobbies, such as horseback riding and Girl Scouts. She’s into them for now, but it is okay if that __________ changes.

As adults, we are accustomed to __________ the power of saying yes, but what about saying no? The ability to recognize when something isn’t an __________ investment of our time or energy is also important. As my daughter gets older, I want her to feel confident to __________ something that’s no longer meeting her needs. She shouldn’t be held back by the thought that she must finish something at any cost __________ because she has started.

4 . I have the bad habit of skipping to the last pages of a book to see how it ends while I’m still in the middle of it. This habit_______ people around me. Often my_______wouldn’t be confined(局限) just to the books I read but also to what others were reading as well. Finally, one day my daughter told me with a little anger. “Dad, please just read a book one page at a time like everyone else!”

At times I didn’t limit this bad habit to just reading books either. I also tried to skip ahead in my life and _______ what to do months and even years from now instead of_______each day as it is intended. I knew that the book of my life wasn’t done yet and that I had many _______ left to go._______ , that didn’t stop me from trying to write the _______half-way through. Time and again, I would_______ jump ahead and try to solve every potential problem before it happened so I could reach that storybook happily ever after ending. Life, however, doesn’t _______like that. It loves to surprise us, and you never know what new problem or opportunity each new day will bring.

Life has often had to ________me to slow down. Recently, when I found myself________to that bad habit of rushing ahead and living in the__________again, I felt a special voice gently telling me, “Live one day at a time.” Then I smiled, and turned the book of my life back to the________page. Each of us has to live the book of life one page and one day at a time. Each of us has to write it________and moment by moment. We have to trust that it will bring our________to its perfect end.

5 . When I was a graduate student, I felt too busy to exercise. I promised myself I’d do it once I _________ school. I knew I would be busy as an assistant professor. _________, I believed in my will power.

When I started my first job at Williams College, I _________ did exercise regularly. It turned out that I was in a(n) _________ that offered excellent support for what I _________ to do.

Research shows that our _________ are influenced by whether our environment makes something easy or difficult. Even the smallest difference can have an outsized _________. In one study, researchers _________ items from the front to the back of a salad bar — a change of just 10 inches — and the _________ inconvenience made people eat less of these items.

My plan to exercise benefited from Williamstown’s long winter. People figured the best way through it was to get __________ happily and enjoy it. I kept meeting people who were __________ joggers. When I started, they were quick to offer social __________. With so many runners in town, it was easy to find trails (小径), including those __________ for beginners.

Do __________ your environment to make challenging tasks easier. If you want to socialize, befriend outgoing persons. Or __________ your cell phone when you need to concentrate on study. The right surroundings are more powerful than willpower alone.

8 . “PLEASE DON’T KILL HIM” said Mrs. Reid with tears in her eyes. “I’m really sorry,” I said, hardly able to look at her. A nurse held her hand and tried to comfort her.

“He’s been my entire world for 14 years, I don’t know what I’ll do without him,” she said with tears in her eyes. She wasn’t talking about a person. She was talking about Toby, her King Charles spaniel. Mrs. Reid had come into hospital after she’d fallen. She had Parkinson’s disease, meaning her ability to move was worsening. It was the second time she’d fallen in just a few weeks, and this time she’d broken her hip. While the hip had now been fixed, it was clear that she was too frail (脆弱的) to go home, and the social workers had arranged for her to go into a care home. A neighbor had been looking after Toby, but with Mrs. Reid no longer going home and as she had no family who could take him, it looked likely that he’d have to be killed. She was begging me to allow her home, but it was simply too dangerous.

This situation is far from unique. Research has found that each year thousands of dogs are put down because their owners go into care homes. Over 100,000 have to be rehomed. Thankfully I spoke to a kindly social worker who eventually found a care home for Mrs. Reid that would allow her to take Toby with her. But these places are few. I think we need to seriously re-examine what’s happening here. It seems completely wrong. There is no doubt that we are a nation of animal lovers. Many of us consider our pets to be part of the family and there’s a fair few of us, I guess, that actually prefer our pets to a good number of people. Humans have a great ability to draw comfort and support from animals. For older people like Mrs. Reid, they are often the important source of companionship (陪伴) and about a quarter of old people have a pet. Yet when they come into hospital or a care home, they are denied this relationship.

While the US, France, Norway and Switzerland all have laws forcing housing providers to accept pets belonging to elderly people, studies have shown that around 70 per cent of care homes in the UK forbid elderly people from bringing pets. This figure has risen in recent years and is likely to be due to increasing concerns around “health and safety”. However, research has concluded that they are “necessary to elderly people’s quality of life” and that having to move to care homes without their pets was psychologically similar to losing their family. It seems outrageous (可耻的) that care homes — whose purpose is to ensure the elderly people’s welfare (福利) — are able to deny them something which has proven clinical benefits for their health.

10 . I was appreciating my family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies when I found a(n) _________ scene: my laptop was in almost all the pictures. There was my daughter, 8 months old, playing at my feet while I was _________ on the couch. There was my son, with a big transformer, on my left arms.

I’d heard about the Internet addiction before, but I always thought it was something only _________ playing too much World of Warcraft (a computer game) day and night. Now, it seemed my Internet habit is slowly but surely crossing the _________. Sometimes I find myself _________ at midnight, surfing the Web _________ my family are sleeping. I read news, keep up with friends and write my blog…just for something to do.

It _________ that I’m not the only mama who is addicted to the computer. These moms are contributing to a growing global addiction. There’s a movement among psychiatrists (doctors who specialize in mental diseases) to _________ the Internet addiction as an official mental disorder. And a recent Stanford University national survey found that 14 percent of Internet users find it _________ to stay away from it for several days at a time; 9 percent try to hide their __________ Internet use from their loved ones; 8 percent admit they use the Web as a way to escape __________.

You’re likely not the kind of addict who doesn’t bathe and abuses drugs to help stay up for more online time. You may have noticed, __________, that going online has become a necessary part of your life, which, __________, means a box of clothes go __________. It may also mean you’re missing much time with your baby---something you probably do __________ about.