I was lucky to have a happy childhood, one that most people would want to have. My family lived in a tiny     1     in Scotland. Our neighbors next door had a son named Danny, and we grew up together.

We     2     long summer evenings in the forests, digging up worms for fishing, and collecting feathers left by the birds. It was here that I discovered that I was allergic (过敏) to the tiny flies which     3     me and made my face swell (肿). There were a few walnut trees above the village and we would frighten the squirrels away and wait for them to ripen (成熟). However, the village was too far north for a proper     4    .

Danny was a     5     boy, and we made things out of branches, which we tried to sell in the village shop. We even     6     a tree house. Once I lost my footing, fell out and     7     my foot, so Danny washed my wounds in the river. He was a very     8     boy for someone so young. My mother     9     blamed me for tearing my clothes.   

It was the finest     10     anyone could have, and I’m proud of calling him my friend.

Zhang Hanliang, a martial arts teacher at Tianshui Normal University in Gansu province, has produced many traditional Chinese martial arts videos in the past years,     1     sixteen million viewers at home and abroad on the online     2     Bilibili.

Zhang, now 35 years old, has been     3     martial arts since she was seven. Thanks to her hard work, Zhang won her first sword (剑) championship in Gansu province at 13. She then got sword and spear titles at a     4     level when she was 17, and at 20, she won a series of championship titles in various categories. In 2007, Zhang began to work as a martial arts teacher at Tianshui Normal University, getting new     5     such as first-class national athlete and first-class national judge of martial arts.

In addition to her daily teaching tasks, Zhang has been     6     to France, Russia, Malaysia and other countries many times to teach martial arts. “Martial arts can be a bridge for     7     exchanges between China and other countries,” said Zhang, adding that she wanted to     8     martial arts to the audience through the     9    . And she hoped more and more foreigners could     10     and love martial arts.

The 75­-year­-old Joe lived very happily in a village and had a big warm family. His children     1     and moved to different cities. Now he has four grandchildren, and they usually visit him during their holidays.

During one     2     , Joe was preparing his home for the kids: cleaning the house and cooking their favorite foods. After he finished working, he realized his watch was     3     . The watch was from his     4     and he treasured it very much, so he was very upset. He looked for it but could not find it anywhere.

When his grandchildren came, they promised him they would find the watch which was given by their grandma.

One granddaughter asked, “Grandpa, do you remember when you saw it the     5     time?”

“I guess when I was cleaning the     6     ! ” he replied.

The children looked for more than two hours with Joe, but they couldn’t find it. The kids were now also sad, but they tried to comfort their grandpa.

One grandson went back to the garden to look again. He was there for about 15 minutes and rushed back with a(n)     7     look on his face.

Then everyone was very surprised to see the watch in his hand. They asked how he was able to find it. The little boy replied, “I sat there without making a noise. After a few minutes, I heard the ‘tick, tick’ sound and found the watch.”

Joe hugged and     8     the little boy.

This is the power of silence. If we stay calm (冷静), we are more able to find the ways of solving problems.

For CEOs, creativity is now the most important leadership quality for success in business,     1     even integrity and global thinking, according to a new study by IBM.

The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews. Over 1,500     2     heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries were polled. They were asked what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.

A manager at IBM Global Business Services expressed surprise at this key finding, saying that it is very interesting that coming off the worst economic conditions they’d ever seen, CEOs didn’t return to traditional management     3    , existing best practices, rigor or operations. In fact, they did just the opposite.

About 60 percent of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52 percent for     4     and 35 percent for global thinking. Creative leaders are also more prepared to break with the traditions of the industry, enterprise and revenue models, and they are 81 percent more likely to rate innovation as a “crucial capability. ”

Other key findings showed a large gap between views of North American CEOs and those from other     5    . For example, in North America, 65 percent of CEOs think integrity is a top quality for tomorrow’s leaders, whereas only 29–48 percent of CEOs in other territories view it as such. While company leaders in North America will bring more integrity to the job, they also expect far more regulation than foreign heads.

Octopuses are masters on disguise (伪装). They can change their appearance in less than a second.

How do they do this? An octopus can disguise itself in three ways. One is by using     1    . An octopus's skin has special     2     called chromatophores. These cells are filled with yellow, brown, and red pigment (色素). When an octopus moves its muscles in a certain way, the cells produce colorful spots on its skin. Chromatophores can also     3     light. In blue light, for example, an octopus's skin will look blue. An octopus can also change its skin texture (皮肤结构). When the octopus moves its muscles, its skin can     4     unsmooth. It might then look like a plant, or coral. And     5     way an octopus disguises itself is by changing its     6    . Some, for example, roll their bodies into balls so they look like rocks. One type of octopus can change its form to look like other sea creatures — especially     7     ones, such as sea snakes.

Why are octopuses so good at disguising themselves? They have to be. The ocean is not a safe place for them. Because they have no     8     in their bodies, octopuses are like large pieces of meat. Many predators (捕食者) want to eat them — and they can eat them whole. To survive, octopuses have developed the     9     ability to change their appearance very quickly in order to     10     from predators.