1 . Once there was a little bird that lived in the old times. When a sage (智者) was thrown into a ________ by his enemy, the little bird saw what happened and decided to put it out to ________ the sage. The little bird ________ bringing a few drops of water in his ________ mouth from the nearby river. The larger birds in the tree ________ and laughed at the little bird, saying, “Why are you carrying the ________?”

The little bird said, “To put out the fire around the sage.” The larger birds continued ________, “How could you put out such a huge fire with so little water? It is ________.”

Do you know what the little bird ________? “I don’t know whether I will manage to put out the fire or not but I know what I have ________ is to stop the fire.” Hearing the answer, all the larger birds were ________ .

We often think that our effort is the factor responsible for our ________ . This is a wrong way of ________. If we believe we can succeed, we shall succeed. Our ________ is just a sacrifice (牺牲) that we are willing to make. ________, the little bird knew that with a few drops of water the fire would not be put out but it was his ________ to do whatever he could to achieve this goal.

It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that is ________. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your ________ or may not be in your time, but that doesn’t ________you stop doing the right thing. You may never know ________ results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.