1 . In a national spelling contest in America, an 11-year-old girl was asked to spell a certain word. But with her ________ voice, the judges were not sure whether she spelled the right word. They talked it over and ________ decided to simply ask her what she had said. By then, the girl knew she had misspelled the word. Instead of lying, she told the truth that she had said the ________ letter—so she lost the contest.

As the girl walked off the ________, the entire audience stood，clapping to applaud her honesty. Later, dozens of newspaper reporters wrote about this ________, even though it cost the girl the contest. But the fact is that she ________ the biggest contest that day: the contest of her character.

Probably the biggest test of our character and honesty is what we would do if we knew we would never get ________. This young girl could easily have ________ and nobody would have known it but herself. But it’s been said, “If you ________, you make yourself cheap.” This young girl was ________ enough to prize her own character more than the prize from a spelling contest. She knew the ________ she made in that moment will have a long-lasting influence in her future.

Should the wallet, found in the street, be put into a pocket or ________ to the policeman? Should the ________ change received at the store be forgotten or ________ ? Nobody will know. But we have to live with ourselves, and it is always better to live with someone we ________.

4 . Maaseik, a city in Belgium, has opened an exhibition of about 200 relics and treasures of the Tang Dynasty(618 AD - 907 AD), showing China’s golden age of ancient civilisation (文明) .

The exhibition, which opened on May 11 and will continue until Oct. 20, is part of the city’s effort to create a centre of Chinese culture. Belgian Princess Mathilde formally announced the beginning of the exhibition, titled: China’s Golden Age: Treasures from the Tang Dynasty”.

The items, including gold plates and silver wares for royal families, Tang Dynasty tri-colour glazed figurines (小雕像) of women and paintings, have recently been on exhibit in the Dutch city of Assen.

All of the exhibited items are from Shaanxi Province, China. Its provincial capital Xi’an was the most populous (人口众多的) city in the world and once the capital of the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang period is generally regarded as a high point in Chinese civilisation-requal to, or better than that of the earlier Han Dynasty(202 BC-220 AD), a golden age of Chinese culture.

Several years ago, said Dirk Verlaak, vice-mayor of Maaseik, his city and Assen teamed up to host history and culture exhibitions of China’s first two imperial dynasties, the Qin (221 BC-207 BC) and the Han. The Chinese relics and treasures attracted 350, 000 visitors in Assen and 190, 000 in Maaseik.

“Westerners don’t know much about China’s ancient civilisation and history, and we hope the new exhibition in Maaseik can attract more visitors,” said Verlaak.

7 . Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe (部落). If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too.

The way to change people’s minds is to become friends with them, to combine them into your tribe, to bring them into your circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned socially.

The British philosopher Alain de Botton suggests that we simply share meals with those who disagree with us: “Sitting down at a table with a group of strangers has the incomparable and odd benefit of making it a little more difficult to hate them without punishment. Prejudice and conflict between groups of people from different nations or races feed off abstraction. However, during a meal, something about handing dishes around, unfolding napkins (餐巾纸) at the same moment, even asking a stranger to pass the salt makes us less likely to hold the belief that the outsiders who wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents deserve to be sent home or attacked. For all the large-scale political solutions which have been proposed to ease racial or cultural conflict, there are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together.”

Perhaps it is not difference, but distance that produces tribalism and unfriendliness. As proximity increases, so does understanding. I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” Facts don’t change our minds. Friendship does.

The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once wrote, “Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.”

When we are in the moment, we can easily forget that the goal is to connect with the other side, cooperate with them, befriend them, and integrate them into our tribe. We are so caught up in winning that we forget about connecting. It’s easy to spend your energy labeling people rather than working with them.

The word “kind (family and relatives)” originated from the word “kin (old fashion of family and relatives).” When you are kind to someone, it means you are treating them like family. This, I think, is a good method for actually changing someone’s mind. Develop a friendship. Share a meal. Gift a book. Be kind first, be right later.

10 . A friend of mine met with an accident driving in darkness. His legs were so hurt that he couldn’t move. What was the__________was that he found himself unable to ask for help—his mobile phone went out of work as a result of exhausted (用尽的) battery. Nothing could be done but__________in cold wilderness. It was 8 hours later that day broke, and then the__________of the rescue （救援队）.

It was almost_________ that he could stand the horror in the darkness for so long. Even more surprising was his explanation, “First of all I checked up my_______conditions and found myself not in deadly danger. As there was no________to call for help, I leaned back in my seat trying my best to keep the wound from bleeding. In this way I dozed (打盹) off.”

His story put an end to my regret for the failure of an exploration adventure that happened last year. A group of young men__________to explore a mountain cave and got lost. ________to find a way out in the dark cave, they were frightened and ran anxiously without a ________of direction. Finally, they fell dead in fear and exhaustion. According to the_________people that found them, the place where they got lost was only about 10 meters away from the_________of the cave. If they stayed on the spot when they lost their way and tried to________themselves, they would probably sense a faint light flashing not far away.

Don’t you think that you can compare it with__________itself? When you meet with difficulties in life, you are lost in darkness. Mind you that it’s unclear yet and you needn’t act_________ It seems to be a negative (消极的) attitude, _______   a person who can do so must have foresight （先见之明）as well as a great courage in the first place.