1 . “Ding... ding...,” the bell rang. The English teacher came into the classroom with test papers in his hand. All the students shouted. The teacher_________with a smile on his face, “I know there are too many tests for you these days, but the test today is very_________.” After hearing the teacher’s words, all the students sat up straight and _________for the test to begin. The teacher started to_________the test papers to each student._________he finished handing out the test papers, he asked them to begin.

There was not a question but only a small black “X” in the middle of the paper. The students were very_________to see that. The teacher _________ the students’ surprise. Then he said, “I would like you to_________about what you see there. You must finish it all by_________ .”

All the students thought about it hard and then wrote down their answers quietly. At the end of the class, the teacher collected their papers and read the answers. __________ of them described the black “X”. The next day, the teacher said, “Everybody only paid attention to the black ‘X’, but __________ wrote about the white paper.” The whole class listened __________ , because they worried that they might fail the exam.

Then the teacher said, “Don’t worry about the __________ of this test. I just want you to think about your life.” Everyone smiles. The teacher added, “The white paper is like our whole life and the black ‘X’ in the middle of the paper is just __________ problems in our daily life. Do you have some more thoughts?”

Then the students discussed and expressed __________ opinions actively. Finally they understood the teacher and this special test.

Our life is a __________ given to us by God, with love and care.________, we just care about the problems like illness and hunger, and never see that these problems are much__________ than everything else we have in our life.

We should try to take our eye off problems and __________ each moment life gives us. Only then can we start a nice   __________   and find true happiness in our lives.

2 . Dad is a reserved man of few words but is always strict. What's more, he is quite _______ from other fathers and he believes a dutiful _______ is the product of the stick.

When I was 8, Dad _______ himself outside in the day time because of his tight schedule but began to take me to task for whatever I did _______ at table after supper. He would _______ me with a belt, leaving my arms many   _______. I was emotionally upset and disturbed, so I used to _______ with other kids in the neighborhood and Dad would _______ me more heavily the next time, making it impossible for me to _______ on my lessons. Everything went from bad to __________ for me so much that I even couldn't __________ out the English alphabet. Later, I was even   __________ into a reformatory school（少年管教所）.

This time bitter tears were in his eyes, __________, "Son, it is not that I don't love you, but that I should not have been so angry at your __________ to live up to my expectations!"

Twenty years later, the Ph. D. graduation ceremony was around the __________ and my parents were __________ invited to show up. Dad didn't say a single word in praise of me but __________ bitterly again this time, and at this very moment, my mind was filled with mixed __________ and I stood on the stage with warm tears __________ up in my eyes： the first time you shed tears bitterly for my being __________, but this time you did so for my being a Ph. D.

3 . It was a few years ago, and I took a holiday-season job in a video store. One day, an elderly woman _________ my store, along with a young woman who I _________ was her daughter. The daughter showed _________, rolling her eyes, sighing and checking her watch every few seconds.

The elderly woman separated from the young one and _________ to search through the DVDS on the nearest shelf. I _______ and asked if I could help her _________ something. The woman smiled at me and showed me a title on a piece of paper.

Rather than rushing off to _________ the DVD for the woman, I asked her to walk with me _________ I could show her where she could find it. Looking _________, I think I wanted to enjoy her __________ for a moment. Something about her __________ movements reminded me of my mother, who passed away a few years ago.

As we walked along the back of the store, I __________ what was on the shelves: old television shows, action movies, cartoons, etc. The woman seemed ________ the unrushed company and casual conversation.

We ________ the movie, and I praised her for her choice. She smiled and told me it was one she had __________ when she was at her son’s age and that she hoped he would enjoy it as much as she had.

I ________ the old woman to the cashier and then stepped back toward the young woman. “Is that your __________?” I asked. She rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah.” Mind some __________?” I asked. “Of course not,” said the daughter.

“Cherish（珍爱）her,” I said. And then I answered her surprised expression by saying, “When she’s __________, it’s the little moments that’ll come back to you. Times like this. I know.” It was __________. I still missed my mom and remembered the times when I’d used my impatience to make her upset.

4 . When I was 12 years old, I went with my dad to his work --- a car showroom. I was wandering around and _______ a poor woman with a child in her arms standing _______ the showroom. I saw that she was _______ and went inside and told my father. My _______ went out and asked the woman to _______ into the showroom. He offered her some water and then _______ her what was wrong.

The woman said that her _______ had died some months ago and that she didn’t have anyone else in her family who could _______ her. She did some manual labor to _______ some money to take care of her daughter but her daughter was __________ for the last three days and she was __________   to go to work. Now she didn’t have a grain of food to eat. While she was relating (讲述) her story to my father, she was unable to __________ her emotions and started crying again. My father and I were     __________ moved by her story.

We got some __________ for her and her baby to eat. My father then took them to the nearest     __________ for her baby to be treated as the baby did not seem to be very well. On the way, we __________     her a 5kg bag of wheat from the market. My father gave her some money before we left her. The woman was so __________.

It is eight years later, but that event is still so __________ in my mind. My father’s __________ to this woman inspired me deeply and since then, I have decided to walk a similar path and __________ others.

5 . You just can’t imagine what a brave mother is like. She was a mother of three, who just _______ an earthquake, couldn’t tell if her children were _______ for help. Or what if you knew you couldn’t yell at her for help because she couldn’t _______ you? That was what happened to Connie and her three children _______ the 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Napa, California. Connie is _______ and communicates with her children using sign language.

At midnight, Connie and her three children were _______ on the first floor of their two-story home. She and her 16-year-old son, Juan, were shaken awake. Instantly, they realized there were no disaster supplies downstairs. Connie, also _______ one-month-old Raul and 8-year-old Adriana, called Juan to come close to her in the darkness and _______ for him to go upstairs to get a _______.

Juan slowly __________ the stairs. He heard a loud creak (嘎吱声). Arriving on the top floor, he moved quickly but __________ to get what he needed. Using the flashlight to guide his steps back __________ the stairs, the family was able to take a few items from the first floor and __________. Their home was almost in ruins.

Being deaf was not deterrent (妨碍物) for this __________ mother. The family made it to the __________ safely, which comforted everyone.

6 . “A” for Attitude

English was always my favorite subject. In my freshman year of high school, I could write a killer composition. In my second year, my_________allowed me to give spelling tests to the class. I had wonderful_________of my junior year. Mrs. Alexander _______me to sit at her desk and take over the class when she had to leave the room. Only my senior English class was_________, as we had a teacher right out of college who expected college-level work. Every student received a “C” or “D” grade the first quarter._______English was still my subject.

I graduated from high school,_______early and had children. Confident about my English, I often helped my kids with their English homework. And I_________long articles and beautiful poetry as a columnist for a newspaper. Fifteen years later, I went to college, and because I had been an "A" student, I remained an “A” student. I_________up to my own expectations.

Yesterday, I_________my high school report cards when I was reading old papers. That bundle of report cards__________back the old days. I remembered sitting in my advisor's office，explaining that I had always excelled at English, and __________that I did not deserve a “D” from that__________   teacher of my senior year. The advisor was sympathetic but unable to change a (an)__________.

Reading__________my old report cards revealed something else too. I wanted to shred them or hide them. I was not an “A” student in high school English！Somehow, I had__________myself of this，when the grades clearly reflected an__________student with an occasional “A” or “B” but mostly “C” s.

Had I lived up to those grades and__________ myself according to those letters, I would have never confidently sought my writing__________. Had I believed in my early grades instead of myself ，I would have allowed my fear of____________to defeat my enthusiasm and damage my creativity.__________，I viewed my younger self as an “A” English student, except for that undeserved “D”.

7 . A married lady was expecting a birthday gift from her husband. For many months she had admired a beautiful diamond ring. Knowing her husband could ______ it, she told him that it was all she wanted as a birthday gift.

As her birthday approached, this lady awaited ______ that her husband had bought the diamond ring.

Finally, on the morning of her birthday, her husband told her how ______ he was to have such a good wife, and how much he loved her. He ______ her a beautifully wrapped present. As she opened it, ______, she only found a Bible. She ______ her voice to her husband and said,“Only a Bible?” She was so ______ that she left him.

Many years later, the lady ______ in a more beautiful house. Realizing her husband was very old, she thought perhaps she should go to visit him. But before she ______, she received a letter telling her that he had passed away and given all of his ______ to her. She needed to come back and take care of things.

She arrived at his house, filled with great ______. She saw the ______ brand-new Bible, just as she had left it before. With ______, she opened it and began to turn the pages, finding a sentence carefully ______ by her husband,“To me you are cruel, but you know how to give ______ things to your children!”As she read those words, a bag ______ from the Bible. A diamond ring and the words “I LOVE YOU” could be seen.

If your ______ is not packaged the way you want it, it’s because it is better packaged! Please, always ______ little things; they usually lead you to bigger things! The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even ______, for they must be felt with ______.

8 . When I look back on my childhood, a mixture of happiness and sorrow floods over me. I have living memories of every past life story that has had deep _______ on my future view of life. Here is one such _______ story.

Shaking in my underwear (内衣)on the driveway, I watched the home quickly _______ to the ground. A moment ago I was sleeping _______ in my comfortable bed when a _______ woke me up. My grandma’s bedroom was just next to mine and my brother’s. A fire had _______ there and awakened her. Upon hearing her, my older brother began to take action. The house, however, was over 50 years old and made of _______ . Before we could do anything, the fire had _______ it.

I stood trembling with great _______ as the fire ruined my books, clothes, and toys. I watched ________while my mother cried and my father swore (咒骂). I wondered what would ________ ahead of us since everything was lost. However, as I looked around, I ________ something for the first time: What matters aren’t ________. I saw my older brother running across the ________ by our house to get help. I saw my oldest brother who ________ from an earlier accident standing painfully on one leg. I saw my parents gathering together and my grandma ________ our little dog in her arms. Everything that was ________ had survived the fire. Our lives would continue. And that was all that mattered.

The accident that night helps me learn the ________ we share actually means much more than materials. Live our life for the things that ________, not for the things we own. Let the ________ inside us make this world a warmer place.

9 . How many of you drink Cola? Nearly everybody. Did you know that cola started out not as a soft drink but as a cure for headache back in the late 1800’s? John S. Pamberton, a druggist from Atlanta, had experimented for many months trying to find a ________ for the common headache. He worked in his backyard, mixing and heating different mixtures of oils and flavors（香料）________ he found one that seemed to work well. Pamberton bottled the mixture and began selling it in drugstores as a concentrated（浓缩的）syrup（糖浆）that the customer had to ________ with water before drinking. The invention of Cola came about quite by accident. One day, a customer came into a drugstore complaining of a headache and ________ a bottle of cola syrup. He wanted to take it ________. So he asked the clerk to mix the medicine while he waited. The clerk, ________ walking to the other end of the counter to get plain water, ________ mixing the syrup with soda water. The customer agreed, and after drinking it, ________ how good it tasted. The clerk continued offering the mixture and it grew in ________. Today this kind of Cola is sold in most countries around the world. And although they no longer ________ the ingredients to kill headache, they are still very refreshing.

10 . A professor entered the classroom and told the students about a surprise test. All students were ________ and waited for the test to begin. The professor gave the test papers to all students with text facing down at the desk.________ he was done with ________ the test to all students, he asked them to ________ the test paper and begin.

Students were confused (迷惑) to see that there was just a black ________ in the center of the page. The professor told them, “I want you to ________ about what you see there.” The students were ________ confused but got started with the test. ________ the end of the class, the professor collected all answer sheets and started reading each answer from each sheet in front of all students. _________of them described about the black dot and tried to explain its position.

Now, professor began to explain, “Here everyone ________ the black dot and wrote about it ________ no one wrote about the white paper. The same is   ________ our lives. The white paper stands for our whole life and the black dot   ________ problems in our life.

Our life is a ________ given to us by God, with love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate ---- our friends around us, the job that provides us with everything we need.________, we just focus on day to day problems like health issues, lack of money, problems in relationships, but we ________ see that these problems are very ________ compared to everything we have in our lives.”

We should try to take eyes off our ________ and enjoy each moment ________ life gives us. Be happy and ________ your life positively.