1 . At the age of 12, I withdrew into my bedroom with my guitar. I had neither musical talent — many_______music lessons had proved that — nor musical training. My fingers ached as I tried to press down on the strings without making them buzz (发出嗡嗡声). _______, I worked my way through 2-, 3- and even 5-chord (和旋) songs and discovered the _______ thrills of these musical notes. No one _______ me to do this. I did this myself and of my own free will for a week, and the sense of happiness－ true happiness _______ in absorption in something － has _______ me. Fifty years later, that week’s self-directed practice became a model and _______ for almost every meaningful thing I have done since. It makes me understand the _______ between achievement and accomplishment.

The world favors achievement while _______ accomplishment. The former is the completion of the task imposed (强加) from the outside — the ________ being a path to the next task. The latter is the end point of an activity we have chosen, whose bonus is the sudden ________ of happiness.

The seeking of accomplishment always ________ people. I learned so long ago in that ________ week that simply lifting one finger from the guitar’s C chord, you should get the most moving ________ in tune. I didn’t know then it was a major 7th chord, a favorite of some masters’. I just ________ accomplishment. That’s real human “achievement”.

4 . When I was 16， I wanted to buy an album(专辑)from my favorite band,but I could ________pay for it. My parents were not the type of people to give money to me ________, or even for workdone at home.

This led me to search for work opportunities in my neighborhood, and I was ________to Mrs. Hudson, the oldest person in the community. At over eighty years old, Mrs. Hudson could no longer ________ her garden, and I offered to help her out.

My first job was to ________ weeds in her front yard and backyard. After this________task, I mowed(修剪)her lawn．With the ＄10 earned from my first day of work， I bought that________．Listening to music, I felt a cool ________running through my heart, which made me realize all the efforts I had made were worthwhile.

However, my desire for material possessions did not end there. I later set my ________ on a Gameboy, which was very fashionable at the time. I started to work for multiple clients, in order toearn enough money to purchase this ________ possession.

After many days of working, I ________ enough money. But just after one day of playing on it, I realized that it was not as fun as I had thought. I ________ in the hot sun for hours doing yard work to buy something I did not ________．So the next day，I returned it for a full refund(退款)．

Ever since that day, I have come to________ the value of money, realizing that the sweat and dedication that________earning it are truly invaluable assets that cannot be taken away from us.

5 . How long have you been going to the same hairdresser or barber? It’s a question that gets us thinking about the unique friendship we _______ with our stylists over the years.

You have confidence in each other. You have a laugh together and regularly _______ each other’s news. Plus they try to make you look and feel your best. That’s a(n) _______ not only for a great friendship, but also for the perfect relationship with your hairdresser. When you find a good barber, it’s something to _______.

Many people have _______ experiences with their hairdressers. I’ve had my hair cut by Claire Miller for more than 15 years. She’s taken me through all kinds of _______, and she’s helped me find a totally new look now during the post-chemotherapy (化疗后) period with dyed blonde hair! _______ hairstyles, there have been communications about the joys and trials of motherhood, the _______ of health problems and changes in our careers and lives — the stuff of 15 years that we have _______ in the three salons Claire has worked in.

While she cut my hair recently, we chatted about that special __________ that forms between hairdressers and their clients. “You hear so many stories from them, and sometimes you feel like a counselor __________ a hairdresser. You assess their needs, and you know how to react to them,”says Claire.

For Claire, the customer interaction is something she loves about the job and that she has __________ developed throughout her working life. “It’s about being human and __________ about people. A lot of my clients are my friends and like family now. It’s my __________ to cut their hair, making them look and feel good, but I also want them to feel __________ by the experience,” laughs Claire.

6 . Deliverance(解救) for Delivery Drivers?

ZOOOOOOOOM!!! A gust of air, the hum of spinning wheels, and a flash of color whizzing past. I’m sure that we have all stepped into the crosswalk, at one time or another, and experienced this sudden, heart-stopping ______. I am, of course, referring to delivery drivers ______ through crossroads to deliver takeaway food.

Over the past few years, delivery drivers have been criticized, fined, and even ______ for breaking traffic laws across China. Delivery drivers often ______ red lights, disregard speed limits, and pay little attention to pedestrian crossings. But they also often pay the ______ price — each year, it seems like fatal injuries involving delivery drivers are increasing. ______, since delivery drivers are usually poorly paid, how much blame do they really deserve for running against the clock?

Well, it ______ to be a complicated issue. Recently an article titled “Delivery Drivers, Stuck in the System” was shared widely on social media. According to the article, ______ between delivery services Ele.me and Meituan has caused each app to take increasingly extreme measures to out-do(超过) the other. This has included the shortening of delivery time windows. It has been ______, in part, through a combination of rewards for early delivery and severe punishments for late delivery. Over time, the platforms have only increased these ______ on drivers. As a result, drivers find themselves in a dilemma(左右两难的困境)：break traffic laws or, in some cases, lose hundreds of yuan in earnings for late deliveries.

According to surveys and reactions online, ______ care much whether their deliveries are a few minutes late, while most believe that it is not worth risking someone’s life for. In response, Ele.me and Meituan have added a combination of features to ______ delivery times for slow elevators or bad weather conditions.

Although these new ______ cannot solve the underlying problems of intense competition or the inherent dangers of driving, they should, in some measure, start reducing some of the pressure on drivers. In the meantime, as ______, we can help to make life for delivery riders safer and easier. ______, be a considerate person and don’t leave them waiting for too long. If you see a food delivery guy rushing toward you on an escalator or into a door, consider standing back and letting him go first. After all, they are putting their lives on the line just to deliver our food.

8 . I was cleaning out a cupboard the other day when I made an amazing discovery. Inside I _________ the manuscript (手稿) for a novel. It included an outline of the _________ and a pile of typed pages telling a story. It was written, to my _________, by my father who has been dead for more than 50 years. It isn’t _________, as novels go, perhaps fifty or sixty typed pages, but without my _________ it has somehow accompanied me through my years of _________, several jobs, a marriage, the birth of my children and grandchildren, retirement and even a relocation across the country where I live.

Yet there it was, resting under a lot of paper to be recycled. I might have _________ my father’s legacy (遗产). I was truly _________ by my discovery.

I’m in the middle of reading another book _________ my dad’s novel has a place on my bed-side table. I want to have some __________ time for it so I haven’t __________ examined it yet. I’m going to spend a whole afternoon to give it the __________ it deserves. As yet I don’t know what the story line is about and I don’t even know if it is complete but I __________ a highly emotional process of finding out.

I find it fascinating to think that this could happen; that after more than fifty years my father could __________ his only son through the mists of time. It’s one of those things that we don’t see coming and that make life so __________.

10 . In interviews, famous people often say that the key to becoming both happy and successful is to “do what you love.” But ________ a skill, even one that you deeply love, calls for plenty of drills. Any challenging activity —from computer programming to playing a musical instrument to athletics — requires ________ practice. A perfect golf swing or faultless butterfly stroke (蝶泳) takes countless hours of practice and repetitions to perfect.

Anyone who wants to have a good command of a skill must go through the ________ of practice, critical feedback, polish, and increasing improvement again, again, and again. Some people seem able to concentrate on practicing an activity like this for years and take ________ in their gradual improvement. Yet others find this kind of focused, time-intensive work to be ________ or boring. Why?

The ________ may depend on the ability to enter into a state of “flow,” the feeling of being completely involved in what you are doing. Flow states can happen in the course of any activity, and they are most common when a task has definite goals and where the individual is able to ________ their performance to clear and immediate feedback.

Csikszentmihalyi suggested that those who most ________ entered into flow states had an “autotelic personality” — a tendency to seek out challenges and get into a state of flow. While those without such a personality see difficulties, autotelic individuals see opportunities to build skills and they have low levels of self-centeredness. Such people, with their ability to focus on tasks rather than rewards have a great________ over others in developing their innate (天生的) abilities. But how can we get into flow state for an activity so that we enjoy both the process of improving skills and the ________ of being a master？

________ for those of us who don’t necessarily possess an autotelic personality, there is evidence that flow states can be ________ by environmental factors. For instance, in Montessori schools, students do not study by following direct instruction. ________, they are encouraged to develop and pursue personal interests. Competition is ________ and grading is not emphasized. Students are grouped together according to shared interests, rather than separated by ability.

While there isn’t yet a pill that can turn dull practice into an exciting activity for anyone, it is comforting that we seem to be able to advance into flow states. By giving ourselves unstructured, open-ended time, minimum distractions and task set at moderate level of ________, we may be able to love what we’re doing while we put in the hard work practicing the things we love doing.