1 . Ever since I was a boy, I have been an avid (热衷的) reader. I have read and been _________ by so many books from so many authors. I think it may be one of the reasons I started _________ myself. I even enjoy hearing _________ about other authors, because they can _________ me a lot as well.

I heard one such story the other day that really made me stop and _________. The two famous authors, Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were invited to a(n) _________ given by a billionaire at his home. As the host _________ his luxury house to his guests and bragged about the rare works of art he had collected, Vonnegut _________ to his friend Heller that their host had probably made more _________ in a single day than Heller had earned from his most popular novel, Catch-22 over its entire history. Heller smiled back and said, “Yes, he probably has __________ I have something he will never have—ENOUGH.”

What is enough? Our society tells us that __________ is ever enough. The messages and advertisements bombard (轰炸) us every day, attempting to __________ us to spend all the money we have and all the money we don’t have to __________ more and more stuff. However, what is really enough for us? If our bellies are full, then we have enough. If we have clothes to keep us __________, then we have enough. If we have a roof over our heads to __________ us from the cold, wind and rain, then we have enough. If we have people we love and people who love us, then we have enough.

2 . The day I met Hani Irmawati, she was a shy, 17-year-old girl standing alone in the parking lot of the international school in Indonesia, where I teach English. She asked if I could help her improve her English. I could ________ it took much courage for the young Indonesian girl to ________ me and ask for help.

“I want to go to a US university,” she said with confidence. I was surprised.

I agreed to work with her ________ a volunteer basis. For several months. Hani woke each morning at five and caught the city bus to her public high school. During the one-hour ________, she studied for her regular classes and finished the English ________ I had given her. At four o’clock in the afternoon, she arrived at my classroom, extremely ________ but ready to work.

When I met Hani’s family at their ________ little house, I realized they would never be able to afford the expenses of a US university. Hani’s enthusiasm was ________ with her language ability, but I was becoming more and more discouraged.

One day I received the announcement of a(n) ________ opportunity for a major US university. After reading the requirements, I knew Hani couldn’t meet the qualifications. I told her that there was only a ________ chance of her getting the scholarship and encouraged her to be more “realistic” about her dream. But she remained ________.

“Will you send in my name?” she asked.

I couldn’t ________ her down. I completed the application, with the painful truth about her academic life, but also with my ________ of her courage and perseverance.

Three weeks later, just before Hani went to Jakarta to take the Test of English Fluency, she received a letter from the scholarship association. She had been ________.

I leaped around the room, overjoyed and shocked. Hani stood by, smiling. I realized that it was I who had learned something Hani had known from the beginning: It is not intelligence alone that brings success, but also the ________ to succeed, the commitment (投入) to work hard and the courage to believe in yourself.

4 . In December 1992, I was a happy husband and father of two young children. A month later, _______ I suddenly developed a serious illness, Luekemia (白血病) . Two years of _______ in the hospital helped me get better, but my body was still _______ and lifeless. I sometimes even needed help lifting my arms or holding up my head.

I took up running as a way to exercise my body. After six months my _______ came back. That’s when I _______ to join a program that trains people to run a marathon while raising _______ for Luekemia research.

On October 27, 1996, along with many other brave souls I started on a 26.2-mile journey that I will never _______.

I saw my wife Palty at the six mile _______ : she seemed happy that I was still looking _______. At mile 17, my mind was going back to those two horrible years that tried to ________ me and my family. I saw her again. The ________ in her face told me that she knew I was starting to struggle. I felt we were thinking the same thing—if I can finish the marathon, those last few years will be ________ us.

That thought alone pulled me forward. 3 hours and 41 minutes after I started, I ________ the finish line. That night the Luekemia Society gave me a pin (胸针) that ________ says, “Luekemia 26.2”.

My cancer may once again take away my hair and my strength, maybe even my ________ but it can never take away my pin, or the fact that I am a marathoner.

5 . Passion, like life, is about the journey, not the destination. Kimberly and I have been planning a trip to Europe for a year. This was a _________ of ours. We took our friends Frantoise and Stein Eriksen with us.

The most exciting part of the journey started with a train ride that had some curveballs (不顺利). When we were trying to get on a _________ from Zurich to Croatia, we had gotten the departure time wrong and had to _________ around the station to make it in time. We had a tough time finding a taxi to make it to the ship. We finally found a taxi and arrived an hour late. _________, they waited for us.

Once we got onto the ship we _________ it was not like a large hotel with great service. It was a tight quarter. The bathroom was very _________. The shower was a spout (喷头) connected to the bathroom sink. You turned it on and sprayed (喷洒) yourself, along with the rest of the room.

The week-long ship ride was full of _________. There were people from different nationalities speaking different languages. We stopped on islands of all sizes. We bicycled 30-40 kilometers. Then there were high winds — so high that the buses couldn’t run because they might blow over. So we took an expensive taxi, and headed back to make our flight home.

While we loved the more predictable parts of the trip, our real passion was in the _________ — the missed rides, the _________ ship, the mixture of cultures, and even the __________.

Sometimes people are so __________ that it scares them to do something different. __________ when they do get out of their comfort zone, the different experiences they once thought were __________ are what stand out. Mixing things up, trying new things, seeing something through another person’s eyes, being __________ to adventures — this is how you create __________.

8 . I love and enjoy playing the piano. So when the recital (音乐演奏会) was ______, I was disappointed. I had expected it for long and already ______ my best songs.

However, Mom turned this ______ into something worthwhile. “You should ______ at Carriage House Manor. I’m sure the ______ there would really appreciate the music.” To me, this was a win-win situation because not only would I play more songs, but I have the chance to ______ the residents, some of whom tragically didn’t have families.

The much-anticipated day ______ arrived. Stepping into the dining area, I saw several gray-haired people seemingly enjoying a dinner and the ______. Despite on-going conversations at tables, ______ still hung like a dark cloud in the room. After introductions, I sat down in front of the piano, butterflies in my stomach. But my ______ melted away as I played on.

The dinner hour flew by. One woman got up and began to cheerfully ______ about the room to the beat of the ______ while others snapped their fingers (打响指). I was ______ to see how music brought big smiles to their faces.

Calling off the recital was a blessing because it led to us ______ the gift of music with those who needed it most. Go spread ______ whenever possible.

10 . Clara Daly was seated on an Alaska Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Suddenly, a flight attendant asked an ______ question: “Does anyone know American ______ Language?”

Clara, 15 at the time, pressed the call ______. The flight attendant came by and ______ the situation. “We have a passenger who’s blind and deaf. He seemed to want something, but we couldn’t understand what he ______.”

Clara had been studying ASL for the past year to help with her dyslexia (读写困难) and knew she’d be able to finger spell into the man’s ______. So, she walked toward the front of the plane, and ______ down beside Tim Cook, then ______ taking his hand, she signed, “Are you OK?” Tim asked for some water. When it arrived, Clara ______ to her seat. But she came by again later because he wanted to know the time. On her third visit, she stopped and stayed for a while.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this is cool,’” Clara says. “I hope I don’t ______ anything wrong.”

“Actually, he didn’t need anything. He was ______ and just wanted to talk.” Clara says.

Clara talked about her family and her plans for the future. Tim told Clara how he had gradually become ______ and shared stories of his days as a traveling salesman. “Although he couldn’t see her, she looked attentively at his face with ______,” a passenger reported.

“Clara was amazing,” a flight attendant told Alaska Airlines in an interview. “You could tell Tim was very excited to have someone he could ______, and she was such an ______.”

Tim’s reaction: “Best trip I’ve ever had.”