2 . With a satisfied smile, Keisha finished the last sentence of her English essay about one of her heroes, Rosa Parks, an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Keisha,” her mother shouted from downstairs. “It’s almost 4:15.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t be late. ” Keisha pulled down a storybook from her bookshelf， as she always read to the nursing home’s residents. And on an impulse（一时心血来潮）, she added her English notebook as well.

As Keisha came running in the door, the manager told her, “We have a new resident this week, Mrs. Ruby Watson. She’s still adjusting to her new surroundings. You’ll find her in Room 28. And by the way, Keisha, good luck.”

Keisha walked down the hallway at a quick pace. As she entered Room 28, she met two sharp brown eyes staring at her doubtfully.

“I’m Keisha Jackson, a volunteer,” Keisha explained. “I come here to help pass the time with residents, or read to them, or, . . .” Keisha started stammering（结巴）as Mrs.

Watson continued to stare at her.

“I didn’t request anyone to keep me company,” Mrs. Watson interrupted. “I’m alone most of the time, and that’s how I prefer it.”

“I brought along some funny stories,” Keisha said hesitantly.

“I’m not in the mood for funny stories,” Mrs. Watson replied angrily. “What else do you have?”

Nervously, Keisha opened her notebook to her essay. She read the title aloud, “Rosa

Parks: A Woman of Courage and Conviction（信念）.” She glanced at Mrs. Watson to see how she might react, but to her surprise, Mrs. Watson’s face relaxed and her eyes shone.

“Read to me about Rosa,” Mrs. Watson said.

Keisha read how Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in 1955 inspired the protest that became a turning point in the struggle for civil rights.

“I walked with Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King,” Mrs. Watson said with pride. “That was the greatest moment of my life because…” She paused.

“Because… you were a woman of courage and conviction too.”

Sitting up straighter, Mrs. Watson said, “Yes, I was and I still am. Thank you for reminding me, Keisha. Next Thursday, I will tell you my story.”

6 . My best friend traveled to stay with our family last weekend. When she arrived, she went straight to the kitchen and, without asking, ate a spoonful of raspberry jam and some dried fruit. She wasn’t being rude. I knew she would do this. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. She can eat anything she wants from my kitchen. Indeed, I bought her favorite fruits and snacks at the shop that morning.

Our long weekend together was luxuriously simple. I was recovering from surgery and couldn’t go to shopping malls. We passed the time running errands (做杂事), going to the post office and collecting dry cleaning. We drank away too many cappuccinos. But we talked about every little detail of our lives.

There’s never been a quiet moment in our friendship. We’ve lived in different cities for almost a decade. Reunions demand constant conversation. Our personalities are matched, to be sure, and a shared history is indescribably valuable. We were competitors in high school before bonding over a bad experience. Then we discovered the many interests that we had in common. Our friendship strengthened itself quickly. We stayed companions through law school, through our first jobs and our first boyfriends. We supported each other through break-ups and breakthroughs. Ours is a friendship for ages.

There is something special about friends who know everyone and everything about you. They are rare. These are the people you’ve chosen to witness your life. They have seen the bright lights of achievement, the depths of despair and the boring routine of the in-between.

It’s special to unpack feelings and frustrations without wasting time filling in the blanks. As my long weekend shows, with such friends we don’t have to “do”, we simply have to “be”. We drop the act, the performance, the public version of ourselves.

The special friendships are those which never fail to delight, the continuation of which is worth the extra effort, despite distance and difference sneaking (溜进) into your separate lives. I had the very great joy of this reminder last weekend. I’m lucky to have found this friend, to see a future where her companionship remains. Being together is perfection.

7 . When my dad finally finished the triathlon (铁人三项)in Montauk, the crowd cheered. It showed me how his hard work paid off and it excited my_________ . I wondered whether a small boy of my size could _________ something like that. I found myself _________this out loud and my father overheard me. He _________me and said I could train with him.

Training with my clad turned out to be very_________. We would get up very early for a morning jog or go for a swim in the pool after school. After a few weeks of training, I _________ my first triathlon. Before the competition, I nervously waited for the_________.

When someone fired the gun. I was off,_________towards the distant buoy (浮标)that marked my turn. I finished the half-mile swim and ran towards my _________. I was dripping wet,trying to __________it. Once on the bike, I experienced an excitement specific to __________. I went through the transition zone and__________ my running shoes. At the start of the run part of the triathlon, my__________ already felt like they were made of cement (水泥).

For me, the real competition began during the run, because now I could see each competitor as a target. No matter my__________in the field, each racer was either following me__________ being followed. The run part of the race was in fact__________tolerance.

“Shut up, legs”, one of my favorite sayings, kept me from thinking about the__________feeling. Then I crossed the finish line. I took a breath and then began a(an)__________with the other finishers. The sense of__________was there for all of us.

Looking back, I remember the small boy on that day in Montauk who doubted whether he could__________it, like his dad. Now, that same boy is not only a huge fan, but also a training partner as well.

8 . A small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree and it has been there for ten years or so.

It all began because my husband Justin hated Christmas—oh, not the true meaning of Christmas. Overspending was one thing, but compared to the difficult experience of choosing gifts—running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and a pair of gloves for Grandma…, spending money is nothing.

I felt too tired to think of any special gifts. Knowing Justin felt the same way, I decided one year not to buy the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so on. I reached for something special just for Justin. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in such worn-out shoes that shoe strings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, while our boys were in their blue and gold uniforms and new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was shocked to see that the other team were wrestling without wearing helmets to protect their heads. Well, our boys ended up defeating them. We took every weight class.

Justin, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot potential, but losing like this could take the heart out of them." Justin loved kids—-all kids, and he knew them, having coached little league football and baseball. That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought different kinds of wrestling helmets and shoes. I sent them to the inner-city church without leaving my name.

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Justin what I had done and that was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and since then the envelope has become the highlight of our Christmas.

9 . I had an old neighbor named Doctor Gibbs and he was always very kind.

When Doctor Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting _________. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s   _________ was to make it a forest. He had some _________ theories about planting trees. He hardly _________ his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked _________ and he told me that watering plants spoiled them because it made them grow _________ . He said you had to make things _________ for the trees so that only _________ could survive. He talked about how watering trees made them _________ shallow root and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow __________ roots in search of water. So, __________ watering his trees every morning, he’d beat them with a rolled-up newspaper, I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s   __________ .

Doctor Gibbs died a couple of years after I left home. Every now and then, I walked __________ his house and looked at the trees __________ he planted some twenty five years ago. They were all tall, big and robust since they have deep roots now.

I planted a couple of trees myself a few years ago. Two years of __________ these trees meant they grew up weak. __________ a cold wind blew, their branches trembled. Adversity seemed to __________ Doctor Gibb’s trees in way comfort and ease never could.

Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often __________ that their lives will be easy. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to __________ my prayer. I know my children are going to meet with __________. There’s always a cold wind blowing somewhere. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won’t be torn apart.

10 . The word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by hardship. The circular motion (循环运动) between happiness and _________ is the one I’ve been dealing with lately.

A year ago, I developed troubling symptoms(症状) in my left _________. My husband sent me _________ to a specialist who said I had already suffered some everlasting loss of vision and would, without _________, go blind in that eye within months. And I urgently _________ to begin painful eye injections. Almost blind? Painful eye injections? I was _________. What if the _________ medicine didn’t work? What if my right eye developed the same condition? I _________ thought that, amazingly, the medicine was only three years old; before that, patients just went blind.

Over that long week, I _________ myself to casually __________ sadness, to cry and acknowledge my fears about my very fragile body. I __________ to be near anybody but my husband. Fortunately, I __________ pretty quickly, within the week. During this __________ time, I posted my __________ in my blog and receives great care and support from friends online, which filled my heart with __________ and encourages me to receive the eye injections. Besides, the doctor __________ the efficacy(功效) of the medicine. In the end, I bravely received the eye injections and they were very successful. I was lucky enough to see the world again with my healthy eye.

Finally, I gained a __________ insight: being your happiest self isn’t equal to a lifetime of __________ skies, and we are bound to __________ storms of life. Knowing this can help us face difficulties optimistically and __________ the change of life.