1 . A farmer owned an old mule(骡子) One day the mule _________ into the farmer’s well(井)unluckily   The farmer heard the mule _________ He tried every possible way to save the mule, but _________ .

After carefully thinking about the situation, the farmer _________ that neither the mule nor the well was worth greater efforts _________ , he called his neighbors together, told them what had happened, and asked them to help carry dirt to cover the old mule in the _________ and put him out of his _________ .

At first, the old mule was mad! But as the farmer and the neighbors _________ shoveling(铲土) and the dirt hit his back, an idea _________ to him.   Every time a shovelful of ____________ landed on his back, he would shake it off and step up!

This he did, blow after blow. “Shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up!” He repeated to ____________ himself.   No matter how painful the blows, or how ____________ the situation seemed, the old mule overcame his fear and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!

It wasn’t long before the old mule, tired out, stepped ____________ over the wall of that well! What seemed to have destroyed him actually ____________ him all because of the way in which he dealt with his adversity(逆境)

That’s life! We should face our problems and respond to them ____________ , and refuse to give in to fear, bitterness, or self-pity.

5 . 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 . Backpacking through Africa, I always carried some food with me ________ I couldn’t find something to eat.

I was ________ through a local market one day when I chanced upon a jar of ________ jam. I could find tins of apple and strawberry in every corner store but this was the ________ time I had seen peach. I took it.

For the next few weeks, when I was feeling the need for a little ________ I would carefully ________ the lid and spoon a bit on to a biscuit. Mmm, delicious. I didn’t ________ it with anybody. It sat safely in my ________ taken out on only special ________.

One cold and cloudy afternoon, while I was waiting for a local bus, it started to rain. Everybody spread out for ________ and so did I. But I was already wet through so I quickly searched through my pack for some ________ clothes.

In my hurry to ________ further discomfort, I forgot that the jar of jam was ________ in my clothing. One forceful yank (猛拉) and my ________ jar of jam crashed to the concrete ground, breaking into pieces.

I was so sad that I almost cried. And then, in the corner of my eye, I noticed an old woman in rags ________. Without hesitation, she bent down and picked up the half of the jar that still looked ________.

Still ________ she stuck two fingers into the jar, scooped out the ________ jam and ________ it into her toothless mouth. Carefully, like fishbones, she spat out the pieces of glass. She studied the broken container ________ she was certain that there was nothing left. Then she left.

My bus arrived shortly after and, as we drove off, I wondered if the jam would taste the same to me.

8 . 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.

10 . An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house chatting with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window edge.

The father asked his son, “What is that?”

The son replied, “That is a crow.”

After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this?”

The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It’s a crow.”

After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, “What is this?”

This time, the son said to his father in a low and cold tone, “It’s a crow, a crow, a crow.”

After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, “What is this?”

This time the son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already, ‘IT IS A CROW.’ Are you unable to understand this?”

A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page.

“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn’t feel angry at all, but instead felt affection for my son”.

If your parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently, and be kind to them. From today say this aloud, “I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will respect and take care of my old parents in the best way no matter how they behave.”