1 . Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was unhappy and that she was tired of struggling all the time.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes, eggs and coffee beans in them. After 20 minutes, he took them out, putting the potatoes and eggs in a bowl and the coffee in a cup.

Turning to his daughter, he said, “Look closer, and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. Its good smell brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans were in the same adversity (逆境) — the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.

The strong and hard potato became soft and weak in boiling water. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. “Which one do you want to be like,” he asked. “When adversity knocks on your door, how will you respond?”

In life, challenges happen to us all, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

2 . Zhao Yuan, who was a dance teacher, lost one leg in an accident at the age of 24. _________ she had to use a wheelchair, and leave her _________ position and started to make a living in business. She opened a hotel in her hometown and used some of her earnings to help _________ for the college cost of 13 poor students.

In 2020, she set up an offline sales platform called Good and Fresh, which mainly sold goods produced by Zhao’s disabled friends. _________ the pandemic (疫情), however, Good and Fresh _________ making money, so Zhao _________ online sales instead.

She became a livestream host on social media platforms, _________ the sales of goods like brown sugar, sweet potato flour and honey that her friends made. Although Zhao Yuan, who only had one _________, had to deal with her own disability, she had made her business succeed in creating a _________ in e-commerce (电子商务) and had helped more than 2,000 other __________ people sell agricultural products. Everything she sold came from 55 agricultural centers around the province ________ by the disabled. She had also trained 57 hosts, all of whom were disabled.

With the ________ of her business, Zhao has set up the Good and Fresh Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., of which she is __________. She is planning to __________ another 1,000 hosts, and hopes that they will also be able to achieve their personal and social __________ through work, just as the way she is doing.

4 . “A bird with a broken wing will never fly high.” I’m sure that John would agree with this saying, as he felt this way almost every day in school.

By high school, John was the most famous _________ in his town. He was always absent, didn’t answer questions and got into_________. He had failed almost every exam by the time he entered high school, yet was_________a higher grade level each year. Teachers didn’t want to_________him again the following year. John was moving on, but definitely not moving up.

I met John for the first time at a weekend leadership training program since John was one of the 405 students who_________. At the start of the training, John was just standing outside the circle of students, against the back wall. He didn’t _________join the discussion groups. But slowly, the interactive games_________him in.

The ice really melted when the groups started building a list of_________ and negative things that had occurred at school that year. John_________some constructive ideas on those situations. The other students in John’s group __________his comments. All of a sudden John felt like a__________of the group, and before long he was treated like a leader. By the end of the training, he had joined the Homeless Project team. The other students on the team were__________with his passionate concern and ideas. They even elected John co-chairman of the team.

John started__________at school every day and answered questions from teachers for the first time. He led a second project,__________300 blankets and 1,000 pairs of shoes for the homeless shelter from house to house.

5 . An early morning winter storm had brought several inches of snow to my small town in the mountains. Schools were canceled, roads were dangerous and all I wanted to do was to stay in bed. However, I knew I had to get the day started so I put on warm clothes and walked outside. The snow got all over my shoes. The cold wind dried my lips and my eyes. My 47-year-old back ached in anticipation (预想) of the shoveling (铲雪) I would have to do if the snow didn’t stop soon.

Yet, when I looked out on the white blanket that covered the ground, I couldn’t help but smile a bit. It was so beautiful. It softened the bare trees and hid the dead grass. In the distance I could hear the sound of the snowplow on the road, the barking of a happy dog and the laughter of children playing outside, enjoying their day off from school. The sweet music of that laughter brought back a hundred memories of winters past. I remembered catching snowflakes on my tongue, building snowmen, making snow angels, running down hills and always losing snowball fights with first my brothers and then my own children. Standing there in that warm coat of memories made the wind a little less cold and my back a little less sore. I turned up my head, stuck out my tongue and for the first time in years caught a snowflake on it. It tasted so fresh and clean. It tasted like youth, like joy and like love.

May you always feel young in spirit, no matter how old or achy your body may be. May you always delight in the simple joys of life. May you always share your happiness with the hearts of children. And may you always give your love, your light, your laughter and your warmth to others even on the coldest days.

6 . Lowri Moore, aged 15, of Nottingham, England, has worn eyeglasses since she was a baby. But she hasn’t always seen glasses ________ in the cartoons she loves. Lowri is making it her ________ to change that.

When Lowri was 9, she sent a letter to Disney asking them if they could create a(n) ________ role model who wore glasses. Glasses are a great tool because they give you the ability to see. This should be ________ . But kids at school ________ not to think so.

Disney ________ Lowri, and three years later, the movie En-canto came out, whose main character, Maribel, wears glasses! En-canto director Jared Bush said, “She’s my hero. I can’t imagine being that age and being that ________ . She is such an inspiration to all of us.” En-canto is a movie putting people on the screen that ________ to be seen and audiences from all over the world have been able to find themselves, their family members in these stories.

In 2019, Lowri Moore, called for more glasses-wearing ________ . She pointed out that figures wearing glasses are usually ________ as “nerdy instead of beautiful.” Having more positive figures with glasses on will help people feel ________ about wearing their own glasses. It also allows people to see the ________ to add glasses like we already have the ability to change skin and hair color on emojis(表情符号). Natalie Owen, ________ heard of Lowri’s story and decided to help her dream come true. Owen created a princess wearing glasses in his new book just for Lowri.

With her dream ________ , Lowri posted a message on her personal website: If you believe in something, don’t be afraid to say it. Don’t think that because you are young, you can’t make a ________ .

10 . My husband, Russ, and I drove through our neighborhood, the place we’d called home for 28 years. The foothills, once thick with towering pines, were _________. The ground was covered with a heavy layer of ash. The trees that _________ were burnt stumps (树桩).

Two weeks earlier, we’d gotten an early-morning call telling us to _________ immediately. The wildfire burning through Northern California had spread and was headed our way. We’d jumped in the car with our cats and a few belongings. For days, we’d moved from hotel to hotel, _________ for news. What finally came wasn’t _________. Our house had been right in the fire’s path.

Now we’d been allowed to return. Russ and I brought _________, work boots, N95 masks and gloves. We would _________ anything we could. We drove slowly through the ruins, where chimneys marked where homes once stood. I wasn’t prepared for what _________ us. Our house was _________ but broken stones, I wiped away tears as we dug through the ash.

“How will we survive this?” I wondered. “How will we go on?” It felt as if our lives had been destroyed. Later that afternoon Russ __________ what we’d found in the car. “Let’s go,” he said.

I turned to get in the car. That’s when I __________ something stuck to my boot: a bit of paper, dirtied with ash. I picked it up. The words were surprisingly __________, “If life seems difficult, I stop and reflect on the blessing sometimes hidden within every situation. With renewed belief and __________, I begin again.”

Words that must have come from one of my books, a passage I couldn’t recall but now said everything I needed to __________, words that rose from the ashes. I framed (给……做框) that scrap of paper. It now sits in a place of honor in our new home, a reminder that we can __________ again.