3 . A famous scientist made several important medical breakthroughs. Some people _________ why he was able to be so much more creative than an _________ person.

He owed it to a(an) _________ with his mother that occurred when he was three years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of _________ from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the _________ bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor. Instead of _________ at him, his mother said, “Robert, what a _________ mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge pond of milk. Well, would you like to _________ in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”

Indeed, he did. Later his mother said, “Now it is time to clean it up and _________ everything to its proper order. We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. Which do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and __________ they cleaned up the spilled milk.

Then his mother __________ him to go out in the back yard and fill a bottle with water to see if he could discover a(n) __________ way to carry it without dropping it. The result proved to be a success! What a wonderful __________! Mistakes were just opportunities to learn something new, which is, after all, __________ scientific experiments are all about.

Wouldn’t it be great if all parents would __________ the way Robert’s mother treated him?

4 . It all started with a simple question: “Can I paint your portrait?” Outside the Brian Peterson’s fourth-floor _________ in Santa Ana, California, a homeless man was often yelling on the street corner, sometimes keeping him _________ at night. Peterson would _________ the guy on his way to his job as a car designer, but they never spoke.

One day, Peterson was _________ in his living room, reading the book Love Does, about the power of love in action, when his quiet was _________ by the homeless man. Inspired by the book’s compassionate (有同情心的) message, Peterson made a(n)_________ decision: He was going to go outside and introduce himself.

In that first _________, Peterson learned that the man’s name was Matt Faris. He’d moved from Kentucky to _________ a career in music in Santa Ana, but he soon fell on hard times and _________ living on the street for more than a decade.

Maybe the life inside of Faris inspired him. And even though Peterson, a __________ of the Cleveland Institute of Art, hadn’t picked up a __________ in about eight years, he found himself asking if he could paint Faris’s portrait. Faris said yes.

Peterson’s connection with Faris led him to __________ Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit organization focused on __________ and painting portraits of members of the community who are __________. He sells his portraits signed by both him and the subject. The money he gets will go toa “love account” for his __________. Faris used the funds from his portrait to record an album, fulfilling his musical dreams.

5 . When I suggested my 13-year-old try tennis, she quickly shot me down. “I’m not ________ , so stop trying to get me to do sports,” Julianna said. I suggested it because some of my recent happiest memories were of playing ping-pong with her. Tennis seemed like a natural progression from ping-pong and a great way to ________ some of her growing teen worries on a larger playing field. But my suggestion was always met with ________.

Still, I was undiscouraged. I was convinced that ________ some physical energy would help Julianna. I’ve seen how sports help deal with stress. It ________ for me when I was a teenage girl.

Midway through summer, we stayed at home one afternoon, really bored. “Do you want to play tennis?” I asked. “Sure,” she said. Arriving at the ________ , we set down our bags, picked up our rackets (球拍), and ________ towards our sides of the court. The net felt like the visual representation of a growing ________ between us — I desiring a connection and my teenage daughter longing for independence.

I started by hitting a ball over the net, and Julianna took a big swing and ________ . We repeated this several more times. I resisted the ________ to tell her she was ________ the racket too close to the neck or to step more into her forehand. We just repeated the ________ of me hitting the ball and her missing it a few times before she finally got it back over the net. “This is fun,” she said with a mixture of surprise and joy and then she smiled ________ .

Now we always find time to play tennis. We’re both eager for an activity that can ________ tensions between us in daily life. It’s nice to have a place where both of us can release our ________ feelings and let them go.

6 . When I was growing up, I had an old neighbour named Dr Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never _________ at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.

When Dr Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a _________.

The good doctor had some _________ theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional (传统的) wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants _________ them so that each following tree generation would grow _________. So you have to make things _________ for them and weed out (淘汰) the weaker trees early on.

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots _________ water. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be _________.

Dr Gibbs _________ a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big since they have deep __________ now. However, the trees in my garden __________ in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.

It seemed that difficulties benefited these trees in ways __________ never could. I stood there deep __________.

Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the __________ and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think it’s time to change my prayer because now I know my children are going to encounter __________.

7 . I worked from the time I was four and raised seven children, all of them college graduates. _____________ , I’d done everything I’d ever wanted to do in my life, but I had one _____________. I was born in 1918, the oldest of five kids. Papa was busy with his farm work that he couldn’t _____________ me to go to school, so I worked in the _____________ with him until I was 21 years old.

Everywhere I went, I learned some hard _____________ about what happened to a man who couldn’t read the alphabet. People would cheat you out of _____________. They would sell you a ticket to one city, take your money and hand you a ticket to somewhere else.

By 1948, I’d been _____________ for nine years. I met a woman named Elzenia. We fell in love, got married and _____________ to Dallas, where I got a job—fixing roads for the city. When Amelia, the oldest of our seven children, first went to school, I _____________ my wife secretly, “Elzenia, I don’t want the kids to know I can’t read or write.”

In 1968, one day my boss called me in. “George,” he said, “no one ______________ the machines like you do. I’d like to promote you.” But my thrill and surprise were ______________ when he said, “Fill out this application and we’ll get you a ______________.” I couldn’t believe it. I thanked him and walked out of his office. I did ______________where I was, until I turned 65 and my boss made me ______________. But I didn’t stop working. For the next 25 years, I lived a happy life, but it still seemed to me like something was missing.

A young fellow handed me a piece of paper. It’s information of adult education classes. Now I’m 98. After all these years, my ______________ would be out. But all my life I’ve wanted to read. It was high time for action.

8 . It was a carefree summer day when a father, Steven Poust, was out boating on the St. John’s River with his 4-year-old daughter Abigail and 7-year-old son Chase. The children were ________ swimming near their anchored boat while their father was fishing, smiling at his kids. Suddenly, Abigail got caught in the powerful ________, forcing her to release the handle on the boat. Chase ________ the boat to take hold of his little sister, but he found himself caught in the current. When Steven jumped into the water to rescue his ________ children, he was also pulled in.

As they all drifted farther from the boat, the ________ father pushed his son to a safer place and tried to stick with his daughter as long as he could. However, he wore himself out later, and she drifted away from him. The father had to ________ his daughter. So the responsibility to save the family was now on young Chase’s ________.

Steven ________ his son to swim to the shore and find immediate help. Meanwhile, he would attempt to retrieve (找回) his little girl, who was ________ being pulled farther from his ________.

Chase did as he was told. The young boy was swimming against the current, which made it more difficult to swim toward the ________. However, the young boy continued to swim with one thought in mind: to save his family. Chase swam as fast as he could to reach the riverbank. When he grew tired, Chase cleverly ________ on his back; at times, he paddled to conserve his ________. Once he reached the shore, he raced to the closest house he could find, knocked on the door and screamed for help. The owners answered and immediately dialed 911. The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department ________ quickly. They found the empty boat. The kids’ shoes, a cellphone and fishing poles were near the riverbank. After a several- minute search, the search crew ________ the father and the daughter in the water, who had been swept a mile and a half from their abandoned boat.

9 . I sat down at my desk and started writing a letter of thankfulness, but when it came to actually putting the letter into the mailbox, I ________ I couldn’t do it. I suddenly felt a sense of ________ and insecurity (不安).

The letter was to an old teacher with whom I kept in ________ on Facebook. For months, I read about what she ________ on her Facebook page, which helped me to live my life differently. Her volunteer work wasn’t huge. ________, she was doing small, local good deeds. Gradually, she changed my views on the world and for some reason, I felt I should let her know how her example ________ influenced me.

I could have easily sent her an email, but that seemed not enough for such an important thank-you. That’s why I ended up ________ the letter. But now here I was, standing before the mailbox, unable to put the envelope inside. What was stopping me? It suddenly hit me that I was ________ of being too nice. I guessed I felt strange because it wasn’t like she was my best friend or a relative. Maybe my letter was too heartfelt. Thinking this over, I put the envelope in the mailbox ________.

Weeks later I received a Facebook response from her. It turned out she was going through a hard time and my note ________ a lot to her. She said she had no idea that she was playing such a big ________ in others’ life.

Not only did this letter make her happier, but her ________ increased my joy as well. I was so excited that it had such a great influence on her that I decided to write a(n) ________ letter to someone each month. Now it’s easier for me to ________ the goodness in others and be more ________ for this beautiful life I’m living.

10 . My son had just gotten his driving license. On the way home, I ______ the car to a side road, unfastened my seat belt, and ______ places with him. “Okay,” I said, “I want you to drive home.”

Sitting behind the steering wheel, his body looked tense and ______ . “Mom,” he said quietly, “I can’t do this. I’m not ready.”

“It’s okay!” I said, “You’re ______ going to feel ready. You just have to go for it.”

“No,” he took a deep breath and ______ my father’s words. “Don’t ever apologize for knowing your limits. You told me that!” For a brief moment, time ______ I saw the very old photograph forever ______ in my memory. It shows my family standing arm in arm and ______ for the camera, with the then tallest roller coaster (过山车) we decided to ride together in the background. No one knew I was ______ terrified. I just didn’t want to be the one to stay behind. We ______ our way up the line and finally reached the end. Suddenly, my body was stiff (僵硬的) with ______ , and I knew: I just couldn’t do it. Too ______ to face my family, I simply called over my shoulder to Dad that I was leaving. Dad asked me what happened. “I guess I was too chicken. Sorry.” What Dad said next ______ surprised me. “Don’t ever apologize for knowing your limits,” he said, “And don’t let someone make you do something you’re not comfortable with. I’m proud of you for the choice you made.” This was the exact ______ of what I had expected him to say.

Instantly, I understood exactly how my son felt. Knowing the limits isn’t an ______ of weakness. It’s actually a sign of strength.