2 . I fell in love with a minister’s son when I turned twenty. He was not Chinese. When I found out that my parents had ______ the minister’s family for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American ______? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a ______ turkey but Chinese food? On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a (n) ______ menu. The kitchen was ______ with piles of raw and unusual food: a fish begging not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil, a bowl of soaking dried fungus (菌菇) back to life, a plate of squids (鱿鱼) whose backs ______ like bicycle tires.

And then they arrived—the minister’s family and all my relatives. Robert said hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of ______. Dinner ______ me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and ______ the table, dipping them into the plates of food ______ Robert and his family waited ______ for plates to be passed to them. My relatives ______ with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Then my father pulled out the soft meat. “Amy, your favourite,” he said. I wanted to ______. I remained silent for long.

After everyone had gone, my mother said to me, “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside. But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be ______ you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” It occurred to me that re-finding my Chinese ______ was always my cultural uniqueness.

5 . I find it humorous sometimes that even the most common occurrences can have an ________on our awareness.

My wife, daughter, and I ________ into our home nine years ago and we spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to get it ________ it does today. We live on a corner, higher than street level, and the entire side of the yard is surrounded by a professionally built rock wall. The front of the house though is another story because ________ a wall along the sidewalk, the rocks appear to be just thrown up onto the dirt ________ someone were in a hurry to finish.

We did the best we could with what we had to work with and ________ this area our “rock garden”. Whenever we had leftover flowers or plants, Denise or I would stick them out front, just to bring some ________ to the area.

I still do all of my own ________ work, even the dreaded weed-pulling. After putting on my knee pads I assume the position to clear the yard of weeds, even in the rock garden.

Last summer I had ________ the end of the rock garden and found a tiny little plant that I could not immediately ________, I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise claimed that she didn’t ________. We decided to let it ________ growing until we could ________ what it was.

Weeks passed and as I ________ my way back to the mystery plant, it appeared to be a Sunflower. It had a tall skinny stalk with only one head on it. I decided to ________ it along and weed around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________. The Sunflower had not started where I saw the stalk begin. It ________ had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.

That’s when I ________ that if a tiny little Sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ________ of doing the same thing. Once our environment begins to see that we believe in ourselves like that little sunflower, we can ________ the same nourishment and nurturing as well.

First, we need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the capabilities in achieving our desires.Like the Sunflower, it knew it had the capability to overcome its obstacle because it trusted in the Universal Truth and had faith it would succeed.

Stand tall like the Sunflower and be proud of who and what you are and the environment will begin to support you. You will find a way to go under or around your big obstacle in order to reach your desires.

6 . After graduation I managed to work at a news organization. As I was new to the world of________ I was often sent to finish ________assignments, but I was eager to________myself in tough things. All I wanted was to make a ________ impression on my seniors.

I________a senior colleague named Joy to let me follow him to his meeting with a major leader. Joy________ me with recording the process on tape. It was simple, but I was ________. I. would learn a little about how inter- views were done.

After we got back to the office, Joy asked me to ________ the tapes for editing. To my ________, they were all blank! Was this going to cost me my job? Tears welled up in my eyes, with my hands   ________ I didn’t know how I’d face Joy. He had ________ me, but I’d let him down. I could imagine him angry at my________and asking me to leave.

When Joy ________ and asked me for the tapes, I________ and cried, apologetic and embarrassed. “ I think I saved them, but. . . ” I said. However, Joy, with a lot of ________as a journalist, had strange________on his face. He sat down and looked me in the eye. “You have to make ________to learn how you can do the job better next time, right?” he smiled.

I stared at Joy ________ . He taught me the most important lesson in my life: Mistakes are ________, and what we learn from them is what ________the course of our success.

8 . What’s the difference between having a dream and making the dream come true? Hard work and perseverance. Wanda Smith always wanted to be a _________, but sometimes meeting life’s demanding realities can mean a dream _________.

Smith, a mother of three, had to care for her mom, _________ her family responsibilities, she took jobs as a bus monitor and gatekeeper for Brenham Independent School District in Texas. The time was _________ for her. But rather than let her dream die, at the age of 37, with the _________ of her husband, she added night classes to her _________. Nine years on, she _________ graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University.

Smith’s story came full circle when she was _________ as a first-grade teacher back at Brenham Elementary School. _________, her mom and beloved sisters didn’t live to see her accomplishment, but she knows they would have been __________ of her. “When I stand in the front of my classroom, I know I am __________ my dream finally,” Smith said during a show celebrating Teachers’ Day.

During the pandemic, as some of her students __________ to take up distance learning, Smith stepped up to help them. She risked her life to deliver schoolwork to students to ensure that the learning could be __________ as smoothly as possible, which really __________ her students and their parents.

It’s no wonder Smith’s kids __________ her. In a special surprise ceremony, they shouted their __________ and held up big colorful signs __________ their love. Smith’s life is an example as well as a(n) __________ for us. With great determination and __________, she graduated from cleaning classrooms to __________ classrooms.

10 . A young girl is smiling at me from a picture frame on my desk as I write this. She is my child I _______ sponsored from the Philippines. Even though I have never met her in person, she has found a _______ place in my heart. It doesn’t _______ me much to help her, about a dollar a day._______, millions of people in this world live on less. The _______ that helping her gives me, however, is beyond _______. It connects me to her, to life,_______ to love.

I can still _______ the first time that I decided to help a child overseas. It was many years ago. I was only a teenager myself and had a little extra _______ each month. I didn’t feel like ________ anything, though. We had ________ everything we had in a house fire a few years before.________ that had taught me a lot. I had learned that I didn’t need a lot of “stuff” to be ________. I had also read a lot about the ________ of children in poor countries around the world. It seemed like a far better thing then to give what I could to help them. With my Mom’s love and ________, I soon found a few organizations like Children International that were ________ others around the world. It felt so good being able to reach out and help another ________. It felt so good being able to make even one life better. I could feel the compassion and ________ growing within me and beginning to change me.

Empathy (同情) does change us. It helps us to ________, to be kind, and to make this world a ________ place.