1 . I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled (给贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. So we both got tired of each other.

War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened,I saw my shoes flying at me.I jumped to my feet and started yelling (叫喊). She yelled back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled (爬行) under her covers (被子), sobbing (哭啼). Obviously, that was something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart. Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn’t notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression was such disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”

Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the meaning of living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

5 . Cast Away is a heart-warming movie. Chuck,________by Tom Hanks, is the hero. He is a very successful________. He is always so________that he has little time for his family. He keeps going all over the world for business talks. One day while Chuck is________across the Pacific Ocean, the engine of his plane suddenly stops ________his plane crashes. But Chuck survives the crash and lands on a lonely island.

Chuck has to learn to make a________all alone on the island. He has to learn how to collect water, hunt for food and make fire. Perhaps the biggest________is how to live without friends and a family. In order to survive Chunk develops a friendship with an unusual friend — a volleyball he calls Wilson.

Chuck learns a lot about himself when he is________on the island. He realizes that he hasn’t been a very________husband and father because he has always been away. During his five years on the island, Chuck starts to________Wilson. He talks to him and________with him as a family member. Chuck feels so happy because he can________his happiness and sorrow with him. He has found out that it is important to have someone to care about. He has also________that family is about feelings and that he must give as much as he takes.

The________we can learn from Chuck is that loneliness helps us________who we are, why we need each other and what we can do for each other.

6 . A few years ago, David, a top manager, thought his life wasn’t moving forward. So he started to set himself 30-day challenges. The idea was simple: think of something you want to add to your life-or to give up-and try it every day for 30 days.

David began with easy projects like going to work by bike, not watching TV and giving up sugar. Then he tried more difficult ones, like writing a novel in 30 days. David learned that if you do something for 30 days. it can become a habit. If you stop doing something for 30 days, you can break the habit. As he did harder challenges, he got more confident. He learned that he could do something if he really wanted to do it. After doing the challenges for a few months, he had enough confidence to climb the highest mountain in Africa.

David gave an online talk about how the challenges changed his life. More than 5 million people around the world have watched his talk and the 30-day challenge quickly became very popular.

7 . I grew up with a four-year gap between myself and my younger brother. It was a distance in age to keep us close as we got older, but also an age gap to make sure we lived our own lives in completely different ways. Having a younger brother while I was a girl was a lot of work, for there was a lot of fighting.

However, as we’ve got older, we’ve become closer, and I’ve learned several things in life from my younger brother that I didn’t realize I needed before.

My younger brother is one of the most talented and creative souls I’ve known. He’s continually feeding his creativity with new art forms and new instruments. He always seeks to understand and learn more about the world around him. He’s helped remind me through his actions and words that giving up on creativity is something a person should never do.

My younger brother has also been through hard times, but he’s able to focus on learning from the hard times, unlike me, who tends to hold on to every little thing from my life. It’s always been difficult for me to let things go and move on, but my younger brother has been an inspiration for me to try harder at letting go.

My younger brother has always been a more introverted type, and if you speak to him, you’re lucky to get over three words out of him at a time. Because of this, he’s certainly learned the whole “actions speak louder than words” thing. But, I’ve realized from my brother that I needn’t speak to fill the silence. Sometimes, it’s necessary to spend some of your time in silence and reflect in it.

A few years ago, the company I worked for sent my wife and me to live in New York for a year. I’ve always loved running, so I was really happy when I found out I lived next to Central Park. This meant that every morning I could go for a run before I went to work.

Because a lot of people had told me to be careful of robbers in the park, so usually I didn’t take anything with me. How could they rob me if I didn’t have anything? But one morning, my wife gave me a S 10 bill and asked me to buy some bread on the way.

It was a beautiful morning and the park was quiet with very few people walking or jogging (慢跑) around. While I was running through the park, another jogger knocked into me. He apologized and continued running. For a while, I didn’t think too much of it. However, when I noticed the wide path where I was running, I thought was kind of strange. The warning of robbers in the park occurred to me. ”It could have been a robber!” I suddenly became alarmed, so I checked my pocket and found that the money was missing. Without thinking twice, I ran after that jogger. I finally caught up and held him by the arm. I shouted, “Give me the $10 bill! Now!” I am not usually a hot-headed (性急的) person, but I got really angry this time. I couldn’t believe the robbery was actually happening to me. Filled with anger, I shook my fist at him. This seemed to frighten him. He quickly put his hand in his pocket and gave me the money. Then he ran away as fast as he could.

I bought the bread and went home. As soon as I got home, I couldn’t wait to tell my wife my story. “You won’t believe what happened to me,” I started with pride. She immediately stopped me, “I know, you left the money for the bread on the kitchen table.”

Looking at the money on the table, I stood there, shocked.