2 . Renee William and her friend were happy on the way to a football game. But in all of the _______, they accidentally headed out without their tickets! They had to go back. By the time they arrived at the stadium, it was almost time for kick-off (开球). Then they got more _______ news.

As it turned out, the stadium had restrictions (限制) on the _______ of bags allowed to enter. And Renee’s handbag was too large. She was about to _______ when a couple suggested Renee have a nearby homeless man _______ it.

That sounded unbelievable, but no _______ than throwing away a good handbag. She decided to put her _______ in the stranger. So, she gave the homeless man five dollars and asked if he would _______ keep an eye on her handbag until she finished watching the game.

Renee admitted (承认) her expectation of ever _______ the homeless man again was ________. When she came out, ________, there he was. The man had spent three hours staying in place with her handbag, just as he ________.

Renee had not ________ the homeless man to keep his word. Through this experience, Renee learnt a valuable lesson: you can’t really ________ what’s inside a book just by looking at the ________!

3 . “We regret to inform you...” These are the words that every writer is afraid of receiving. When the response from a publisher comes back, the writers’ hearts drop. You may have spent years giving up your weekends to write your work, yet still this is often not enough. Everyone knows that success rarely happens overnight, but perhaps not many know that a lot of highly successful writers have been rejected before.

Take for example J. K. Rowling. Rowling had spent years surviving on little money, spending all her time writing. When she finally finished her first book, she received comments from publishers along the lines of “too difficult for children”. However, she kept going. “I wasn’t going to give up until every single publisher turned me down,” she later posted. After a total of twelve rejections, one publisher eventually agreed to print 500 copies of her first book, and as we know, Harry Potter became a global success, with over 400 million books sold and translated into more than seventy different languages.

Another example about persistence was the three sisters from Victorian England. At that time women were not encouraged to become writers. As a famous writer wrote to one of them: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.” However, the sisters didn’t stop trying. Their response was to write a book of poems under male names. Even when the book sold only two copies, the sisters still didn’t give up. They started writing novels, and today Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey are regarded as classics of world literature.

So, it seems that talent alone isn’t enough to ensure success. While a lot of hard work and a touch of luck play a part, persistence is the key. Keep trying and eventually you will read the words “We are delighted to inform you...”

4 . There once was an ordinary street in the suburbs where no one cared much for their gardens. The lawns were overgrown, the weeds were_______and the hedges (树篱) desperately needed to be cut back. It looked very_______. But when the neighbors saw their gardens, they just looked at each other and went away with_______.

It seemed too hard to_______all the gardens and no one could be bothered to make them better because everyone's garden was_______terrible. No one felt it was urgent for a_______. Then a man named Bill moved in. Bill was a_______, hard-working and patient man who started working in the garden as soon as he_______in the street. He took his lawn mower (割草机) out to cut back the grass and pulled out all of the_______. Finally, he took up his gardening and started________his hedges, making them look like flowers, plants, stones, balls, etc.

Attracted by the hard-working________, the neighbors walked by and admired the newly manicured (修整的) garden. Over some time, something interesting happened. One by one, the neighbors started to put in more________in their own gardens and the sounds of lawn mowers could be heard again. After a few months, the street was________from a dirty, unappealing collection of houses to a beautiful avenue that wouldn’t be out of place in a stylish magazine.

One person’s action showed everyone what could be achieved with a little hard work. It’s easy for us to________the environment around us because no one else cares about it. Remember what you positively do not only brings________to yourself, but also results in a change to the whole world.

6 . Have you ever wondered why other people don’t see things the same way you do? Isn’t it confusing that you don’t necessarily share the same viewpoints even when you come from the same family? Why can’t they just see it my way? The scientific explanation comes from cognitive (认知的) psychology; it’s a mental process known as information processing.

From a psychological perspective, you have your own internal set of core values, memories, and quality of emotion. With every external event you experience, the information comes in and is filtered (过滤) through your emotions, memories, and values. How you “see” yourself, others, and the world you live in will be flavored by what you’ve experienced or believe to be true. In other words, you don’t see things as they are — you see things as you are.

You have a process for filtering information and it may strike you as being odd, to say the least, when others don’t subscribe to the same beliefs, thoughts, and opinions. What if you considered, even for just a moment, that what you are perceiving is only one possibility — and that there are several other ways to interpret a situation?

In every walk of life, you find yourself defending your beliefs, arguing for how you remember something that happened, and positioning yourself to influence others to see things your way. But what if you’re missing the important point that your differences are what make life colorful? Those differences are what stimulate your mind and emotions. Without differences, life would be dull. There would be no “aha” moment if you knew everything. There would be no inspiration in the form of art, music, poetry, style, or communication.

There will be times in your life when boundaries may need to be enforced with others and, at the end of the day, you want to feel understood and appreciated. Learning to honor your viewpoints, while others have their own is vital for coexisting in a world where every individual is perfectly unique.

7 . Once a year, around the time when Christians celebrate Easter, Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Jews celebrate Passover, I often invite my 24-person team to a joyful and special dinner at my place. To _______ the needs of all my team members, I usually _______ different kinds of typical food from different religions.

I think this _______ reflects the wider philosophy of my science lab: we aim to be a _______ yet united group of people working in a global scientific network. My lab _______ people with different _______. One of the most obvious _______ is our religions. Yet when people _______ my lab, they gather together, first through their common _______ for science, and then as they get to know one another and enjoy spare time activities, we become a cohesive (有凝聚力的) team. I am ________ this cohesion (内聚力) and the new friendships in my lab, and do my best to encourage them.

I’m also really ________, while looking for new members. I interview many people before I ________ the right ones for my lab. They must be ________ capable of course, but it’s just as important that they’re friendly, interesting and interested in others. They should be prepared to ________ various points of view and cultures.

As the person in charge of the lab, I see preserving a variety of cultural backgrounds as an important part of my job. Such an accessible, varied and supportive ________ promotes new ideas and scientific breakthroughs.

8 . It was Thanksgiving morning and in the crowded kitchen of my small home I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together.

“Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.

I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals (凉鞋), wet with heavy snow.

“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”

They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread with jam to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.

The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”

“Am I rich? Pity, no!” I looked at my shabby slipcovers (沙发套). The girl put her cup back in its saucer carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers (茶碟).” Her voice was hungry with a need that no amount of food could supply. They left after that, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn’t said “Thank you.” They didn’t need to. In a special way they had reminded me that I had already had so much for which I should be grateful.

Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they did match.

I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a good steady job—these matched, too.

I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should forget how rich I was.

9 . Many scholars agree that a meaningful existence comes down to three factors: the coherence of one’s life, the possession of clear long-term goals and the belief that one’s life matters. But we believe there is another element to consider.

Imagine the first butterfly you stop to admire after a long winter or the scenery atop a hill after a fresh hike. Sometimes existence delivers us small moments of beauty. When people are open to appreciating such experiences, these moments may enhance how they view their life. We call this element experiential appreciation, an ability to detect and admire life’s inner beauty as events happen.

To better understand this appreciation, we conducted a series of studies involving over 3,000 participants. Initially, we had participants rate their coping strategies to relieve their stress. Those managing stress by focusing on their appreciation for life’s beauty reported experiencing life as highly meaningful. In the follow-ups, we asked them to rate the extent to which they agreed with various statements, such as “I have a great appreciation for the beauty of life” and other statements related to coherence, purpose, existential mattering. Our results showed that the more people indicated that they were “appreciating life”, the more they felt their existence valuable. In the subsequent experiment, we further explored the phenomenon by asking participants to watch an awe-inspiring video, they also reported having a greater sense of experiential appreciation and meaning in life in these moments, compared with those watching more neutral videos.

The final results confirmed our original theory: appreciating small things can make life feel more meaningful. But applying that insight can be difficult. Our modern, fast-paced, project-oriented lifestyles fill the day with targets. We are on the go, attempting to maximize our output. This makes it easy to miss what is happening right now. Yet life happens in the present moment. We should slow down, let life surprise us and embrace the significance every day.

10 . Every time I take time off with my family, I tend to reflect on how technology has impacted our lives. When we go on a trip together, it usually takes a few days for my kids to finally ______ the fact that they have to let go of their electronic devices. They go through a withdrawal period(戒断期) where Mom is“the worst”for expecting them to go a few days without ______. I need to be ______ here. I am writing about my kids but the ______ is that I ______ withdrawals as well. I find myself having to use all my willpower just to ______ looking at emails.

It has become a(n) ______ that vacation time is quality family time and when we are together, there are no ______. When vacation mode sets in, it becomes easier to ______ the technology and enjoy the moment. My children start to share stories and we find ourselves having fun just spending quality time together. ______ , it always surprises me how quickly we ______ to our regular routine once the ______ is over. It becomes part of my ______ once I am back at work to have the phone beside me at all times.

Do you use technology as a tool to improve productivity? Or, has technology become a(n) ______ that contributes to devaluing “real life” connections with the people right in front of you?

So spend ______ time with your loved ones and become engaged in the moment.