1 . When I was young, I used to hate running. In fact, I wouldn’t have become a(n) ________ if it weren’t for my former classmate Jane. She had been a(n) ________ runner for many years. After our graduation, she wouldn’t stop talking about how much she ________ it.

So she picked it up again, and after about a year, I started to join her at the ________. Just a few months later, she signed up for a five-kilometer race for both of us. I ________ about doing it for it was just too soon.

But on the race day, there I was.

The gun went off. Thousands of runners ________. The first kilometer was tough. I was already breathing ________and painfully aware of the group of runners ________ past me.

After another minute, I saw the three kilometer ________. All I could think of was that I was dying.

I ________ a corner, and saw both sides of the street ________ with people watching the race, all cheering the runners on: I willed my legs to ________ going.

Then I looked up and saw the clock. The ________ ticking away gave me an incentive (激励). I knew that if I ________finished this race, I would achieve something. So, I ________ up and made it.

3 . Climbing, I once thought, was a very manly activity, but as I found my way into this activity, I came to see that something quite different happens on the rock.

Like wild swimming, rock climbing involves you into the landscape. On the rock, I am fully focused. Eyes pay close attention, ears are alert, and hands move across the surface. Unlike walking, where I could happily wander about absent-mindedly, in climbing, attentive observation is essential.

As an arts student studying English literature, I discovered a new type of reading from outdoor climbing. Going out on to the crags (悬崖), I saw how you could learn to read the rocks and develop a vocabulary of physical movements. Good climbers knew how to adjust their bodies on to the stone. Watching them, I wanted to possess that skillful “language”.

My progress happened when I worked for the Caingorms National Park Authority. Guiding my explorations into this strange new landscape was Nan Shepherd, a lady too. Unlike the goal-directed mindset of many mountaineers, she is not concerned with peaks or personal achievement. Shepherd sees the mountain as a total environment and she celebrates the Caingorms as a place alive with plants, rocks, animals and elements. Through her generous spirit and my own curiosity, I saw that rock climbing need not be a process of testing oneself against anything. Rather, the intensity of focus could develop a person into another way of being.

Spending so much time in high and stony places has transformed my view on the world and our place in it. I have come into physical contact with processes that go way beyond the everyday. Working with gravity, geology (地质学), rhythms of weather and deep time, I gain an actual relationship with the earth. This bond lies at the heart of my passion for rock climbing. I return to the rocks, because this is where I feel in contact with our land.

4 . As a child, there was nothing I liked better than Sunday afternoons at my grandfather’s farm in western Pennsylvania. Surrounded by miles of stone walls, the house and field provided endless hours of fun for a city kid like me.

Since my first visit to the farm, I had wanted more than anything to be allowed to climb the stone walls surrounding the houses. My parents would never agree because the walls were so old that some stones were loose and falling. However, my idea to climb across those walls grew so strong that finally I had all my courage to enter the living room, where the adults had gathered after Sunday dinner.

“I want to climb the stone walls.” I said. “Heavens, no! You’ll hurt yourself!” The response was just as I’d expected. But before I left the room, I was stopped by my grandfather’s loud voice. “Now hold on just a minute.” I heard him say. “Let the boy climb the stone walls. He has to learn to do things for himself.”

“Go,” he said to me, “and come and see me when you get back.” For the next two and a half hours I climbed those old walls —and had the time of my life. Later I met with my grandfather to tell him about my adventures. I’ll never forget what he said. “Fred,” he said, smiling, “you made this day a special day just by being yourself. Always remember, there’s only one person in this whole world like you, and I like you exactly as you are.”

Many years have passed since then, and today I host the television program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, seen by millions of children throughout America. There have been changes over the years, but one thing remains the same: my message to children at the end of almost every visit. “There’s only one person in this whole world like you,” the kids will hear me say, “and people can like you exactly as you are.”

5 . Nothing in life is more exciting than the sudden insight that leaves one a changed person—not only changed, but changed for the_________. Such moments are not many, but they come to all of us. Sometimes from a valuable book, and sometimes from a(n) _________friend.

One cold afternoon I was in a restaurant feeling extremely_________. Because of several_________, the research of great significance in my life had failed.

Then my neighbor, an old psychiatrist (精神科医生), _________in the restaurant. “What’s troubling you?“ he asked. I told him what had happened and_________blamed myself for the failure.

Hearing my words, he said nothing but_________me to his office, where he took a tape out. “On this tape,” he said, “there are short_________made by three of my patients. Listen and pick out the two-word phrase that appears_________in all the three cases.

The three voices all__________themselves, and the phrase “if only“ was said out loud__________six times.

“That is poisonous”, the old man explained.

“The trouble with ‘if only’ is that it doesn’t__________anything. But if you let it become a habit, it can become a real__________ so that you won’t want to try more.

“What should I do?” I inquired.

“Change ‘if only’ to ‘next time’,” he smiled. “This phrase will help you to__________the past,

learn a lesson from a failure, move forward, and take__________.”

6 . At an airport I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together. The airline had announced her plane’s _________ and he said to his daughter, “I love you. I wish you enough.”

She said, “Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your _________ is all I needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy.” They kissed good-bye and she left.

I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to _________ his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking. “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be _________?” “Yes.” I replied.

Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and _________ for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were _________, I kept telling him face to face how much he meant to me. _________, I knew what this man was experiencing.

“Why is this a forever good-bye?” I asked.

“I am old and she lives too far away. And the _________ is, her next trip back will be for my funeral (葬礼).” he said.

“When you were saying good-bye I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough’. What does that mean?”

He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been _________ from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” He paused and looked up as if trying to remember it __________. He smiled even more.

“When we said ‘I wish you enough’, we wanted you to have a life filled with enough good things to __________ you,” he continued and shared the following as if he were reciting it from __________.

“I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest __________ in life appears much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your desire. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you __________.”

He then began to __________ and walked away.