2 . It was a rainy day, and I had no desire to drive up the winding mountain road. But my daughter Carolyn had _______ that I come to see something at the top of the mountain. So here I was, _______ making the two-hour journey through the fog. By the time I saw how thick it was near the peak, I’d gone too far to _______.

After parking the car, we walked along a path that was _______ with pine needles (松针). Gradually, the peace and silence of the place began to fill my mind. Then we turned a corner and I gasped (倒吸气) in _______. From the top of the mountain were _______ of flowers flowing across valleys. A mass of color-from the palest pink to the deepest yellow to the most vivid red-shone like a carpet before us. It looked as though the _______ had spilled gold down the mountainside. Who _______ such beauty? How? As we _______ the house in the center of the field, we saw a sign that ________ “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking.” The first answer was: “One ________ - Two Hands, and Very Little Brain.” The second was: “One Plant at a Time, Started in 1980.”

I was so moved that I could hardly speak. “She started over 40 years ago,” I finally said, “probably just the beginning of a (n) ________, but she kept at it.” The ________ of it opened my eyes to the world of the possible. “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a vision (愿景) and worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have ________?” Carolyn smiled. “Start tomorrow,” she said, “________ yet, start today.”

3 . I was cutting up lettuce (生菜) in the kitchen when I suddenly remembered watching a video about putting the lettuce stub (残余部分) in water to grow a whole new vegetable. So I took out a wide-mouthed mug (大杯) and placed the stub into it, gave it a little water, and placed it by the window.

On a snowy morning, I noticed the first sign. A first small leaf from its heart spread out. A tiny green flag of hope. Beaten, but not defeated. Within days, it was impossible to see the cuts where I had removed the leaves. The growth was explosive. And when I lifted the blossoming head out of the mug, tiny root threads fell down, seeking for the earth. What is growing here? Lettuce or hope?

If I were a lettuce in a similar condition, I’d want to doubtfully assess where I found myself before being devoted to full growth. Yet for this lettuce, my inadequate offering of water and a place by a window was enough for it to decide to reclaim itself again. It grew in a mug of water, in faith. This is the heart of this lettuce: alive, strong and fearless. It deserved a name. I decided to call it Monty.

Monty wanted to grow, as we all do. I think I gave him a little love and freedom. Those two ingredients were all he needed to return to himself. I see joy in this lettuce. The return to self is always an expression of joy, which is life itself. With the right ingredients, this is the tendency of all living things.

Monty still lives in a mug, but I’m going to transplant him outside. He deserves to become his full self. The only problem I see now is my capacity to support Monty. I hope I have enough of a green finger.

I’m surprised to find myself where I am. Maybe Monty is, too. I have the same choice as he does: give in and decay (腐烂), or start again. The prospect of starting again is discouraging. But my lettuce-friend, Monty, leads the way. I can only hope to be as brave.

4 . We live in a world increasingly dominated by science. Since elementary school, I have always ______subjects like science and math. To me, these subjects, full of discoveries and ______, seem to play more significant role in human progress than humanities. And I always ______thought of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right ______I thought, why bother? But recently I had an ______that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was ______. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve. I imagined getting into pretty long and boring conversations ______intended to reflect on the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite ______.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones — “but you can call me Rob” — was far from the white- haired, buttoned-up old man I had ______. Rather than pulling us into dull arguments about difficult-to-understand philosophical points, Rob ______us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own obstacles. To talk morals, we looked at ______we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most ______ones.

It ______me that if I let go of my ______, I can actually get a lot out of the subjects I once thought little of. The class taught me — in more ways than one — to look at things with a(n) ______mind.

6 . Life comes in a package. This package includes happiness and sorrow, success and failure, hope and despair (绝望). Life is a learning process.     1    With each passing day we learn to handle various situations.

Love

Love plays a key role in our life. Love makes you feel needed. Without love a person could die and also become cruel and angry. In the early stage of our life, our parents are the ones who shower us with unconditional love and care, and they teach us about what is right and wrong, good and bad.     2     .

Happiness and Sorrow

Materialistic happiness is short-lived，but happiness achieved by bringing smiles on others，faces gives a certain level of fulfillment (满足感).    3    No mind is happy without peace.

Success and Failure

Failure is the path to success. It helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive (生存) and shows us a specific way. Success brings in money, fame, pride and self-respect.

    4    

Hope is what keeps life going. Parents always hope their children will do well. Hope makes us dream. Hope builds in patience. Life teaches us not to despair even in the darkest hour, because after every night there is a day. Nothing remains the same. We have only one choice — keep moving on in life and be hopeful.

Life teaches us not to regret over yesterday, for it has passed and is beyond our control. Tomorrow is unknown, for it could either be bright or dull.     5     .

7 . Three years ago, a group of researchers at Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab had a guess. They knew that many apples being _______ to kids as part of the National School Lunch Program were ending up in the trash, almost untouched. But unlike others, they wondered if the reason was more complicated than simply that the kids didn’t want the _______.

They thought the fact that the apples were being served _______, rather than sliced (切成片的), was doing the fruit no favor. And they wanted to _______ this idea.

They carried out a pilot study (初步研究) at eight _______ and found that fruit consumption _______ by more than 60 percent when apples were served sliced. They _______ made a follow-up study at six other schools, which not only showed the same result, but further _______ it. Both the overall apple consumption and the percentage of students who ate more than half of the apple served to them were more than 70 percent higher at schools that served _______ apples.

Based on these ________, it seems that even the simplest forms of ________ can influence us. Sliced apples just make more sense for kids. The hardest part is getting kids to start eating fruit, and that’s exactly why sliced apples are the way to go. A child holding a whole apple has to break the skin, eat around the core (果核), and ________ the inconvenience of holding a large fruit. These ________ might seem silly or unimportant, but they’re important when you’re ________ teeth or have braces (牙箍), as so many kids do.

It’s one of those situations where what seems like a really ________ inconvenience actually makes a huge difference.

9 . A few years ago, I took a sightseeing trip to Washington D. C.. I saw many of our nation’s treasures, and I also saw a lot of unfortunate people like beggars and homeless folks in the streets.

Standing outside the Ronald Reagan Center, I heard a voice say, "Can you help me?" When I turned around, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand extended. In a natural reaction, I reached into my pocket, pulled out all of my loose change and placed it in her hand. I didn’t even look at her. I was annoyed at being bothered by a beggar.

But the blind woman smiled and said, "I don’t want your money. I just need help finding the post office."

Immediately, I realized what I had done. I acted with prejudice—I judged a person simply for what I thought she was.

The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant. I left Honduras and arrived in America at the age of 15. Through the years, I have been a dishwasher, cashier, mechanic and pizza delivery driver among many other jobs, and finally I became a network engineer.

In my own life, I have experienced many open acts of prejudice. I remember a time, at age 17—I was a busboy, and I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well at school, he would end up like me.

But now, living in my American middle-class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am and where I have been, and to lose sight of where I want to be going. That blind woman on the street of Washington D. C. cured me of my blindness. She reminded me to always keep my eyes and heart open.