1 . When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book and a poor man got it.

The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum (羊皮纸) on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone (点金石)”. The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his house, bought a tent, camped on the seashore and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up normal pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebbles hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold — throw it into sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea. The days stretched into months and the months into years.

One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He was used to throwing each pebble into the sea as soon as he picked it up. So when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are careful, it’s easy to fail to realize an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

2 . It was a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon some fifteen or sixteen years ago. I took my two kids to the local playground. As soon as we got there my daughter headed for the swings(秋千) and asked for a_______. I noticed another little girl_______to get her own swing going high as I was helping my daughter to go higher and higher.

I walked over to the little girl and asked_______she needed help. She smiled and said YES and I soon had her feet flying towards the _______while she laughed happily. For the next two hours I found myself pushing swings and playing games with my daughter and the little girl. By the time we headed home, I was physically tired, but my spirits were flying_______than those swings.

Three years later I was_______again after a day’s work. Still, I needed to_______ my kids from their school before heading home. I stood in the parents’ waiting area waiting for my children. Suddenly, I felt two_______arms wrapped around my legs. I looked down and there was the little girl I met three years before in the _______smiling up at me. She gave me a big hug before running away to________the school bus. As I watched her________, I didn’t feel tired anymore and my spirits were once again________ with that swing.

The love we share with others will find its way back to us. It will travel from heart to heart. It may take seconds or it may take________. The law of love, though, is never broken. We will get back what we give. We will harvest what we________ The kindness we give and the joy we create will always come back to________us.

4 . Before she passed away from cancer, A. J. Walters made her husband, Sean and her daughter, Brittany promise her one thing: Sean would______Brittany to the homecoming game, where Brittany was in the running for homecoming queen. It was______to her that her daughter go. Brittany and Sean ______.

Days later, A. J. died. ______their promise, an emotional Brittany______arm in arm with her father across the football field with the other nominees (提名者) to wait for the______of the voting.

Brittany wasn’t______homecoming queen that day; another girl, Nyla was. But, like many in the close-knit community, Nyla had______the Walters. In an unplanned gesture, moments after ______the crown (王冠), Nyla walked over to Brittany, removed the crown from her head, and ______it atop her friend’s. The two hugged each other______.

“She’d rather have her mom than a crown,” Nyla told CNN. “I was telling her that she was her mom’s______, and that she was loved by many, especially me.”

“I felt so much love from her, and I just felt so much love for her,” said Brittany. “I can ______ my mom through Nyla. They have the same______, giving spirit.”

There’s a saying that real queens fix each other’s crowns. But the______is that real queens give up their crowns to let other queens shine.

5 . A video about a homeless man went viral. Johal, a video-maker who is especially known for his social_________, decided to give a homeless man some money and_________his reaction.

In the video, approaching a_________homeless man, Johal carefully places some money on his bag. Minutes later, when the man wakes up, he’s surprised to see the cash and looks excited and grateful. The man walks to a store, steps out with a bag of_________, probably to face the cold nights, and returns to his bench (长凳).

Johal sits beside the man, talking on the phone with a friend, asking if he can borrow some money for his daughter. The homeless man_________listens to their conversation. After Johal hangs up, the man asks if he’s okay. Johal says he’s getting his daughter some_________while having a hard time financially.

In a (an)_________turn of events, the man asks Johal to_________his bag and leaves with the shopping bag. He comes back_________after returning the items and offers the money to Johal, who is a total__________, comforting he can go by without a blanket but the girl needs the treatment. Touched by the homeless man’s kindness, Johal__________this is an experiment and offers $500 to the man, leaving him in__________.

__________but true, the result proves that those with less are the ones__________most. Indeed, heroes are the ones with a __________.

6 . When I think of the word perfect, I think of something only a few can achieve, anything that I can compare myself to. For a few weeks, I have been _______ one girl who is in a few of my middle school classes. It seems like she has a _______ life—lots of friends, all A's, and everything anyone could ever want, _______ in my point of view.

One day, I was talking to my teacher about one of the upcoming tests when I saw the girl _______ me in a strange way. I _______ started to feel surprised and think, “Why is she looking at me? Did I do something wrong? Is my hair messed up?” When the class was over and everyone was _______ to their next class, she caught up to me and said, “I just thought you should know, I think you are really _______ . " I then watched her as she walked away and thought, “She thinks I am pretty?”

The whole day, I _______ up thinking about one thing. That was, “Why does she think that?" After thinking about that _______ in my head through each second of the day, I came to learn one big ________ in our life. In the whole society, almost everyone has a（n） ________ of their own insecurities（不安全感）, even though they may not be discovered on the outside. In this case, I was thinking that she was everything I wanted to be and she ________ the same of me. Both of us are not perfect. It is our ________ to either accept that and love ourselves or keep torturing（折磨）ourselves with ________ . I think that being able to fully love yourself is the ________ meaning of the word perfect.

8 . It was the last day of the final examination in a university. On the steps of one building, a group of students who majored in engineering were talking about the exam that was going to begin in a few_____.On their faces was confidence. This was their last exam—then they would face _____ and jobs.

Some talked of jobs they already had; others talked of jobs they would get. With the certainty of four years of college, they felt ready and able to take _____ of the world.

The coming exam, they knew, would be an easy task. The professor had said they could_____ any books or notes they wanted to take the exam, only requesting that they should not _____ each other during the test.

Joyfully they entered the examination room. The professor handed out the papers. And smiles _____ on the students’ faces as they noticed there were only five essay－type questions(问答题).

Three hours had passed_____ the professor began to collect the papers. The students no longer looked confident. On their faces were frightened expressions. No one spoke as the professor faced the class with papers in his hands.

He looked at the _____ faces before him, and then asked, “How many completed all five questions?”_____ a hand was raised.

“How many answered four?” Still no hands.

“Three? Two?” The students moved restlessly (不安地) in their seats.

“One, then? Certainly somebody finished _____.”But the class remained silent.

The professor put down the papers.“That is exactly what I _____，” he said.“I just want to impress upon you that，_____ you have completed four years of engineering, there are still many questions about the _____ you don’t know. These questions you couldn’t answer are relatively (相对地)valuable in everyday practice.” Then smiling, he added, “You will all _____ this course, but remember even though you are now college graduates, your education has just begun.”

The years have _____ the name of this professor, but not the lesson he taught.

10 . Lewis B. Smedes once said, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” For years Tom Anderson’s life was withered up (枯萎) by the memory of his ________in an adventure that ________ the death of one of his classmates. He and his wife________ after six years of marriage. Then the news about Tom changed. His wife Betty came back; he ________a fine position.

One day he told me what had changed his life, “I used to think nothing could ________what I had done. The thought of my ________would stop me in the middle of a smile. It put a ________between my wife and me. Then I had an ________visit from the person I dreaded (恐惧) most to see—the mother of the college classmate who died. ‘Unless you forgive, you cannot love.’ She said, ‘And without love, life has no ________.’ She paused, and then said________. ‘You are the one person who hasn’t forgiven Tom Anderson.’ I found there in her eyes ________ to be the person I might have been if her boy had lived. For the first time in my life I felt ________ to love and be loved.”

Forgiveness is truly the________grace (慈悲), through which we gain the freedom to learn from experience. But forgiving our shortcomings doesn’t mean ________ that they exist. On the contrary, it means facing them ________.