1 . What does taking a risk mean? It means ______ your comfort zone, and at times doing ______ things even if they terrify you. One of the greatest risks I’ve ever taken was auditioning(试演) for my high school’s play. Not only was I a person who had no ______ experience, but also I stuttered(口吃).

The thought of performing in front of people ______ me. The reason why I decided to have a try was that I wanted to get ______ in my school’s theater program. On the day of the audition, there was also a special acting workshop(研习班) which meant to warm us up. I walked in and set my backpack down on the floor. I ______ and saw about twenty people calmly making preparations. Soon we began special acting exercises. We were divided into ______ to prepare parts of the play. I was very anxious. After I delivered some of the lines, my partner said, “Oh, I ______ you are stuttering. Is that for dramatic effect or do you really stutter?” I was ______.

When it was my turn to audition, my heart was beating fast. Across from me, the director and two of his assistants sat on metal chairs. Needless to say, I was really worried about my performance. In the ______, I played the role of a male painter who pretended to be a woman. My partner was playing an evil picture dealer who was determined to marry me. We said our lines and, ______, I didn’t stutter. The whole process went smoothly, and finally the audition was over. I was so ______.

The next Monday I got a call telling me that I had ______ the play. I was overjoyed. It was a lot of fun doing the play, and it was really worth it. It was ______ to me: My stuttering couldn’t prevent me from doing the things I wanted to do, and taking risks, ______ it embarrassed me, was well worth time and effort.

2 . Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

The lesson of the story, I suggested, was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him and gives him something he has always wanted or never had.

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, who can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many words you’ve gotten right, you’re disqualified if you make one mistake. Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one-third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose.

When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us not “Be perfect”, not “Don’t even make a mistake”, but “Be whole.”

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter complained and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled (舀) the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked, “Daughter, what do you see?”“Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she quickly replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. “Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans had each faced the same boiling water. However, they reacted differently. The potatoes were in strong and hard, but in the boiling water, they became soft and weak. The eggs were fragile (易碎的), with the thin outer shell protecting their liquid inside until they were put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the eggs became hard. However,the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When the disaster knocks on your door, how do you respond?Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

“Father, I   want to be a coffee bean,” said the daughter,

In the end, she understands that

4 . From composer, musician, and philanthropist(慈善家)Peter Buffett comes, a warm, wise, and inspirational, book that asks, “Which win you choose: the path of least resistance or the path of potentially greatest sailsfaction?”

You may think that with a last name like his, Buffett has enjoyed a life of endless privilege. But the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett says that the only real inheritance handed down from his parents is a philosophy: Build your own path in life.It is a principle that has allowed him to follow his own passions, establish his own identity, and reap his own successes.

In Life Is What You Make It.Buffett expounds on(阐释)the strong set of values given to him by his trusting and broadminded mother, his hardworking and talented father, and the many life teachers he has met along the way.

Today’s society, Buffett assumes, has begun to replace a work ethic, enjoying what you do, with a wealth ethic, honoring the payoff instead of the process.We confuse privilege with material wealth, character with external validation(认可). Yet, by focusing more on substance and less on reward, we can open doors of opportunity and strive toward a greater sense of fulfillment.In clear and brief terms, Buffett reveals a great truth: Life is random, neither   fair nor unfair.

From there it becomes easy to recognize the equal dignity and value of every human life our circumstances may vary but our essence does not. We see that our journey in life rarely follows a straight line but is often met with false starts, crises, and mistakes.How we push through and persevere in these challenging moments is where we begin to create the life Of our dreams—from discovering our vocations to giving back to others.

Personal and instructive, Life Is What You Make It is about challenging your circumstances, taking control of your destiny, and living your life to the fullest.

It is true     1     experiences are acquired through our journey of life.     2     we believe and     3     we look at things and people around us are based on all our experiences in life. Despite the fact     4     things and life are the way they are, we all have different opinions and beliefs about everything and everybody. Other people have opinions about us as well. But     5     really matters is the opinion we have about ourselves. You choose to accept and follow     6     other people believe, but     7     you want to become yourself is for you to decide.

By living a life as it is and being yourself, you create an image about what you value most and who you admire most. You should remember     8     important it is to be yourself.     9     you are and how you feel are determined by the image that you create about yourself. It reminds you     10     you are standing in life. In short, you are as happy or sad as you see yourself.

9 . There is a song by the great Jamaican singer Bob Marley called So Much Trouble in The World. Marley understood that part of the reason why there are so many problems in the world is the lack of tolerance between people. The UN understands this too— that is why it made November 16th “International Day for Tolerance”.

But first, what is tolerance? According to French philosopher Voltaire, “Tolerance is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty (脆弱) and error; let us pardon each other’s fool— that is the first law of nature.”

Very often, people do not realize that they are intolerant. This is because intolerance has a lot to do with ignorance. For example, the UN’s campaign is in part about the treatment of females by males. But often, the behavior of men toward women is intolerant because men do not put themselves in the shoes of women.

It is worth thinking a little about the words “tolerance” and “intolerance”. Are they the best words to describe the evils of which we are speaking here? To agree to be “tolerant” of someone is not necessarily a very respectful thing. When someone is tolerated, it implies that there is something wrong with them.

Still, what Voltaire said stands: We humans are not perfect and this weakness is something that we all share. That is the reason we should be tolerant. It is a little like generosity. We can give things to another person, and we can also give our forgiveness.