1 . Recently, I was diagnosed (诊断) with an incurable illness. And after that, I gave up _______Although I was able to pass my test last year, I stopped _______when I turned 90. I thought that it was finally the right time.

Needless to say, my family and my doctor were _______to hear my decision, As I_______over the keys of the car to my son, I thought of all the cars my wife and I had_______ over the years. A car is_______. independence, and an extension of your personality. Without one, you feel like_______of a person. Now, my son often drives me to the city center and my neighbors also offer me_______when I’m on the way to the market. But after a lifetime of independence,the idea of being dependent _______other people is hard to   ________ With my own car, I could go anywhere ________. But now, my horizons ( 眼界) have   ________and I must plan ahead for everything. Luckily, I’ve learned to face it and   ________and I found a(n)________to some of those problems. Last year, I________to buy a nice new four-wheel electric scooter(轻便摩托车), which made my route free from ________and noise, with trees and green plants ________cars and street signs.

Giving up something is hard, and some of us never accept the _________For me, however, it wаѕ juѕt thе ________оf а lоng аnd luсkу lіfе. Lіfе іn thе ѕlоw lаnе (车道) turnеd оut tо bе ѕо much fun and so much________

Did you know that what you think you like and don’t like is often the result of false beliefs? As humans, we tend to be     1     (easy) influenced when it comes to liking or   disliking something, and we’re happy to have our existing beliefs confirmed. But once these beliefs became fixed, we often lose our ability to be     2     (object) and we don’t like to have our ideas challenged.   Generally speaking, human beings are not good at taking a     3     (balance) view of things. For instance, we unconsciously start to listen for and select information that     4     (match) our beliefs and turn a blind eye to information that doesn’t,     5     (reject) it out of hand. We don’t always like to accept new information that doesn’t match up with what we already believe.

As a result, we often don’t even consider the reasons behind     6     opposing point of view. Instead, we look for evidence that confirms     7     we had already thought, and which conforms to our own point of view. We’re more likely     8     (give) meaning to information that matches the beliefs we already have. In other words, we are biased (偏见) towards certain information.     9     can come as a shock when information we       10     (trust) is actually exposed to be untrue.

3 . I was holding her hand when the man in the white coat came in. ______ both sets of X-rays, he said seriously: Her lungs were filling up with fluid(液体). This meant that ______ I would need to consult with specialists, and stop whatever was ______ into my mother’s lungs.

____, this doctor seemed to have another plan. He began speaking to me about “the quality of life.” He gave me a list of my mother’s ______ and then concluded that they added up to the ______ of her life. I had heard the phrase “We can make her ______” too many times. Now I was more ______ than hurt when doctors wanted to kill my mother.

My mother couldn’t walk, talk or swallow after her stroke, but nursing her was not ______. Whenever I asked her if her diseases were too hard on her, she just ______ her head. She was conveying to me her love and understanding beyond ______. And not just to me.

A young nurse stopped me just before the doctor appeared: “You know, I ______ my new job to your mother: She ______ me to learn to drive, so I would be not ______ buses and I could get to the hospital to work.”

So, I couldn’t help questioning the doctor’s ______ of quality of life. How did he arrive at the ______ that my mother should die? Was he making a(n) ______ calculation, that to keep a bedridden(卧床不起的) person alive was costly? He certainly did not “calculate” her endless love, the way it ______ everyone who came in contact with her. If human life is ______ to cost-benefit analyses, all forms of caring for any reason other than self-interest will be ______. Can we do better?

4 . It was an unusual night. The noisy Mexico City gradually calmed down. The main stadium of Olympic track and field competition was ______in the darkness. The marathon winners received the trophies (奖杯) and_______the victory and then, Stanley, a world-famous news producer, found the stadium______. He was about to leave_______he suddenly saw that a bandaged man, whose right leg was______with the blood, ran into the stadium. This man ran     _____ and slowly, but he didn’t stop. After he ran along the track for the last______and got to the finish line, he______on the ground.

Stanley was very_____and went over to ask. The young man, called Kowari from Tanzania,______gently, “That my country sent me here from over 20,000 kilometers is not to let me give up halfway in the_____, but makes me_______the game._______I’ve fallen behind all other runners, I have a sacred goal like them. I will run to the goal! The _______won’t cheer me any more, but my_______is watching me in the far distance...” Tears welled up in Stanley’s eyes. Soon, he spread the most_______scene to every corner of the world.

In the daily life, everyone may have a ______of reaching the peak, but few can make it     ______. It is not whether we can reach the top but whether we’ve made the greatest_______that counts. To reach the goal in the_______is also a success.

5 . God’s Coffee

A group of class friends, highly achieved in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.Conversation soon turned into ______about stress(压力) in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the ______and returned with a large pot of coffee and a couple of _______—porcelain(瓷器), plastic, glass, some plain looking, __________expensive, some delicate—telling them to ______themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in______,the professor said: “If you noticed，all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, ______behind the plain and cheap ones. It is _______ for you to choose only the best for yourselves. However, that is the ______why you are complaining. Be sure that the cup itself ______no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. ______all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously (自觉地) went ______the best cups. And then you began _______each other’s cups. Now consider this: Life is the ______; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not explain, nor ______the quality of life we ______. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we______to enjoy the coffee God has______us. God brews(冲泡) the coffee, not the cups…Enjoy your coffee!”

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just ______the best of everything.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the ______to God.

6 . Last fall I hung outside my window a bird feeder(喂鸟的食槽)．Knowing ______about wild birds，I ____that_______ I hung this bird feeder outside，numbers of beautiful birds would be swooping(飞扑)to my new addition. However，days，weeks，and months______，NO BIRDS.

I asked so many people，“What to do？______ was I doing wrong？”“Nothing，”most of them replied，“just______！”So I waited and waited and waited，trying everything______to attract these birds. I cleaned off the deck(平台)，______the feed，and washed the feeder. I_____ made the cat go out the other door！But nothing seemed to_______．So I waited with patience and_______．

Two months later，on a Saturday afternoon，I _____ ！What came to my eyes was the most beautiful bird I have ever seen in my life！All of a______ ，hundreds of birds were_____ from everywhere!

What a beautiful_______I learned from this little creature！Patience and hope will______ the beautiful things in life. Yet I had never_______how much patience I really do have and how much I do rely on hope to ______ the questions in my heart.

So I ______hoping and waiting，waiting and hoping. I will try to use this“little lesson”with so many other things in my life. I guess patience is a _____ after all.

7 . I owe a young lady a letter. She wrote to me last week asking how I was, saying she was fine and that she was _______ the dress we sent for her birthday. She even drew a picture of herself wearing the dress. Then she wrote, “Please _______.”

I can’t _______ the last time someone asked me to write back. We don’t write letters anymore. The _______ is gone; there’s never anything good in the mail. We know what’s in the mail – advertisements and circulars (印刷信函).

When I was the same age as the young lady writing to me, my father took a new job. We only moved 200 miles, but it felt like we had been _______ from friends, extended family and all things familiar by two continents and an ocean. Long distance phone calls were _______ and expensive then, most often _______ for emergencies or bad news.

But people wrote. Both of my grandmothers, and two of my great-aunts wrote to me. It was special that someone took an interest in a _______ kid. That someone would take the time to put pen to _______ and share their lives and ________ about mine meant a lot. It would mean a lot to anybody, ________.

I spent many a Sunday evening straining (竭力) to ________ thoughtful and well-written letters. “Dear Aunt Mary, How are you? I am fine. I hope you are the same.”

My mother was a great letter writer. I looked forward to her letters when I left home, went to college and then traveled across the country working newspaper jobs. When I married, had children and moved again, still far from home, she wrote ________. Letters were a way of ________ the distance.

She was a natural storyteller. She could make a story about a ________ gathering where everyone sat on metal folding chairs and had nothing but water to drink sound like a wonderful party. Back then, letter writers were storytellers because they were ________ of the world around them.

As phone calls became affordable, then cheap, the flow of letters ________ and eventually stopped.But it is different for me today. What a ________ to get a letter! There were ________ circulars and advertisements in the mailbox. There was something truly special, which takes me to my most delightful task ________, “Dear Audrey .”

By Lori Borgman

8 . It’s easy to help some people, but what about those whose needs are not so obvious? This story was a ______ which has stayed with me and helped me a lot ever since.

It was Thanksgiving, and I was ______ with my parents at a shelter for the needy. We were standing behind the counter ______ hot food to whoever came in. Most of our diners looked like they had been having ______ times; their clothes were worn out and dirty. In short, they looked ______! Then, a man came in, who looked ______ but needy. He was well-dressed, in an expensive suit. I ______ what he was doing there, and my jaw dropped in ______ when he joined the line for ______. What was this man doing? The ______ he came to my service station, the more I murmured to myself. Surely he wasn’t going to ______ food meant for those who were ______ in need!

Then my mother ______ took me to one side. She said, “You have ______ that the needs of the people who come here must be purely ______: for food, shelter, clothing, etc. And this gentleman doesn’t seem to have any of those problems. ______ what if his needs are emotional? What if he needs ______ friends, or just to be among other human beings? Her words ______ me like a ton of bricks! I felt I should ______ to the man — but I didn’t.

About a week later the shelter received a large donation from an unknown source. I couldn’t help but wonder ______ it came from that man.

9 . The lives of the Ancient Greeks revolved(运转) around Eris, a concept by which they defined the universe. They believed that the world existed in a condition of opposites. If there was good, then there was evil；if there was love, then there was hatred; joy, then sorrow; war, then peace; and so on. The Greeks believed that good Eris occurred when one held a balanced outlook on life and coped with problems as they arose. It was a kind of ease of living that came from trying to bring together the great opposing forces in nature. Bad Eris was evident in the violent conditions that ruled men’s lives. Although these things were found in nature and sometimes could not be controlled, it was believed that bad Eris occurred when one ignored a problem, letting it grow larger until it destroyed not only that person, but his family as well. The Ancient Greeks saw Eris as a goddess: Eris, the Goddess of Discord, better known as Trouble.

One myth that expresses this concept of bad Eris deals with the marriage of King Peleus and the river goddess Thetis. Zeus, the supreme ruler, learns that Thetis would bear a child strong enough to destroy its father. Not wanting to father his own ruin, Zeus convinces Thetis to marry a human, a mortal(凡人) whose child could never challenge the gods. He promises her, among other things, the greatest wedding in all of Heaven and Earth and allows the couple to invite whomever they please. This is one of the first mixed marriages of Greek Mythology and the lesson learned from it still applies today. They do invite everyone . . . except Eris, the Goddess of Discord. In other words, instead of facing the problems brought on by a mixed marriage, they turn their backs on them. They refused to deal directly with their problems and the result is tragic. In her fury(狂怒), Eris arrives, ruins the wedding, causes a jealous argument between the three major goddesses over a golden apple, and sets in place the conditions that lead to the Trojan War. The war would take place 20 years in the future, but it would result in the death of the only child of the bride and groom, Achilles. Eris would destroy the parents’ hopes for their future, leaving the couple with no legal heirs (继承人) to the throne.

Hence, when we are told, “If you don’t invite trouble, trouble comes,” it means that if we don’t deal with our problems, our problems will deal with us . . . with a revenge! It is easy to see why the Greeks considered many of their myths learning myths, for this one teaches us the best way to defeat that which can destroy us.

10 . Life is difficult.

What do you think about life? Maybe most people say that life is difficult. But life is no longer difficult once we truly understand and accept it. Most people do not fully see this truth. Instead, they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that their difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or their families, their class, or even their nation.

What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.

Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning.

Problems are the serious test that tells success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt instruct.” It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems.