1 . Over the years, thanks to my life’s obstacles (障碍). I understood the meaning of faith and the strong will to survive. It was Hurricane Ike that made me fully _________ the beauty of our strength and a human’s motivation to _________.

Mom had a two-week vacation in summer. While we enjoyed our holiday in Southeast Texas, we didn’t realize the fact that Ike would cause months and likely years of “labor”. By September 7th, the “eyes of Texas” were watching Hurricane Ike more closely, making the typical mad rush for last-minute hurricane _________. Two days later, both oil and food were in _________ demand.

In the early hours of September 11th, some neighbors were planning to _________the storm in their homes, while others were making final preparations to get away. At first, we decided to stay. But that afternoon, the Houston-Galveston area would be on the more dangerous side of the storm. Mom and I packed some of our most _______ belongings in the car and headed for the East Texas town of Lufkin.

As Ike pushed farther inland, we _________ power in Lufkin. On Sunday, our next-door neighbor told us via cell phone that our house had remained well. Our hopes could not have been _________. But a few hours later, the neighbors reported that our brick chimney had gone, and it was sitting on our living room _________ a hole in the roof between two skylights (天窗).

We wouldn’t be allowed to return home until September l7th. I climbed upstairs, and looked toward the hole in the roof which showed a beautiful blue sky.

Without hesitation, I shouted, “Wow! A third skylight!”

My neighbors could not believe I was making jokes instead of crying, but __________ is always good medicine. It was with that joke that I knew, given time, everything would be okay.

2 . When we think about lives filled with meaning, we often focus on people whose grand contributions benefited humanity. Abraham Lincoln,Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela surely felt they had a worthwhile life. But how about us ordinary people,struggling in a typical existence?

There is an important element to consider. Think about the first butterfly you stop to admire after a long winter or imagine the scenery at the top of a hill after a fresh hike. Sometimes existence delivers us small moments of beauty. When people are open to appreciating such experiences, these moments may enhance how they view their life. This element is defined as EA (experiential appreciation) by Joshua Hicks, a psychological professor at Texas A &M University.

Recently, he and his research team set out to figure out whether EA was related to a person’s sense of meaning in a series of studies that involved more than 3,000 participants. At an initial test, researchers had participants rate their agreement of different coping strategies to relieve their stress. They found people who managed stress by focusing on their appreciation for life’s beauty also reported experiencing life as highly meaningful.

Researchers then conducted a series of experiments, in which they gave participants specific tasks and, once more, asked them to report how strongly they identified with statements linked to purpose, etc. In one case, participants who watched an awe-inspiring video reported having a greater sense of EA and meaning in life, compared with those who watched more neutral videos. After reflecting on the results collected from the participants, researchers confirmed their original theory.

But applying that insight can be difficult.Our modern, fast-paced, project-oriented lifestyles fill the day with targets and goals. We are on the go, and we attempt to maximize output both at work and at leisure.

This focus on future outcomes makes it all too easy to miss what is happening right now. Yet life happens in the present moment. We should slow down, let life surprise us and embrace the significance in the everyday life.

5 . I’ve worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school, but making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o’clock each morning is torture. My friends never seem to understand why I’m so relieved to be back at school or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.

There’re few people as self-confident as a college student who has never been out in the real world. People of my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.

The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.

After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become only too clear. When I’m back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale (老掉牙的) now ring true.

These lessons I’m learning, however valuable, are always tinged (带有) with sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “This job pays well, but it’s hell on the body,” said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.

My experiences in the factories have inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.

6 . This was the big game. The boys were _________ and excited. It was a clear night, and my son Andy’s baseball team, which had _________ all year, had shocked the better teams by making it to this championship game. The atmosphere was _________: the other team’s slugger (强击手) ,a big kid, was like a snake, dangerous and ready to ___________.

Nervously, I looked out Andy’s way. I was _________ to see Andy looking straight up at the night sky! Obviously he wasn’t _________ on the game. I was horrified that he wouldn’t even know the ball was coming. “Come on, Andy. _________out there,” I said to myself. Thank goodness the big kid made a mistake. We (Andy and I) had been _________ and our team still led by one run.

Andy ran up to me at the _________. I was about to __________ him when he said loudly, “Did you see that shooting star?” Andy’s eyes were glowing (发光) with __________ I paused. “Yes.” I said. “Well one inning (局) to go. Hit a homerun (全垒打) !Okay!” said Andy, and her an back to his __________

I suddenly realized it was nice my son would take timeout to __________ the wonder and beauty in life. You might be surprised by the beauty you can find when you least __________ it. Andy hit a triple (三垒打) in that last inning But I still wish I had __________ that shooting star, too.

8 . I had not hugged a friend or a family member since the pandemic until recently when my sister-in-law flew in for a brief visit. For everyone’s safety, we met outside. Despite the wintry weather, her hug warmed me from the inside out. It’s strange, but only now do I truly realize how much I’ve missed embracing loved ones.

Growing up through war in my hometown of Sarajevo, Bosnia, every moment was full of danger. On one peaceful morning, I had begged my mom to let me go outside after spending weeks indoors. She finally agreed. I was outside for only 10 minutes when I was caught in an explosion. I ran to my neighbor’s house for safety and threw my arms around her neck just as my legs collapsed underneath me. She hugged me with both arms and dragged me into her house.

Thankfully, I made a full physical recovery, but the emotional scars never left me. Years later there was another explosion near my house. I was safe inside, but my father had left to buy a loaf of bread. He had only just missed the blast. When he came back inside, I gave him the biggest hug imaginable.

It is yet another sad aspect of our pandemic lives that hugging a stranger is the last thing on our minds. For many of us, even hugging a relative or a friend comes with stress and anxiety. Perhaps we have undervalued the impact of a simple hug. As I look back on my past, I count myself truly lucky to have been held, shielded and encouraged at some of the most key moments of my life by the almost super power of a hug. I pray that in the not-so-distant future we can safely hold one another again - a friend, a relative, or even a stranger.

10 . It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. My husband was taking care of our baby girl so that my six-year-old and I could do some yard work, just the two of us. It was sure to be _________. But soon, the clouds of mosquitos seemed _________ to our bug spray (喷雾). I was sweating, itchy (痒的), and arguing with my son about how to _________ weeds. I had told him the “right” way—getting those weeds out from the bottom, by the roots, _________ them entirely.

However, my son went about things in his own way. He pulled the _________ of the weeds off, moving quickly down the line as he left the remaining part still in the soil. Somehow, I found this to be incredibly _________. Why couldn’t he do it in my way and save me the time of having to _________ his share? Why did he do it at all if he wasn’t going to do it properly?

“If you would do as told, we’d be done earlier and promised a longer period _________ we would have to return and pull weeds next time,” I said, trying to keep my tone _________.

“But people do things…__________, Mom,” he said innocently.

My fire soon faded, replaced by the __________ realization that I’d just received a valuable __________ from the person that I was supposed to be teaching. While trying to __________ my baby girl, my kindergartener, and the yard work, __________ was a lifeline for me. But my way was, perhaps, not the best way after all. His time shouldn’t be __________. His job was to be a kid and take his time, for as long as he was able.