Allan, my husband, had recently moved up the tennis league's ladder（晋级赛）and would compete against someone at a similar skill level. "Do you know who your opponent is?” I asked him. My husband explained that although he knew his opponent's name, he had never met him. That's when I saw a young man—about twenty years old—at the other end of the reception area.

The young man had large muscular arms and a well-built body. He was using a skip rope at quite a fast pace； I thought he might be warming up for a tennis match. I smiled at my husband and said that might be his opponent. Allan gave me a frustrated（沮丧的）look on his face, remarking it was an unusual way to prepare for a tennis match, as he continued completing his usual warm-up routine.

The league coordinator（统筹者）called out my husband's name, and then she called the young man. I gave my husband a kind of smile that wives give their husbands when they are encouraging them. The coordinator gave them their court number. They introduced themselves to each other, shook hands, and headed off.

The young man was dressed in the latest trendy tennis clothes and looked great. With his muscular body, he could have easily be a star athlete. Allan was at least thirty years older, much less muscular, and dressed in an ordinary tennis shirt and untrendy tennis shorts. Allan's focus had always been on good tennis shoes, socks, and, of course, the tennis racket.

When they walked onto their court, the pre-game warm-up began The young man played with confidence. It was almost as if he was showing his ability. Allan closely observed his various strokes and powerful serves, while casually returning each shot. Then began the game.

2 . From my earliest childhood memories, my mother was my entire world. Each Sunday morning, I would be_________by sweet smells around the house. Watching my mother_________food was attractive. She was totally_________so I never asked questions, and her behaviour informed me that this wasn’t a good time to_________. My sisters and I would be seated at the_________and wait to get a taste of the cake.

The family meals kept us_________together and gave us an opportunity to connect with each other. No subject was_________as we ate. My father was an extraordinary storyteller and liked talking almost everything with us!_________, we possessed a gift of speech, like him.

My mother’s life revolved around cooking for her_________. She took it very__________, no time for errors. There were no ruined meals or smoke clouding the__________. I would always purposely observe her while she cooked. She was a __________mother. She knew the economy of words, so when she gave chore__________, we listened intently, to carry out the assigned task with success.

Looking back, my mom was the best version of herself. She exhibited excellent__________skills! Her dedication to cooking set me a good example.

And my mother’s focus on food excellence taught me a valuable lesson: Whatever your goals in life, perform them to the best of your abilities. Her__________has allowed me to approach everything I do with dedication.

3 . The biggest misconception that I've ever heard of is that in order for us to find success in anything, we must be willing to give up something else.    1    .

Over the years, I've come to realize that isn't true. As I grow, I find several things are truly stopping us from living a more fulfilling life. Below are some.

Place limitations on yourself

On the surface, limitations are the things that stop you from achieving something.    2    . You'll keep facing the same problems, forced to make the same choices, and perform the same actions repeatedly. They define your current circumstances and to that extent define your quality of life.

Lack self-control

We all have some aspect about ourselves that we don't like.    3    Maybe you have a large sweet tooth and can't help yourself from eating sweet things. When you have a lack of self-control, those habits are going to remain with you until you find some way to remove them.

    4    

Our ability to come up with creative solutions for our problems comes from our ability to learn and adapt. If you're not learning anything, you're not progressing. Leonardo da Vinci once said, "Learning never exhausts the mind." And I believe it.

Final thoughts

When you get stuck on something, you are never truly stuck    5    . You don't have to be working hard to overcome that barrier, rather change your thinking in how you're approaching the problem. Give it time and keep working at it.

5 . A young man came across his old teacher. “I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you,” said the young man and told him the following story:

One day, a friend of mine _________ the classroom with a nice new watch. I loved it so much that I _________ it from him. As soon as my friend _________ he had lost his watch, he reported it to our teacher, who was you, _________. You went to the class, “This student’s watch was missing during classes today. Whoever has taken it, please _________ it.” At that time, I was _________ to raise my hand.

Then you shut the door and told us all to get up and began to _________ our pockets one by one. But you _________ us to close our eyes.

You went from pocket to pocket, and when my _________ came, you found the watch and took it. You __________ searching everyone's pockets until you finished, you asked us to open our eyes. It was the most __________ day of my life. But this was also the day my __________ was saved. You never __________ anything about the incident later, nor even gave me a right or wrong lesson, but I received your __________ clearly. I understood what a real educator needs to do.

If an educator must make students lose the __________ of other people, he doesn’t know how to teach.

8 . With age, and the experience of achieving great success, it has become clear that physical wealth, power, fame and possessions（财产）do not add anything significant to the actually happy life. I find having ________ is nice and allows me to do many ________ things like travelling a lot.

I always buy many things, but I find things that make a life worth living cannot be ________. They can only be found in the ________ I have. They can be what I give to others, what I accept, and the way I ________ to view the world. It's many small steps that ________ the journey that determines the true importance of the destination, not the ________ itself.

In my opinion, if the destination is great wealth, I think we will feel happier after ________ that wealth if we struggle hard, and ________ our small successes along the way. As for those lottery（彩票）winners, there is no journey, no sense of success, and no memories that make up the path to their wealth. The money just becomes a condition of their life, not something that ________ them the sense of personal achievement.

I enjoy the wonderful ________ of giving to others. ________ and kind acts will fill my life with the kind of treasures（珍宝）that I could never buy—they can only be attained through giving help to others. In fact, when you give, you'll often ________ that even more is given back to you. So please do remember to be ________ on the way to wealth, and always keep up the kindness, and you will ________ a happy life you want.

During last year's summer holiday, I finally realized my dream. I travelled to Europe. What a(n)_________ experience!

After getting to Germany by plane, it took me four hours to get to France on a bus._________ Paris, I could see the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral （巴黎圣母院） from my seat. Although it was _________ earlier this year, it's still an amazing _________. I hope it can be _________ as it was before.

After getting off the bus, I saw many people enjoying afternoon tea outside of cafes,_________ enjoying the sunlight. _________, we reached the Louvre Museum, which is _________ its collection of paintings and sculptures. There are hundreds of showcase in its halls, with fine murals （壁画） on the walls and ceilings. Among its impressive _________ are the paintings Venus, the Goddess of Victory and Mona Lisa.

The next day, we got up early for a boat ride on the Seine River. It was wonderful to appreciate the city's scenery from a boat.

Paris is also considered a(n)__________ heaven. The variety of goods __________ me. Yet, nothing is more __________ to me than eating delicious food. We __________ on the streets of Paris, having dinner and enjoying the sunset. We enjoyed steaks and chicken chops.

Travel not only lets me know how big and beautiful the world is, but also lets me know that there are a lot of things to __________ in the world. As the saying goes, “If you don't go out for a walk, you will think this is the __________.”