1 . I have been through the _______ of poverty and sickness. When people ask me what has kept me going through the troubles that come to all of us, I _______ reply: “I stood yesterday. I can stand today. And I will not permit myself to think about what might happen tomorrow.”

I have known want and struggle and anxiety and despair. I have always had to work beyond the _______ of my strength. As I look back upon my life, I see it as a battlefield strewn with the wrecks of _______ dreams and broken hopes and shattered illusions.

Yet I have no pity for myself; no tears to shed over the past and gone sorrows; no envy for the women who have been _______ all I have gone through. For I have lived. They only _______.

I have drunk the cup of life down to its very dregs(残渣). They have only sipped the bubbles on top of it. I know things they will never know. I see things _______ they are blind.

It is only the women whose eyes have been _______ clear with tears who get the broad vision _______ makes them little sisters to all the world.

I have learned in the great University of Hard Knocks a(an) ________ that no woman who has had an easy life ever acquires. I have learned to live each day ________ it comes and not to borrow trouble by dreading the morrow. It is the ________ menace(威胁)of the future that makes cowards of us. I put that ________ from me because experience has taught me that when the time comes that I so fear, the strength and wisdom to meet it will be given me.

I have learned not to ________ too much of people, and so I can still get happiness out of the friend who isn’t quite true to me or the acquaintance who ________. ________, I have acquired a sense of humour, because there were so many things over which I had either to cry or laugh. And when a woman can joke ________ her troubles instead of having hysterics(歇斯底里), nothing can ever hurt her much again.

I do not ________ the hardships I have known, because through them I have touched life ________ I have lived. And it was worth the ________ I had to pay.

2 . One morning in July 2011, a taxi sat wandering outside Petco Park stadium in San Diego. And Wade LeBlanc, a (an) _______ pitcher (棒球投手) for the Padres, climbed in.” To the airport, please,” he told the driver. LeBlanc was headed to Tucson, Arizona, home of the club’s A-level branch organization at the time. He’d been sent down to the minors. Again. For the eighth time in three years.

“You’re Wade LeBlanc,” the taxi driver said.

“Right.”

“You got some good stuff.”

This _______ the pitcher, after the previous night’s disastrous performance.

“I think there are some things you should think about _______,” the driver continued.” I don ’t know; I ’m not a _______. Maybe something like going over your head in your windup (摆臂动作)”

Wait, what? This guy was offering _______? Earlier in his career, LeBlanc   might   have _______ or been angry. But today, he just_______. He couldn’t afford to dismiss anything. His career was on the line.

The next day, in Tucson, LeBlanc met his _______. He said he was thinking about making _______ to his windup. His coach agreed. Instead of keeping his hands tight to his chest at the beginning of his delivery, LeBlanc raised them briefly over his head, as the taxi driver had ________.

LeBlanc included the new ________ into his next start. And he was________, allowing only one hit over seven innings ( 回 合 ). It was the turning point in his career. Eight years later, LeBlanc is a pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. He signed the first contract extension of his Major League Baseball career—at age 33.

The funny thing about advice: We so often take it from the ________ people. That is, we ________ the advice of experts, while undervaluing the input of regular folk. Wade LeBlanc ________ that trend, and he obtained the ________.

“Expert advisers often make surprisingly inaccurate predictions about the future, yet people ________ their suggestions nevertheless,” concluded Stanford University psychologists in a study published last year.

Now, not everyone took experts’ advice. The more ________ people become, the smaller the pool of advisers they ________. Participants in positions of power ignored almost two thirds of the advice they received, according to one Harvard University study. Other participants—the control and low power groups—ignored advice about half as often. So it required a massive increase of modesty (谦虚) to do what Wade LeBlanc did: hear what the taxi driver was offering him and accept it as a(an) ________.

3 . Yesterday, my kids and I were in the costume store, getting ready for Halloween, and they saw a Donald Trump mask. “Is he a good guy or a bad guy?” they asked.

I knew they were _______ of the most negative character — Will Ferrell in the film “Batman”, who starts good but becomes _______ over the course of the plot, so I said something about how all people have a little good and a   little bad in them. Of course, I wanted to say: “Son, that man is not_______ a bad guy, but one of the worst men our species has ever_______. He had every privilege, every_______ to do good, but he chose_______.”

We have the opportunity to make this_______, every day.

Maybe Grandpa Milt was really such a_______. Decades ago, his mother, on her way home from a late-night meeting of her Jewish charity organization, disappeared. She was_______ by workmen in an abandoned lot the following morning, her clothes__________, her skull (头骨) broken. Alive but__________, she was brought to Lincoln Hospital and__________ six hours later. This tragedy left him an orphan(孤儿).

__________, grandpa didn’t seek revenge (复仇). It’s not his__________. He was the kind of guy who found a way to make a(n)__________ for himself — through excellence. Milt was hardworking, handsome, kind, and all of this made him known. He__________ from New York University with a degree and became a teacher, finally a billionaire.

Most likely, he __________ the heartbreak but toughed his way through it, charged forward, __________ a life worth living, and found peace. There is a superpower worth remembering — __________ a wrong can create positive changes in our world today.

Sometimes,__________ is the best revenge.

4 . The first time I went hunting wild geese with my father, I couldn't catch them no matter how hard I tried. Every time I tried to approach them, _______ the wild geese started flying away before I could get close. It _______ me a lot and I turned to my father for help.

Hearing my trouble, my father _______ at a wild goose standing at the highest point and said, “That wild goose is a sentry （哨兵）,which we call the wild goose _______     . It will give an alarm to the other wild geese as long as it finds something _______ .

“That's _________it is so hard for you to catch them. Listen, boy! Go and _______ the slave on purpose now, and then hide there motionless."

Not quite understanding why, I _______ to have a try.

I picked up a piece of stone from the ground and threw it at the slave. As _______ , it gave an alarm to its companions __________ . The wild geese resting there fled in all __________ , but they flew back soon when they found nothing happened.

I followed my father's instructions to repeat this __________ for a few times.

____________, a few wild geese thinking they were fooled started __________ the slave. Repeatedly, almost all the wild geese thought the slave gave false __________ and began to attack the slave. The poor slave was pecked （啄）all over with cuts and scratches.

"You can approach the geese now," __________ my father.

So I got close to the wild geese again. The slave saw me, but it took no __________this time. Maybe it was just __________ caring.

__________, I raised my gun and got a good harvest.

The tragedy often occurs in this ____________: the loyal are misunderstood while the misunderstood cannot stick out.

5 . I've come to the conclusion that I'm rubbish at saying “No”. For example, last Sunday I was sitting at my desk alone, totally ____ in my own business, when a colleague of mine phoned and asked me to get involved in ____ with her. I found myself getting all caught up in her enthusiasm and didn't want to ____ her. So I said “Sure, why not？” and before the call had ____, I found myself agreeing, without giving any ____ whether it was worth doing.

We are both window­shoppers and ___ a whole day in the street. Actually, I hardly have any time to spare because I am very busy ____ my normal job - I've also got a book to write, a business to ____ and a family to look after. And then there are my other projects to ____ - my voluntary work and a couple of other interesting investments that I want to ____. I'm going to have to be more ruthless (无情的) and not just agree to ____ people ask me to get involved in. In other words, I'm going to have to get ____ at saying “No”.Usually I hate saying “No”, because having to disappoint someone usually ____ me. Now I realize ____ I haven't learned to say “No”, I've been feeling very ____.

We had better do what we think is right and what we are ______ to do. Sometimes it does not seem that bad to ______ others. If I focus on the things I ______ want to be involved in, I'll reach a much higher standard and do it quite ______. I'll be enthusiastic and motivated (有积极性) and do something that is good for everyone and everyone will be happy. It'll be a win-­win ______. What's not good about that？So sometimes, we have to say “No”.

6 . When I was a boy there were no smart phones or computers. Still, I never felt ________. The fields, hills and woodlands around my home were the perfect playground. I can remember once hiking to a nearby ________ and walking slowly around it. At the back of it I was amazed to find an old dirt road that I had never seen before. It was full of muddy tyre tracks and deep woods bordered it on both sides, but ________ it still seemed like a fine adventure.

I ________ on and on for what seemed like hours. I was sure my guardian angel was ________ In my ears to turn around and ________ back home but I was ________ and even a bit stupid, so I walked on. There was still neither a car nor a house ________. My legs were getting tired. I noticed that the sun was starting to go down and I grew ________. I didn’t want to end up ________ on this road in the dark of night, and I was worried that it would be dark ________ I could make my way back to the lake again.

I continued to walk on with the fear growing inside of me. My heart was ________ faster and my legs were aching more seriously than before. When I ________ one last corner and saw a house that I ________. I jumped up and down and laughed out loud. I knew the way home! It was still over a mile away, but my ________ felt like feathers. I ________ into the house with a big smile just in time for dinner. Then I ended my adventure with a good night’s sleep.

I remembered this recently when I saw a sign, ________, “All roads lead home”. This is true. I also remembered a sage (圣人) compared life to a journey. Are we going to make this life a ________ trip or are we going to make the life a terrible one? It ________ our own choice.

All roads no matter how they twist and turn, can ________ us home in our hearts. May you always walk your path with love! May you always help your fellow travelers along the way!

7 . I have the bad habit of skipping to the last pages of a book to see how it ends while I’m still in the middle of it. This habit ______ people around me. Often my ______ wouldn’t be confined(局限) just to the books I read but also to what others were ______ as well. Finally, one day my daughter told me with a little _______. “Dad, please just read a book one page at a time like everyone else!”

At times I didn’t ______ this bad habit to just reading books either. I also tried to skip ahead in my life and _____ what to do months and even years from now instead of ______ each day as it is intended. I knew that the book of my life wasn’t done yet and that I had many ______ left to go.________, that didn’t stop me from trying to write the ______ half-way through. Time and again, I would ______ jump ahead and try to solve every potential problem before it ______ so I could reach that storybook happily ever after ending. Life, however, doesn’t ______   like that. It loves to ______ us, and you never know what new problem or opportunity each new day will bring.

Life has often had to ______ me to slow down. Recently, when I found myself ______ to that bad habit of rushing ahead and living in the ______ again, I felt a special voice gently telling me, “ Live one day at a time.” Then I smiled, and turned the book of my life back to the ____ page. Each of us has to live the book of life one page and one day at a time. Each of us has to write it ______ and moment by moment. We have to trust that it will bring our ______ to its perfect end.

8 . Children remain"bundles of joy" all over the world. We love their innocence and their need is our command. But have you ever been ______ to their healing （治愈）powers?

A good lady friend of mine, a school teacher, had _____ her beloved husband in a tragic car accident. She had been enjoying a _____ married life only for two and a half years when tragedy（悲剧）struck.

No one was able to ____ my friend. She stopped attending her school job, _____ to communicate with anyone and ____ instantly. As ____ we tried our best to bring her out of the dark and __ home but she refused stubbornly till her school principal, a _____ person visited her one day. He ____ her to get back to school and commented that the _____ of children would bring her peace of mind as nothing else could. Unwillingly, my friend started ____ school again, after nearly three or four months. I met her after a month and this is the time I was quite ______. Where was that depressed soul who I met last time? Here was my friend, back to her old self-happy, humorous and hill of ________ . When I asked her about the   ______of returning to where she belonged, she squarely put the ________ onto the children in the school with whom she spent a better part of her day.

This ________left a deep impression in my mind and I started to explore deeper into the _________of healing powers of children. My friend gave me many inputs to my study and she _______ that the more time you spend with people who are innocent, who give you unconditional love, the more joy and peace of mind you can get,   ______     during the troubled times.

9 . A star athlete stopped by my office and she was eaten up by self-criticism after committing a few errors during a weekend match. “I’m at peak _________ and I practise hard. How is this happening?” This student, like many I teach, believes she should be able to _________ the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work.

I study and write about resilience (复原力), and I’m noticing a(n)_________ increase in students like this athlete. When they win, they feel powerful and smart. When they fall short of what they imagine they should _________, however, they are crushed by self-blame.

We talk often about young adults struggling with failure because their parents have protected them from _________. But there is something else at play among the most advantaged in particular: a _________ promise that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it.

Psychologists have sourced this phenomenon to a misapplication of “mind-set” research, which has found that praising children for _________ will increase academic performance. Developed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, mind-set education has spread across classrooms worldwide. But a 2018 analysis found that while praising hard work over ability may benefit economically disadvantaged students, it does not _________ help everyone.

One possible explanation comes from Nina Kumar, who argued in a research paper last year that for teens in wealthy, pressure-cooker communities, “It is not a _________ of motivation and perseverance that is the big problem. __________, it is unhealthy perfectionism and difficulty with backing off when they should, when the fierce drive for achievements is over the top.” This can __________ physical and emotional stress. In a 2007 study, psychologists Gregory Miller determined that adolescent girls who refused to give up the __________ goals showed elevated levels of CRP, a protein that serves as a marker of systemic inflammation (炎症) linked to diabetes, heart disease and other medical conditions.

The cruel reality is that you can do everything in your power and still fail. This knowledge comes early to underrepresented minorities whose experience of discrimination (歧视) and inequality teaches them to __________ what is, for now, largely beyond their control to change. Yet for others, the belief that success is always within their grasp is a setup. Instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way，we should all question a culture that has taught them that how they perform for others is more important than what __________ inspires them and that where they go to college matters more than the kind of person they are. We should be wise to remind our kids that life has a way of disappointing us when we least __________ it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.

10 . The View from the Slow Lane

As we pulled into the driveway, I noticed that something seemed different about my mom. She was ______ away from me, her shoulders dropped and her hands relaxed. I parked the car and she turned toward me.

“Okay, we’re home,” I said, ______ that now was her time to get out and let me be on my own. She sniffled and brushed her hair behind her ears to reveal her bloodshot eyes and moist cheeks. She had been crying.

“Mom!” I whined (嘀咕着说), surprised by the tears running down her face. “Why are you crying?” I asked, ______ I already knew the answer.

I had just got my ______, which I’d been looking forward to for months. I was free — able to drive myself where I needed to go. But now that I had it in my pocket, I suddenly felt ______. I had been so quick to grow up, completely ignoring the emotions that my mom must be experiencing with her firstborn ______ adulthood.

“My baby boy is growing up too fast,” she ______ to say between deep breaths.

My heart ached. I hated to see my mom cry, and I hated more that I had been so ignorant toward her ______. I had been counting down the days, ______ waiting to enter the next stage of my life, ______ she counted down with fear and headache. The ______ and freedom I had previously felt were gone, replaced by an odd sense of mourning.

We hugged. Then she looked me in the eye and told me to drive carefully. “Of course I will,” I reassured her. She unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door, and stepped out. I waved goodbye and pulled out of the driveway.

I had been so ______ to start speeding and skirting around corners that I’d ______ just how beautiful the ride is. Now I cruised (漫游) down the peaceful two -lane road, ______ the sights, sounds, and smells of the nature that surrounds me. At that moment I made a promise to myself, a promise to take things   ______ and to never, ever, catch myself speeding again.

Life had passed me by while I lived my days in fast ______, ignorantly wishing for tomorrow and ______ to notice all the beautiful things along the way. Friendships, victories, heartbreaks — have sped by me because I was too busy looking toward the ______. It seems life also has its own ______, and if you find yourself going too fast, you risk ______   the moments that make it so special.

Moments like this.