1 . Last summer, I was suffering from too much stress. I’d just graduated from a(n) __________doctoral program and was exhausted from the years of research, study and writing. I took a __________to celebrate, but the academic intensity had become a __________. Sitting on the beautiful lawn of the hotel on Mackinac Island, I just felt like I should be studying or working __________.

Generally seeing natural beauty would have __________ me, but I couldn’t slow down. I couldn’t help looking at my cellphone __________in case I missed something important. “Enough,” I murmured. I needed to unwind, but why couldn’t I?

A dragonfly (蜻蜓) buzzed around me.With each __________, this creature’s wings __________ color — blue one moment, green the next. Dragonflies usually fascinated me with their quick movements that __________ me of acrobats (杂技演员) in the wind, but I wasn’t in the __________ that day. What I needed then was stillness, not movement. Suddenly, the dragonfly came to rest on a blade (叶片) of grass in front of me.

I watched that dragonfly carefully for many minutes. So did the dragonfly. “It’s not a matter of relaxing,” it seemed to say. “Life is so short.Be here in the __________ and let the mood take care of itself.” Suddenly, it __________ me that this beautiful creature, which only had months to live, was “instructing” me about the __________ of life and I felt much relaxed. The dragonfly seemed __________ that its message had been delivered. It sprang from the grass and flew away. I didn’t see it again. But I would never forget what it taught me: Be here and _____________ yourself.

2 . During my career in the past years, I’ve been fired a few times. The last time was about five years ago.

At the time, I co-owned a literary agency. I agreed to take on a giant project for a major client. I worked my tail off about a year, focusing just on this one client. Meanwhile my partner and associates took care of everyone else. We all thought it was a good bet. But in the end, the client fired me and cooperated with an agency who promised to get him a major book deal with a New York publishing house and an appearance on Oprah. I was left high and dry with nothing to show for my year-long investment.

The worst part was that I did not see it coming. I thought I had done a great job, and we had enjoyed a long-term personal relationship. But my client had his eye on bigger things and decided I couldn’t take him there, so he abandoned me without discussion.

The thing I finally learned from this experience was that clients and customers can be changeable. So never put all your eggs in one basket.

This wasn’t the only mistake I’d made in my career. Some of the mistakes I had made got me fired. That got my attention and furthered my education in the school of hard knocks.

Chances are that you are going to be fired at some point in your career. Last May, 1.7 million workers in America were laid off or fired. And according to the Labor Department, that was during month of generally good economic news. The trick — after being fired — is to try to push bitterness aside and learn from it. Failure can be a great teacher, but we have to listen.

3 . I often read of incidents of misunderstanding or conflict. I’m left _______. Why do these people create mistrust and problems, especially with those from other_______?

I was growing up in Kuala Lumpur in the early 1960s, when children from different races and religions played and studied together _______. At that time my family lived a stone’s _______ from Ismail’s. And no one was bothered that Ismail was a Malay Muslim and I was an Indian Hindu—we just _______ our differences. Perhaps, our elders had not filled our heads with unnecessary advice, well _______ or otherwise. We were nine when we became friends. During the school holidays, we’d explore the countryside on our bicycles, hoping to _______ the unexpected. At times Ismail would accompany my family as we made a rare shopping trip to town. We would be glad of his _______. When I was twelve, my family moved to Johor. Ismail’s family later returned to their village, and I lost touch with him.

One spring afternoon in 1983, I stopped a taxi in Kuala Lumpur. When I _______ my destination, the driver acknowledged my ________ but did not move off. Instead, he looked fixedly at me. “Raddar?” he said, using my childhood nickname. I was astonished at being so ________ addressed. Unexpectedly! It was Ismail! Even after two ________ we still recognized each other. Grasping his shoulder, I felt a true ________, something hard to describe.

If we can allow our children to be themselves without prejudice, they’ll build friendships with people ________ race or religion, who will be ________ their side through thick and thin. On such friendships are societies built and then we can truly be, as William Shakespeare once wrote, “We happy few. We band of brothers”.

5 . Are you a man or a mouse? When people ask this question they want to know whether you think you are a ______ person or a coward (懦夫). But you will never really know the answer to this question until you are ______ in real life. Some people think they are brave but when they come face to face with real ______, they act like cowards. Others think of themselves as cowards, but when they meet danger, they act like ______.

Lenny had always thought of himself as a ______ person. He got worried before examinations. He worried about his job and his health. All he wanted in life was to be safe and healthy. Then January 5th, 2002, a plane ______ into the Potomac River in Washington. Lenny went to the river to see what was happening. He saw a woman in the ______ water. Lenny did not feel afraid. He kept very ______ and did a very courageous thing. He jumped into Potomac, ______ to the woman, and kept her head above the water. Seventy-­eight people died that day. Thanks to Lenny, it was not ______.

When you are in a very dangerous ______ and feel afraid, the body automatically produces a chemical in the blood. This chemical is called adrenalin (肾上激素). With adrenalin in the blood system, you actually feel stronger and stronger and are ______ to fight or run away. However, when you are ______ frightened, the body can produce too much adrenalin. When this ______, the muscles become very hard and you find you can’t ______ at all. You are paralyzed (使无能为力) with fear. That is why when we are very frightened, we sometimes say we are “petrified”; this word comes from a Greek word “petros”, which means “stone”. We are so frightened that we become stonelike.

6 . Think of the last time you disagreed with another person. Maybe you argued with a sibling (兄弟，姊妹) over what to watch on TV. Or perhaps you tried to convince grown-ups that ice cream makes a better dinner than vegetables. How did your disagreement end? Were you able to see the issue from the other person’s viewpoint?

In many situations, disagreements are unavoidable. They’re part of life. After all, everyone has different opinions. We all have past experiences that shape how we see the world. Still, not all disagreements are bad. In fact, many people look at them as opportunities to learn. They do so by trying to understand where both sides are coming from.

How can you understand both sides of an issue? Often, it’s best to start by asking questions. Questions help us learn about the world around us. The right questions can also help us learn about other people. In a disagreement, asking for more information can help you learn about a person’s viewpoint. It can also lead you to gather more facts. This can paint a better picture of the entire issue.

When seeking to understand both sides of an issue, it’s important to know the difference between facts and opinions. Remember, facts are based on true information. Opinions can change from person to person. Paying attention to facts can stop biases (偏见) from taking over in a disagreement. This can help everyone involved see both sides of the issue.

Maybe you’re wondering why it’s important to understand both sides of an issue, anyway. After all, don’t most people just want to prove that their side is right? Often, that’s true. However, understanding the whole issue can lead to both sides working together.

Disagreements may be uncomfortable at first. However, when both sides truly try to understand each other, they often find they have more in common than they thought. The next time you disagree with other people, try asking them questions about their viewpoints. You never know what you might learn.

7 . A professor entered the classroom and told the students about a surprise test. All students were_________ and waited for the test to begin. The professor gave the test papers to all students with text facing down at the desk. Once he was done with _________ the test to all students, he asked them to_________ the test paper and begin.

Students were ___________ to see that there was just a black dot in the center of the page. The professor told them, “I want you to ___________ about what you see there.” The students were___________ confused but got started with the test. At the end of the class, the professor collected all answer sheets and started reading each answer from each sheet in front of all students. All of them___________ about the black dot and tried to explain its position.

Now, professor began to explain, “Here everyone_________ the black dot and wrote about it_________ no one wrote about the white paper. The same is with our lives. The white paper stands for our whole life and the black dot __________problems in our life.

Our life is a __________ given to us by God, with love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate—our friends around us, the job that provides us with everything we need. However, we just focus on day to day ____________ like health issues, lack of money, poor relationships, but we seldom see that these problems are very small __________to everything we have in our lives.”

We should try to take eyes __________ our problems and enjoy each moment that life gives us. Be happy and live your life ____________.

9 . When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was a total outsider, bullied (欺凌) at school. I felt completely alone in my small town.

But by starting to do volunteer work when I was 14, I turned my problem into a passion for helping others. The opportunity to practice kindness made me feel like my life had a greater purpose. The more positive energy I shared, the more kindness and appreciation I received. I realized that my purpose in life would be to reach out to people, specifically teenagers, and help them feel less alone.

Books were my true friends back then. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books. The kindness they offered me with their books saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become an author so I could write books that would help other teenagers the way those books helped me.

After surviving terrible experiences at school and at home, I made a choice to take the optimistic, positive road in the next steps of my journey. My dream career, one I thought was only possible for the authors I loved, is what I am doing now. I have been a full-time author of teen novels since 2007 and am grateful for this amazing opportunity to reach out to readers every single day.

Kindness saved me when I needed help the most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone’s life. You never know what someone else is going through. But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect of positive change.

10 . One of the greatest sources of unhappiness, in my experience, is the difficulty we have in accepting things as they are.

When we see something we don’t like, we wish it could be different. We cry out for something better. That may be human nature, or perhaps it’s something ingrained (根深蒂固的) in our culture. The root of the unhappiness isn’t necessarily that we want things to be different. However, it’s that we decided we didn’t like it in the first place. We’ve judged it as bad, rather than saying, “It’s not bad or good, and it just is it.”

In one of my books, I said, “You should expect people to mess up and expect things to go differently than you planned”. Some readers said it’s too sorrowful to expect things to go wrong. However, it’s only negative if you see it as negative and judge it as bad. Instead, you could accept it as the way the world works and try to understand why that is.

This can be applied to whatever you do: how other people act at work, how politics works and how depressing the news media can be. Accept these things as they are, and try to understand why they’re that way. It will save you a lot of sadness, because you’ll no longer say, “Oh. I wish bad things didn’t happen!”

Does it mean you can never change things? Not at all. But change things not because you can’t accept things as they are, but because you enjoy the process of changing, learning and growing.

Can we make this world a better place? You can say that you’ll continue to try to do things to help others, to grow as a person, to make a difference in this world. That’s the correct path you choose to take, because you enjoy that path. Therefore, when you find yourself judging and wishing for difference, try a different approach: accept, and understand. It might lead to some interesting results.