1 . I live with my husband Jack in Iowa, which is far away from Florida. One day, my husband suddenly decided to play _________ in Florida.

“Why Florida?” I wanted to know. “We are so busy every day with our work. Why not someplace _________?”

“Because,” he said, “Florida is famous for golf. It’s just something I _________ to do.”

_________, I did understand. Just a week or so before, I _________ a diary of mine from my teenage years. What really got me about it was the list I’d _________ on the very first page—Things I’m Going To Do. But until now I haven’t done a third of them!

So when Jack talked about playing in _________, it got me thinking. There were a lot of things I wanted to _________. They were all the same things as I’d decided to do _________ I was sixteen. But always because of some reasons, my plans __________ to be carried out.

In order to make our life without __________, I told Jack, “Now let’s draw up all our life lists and have them __________ one by one together.” That was how our journey to Florida __________.

After many years, our plans were all finished. __________ I’ve learned that the secret is to take life __________. If you’re in too much of a hurry, you need to stop, or you will fly past all the things that are the most fun.

2 . “Are you really going to eat another piece of pizza?” It was at my fourteenth birthday party that I received my first _________ related comment. After that day, comments like this _________ in my head longer than they should have. I was _________ picking flaws (缺点) in my figure in the mirror.

I decided that I couldn’t eat like this in order to be _________. It started out as just a little extra _________ every day, like running, but it quickly turned into _________ meals and working out every night before bed. As I _________ the calories, the comments started to change. Perhaps my _________ comment was “You’re so skinny.”

Maybe others didn’t know it, but their comments were _________ my social construction of beauty. However, my condition slowly became worse. My caloric intake was less than that of a child and I no longer had the __________ to do the things I once enjoyed.

Everything changed when I got a call from the director at my dance studio. She __________ me that she had wanted to move me to the advanced level, __________ she noticed I was too skinny. I then realized I nearly __________ my role in The Nutcracker. I was determined that I wasn’t going to let society’s idea of beauty be the death of me.

I want to get better for real this time. Mirrors and scales (秤) have no __________ of who I am. Social constructions of beauty will always be __________ in the world that I live in but I’ve decided not to let them rule over me.

3 . It is pretty obvious how other people’s mood and feelings affect your own mood and feelings. If you are ________ the day when someone around you that is constantly angry or sad, it can make you ________, sad or even angry too. During high school I was going through the classic rebellious (叛逆的) teenager ________ in which I would get mad at my parents easily and just rant about them all day. I was angry and ________ at the same time and it made my days and weeks pass by slowly and ________.

After some time, I was tired of always feeling bad and just ________ on the negative part of my days so I decided try to stop ________ and see if that helped me force a smile from time to time. This probably wouldn’t work for everyone in every ________ but in my case, ________ most of my complaints inside me made me realize how life gets ________ when you focus on the good things.

I’ve always had a lot of ________ so when I directed that to something more ________— everything seemed better. I have received various ________ from different friends saying that they always enjoy my ________ as I appear always happy with a positive energy.

Through my personal experiences, I’ve realized how ________ is a big part of my life — how it not only helps me deal with challenges and obstacles, but it also positively affects people around me.