After graduation, Susan was asked to become the executive director of the Floating Hospital. She hesitated at first, as it was a demanding job and she wondered whether she could handle it. But on second thoughts, she agreed to take the job.     1     this job turned out rewarding, she soon got tired of it.     2     (seat) at her desk one day, she wanted to go down to the New School for Social Research all of a sudden. Since she always believed intuition（直觉） was an advantage she     3     trust, she decided to have a go.

Without any plan, she titled the course ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’. Susan was nervous as she faced the first session of the twelve-week course. The two hours went on smoothly, but she then     4     (challenge) with a new fear, for she didn’t know what to present the next week. But surprisingly, every week she found she had more to say. Her confidence level growing, she realized. She had equipped     5     so much over the years about getting over fear and her students were drinking it up. At the end of the course, they were amazed at     6     shifting their thinking really changed their lives.

Susan eventually decided to write a book based on the course she had taught. She faced many obstacles. And after     7     (reject) by four agents and various publishers, she unwillingly put the proposal in a drawer.

After three years of writing, one day she went through the drawer     8     she held her much-rejected book proposal. Picking it up, she had a sharp sense that she held something in her hands many people needed to read. Therefore she set out with much determination     9    (find) a publisher who believed in her book the same way she did. This time, she succeeded. She succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.

She was so happy that she followed her heart and never gave up overcoming fears which stood     10     her way.

Quiet Virtue: The Conscientious

The everyday signs of conscientiousness(认真尽责)—being punctual,, careful in doing work, sef- disciplined. and scrupulous(一丝不苟的) in attending to responsibilities—are typical characteristics of the model organizational citizen, the people who keep things running as they should. They follow the rules, help out, and are concerned about the people they work with. It's the conscientious worker who helps newcomers or updates people who return after an absence, who gets to work on time and never abuses sick leaves, who always gets things done on deadline.

Conscientiousness is a key to success in any field. In studies of job performance, outstanding effectiveness for almost all jobs, from semi-skilled labor to sales and management, depends on conscientiousness. Among sales representatives for a large American car manufacturer, those who were most conscientious had the largest volume of sales.

Conscientiousness also offers a buffer(缓冲) against the threat of job loss in today's constantly changing market, because employees with this quality are among the most valued. For the sales representatives, their level of conscientiousness mattered almost as much as their sales in determining who stayed on.

But conscientiousness in the absence of social skills can lead to problems. Since conscientious people demand so much of themselves, they can hold other people to their own standards, and so be overly judgmental when others don't show the same high levels of model behavior. Factory workers who were extremely conscientious, for example, tended to criticize co-workers even about failures that seemed unimportant to those they criticized, which damaged their relationships.

When conscientiousness takes the form of living up to expectations, it can discourage creativity. Success in creative professions like art or advertising calls for a balance between wild ideas and conscientiousness. Without enough conscientiousness to follow through, people become mere dreamers, with nothing to show for their imaginativeness.

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