The day after tomorrow would be my forty –year-old birthday. I was __  (1)  __of entering a new decade of my life and __  (2)  __ that my best years were now behind me.

It is a daily routine for me to the gym for a workout __  (3)  __ going to work. Every morning I __  (4)  __ see my friend Jo at the gym. He was seventy-nine years old and in fantastic shape. As I greeted Nicolas on this ___  (5)  __ day, he noticed I wasn’t full of my usual __  (6)  __ and asked if there was anything wrong. I told him I was feeling__  (7)  __ about turning forty. I wondered how I would __  (8)  __ my life once I reached Jo’s age, so I asked him, “What was the best time of your life?”

Without__  (9)  ___, Nicolas replied, “Well, Joe, this is my philosophical(哲学的) __  (10)  __ to your philosophical question:

“When I was a child in Austria and __  (11)  __ was taken care of for me, that was the best time of my life.” “When I got my first job and had responsibilities and got __  (12)  __ for my efforts, that was the best time of my life.” “When I __  (13)  __my wife and fell in love, that was the best time of my life.” “The Second World War __  (14)  __, and my wife and I had to flee Austria to __  (15)  __ our lives. When we were together and__  (16)  __on a ship bound for North America, that was the best time of my life.” “When we came to Canada and started a(n) __  (17)  __, that was the best time of my life.” “When I was a young father, __  (18)  __my children grow up, that was the best time of my life.” “And now, I am seventy-nine years old. I have my __  (19)  __. I feel good and I am in love with my wife just as I was __  (20)  __ we first met. This is the best time of my life.”

Terry was a middle-aged leather trader whose repeated failure in career made him a depressed man, often   (1)   that he had been cheated by others. One day he told his wife he was so  (2)  with the city that he had to leave.

  So his family moved to another city. It was the evening of a weekend. When Terry and his wife were busily  (3)  up their new home, the light suddenly   (4)  . Terry was regretful to have forgotten to bring along   (5)   and had to wait   (6)   in a low mood. Just then he heard light, hesitant   (7)   on his door that were clearly audible (听到) in the   (8)   night.

  “Who’s it?” he wondered, since Terry was a   (9)  to this city. And this was the moment he especially hated to be   (10)  , so he went to the door and opened it   (11)  . At the door was a little girl, shyly asking, “Sir, do you have candles? I’m your neighbor. ” “No,” answered Terry in anger and shut the door   (12)  . “What a nuisance(讨厌)!” He complained over it with his wife. “No sooner had we settled down than the neighbor came to   (13)   things.”

  After a while, the door was knocked again. He opened it and found the same girl outside.  (14)  this time she was   (15)   two candles, saying, “My grandma told me the new neighbor downstairs might need candles. She   (16)   me here to give you these.” Terry was very   (17)   by what he saw and heard.

  At that moment he suddenly realized what caused his   (18)   in life. It was his   (19)   and harshness (刻薄) with other people. The person who had cheated him in life was   (20)   nobody else but himself, for his eyes had been blurred (蒙蔽) by his unsympathetic mind.

It was summer vacation. Our 12-year-old son, Jack, felt free. I let him 41            this I’m-on-vacation

feeling for several days. I was happy for him.

But before long, I couldn’t help noticing that weeds were growing in the garden, dishes    42          up. With a little baby and horses to care for, it is really   43           for me to manage all the things. So one morning, I told Jack that he had to work two hours a day to help me, “I’ll   44             you, but you have to do it.” He got quite    45             . “I don’t think I should have to work if I don’t feel like it! I’m only a kid!” 46            , I insisted two hours a day wasn’t too much to ask of a 12-year-old.

After that, each morning I gave him   47             about what needed to be done around the yard. The work became part of his daily routine, but he didn’t spare any   48           on it.

Halfway through the   49                , the $1 and $5 bills began to pile up in Jack’s drawer. About this time he came to me for   50       work. He figured out if he worked extra, he might be able to buy a 51             by the end of the summer. Surprised and happy, I thought of another task for him. 52               August heat, he worked happily with his goal in his mind.

One day I went out to inspect his   53            and praised him for the nice job he was doing-- the messy old farmhouse turned into a beautiful view at the   54             of Jack.

“Yeah, this place is starting to look good.” He said   55              , as sweat dripped from his dirty face. A few minutes later, he said to himself, “I wonder what it   56               like to win the lottery (彩票).”

It’s not   57               him to be dreaming of winning the lottery. For a minute I worried that his   58             had changed. But my worry was gone.

“I bet it doesn’t feel that good,” he answered himself, “because you wouldn’t have   59              it.”

Hearing this, I came to realize something unexpected   60                happen——Jack’s work had given him something much more precious than that new drum, something more valuable than a jackpot (大奖).

Albert Einstein，who was born in Germany in 1879，is known as one of the greatest scientists in the world．When he was a little boy，he was slow to talk and had____  (1)  ____learning to read．He always preferred staying alone and thinking____  (2)  ____．

    At the age of 20，Einstein studied at the Swiss Federal University of Technology in Zurich．Once Einstein asked his____  (3)  ____，“How can a person，____  (4)  ____me，leave his distinct footprints on the road of life and make an outstanding____  (5)  ____in the scientific field?”It was a____  (6)  ____problem．The tutor said that he had to____  (7)  ____it carefully and then gave him an answer．

    After three days，the tutor told Einstein that the____  (8)  ____was coming!He____  (9)  ____Einstein to walk toward a building site and set foot on the cement(水泥)ground that the construction workers had just paved．In the workers’ scolding，Einstein was____  (10)  ____to ask his tutor，“Sir，aren’t you misleading me?”

    “Right，exactly!”the tutor said．“Have you seen it?Only on the____  (11)  ____paved road can you leave your footprints，while you can’t____  (12)  ____your footprints on those old roads that have been stepped by countless____  (13)  ____．”

    After hearing what he said，Einstein was lost in deep thought and an open and clear way____  (14)  _____in his mind．Since then，a very____  (15)  ____sense of innovation(革新)and pioneering consciousness began____  (16)  ____Einstein’s thinking and action．He said：“I never____  (17)  ____what dictionaries and textbooks carry；My mind only remembers those things that are not____  (18)  ____in books．”It was for such a reason____  (19)  ____Einstein left his deep sparkling footprints in the history of____  (20)  ____．

A cute white cat peeks out of a hole with only its head visible. A long­eared rabbit licks its lips while __41__ up at a carrot. A blue stream __42__ out of a dense forest.

These aren’t __43__ scenes in a natural park. Instead, they’re paintings in tree __44__ on a road in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. Hundreds of people are __45__ the artistic road to take photos of the __46__ paintings, inadvertently __47__ traffic jams.

The __48__ of these eye­catching paintings is Wang Yue, 23, a senior majoring in visual communication design at Dalian Polytechnic University. Wang __49__ her tree hole paintings as “a beautiful journey” through which she adds __50__ and vitality to her hometown.

“When I __51__ that the trees by the roadside had __52__ all their leaves, the ugly tree holes became obvious，”she said.

“I thought if I could paint some __53__ scenes in these holes, they might add some __54__ to the city.”

But Wang was __55__ that the pigments (颜料) in her watercolors could hurt the trees. After __56__ environmental specialists and getting permission from city officials, Wang gathered her color palette, brushes and a stool and got to __57__.

“Painting on a tree hole is not as easy as painting on a canvas. I had to take into consideration the __58__ and sizes of the tree holes and adjust my designs accordingly，”she said. “Before I began, I also had to clean off the __59__ from the tree holes first.”

With her simple tools, Wang can draw __60__ for a whole day. “My first painting was of rosy clouds, but many passers­by couldn’t understand it. Perhaps it was too abstract.”

After that, she began to paint animals. Using her paintbrush she creatively placed a raccoon, a squirrel and a cat in the holes.

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were the first people to climb the West Face of the SiulaGrande in the Andes mountains. They reached the top ___  (1)  ____, but on their wayback conditions were very ____  (2)  ___. Joe fell and broke his leg. They both knew that if Simon _43_

 alone, he would probably get back ____44___. But Simon decided to risk his ____45___ and try to lower Joe down the mountain on a

rope.

As they ___46____ down, the weather got worse. Then another ___47____ occurred. They couldn’t see or hear each other and, _48__,

Simon lowered his friend over the edge of a precipice（峭壁）. It was ____49___ for Joe to climb back or for Simon to pull him up.

Joe’s ____50___ was pulling Simon slowly towards the precipice. ___51__, after more than an hour in the dark and the icy cold, Simon had to ___52____. In tears, he cut the rope. Joe ____53___ into a large crevasse（裂缝）in the ice below. He had no food or water and he was in terrible pain. He couldn’t walk, but he ____54___ to get out of the crevasse and started to ___55____ towards their camp, nearly ten kilometers ____56___.

Simon had ____57___ the camp at the foot of the mountain. He thought that Joe must be ___58____, but he didn’t want to leave _59_. Three days later, in the middle of the night, he heard Joe’s voice. He couldn’t _  (3)  _ it. Joe was there, a few meters from their tent,

still alive.

It was the end of my first day as waitress in a busy New York restaurant. My cap had gone away，and my feet were _41___.The loaded plates I carried __42__ to be heavier and heavier. Tired and discouraged，I wasn’t able to do anything _43___.As I made out a check for a family with several children who had changed their ice-­cream __44__ a dozen times，I was ready to stop. Then the father __45__ at me as he handed me my tip. “Well done，”he said，“you’ve __46__ us really well.” Suddenly my tiredness __47__.I smiled back，and later，when the __48__ asked me how I’d like my first day，I said，“Fun！” Those few words of praise had _49___ everything. Praise is like __50__ to the human spirit；we cannot grow without it. And __51__，while most of us are only too __52__ to apply to others the cold wind of criticism，we are _53__ to give our fellows the warm sunshine of praise. Why—when one word of praise can bring such _54___？

It is strange how chary(吝啬的) we are about praising. Perhaps it’s __55__ few of us know how to accept it. It’s __56__ rewarding to give praise in areas in which _57__ generally goes unnoticed or unmentioned. An artist gets admired for a glorious picture，a cook for a _58___ meal. But do you ever tell your laundry manager how pleased you are when the shirts are __59__ just right？In fact，to give praise __60__ the giver nothing but a moment’s thought and a moment’s effort.

 I used to live selfishly, I should admit.. But one moment changed me. 

 I was on my lunch break and had __41__the office to get something to eat. On the way, I __42__a Busker (街头艺人)，with a hat in front of him.  I had some __43__ in my pocket, but I would not give them to him, thinking to myself he would __44__ use the money to feed his addiction to drugs or alcohol. He __45__ like that type –young and ragged. __46__ what was I going to spend the money on? Only to feed my addiction to Coca-Cola or chocolate! I then __47__ I had no right to place myself above __48__ just because he was busking.

 I __49__ and dropped all the coins into his __50__, and he smiled at me. I watched for a while. As __51__ as it sounds, I expected something more to come from that moment—a feeling of __52__ or satisfaction, for example. But nothing happened. __53__, I walked off. “It proved to be a waste of __54__,” I thought.

On my way home at the end of the __55__, I saw the busker again and he was __56__. I watched him pick up the hat and walk __57__ a café counter. There he poured the __58__ contents into a tin collenting__59__ an  earthquake fund-raising(募捐) event. He was busking for charity!

Now I donate any __60__ I have to charity tins and enjoy the feeling of giving.

I was at the funeral of my mother. She   (1)   had lost her long battle with cancer. I could felt the   (2)   from time to time. It was I, her 27-year-old child, who   (3)   her from the start to the end, because my brother    (4)   his childhood sweetheart and they were soon   (5)   with their newly-born baby. I counted it a(an)   (6)   to be able to spend my time with my dearest mom.

I was deep in   (7)  . My brother sat next to me,   (8)   his wife’s hand. I looked at the empty seat on my left, _  (9)   had been the place for my mother on Sundays.   (10)   she was with God, my work was finished. As the funeral started, a door opened at the back of the   (11)  . A young man looked around   (12)   and took the seat on my left. I saw  (13)   in his eyes.

While listening to the memorial speech, he asked, “   (14)   do they keep calling Mary by the name of ‘Margaret’?” “Because that was my mother’s name,” I   (15)  . “No, her name was Mary. She was my aunt.” “I believe you’re at the wrong   (16)  , Sir.” I replied. The man’s mistake was   (17)   and I almost couldn’t help laughing. He laughed too. He had   (18)   his aunt’s funeral.

We dated and got married a year later at the same church. He arrived right   (19)  . Whenever people ask how we met, Rick tells them, “Her mother Margaret and my Aunt Mary   (20)   us in heaven.”

Everyone in the extended family was cut upby the news that Mr. Strict suddenly died of stroke. The funeral was      (1)       for the next day.

We       (2)    in the living room to tell stories, sharing memories of him. We surprisingly found that almost everyone was scolded by him because of our       (3)      remarks or behaviors. However, most people didn’t know that he had worked for thirty years in the community to help the homeless children, or that       (4)       he really didn’t care much for fashion, he loved watching the trendiest fashion shows just because his daughter loved     (5)       He was       (6)      as “Mr. Strict” after I, his youngest grandson, was severely punished by him because I destroyed our neighbor’s lawn. I was not allowed to play with my friends afterwards. I began to tell them how strict my grandfather was, and then I addressed him the      (7)       nickname.

After a while, the conversation turned from       (8)       the memories about my grandpa to stories of how he changed and        (9)      the lives of the younger generation.

My grandpa had lived a life that       (10)        the young and old,        (11)         When you stayed with him, you became a different person, a        (12)       and reformed person. Amazingly, he was        (13)         in doing it. He knew how to show the things that really        (14)        in the life. He always seemed to know how to influence people and to accept them “as it is”. His grandchildren always showed        (15)       acceptance of them, no matter        (16)         

Some things have to be seen to be understood, such as love, forgiveness and        (17)       He had always shown total       (18)          to the family and friends – to people.

The next day grandpa was        (19)       the topic. We were overwhelmed with grief .We buried the body, but fortunately we knew he would live here, present and       (20)        He is always here, giving and loving.