The trip to that city was eye-opening for everyone, and near its end, all the young people in our group began to reflect on what it had meant． We   41  the first night we had arrived． We had all gone into the markets of the city   42  the young people could experience its energy． But what we actually saw simply   43  us all --- the rundown houses, the children in rags, the people begging for money… Walking home,   44  under a low bridge, we came across   45  families of homeless people seeking a bit of dry ground to sleep on   46  the night． We had to step over bodies as we found our way through the darkness．
The poverty was   47  than anything my young companions had ever imagined． Back in the hotel, an air of sadness settled over the group． Many   48  and cried． Spending time in this   49  moves a person to care about humanity．
That evening, our group spent hours talking about what we had   50 ． Gently, I encouraged everyone to talk about the difficult   51  that day’s discoveries had inspired． Sitting together   52  a circle as everyone had a chance to speak, we all began to realize that  53  of us was alone in our struggle to cope with our reactions．
Based on my   54  in poverty-stricken areas, I suggested that   55  the emotions we had were painful, they could also be important in helping us to move forward． We all   56  that we had seen things that should never be allowed to happen．   57  , what could we do about it? Together, we began to brainstorm ways we could help to ease the   58  we had seen． As I encouraged group members to focus on   59  they could do, a sense of determination  60  the previous sadness． Instead of despair, these young people began to feel a call to action．

When I was a child, I had an old neighbour named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any other doctor I’ve ever known. He never  11__ at us for playing in his yard. I remembered him as a kind and  _12_ person
When Dr. Gibbs didn’t work, he planted trees. His house covered an area of ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it _ 13_ .
He had some interesting _ 14 _ concerning planting. He belonged to the “No pains, no gains”  __15  of plant growing. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked  _16__, he said, “Watering plants will spoil them, and if you water them, each successive tree_ 17_ will grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things 18__for them and weed out the weak ones.” So he never watered his trees. He would _19__a pine, and instead of _20__it every morning, he beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. I __21__ him why he did so, and he said it was to get the tree’s _22__.
I planted a couple of trees a few _23__ ago. I carried water to them for a solid summer, sprayed them and prayed over them. Two years of careful tending has _24__ in trees that expect to be _25__ to hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blows in, they tremble their branches.
Dr. Gibbs passed away a _26__of years after I left home. Now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees. They’re _27__ now, big and healthy.
Funny things about Dr. Gibbs’ trees. Hardship and difficulty seemed to benefit them _28__
comfort and ease never could.
Life is tough, whether we want 29_ to be or not. Too many times we pray for ease, but that’s a prayer seldom met. What we need to do is to pray for 30_ that reach deep into the earth, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won’t be swept away.

Mickey was a nice, cheerful, optimistic boy. No one could remember ever having seen him 36;it seemed he didn’t 37 whatever people said to him. Even his teachers admired his good 38. It was so unusual that a story was going around that Mickey’s 39 must be due to some special secret. They asked Mickey so much that, one afternoon, he 40 his favorite teacher, Mr. Anthony, to tea. When they had finished, Mickey 41 Mr. Anthony around the house. When Mickey opened his bedroom door, the teacher 42 . The huge wall was a unique collage (拼貼畫) of thousands of colors and shapes! It was the loveliest 43 Mr. Anthony had ever seen.
“Some people at school think I 44 think badly of anyone,” Mickey started to explain, “and that 45 at all bothers me, but that’s not true at all. I’m just like anyone else. I used to get angrier than all the other kids. 46 years ago, with the help of my parents, I started a small collage. With every little piece I stuck on I added some bad thought or act.”
It was 47. The teacher looked closely at the wall. In each one of the small 48 he could read, “fool”, “silly”, “pain”, “bore”, and a thousand other 49 things.
“This is how I started 50 all my bad times into an opportunity to 51 to my collage. Now I like the collage so much that, each time someone makes me angry, I couldn’t be 52 . They’ve given me a new piece for my work of 53 .”
That day, the teacher was impressed by Mickey’s secret to having an optimistic character. Without telling anyone, on that very day, Mr. Anthony 54 his own collage. He would often 55 it to his students. Years later, each house contained its own beautiful works of art, made by those cheerful and optimistic children.

The story of the touchstone(探金石) tells of a man who was told that if he could find the touchstone, its magical powers could give him anything he wanted. It could be found, he was 31 , among the pebbles (卵石) of a beach. All he need to do is  32  a stone.If it feels warm, the magical touchstone is 33 .
The man rushed to the beach without delay. When he  34 a pebble that felt cold, he threw it into the sea. He  35 this practice for weeks. Each pebble felt cold, and each pebble was  36 thrown into the sea..
But one morning, he  37 to take hold of a pebble that felt  38 , unlike the other stones. The man, who had  39 noticed the difference, threw it into the sea. He hadn’t  40 to, but he had formed a habit that can be  41 to break.
Any behavior one   42 is strengthened. Repeated often enough, it becomes a(n)  43 . A Spanish proverb says, “Habits are first cobwebs (蜘蛛網(wǎng)), then cables (鋼索).” It works well for  44 habits that first trap us like a cobweb. And if we continue the behavior, the  45 grows stronger and can be as difficult to break as a steel cable.  46 some habits can work in our  47 , such as patterns of our lives, positive attitudes and healthy ways of thinking. We form our habits, then our habits form us  48  .
When it  49 habits, practice may not make perfect. But practice will certainly make permanent. So form the habits you want and let them 50  you into the person you want to be.

Dad loved children. And he always wanted a  1  family. Eventually, he got what he wanted with twelve children in the family. Without fail, he would show us all to visitors.
Once, Dad   2  presented the first three children in the family, Ann, Mary and Ernestine, to some visitors. Then he picked up a fourth child, and said, “And this is our  3  model, complete with all the improvements. And don’t think that this is all, we are   4   the 1953 model some time next month.”
But what he   5   most was taking us out for a drive. On one occasion a man in a village we were passing through shouted   6  that he had seen eleven people in our car, not  7 Mum and Dad.   8  , Dad called out over his shoulder, “You   9  the second baby up from the front here, Mister.”
Another time, Dad told us this joke, though we were not sure whether he was telling us the 10. Mum, who was a psychologist, once went to give a lecture and left Dad in charge of the  11 . When Mum returned, she asked him if everything had been OK. He said everything was 12  except that one of the children had been taught a lesson because he had been  13 . When he pointed at the child that had been  14  Mum looked at him calmly and said, “That’s not one of ours, dear. He  15  next door.”

I live in a big city with a lot of homeless(無家可歸的) people. Luckily there’re small ways of helping them and you needn’t have a lot of   31 . One way to help is to buy their monthly magazine. By doing this one day, I got to   32  a young homeless man. He was often   33  the magazine at the train station.
He was a poor farmer from another country. After a while, I discovered that his   34  was close to mine. It   35__ that we were born in the same month.
I met him last year shortly   36  his birthday, and after congratulating(祝賀) him, without thinking, I asked if he had had a good day. He   37  and said that he hadn’t really celebrated(慶祝). I felt so   38__.
I just couldn’t help(情不自禁) thinking of this nice, young man being    39  on his 25th birthday with no presents, no cake, nothing! So I went home and looked in my yarn(毛線) basket.   40  for me, I had enough yarn left. I set to work and knitted(編織) a   41  for the young man. The yarn had become a little dirty   42  I didn’t knit very often. Then I washed the yarn so the scarf(圍巾) would be clean when he got it.
I met him on my own birthday as I was going shopping. I had   43  to meet him so I had carried the scarf and a piece of my own birthday   44  around with me. He was very happy with these gifts and so was I. The   45  in his eyes was the best present he could have given me!

One dark stormy night, an elderly couple hurried into a hotel and asked whether they could be put up for the night. “I’ m very   31   ,” the clerk(職員) on night shift（值晚班） said politely, “we are all    32 tonight. But you could stay in my room if you don’t    33 . As I’m on duty, I’ll be staying up in the office anyway,” The young man gave the    34 _ advice.
The elderly couple    35  his offer with gratitude(感激). They    36  for the inconvenience(不便) they had caused him. The next day, the rain stopped and it cleared up. When the old gentleman went to pay his   37 , the clerk behind the counter was that same helpful young man. “The room you and your wife stayed in is not a proper guest room in this hotel,  38  you don’t need to pay,” said the clerk, with the same friendly smile.
The old gentleman nodded in    39 , “You are an employee that every boss in the hotel business would    40 . Perhaps   41  I’ll build a hotel for you. ” The clerk was surprised but, deciding that the guest must have been joking, he gave the words no more    42 .
Two years later, the young man received a registered letter(掛號(hào)信) from the old gentleman, in which he   43 the experience of that dark stormy night. The letter also enclosed（附上） a formal    44  and a round-trip air ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay a visit.
At a street comer in Manhattan, the young man met his   45  guest. The old gentleman, pointing to a beautiful new    46  towering over(聳立) the crossroads, said, “Look, that is the hotel I    47 to build for you. I hope you will manage it for me. Remember what I said then? Well, I was serious about it.”
“But…will there be any conditions, sir? Why do you choose me? And who are you?”
“My name is William Aster. There’s not any condition.   48  I told you before, you are the best employee…!”
This building was    49 the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Starting business in 1931, this hotel has been a symbol of honor in the city of New York. The young man who became its first    50  was George Boldt, the man who turned Waldorf into one of the best hotels in the world.

I ran into a stranger as he passed by. “I’m so sorry!” was my reply. Then he said, “Excuse me too. I wasn’t   36  watching for you.” We were very polite, this stranger and I. Then we went   37  our way after saying goodbye.
But at     38   , a different story is told. How we treat our loved ones, young and old. Later in the kitchen, as I    39   the meal, my daughter walked up to me, very still. When I turned, I    40   knocked her down. “Get out of the way!” I shouted with a frown (皺眉). She stepped away silently, with her little heart    41  . I didn’t realize how rudely I had spoken.
That night, when I lay    42   in bed, God’s quiet voice spoke to me and said, “While    43   with a stranger, you are calm and polite, but with those you love, you are quick to excite.  Go to look around on the kitchen floor, you’ll find some flowers there by the    44   . Those are the flowers she brought for you. She    45    them herself — pink, yellow, and your favorite blue. She stood there quietly and you never saw the    46    in her eyes.”
By this time, I felt sad and small and now my own tears began to fall. I quietly went and knelt (跪) by her    47   . “Wake up, my dear,” I said. “Are these the flowers you picked up for me?” She smiled, “I found them out by the tree, I    48      them in a napkin（紙巾）, just for you. I knew you’d like them, especially the     49   .” I said, “I am so sorry that I missed them today. And I    50   have fussed (大驚小怪) at you that way. ”
And she whispered, “Mommy, that’s OK… I still love you     51   .” I hugged her and said, “I love you, too and I love the flowers.”
Do you know that: if you die tomorrow, the    52   you are working for could easily replace you in a matter of days. But the family you leave    53  will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into our    54   than into our families--- an unwise investment (投資) indeed.
Remember that   55  =" (F)ATHER" + (A)ND + (M)OTHER + (I ) + (L)OVE + (Y)OU.

One spring afternoon five years ago, Jimmy Liao was crying in the hall of Taipei’s Sherwood Hotel. Life seemed   36 . The people who laughed as they walked past were taking their   37  for granted, just as he   38  himself. Now, however, he felt   39  －and he couldn’t even show his disappointment in his   40 .
Seeking more personally satisfying   41 , he had just left a successful job as a commercial artist when it seemed that fate （命運(yùn)）played a cruel   42  on him. It was at this time that he developed cancer and was   43  to work. But that moment in the hotel was a turning point for Jimmy . He began to   44  the fact that there is no such a thing as fate, only   45 . Since then, he has published several imaginative, illustrated （帶插圖的）books.
According to Jimmy, you are   46  you choose to be. You can give up or you can work to be a happier person. Jimmy realized that, while the world   47  seems unfair, your choice can change your life.
This idea can be   48  in Jimmy’s books, where his characters show the powerlessness they feel   49  making their choices. The message that goes with Jimmy’s drawings, however, is   50  . Though the world may make us feel small, we must be   51 . Everything will be all right for us －as it is for the “small people”in Jimmy’s books－if we make choices that are   52   for us.
In spite of his new   53  and wealth, Jimmy prefers working   54  at home with his wife and daughter. He spends his mornings drawing. To Jimmy, living a life as he chooses means much more than money and fame could   55  .

In fact, everyone has an angel（天使）protecting himself forever.
If this   36  feels that your life is full of   37  and you always feel terribly sad. She would   38  someone else beside you. Maybe it’s a friend of you, or your lover,      39  a net-friend you have never met or a  40  you just met only once. These persons quietly __ 41  in your life, accompany (陪伴) you with a happy time and   42  he could leave silently. And thus your life is full of happy   43 . Even the future path is covered with storm or snow,   44  remembering those happy stories he  45 to you, you can still be brave.
For those   46  have left you without any   47 ,   48 they are angels returning to the heaven. For example, your lost friends, the strangers who ever gave you help, those separated but   49  love you, those artists who used to sing good songs to you, the good writer and etc.., they are all   50  angels.
Perhaps sometimes you   51  feel sad or lost because of their   52  , and would look for them everywhere to   53  where they’re going. But in the end, you’ll be certain that they stay in   54  place of this world with a peaceful and thankful life.   55 , all the feelings of loss and sadness will no longer exist since time has been the greatest therapist(理療師).