A man stopped at a gas station and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to 1 and he watched a couple of men 2 along the roadside.

    One man would dig a hole two or three feet 3 and then move on. 4man came along behind to fill in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet behind 5 in the old hole.

    The man with a soft drink was confused. "I can't stand this," said the man walking toward the men. "Stop it," he said to t e men. "Can you tell me what's 6 here?"

    "Well, we work for the county government," one of the men said.

    "But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling 7up. You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you 8 the county's money?"

    "You don't understand," one of the men said.

    "Normally (通常地) there are 9 of us: I Rodney and Mike. I dig the hole Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts earth 10."

    "Yeah," said Mike. "Today Rodney is sick. But that doesn't mean we can't work, does it?"

    Last Friday, after doing all the family shopping in the town, I wanted to have a rest before catching the train. I 1a newspaper and some chocolate and went into the station coffee shop. It was a cheap self-service place with long tables to sit at. I put my heavy bag down on the floor, put the newspaper and the chocolate on the 2 and then went to get a cup of coffee.

    When I came back with the coffee, there was someone 3 in the next seat. He was a boy, with dark glasses and old clothes, and colored bright red hair at the front. He had started to eat my chocolate!

    Naturally, I was uneasy about him, but I didn't want to have any 4. I just read the newspaper, tasted my coffee and took a bit of chocolate. The boy looked at me in anger. Then he took a 5 piece of my chocolate. I could hardly believe it. Still I didn't say 6 to him. When he took a third piece, I felt more 7 than uneasy. I thought, "Well, I shall have the last piece." And I got it.

    The boy gave me a strange look, and then stood up. As he left, he shouted out, "There's something wrong with that woman!" Everyone 8 me, but I didn't want to quarrel with the boy, so I kept quiet. I did not realize that I had made a mistake until I finished my coffee and was ready to 9. My face turned red when I saw my unopened chocolate under the newspaper. The chocolate that I had been eating was the 10!

    A teacher was giving a speech to his students on stress management. He held a glass of water and asked, "How 1 do you think this glass of water is?"

    The students' answers were from 20g to 500g.

    "It 2 how long you hold it. If you hold it for a minute, it is OK. If you hold it for an hour, you will 3 an ache in your arm. If you hold it for a day, your arm will become paralyzed (麻痹的). It is the same 4, but the longer you hold it, the heavier it will become," the teacher said. "What you should do is to put the glass down to 5 for a while before picking it up again."

    The students became silent, lost in thought.

    After a moment, the teacher 6, "The stresses and worries in life are like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit 7 and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel "paralyzed" and you 8 do anything."

    It's important to let go of your 9. You should put them down before going to sleep and wake up every day with a(n) 10 start.

    I did very1 at school. My headmaster thought I was simple and when I was 14, he said, "You are never going to be 2 but a failure."

    3 five years of low jobs, I fell in love with a very nice middle­class girl. It was the best 4 that could have happened to me. I decided I wanted 5 something positive with my life because I wanted to prove to 6 that what people said about me was 7, especially her mother, who had said to me, "You have 8 in everything you have ever done." So I 9 hard with my writing and went to college. My first novel came out while I was at college.

    After college I taught during the day in high schools and attended evening classes at London University. I became a lecturer at a college and was thinking of 10 that job to write full time at a university. I began to feel proud of myself.

    Now I am rich and famous. But what does it mean? I just wish all the people that have put me down had said, "I believe in you. You will succeed."