完形填空While taking a 20-hour train ride along the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in northwestern China, I had the kind of humbling, educational, and above all else, wonderful1 with a local that all travelers long for. A young Chinese man 2 me on the train. My3 friend spoke virtually no English, so I happily took the4 to practice my Chinese.
Over several hours he would tell me about how he had5 a two-year professional school to quickly find a job 6 highways in order to help support his family. Perhaps most7 .however, was the fact that this man spent hours studying every day after hard physical labor. Without batting an eye he would8 a translated Emerson passage before asking about the literary influence of American9 as a whole. "And what do you all learn about Russian authors?" I10 hi m asking at one point.
It would have been easy to11 my assumptions about this highway builder who had never been more than a few hundred miles from home. But this highly informed,12 , and admirable person prevented me doing so. In the course of a couple of hours, he13 me just how much one can gain from14 with an open mind, and a willingness to15 with locals from all walks of life.
