The professor's house，big and untidy，stood alone at one end of a huge garden. The place was totally uncared for, quite 1 and overgrown with all sorts of useless things. I2my way through bushes and tall weeds to the front door and rang the bell.

    I was glad that I had found him. In twenty minutes, he 3 me right on all the 4 that had puzzled me. I was on the 5 of leaving when I looked out of his study window and said, “You're very fond of gardening, I see.”

    “No, I'm not,” he said. “ 6, I love this garden, though. It's 7 I always wanted it to be. I never touch it at all.”

    “It could be made lovely. It 8 a pity to let all this ground go to waste. But perhaps you don't 9 that way?” said I.

    “I don't. I lived here when I was a child, and I had 10 of gardening then. It was my father's hobby，you see. Unfortunately, he wasn't 11 enough to do it himself. My brother and I did all of it between us year after year. There was one right way and many wrong ways. Each blade (叶片) of grass was an enemy to be 12 by hand, not just cut off. I've spent a good part of life at work here.”

    “I see. You took a dislike to it, and now you're getting even!”

    “I dislike it. Then, of course, I didn't understand the 13 it had. It used to 14 me. It appeared in my dreams—a mistake here, something not quite straight here, the enemy showing its head in a place I was 15 to have cleaned. The work was too much. It seemed endless. The size of the place was itself a fight to a boy.”

    “And now it's yours，you're just letting it go to...”

    “16?” he said. “No，I don't agree with that. This garden and I are now the best friends. I like17 it grow18 its own way. I make no demands on it. I never disturb it, and it never disturbs me. It has19at last, and so have I.”

    “But the path is over grown. It's inconvenient for you，isn't it?”

    “That's part of my20” he laughed. “You can go out the back way. The weeds are shorter there because they don't get the sun.”

    I remember arriving at my college accommodation for the first time. I 1my things, and then sat on the bed and burst into2.This 3 for a year. The lectures and exams were both filled4sorrow. I had a terrible 5 that I must be doing something6since everyone else seemed to be happy.

    It was my mum who finally gave me the7to leave. I was home for the weekend and we were talking about how much 8I was putting on myself. Finally she 9said, "How about just not going back on Monday?" At the time, I didn't think of this as10. It felt like falling back into a11hole without a ladder.

    It was hard to climb out. My depression(沮丧) was far12 serious than anyone had ever thought. But I know now that my decision to leave school wasn't about13. It was about stepping back from the education 14wasn't right for me. And it was about moving forward by pushing  15depression.

    I can't say enough about how valuable stepping back was for me. After I left  16 I was ready to move forward. I 17my own company. Almost five18years have passed and my little company is doing well19 now I find myself with another choice to expand or to stay small for another year. I may step back20 but then I will move forward.

    Anna was very picky(挑剔的)about food. She never ate the wonderful pizzas or ice creams her mother made, which was her parents'1. She just ate other things. Anna was2 ， but her parents were both fat. Their likes were her dislikes. 3 ， everyone wondered who she had taken after…Anna's parents thought she was ill.

    One day, they went to see a4. He took them to a machine. Then he put a plate of fish in front of them, and5on the machine.

    It started playing sounds: waves'6sound and the songs of seabirds. After some time the doctor7the fish with fruit and vegetables. The sounds of the sea8 ， and there came the sounds of gentle wind, birdsong, and rain. All of them9the beautiful sounds of nature, but the doctor10the plate again, and this time it was a dish of meat. The machine started making lively sounds: the sound of11animals. Still quite pleasant. Then the doctor brought a strong smelling pizza. The machine seemed to 12down. Instead of beautiful sounds, out 13noisy sounds. The noise was so disturbing that the family had to ask the doctor to change the14of food. The doctor brought them ice creams, burgers, and candy…but they thought the sounds were still15. Finally Anna's parents16 the doctor to bring fruit back.

    "Anna isn't ill, "said the doctor. "She can understand each type of food's own17. It comes from where the food was born, raised, and18. Anna wants to eat the foods whose music is 19. That's why she's slim and healthy."

    These days, they all look slim, 20from then on, in the house pizzas, burgers, puddings, and ice creams were replaced by fruit, vegetables, and fish.

    What did your dinner sound like today?

    As a child, I was very shy. I wanted to be 1, but lacked confidence. When I discovered 2, I found something I was good at. I began to be 3by my friends and this gave me the desire to climb harder and higher 4. I discovered that nothing was impossible if I could find the 5to try.

    Both individual determination and teamwork are 6to success when climbing. You need to rely on the 7of your team and share in the achievement. But personal focus and determination to keep 8despite any difficulty is an important 9to team success.

    My greatest achievement in climbing is being the first ever to 10the 5,000-foot Troll Wall in Norway, whose rock face is the 11and most vertical(垂直) in Europe. A stone which drops from the summit will touch nothing until it 12on the valley floor one mile below.

    13our climb, the experts in Europe had said it was 14to climb the Troll Wall. But with three companions, I decided to 15. It took ten days to make the climb and we slept on ledges(岩石架) no more than a foot wide. But I 16.

    Afterwards, I said to myself, “17I can do that, I can do anything.” Some years later, I succeeded in climbing Mount Everest-the highest mountain in the world.

    18to me is not hanging on a rope on the side of a mountain, but is just one field where adventurous people can constantly 19themselves. If we look at every day as an adventure, we can challenge ourselves and continue to grow throughout our 20. That is the final adventure.

    The stage lights dimmed, and I took a quick look from behind the heavy black curtains into the audience. Blinded by the lights, I quickly 1. It seems that a great number of eyes were looking at me. I took a deep 2 as the music of my dance began to play. I entered the stage and began my 3, the graduation test of the classical Indian dance.

    After a decade of learning this art form, I had 4 been considered ready to take on the most difficult act. The test is the most important event in a dancer's life as it pays 5 to all the factors in one's life that 6 the dance form: one's culture and family.

    The performance is undertaken only by the most 7 and determined students. It is a difficult process that requires much 8. For more than six months, I spent two to three hours every day9 these dances. Many times, I 10 myself to my physical and mental breaking point, but still I would not stop. I could not give up. There was always so much more to do and so much more to 11.

    I 12 a lot about myself in those tiring hours. I learned that I was far too 13 to give up, and I was too proud to prove myself 14 after I had set an unrealistic goal. Even with physical pain and mental 15, I forced myself to meet my 16. Even when I was at the end of my 17, there was always something driving me on, forcing me not to give up.

    Fortunately, I made it. What I had done 18 the success. It was in those hours that I learned what a dancer 19 is. Those time was evidence that I could 20 something I set out to do.

Another person's enthusiasm was what set me moving toward the success I have achieved. That person was my stepmother.

I was nine years old when she entered our home in rural Virginia. My father1me to her with these words: "I would like you to meet the fellow who is2for being the worst boy in this county and will probably start throwing rocks at you no3 than tomorrow morning."

My stepmother walked over to me, 4my head slightly upward, and looked me right in the eye. Then she looked at my father and replied," You are5This is not the worst boy at all, 6the smartest one who hasn't yet found an outlet(释放的途径) for his enthusiasm."

That statement began a(n)7between us. No one had ever called me smart. My family and neighbors had built me up in my8as a bad boy. My stepmother changed all that.

She changed many things. She9my father to go to a dental school, from which he graduated with honors. She moved our family into the county seat, where my father's career could be more10and my brother and I could be better11.

When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand12and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I knew her enthusiasm, I13 it, and I saw how it had already improved our lives. I accepted her14 and began to write for local newspapers. I was doing the same kind of15that great day I went to interview Andrew Camegie and received the task which became my life's work later. I wasn't the16beneficiary(受益者). My father became the17 man in town. My brother and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer, and a college president.

What power18has! When that power is released to support the certainty of one's purpose and is19 strengthened by faith, it becomes an irresistible(不可抗拒的) force which poverty and temporary defeat can never20.

You can communicate that power to anyone who needs it. This is probably the greatest work you can do with your enthusiasm.