There is a workman in America who earns as much as a company director. He is Max Quarterman, a thirty-year-old plasterer (泥瓦匠).

    Max lives in an upper middle-class housing estate. His 1 are mostly bank managers, business executives, airline pilots and the 2, but Max's seven-bedroom house — 3 $ 80,000 — is the largest in the area. 4 outside the house are Max's $ 7000 sports car and his wife's Morris Mini. Indoors is a 150 colour TV set and the family's 5 — a circular bath with gold-plated taps. There are also many labour－saving 6 and luxury furniture.

    How can a plasterer 7 all this? The answer, says Max, is hard work. In 8 with another plasterer, Max 9 contract plastering jobs for a firm. The owner of the firm 10 them as human machines, the best and quickest in the 11, who can do as much in two days as 12 two-man team can in two weeks.

    How do they manage it? Not by working overtime. They work a(n) 13 eight-hour day, five days a week. The secret 14 in Max's hod (桶) in which he carries the plaster to the site of the job. Max's is a superhod — it contains double the usual 15 of plaster, and Max, a strong fellow, runs when he carries it. More time is thus 16 to get on with the plastering. Besides, 17 man wastes time smoking, and they 18 their lunch break to a 19 of an hour a day. Now Max earns over $ 800 a week which is four times the average weekly pay in Britain today, and if he gets as 20 as $ 15, it's a disaster.

    Once a boy really had everything he wanted, so he was 1 interested in the rarest (最稀有的) objects. One day he 2 a mysterious（神秘的） mirror and took it home. When he looked into the mirror, he found that his 3 looked very sad. He tried 4 ， but it remained the same.

    Surprised, the boy went off to buy some sweets. He went home and looked into the mirror as happily as possible, 5 he still looked sad. He bought all kinds of toys, but he looked forever6 in that mirror. So the boy put the mirror away in a 7.

    “What a(n) 8 mirror! I've never seen a mirror that didn't 9 properly！”

    That same afternoon he went out to play, but on his10 to the park he saw a little girl crying loudly. So he went over to see what was happening. The little girl told him that she had 11her parents.

    Together, they 12 in search of them. As the little girl continued crying, the boy 13 his money in buying sweets to cheer her up. 14 ， after walking for a long time, they found her parents, who looked very worried.

    The boy said goodbye, and walked off towards the park. However,15the time, he decided to turn around and head16 home, as he had no time to 17.At home, he went to his room and noticed a shining 18 in the corner where he had left the mirror. Seeing this, he went over to the mirror and 19 that the light was coming from his own body, because he was so happy about having helped that little girl.

    So he understood the mystery of that mirror, the only mirror reflecting（反映） faithfully（诚心诚意地） the 20 joy of its owner.

    At the age of 60, my father was hit by a car when he walked to a nearby supermarket to buy vegetables. After 1 for two months in hospital, he finally woke up. His waking up 2all our family. 3, he didn't know any of us. Doctors said his brain was hurt so 4 that he had lost all his memory. And his mental age(心理年龄) was only five. We were sorry to hear about the bad news.

    Since I was his only child, it was my 5 to look after him. He forgot6 everything, but he did remember he liked sweets. I used the sweets as a way of 7 bad behaviors. I would gave him one sweet 8he didn't sit on the ground, a second for stopping painting on the wall, and another for not trying to put clothes on the dog.

Dad became the 9 child in town. He climbed up the tree to catch a bird and couldn't get down after it 10 away. He broke my window with a ball and 11 our telephone in water like washing clothes. When I told him he was doing 12 things, he would answer smilingly, "I like that!" My son, then aged five, and two eight-year-old daughters, welcomed their 13 playmate. He would happily make them real cigarettes, 14 his sweets with them, and carry them high in the apple tree to15 apples.

    It is eight years since the 16. Dad has accepted the fact that he is the 17 of his three playmates but not a brother. He has also accepted that they grow taller but his 18 stays the same. Though it is still 19 to take care of him, he brings us a lot of fun. In some way I think it is a(n) 20 thing to look after dad like looking after a child. How many people can have the chance to care for a child-like parent?

    Experts say boredom is good for kids. It forces them to be creative, 1their imaginations and helps them discover new things. A (n)2in point is 13-year-old Luke Thill from Dubuque, Iowa.

    Luke was3of playing video games and riding his bike, so he decided to build a tiny house in his backyard instead. He made money from cutting lawns(草坪)and4exchanged some services, such as gaining the help of an electrical engineer5sweeping his garage. Luke also6spare materials from his grandmother's house and other7materials from his neighbors for some of the windows and the door.

    The 89-square—foot home cost $1,500 to build and 818 months. Inside there's a kitchenette, a back sitting room, a table and a mounted(镶嵌的)TV, and an upstairs bedroom can be easily9by stairway.

    Although Luke did the10and learned how to do all the work, he had his father's11throughout the project. Greg Thill was very happy that his son learned to stay on12and deal with grown-ups.13 ， he had some simple rules when Luke14the house: “You 15the money. You build it. And you own it."

    Luke is now in love with 16. He has a YouTube channel and hopes to 17other kids to start building.18, he wants to build a bigger tiny house to live in, but for now, he19in his new home a few nights a week, does homework there, and uses it to take a20from his twin brother.

Failing Successfully

    Two years ago I took part in a speech competition. It was a hard time for me when the judge1 the winners. At last, the moment of truth came. I got the worst.2  not being placed in the competition, I really wanted to 3  again. I realized that finding the right topic was the most important part of the whole 4 . It needs to be motivational and inspirational to the 5 . So I reworked my speech for the following year,6  a different topic and spending countless hours 7  the speech, line by line, word by word to make it 8 better.

The next year I participated in the 9  again. As was expected, my speech 10 down well and I was hoping to do that a bit better this year.11 , my wish didn't come true. The competition was so fierce that again I didn't 12 it.

    I was deeply disappointed, since I couldn't accept the fact that I had 13  twice in something that I had worked so hard on. However, I knew that losing is 14  and part of life. One of the judges said to me that my speech was quite good,15  it needed to be better if I wanted to go any further. He advised me to struggle to16 something like some of the empty gestures. He said that I would surely succeed some day.

    While I didn't earn 17 in the competition, I did gain a new viewpoint. I discovered that I could fail successfully. I think I'll 18  to work hard and enter the next competition. Now, whenever I'm faced with a defeat, I 19  myself of what a famous person said, "The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way, but I recovered and said to myself that it's a slip and not a20 ."

    Chris is a columnist (专栏作家) at citypages.com whose life turned upside down in 2017. Chris was willing to share his story but his own print deadlines made it a(n) 1  task for this time. In 2017 Chris found out his 2  condition left much to be desired and that he needed a kidney transplant (移植). Any person would have been lost in such a situation but Chris tuned to the place where he felt most comfortable——Twitter.

    The whole operation thing takes lots of efforts on a donor's (捐赠者) side and Chris continued 3  all the details on his blog and Facebook account. In the meantime, he was 4  a tiresome process of hemodialysis (血液透析) 5 waste and water removal from his blood and it generally takes 4 hours.

    6 , 19 people replied to Chris's tweet (推特信息)! They were his lawyers or just people he met at some party months ago and even complete 7 . None of them was his family, relative or Just a 8  friend. Just imagine all these people accepting medical checks, 9  their blood types and stuff of the kind to make a great 10 to a person they hardly knew! One person 11  ideally­­­Scott. Strangely enough Scott and Chris never met in person before the 12 and really saw each other for the first time on a thanksgiving evening. Both men felt that it was somewhat easier for them to let their communication flow on Social Media 13 a certain point of time. Scott sent Chris a 14 tweet even after the successful operation. When seeing Scott for the first time on a family dinner Chris couldn't say all he wanted at first and his writing talent 15 at one time.

    Social Media 16 worked! Chris has a healthy kidney now thanks to Scott, Twitter, Facebook, and the inventor of the web. For some people, 17 networks are pure evil or just time consuming black holes, but Social Media was once a 18  for Chris. It isn't just a place where people 19 their time on lonely evenings. For some of us it is also one of few paths that can lead to a certain kind of 20 .