One day I visited an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting. I was expecting a quiet 1 of the splendid artwork.

    A young 2 viewing the paintings ahead of me 3 nonstop between themselves. I watched them a moment and decided the lady was doing all the talking. I admired the man's 4 for putti ng up with her 5 stream of words. Disturbed by their noise, I moved 6.

    I met them several times as I moved 7 the various rooms of art. Each time I heard her continuous flow of words, I moved away   8.

    I was standing at the counter of the museum gift shop making a purchase 9 the couple approached the 10. Before they left, the man 11 into his pocket and pulled out a white object. He 12 it into a long stick and then 13 his way into the coatroom to get his wife's jacket.

“He's a 14 man.” The clerk at the counter said. “Most of us would give up if we were blinded at such a young age. During his recovery, he made a promise his life wouldn't change. So, as before, he and his wife come in 15 there is a new art show.”

     “But what does he get out of the art”. I asked “He can't see.”

“Can't see You're 16. He sees a lot, more than you and I do,” the clerk said, “His wife 17 each painting so he can see it in his head.”

    I learned something about patience, 18 and love that day. I saw the patience of a young wife describing paintings to a person without  19 and the courage of a husband who would not  20 blindness to change his life. And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away, their arms intertwined.

    When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my 1. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin; I wasn't a 2student; I talked too much; I was too3 , always feeling superior to（胜过）others, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. 4, I became very angry. I ran to my father with 5in my eyes.

    He6 to me quietly, and then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn't you ever 7what you're really like? Well, you now have that girl's8. Go and9a list of everything she said and mark the points that are10. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”

    I did11 he told me. To my great12, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn't 13 (like being very thin), but a good number I could – and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I went to a fairly 14picture of myself.

    I brought the list back to Daddy. He15to take it. “That's just for you,” he said. “You know16than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to17, not just close your ears in 18, feeling hurt when something said about you is true, you'll find it of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your affairs. Don't 19your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”

    Daddy's advice has always 20 me at many important moments. In my life, I've never had a better piece of advice.

    A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had loved a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well 1 it, he told him that was all he wanted.

    As 2 drew near, the young man expected 3 that his father had bought the car. Finally, on the morning of the special day, his father called him into his study. His father told him how 4 he was to have such a fine son, and how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped (包装好的) gift box. Curious, but a little bit5, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound (皮边的) Bible (圣经).

    Angrily, he raised his 6 to his father and said, “Is a Bible 7 you can give me with all your money?” He then stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

    Many years 8 and the young man was very successful in business, but 9 his father was very old, he thought perhaps he 10 go to see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. 11 he could make the arrangements , he received a telegram which 12 him of his father's death, and all the possessions (财产) left to him.

    13 arriving at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to 14 through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had 15 it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to 16. As he was reading, a car 17 dropped from the back of the Bible.

    How many times do we 18 blessings (祝福) because they are not wrapped as we expected? Do not spoil (搞糟) what you have by desiring (渴求) what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once 19 the things you hoped for. What may appear as bad fortune (运气) may 20 be the door that is just waiting to be opened.

    I used to believe in the American Dream, which meant a job, a mortgage (按揭), credit cards, and success. I wanted it and worked toward it like everyone else, all of us 1chasing the same thing.

    One year, through a series of unhappy events, it all fell2. I found myself homeless and3. I had my truck and $56. I4the countryside for some place I could rent for the5possible amount. I came upon a shabby house four miles up a winding mountain road over the Potomac River in West Virginia. It was6, full of broken glass and rubbish. I found the owner, rented it, and7 a corner to camp in.

    The locals knew nothing about me,8slowly, they started teaching me the 9of being a neighbor. They dropped off blankets, candles, and tools, and began sticking around to10. They started to teach me a belief in a11American Dream – not the one of individual achievement but of12.

What I had believed in, all those things I thought were13for a civilized life, were nonexistent in this place. Up on the14, my most valuable possessions were my 15with my neighbors.

    Four years later, I moved back into16. I saw many people were having a really hard time,17their jobs and homes. I managed to rent a big enough house to18a handful of people. There are four of us now in the house, but over time I've had nine people come in and move on to other places. We'd all be in19if we hadn't banded together.

    The American Dream I believe in now is a shared one. It's not so much about what I can get for myself; it's about20we can all survive together.

    It's about 250 miles from the hills of west-central lowa to Ehlers' home in Minnesota. During the long trip home, following a weekend of hunting, Ehlers 1about the small dog he had seen 2 alongside the road. He had 3 to coax（哄）the dog to him but, frightened, it had 4.

    Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that 5 dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove 6. After a long and careful 7. Greg saw, across a field, the dog moving 8 away. Ehlers eventually succeeded in coaxing the animal to him. Nervousness and fear were replaced with 9. It just started licking（舔）Ehlers' face.

    A local farmer told them the dog sounded like one 10 as lost in the local paper. The ad had a 11 number for a town in southern Michigan. Ehlers 12 the number of Jeff and Lisa to tell them he had 13 their dog.

    Jeff had 14 in lowa before Thanksgiving with his dog, Rosie, but the gun shots had scared the dog off. Jeff searched 15 for Rosie in the next four days.

    Ehlers returned to Minnesotan, and then drove 100 miles to Minneapolis to put Rosie on a flight to Michigan. “It's good to know there's still someone out there who  16 enough to go to that kind of 17," says Lisa of Ehlers' rescue 18.

    I figured whoever lost the dog was probably just as  19 to it as I am to my dogs,” says Ehlers. “If it had been my dog, I'd hope that somebody would be 20 to go that extra mile.”

    Ferdinand de Lesseps, once a French diplomat(外交官)，became 1 with the cultures of the Mediterranean(地中海)and Middle East and the growth of western European 2. But in 1849 he retired after a disagreement with the French government.

    In 1854,3his expectation, he returned to Egypt, 4 he was given a warm welcome and, soon afterwards, permission to begin work 5 the Suez Canal. De Lesseps had been 6 by reading about Napoleon's abandoned plans for a 7 that would allow large ships wishing to sail to the east to go8 from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, therefore 9 out the long sea journey around Africa.

    De Lesseps' plan was 10 by an International commission of engineers, but failed to win the support of the British government, 11 de Lesseps making a number of trips to London. He persevered and 12 attracted financial support from the French emperor Napoleon III and others.

    De Lesseps was no 13 ­ his achievement lay 14 organizing the necessary political and financial backing, and providing the technical support 15for such a huge project. 16 began in April 1859, and the Suez Canal was 17in November 1869. British attitudes changed when the canal was seen to be a 18and de Lesseps was treated as a great celebrity (名人) on his later visit to Britain. In 1875, the Egyptian government sold its 19, in the canal and the British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, 20effective control of the Canal Company.