Years of expectation this time has finally arrived, there were times when I thought we would never get here. I just graduated last week. The dream {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (plant) many years ago. I had always dreamed {#blank#}2{#/blank#} going back to school, but it was too {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (frighten) and too hard.

    Three years ago, I lost a dear friend of {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (I) in a car accident. All those  {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (think) of “someday” seemed to take on different meanings. Well, I decided  {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (take) a course, and then I took two. Finally, I took 4 classes, and at the {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (two) week of school, my family were in a terrible car accident. The three of us were barely passing after that time period. I had a broken arm and could not write. As my password, I {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (call) myself mountain climber. The journey was difficult and every hill seemed higher to climb. I suppose the thing {#blank#}9{#/blank#} pulled me through was when I couldn't do it for myself, I could do it to honor my friend!

    Last week, {#blank#}10{#/blank#} highlight（最精彩的部分）of my life was walking across that platform getting my degree six months before I turn fifty!

    One day, about ten years ago, while working at the cash register (收银机) in the gift shop at my University Museum of Natural History, I saw {#blank#}1{#/blank#} elderly couple come in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} a little girl in a wheelchair. As I looked closer at this girl, I found that she was {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (fix) on her chair. I then realized she had no arms {#blank#}4{#/blank#} legs, just a head, a neck and upper body, dressed in a little white skirt. As the couple wheeled her up to me, I turned my head toward the girl. When I took the money from her grandparents, I looked back at the girl, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} was giving me the most optimistic, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (large) smile I had ever seen. All of a sudden, her handicap (缺陷) was gone and all I saw was this beautiful girl, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} smile just melted me and almost immediately gave me a {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (complete) new sense of what life is all about. She took me from a poor, unhappy college student and {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (bring) me into her world; a world of smiles, love and {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (warm). I'm a successful business man now and whenever I think about the troubles, I think about that little girl and the remarkable lesson about life that she taught me.

    Qian Zhongshu was a Chinese scholar and writer, known for his wit and erudition(博学). Despite failing in mathematics, Qian {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (success) entered the Department of Foreign Languages under Tsinghua University in 1929 because of his {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (excellence) performance in Chinese and English languages. In Tsinghua, he met his wife Yang Jiang, who was to become a successful playwright and translator, and {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (marry) her in 1935. In the same year, Qian received government sponsorship {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (promote) his studies abroad. Together with his wife, Qian headed for the University of Oxford in Britain. After {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (spend) two years at Exeter College, he received a bachelor of literature. He studied for one more year in the University of Paris in France, and he didn't return to China {#blank#}6{#/blank#} 1938.

    Qian lived in Shanghai from 1941 to 1945, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} was then under Japanese occupation. At that time he devoted {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (he) to writing and many of his works were written or published then. A collection of short {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (essay), Writing in the Margins of Life, was published in 1941. His most celebrated work Fortress Besieged appeared in 1947. On the Art of Poetry, written {#blank#}10{#/blank#} classical Chinese was issued in 1948.