Long ago there lived a kind old man. One day while walking through the woods, the old man found a butterfly's cocoon(茧). He took {#blank#}1{#/blank#} home. A few days later, a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly {#blank#}2{#/blank#} several hours as it struggled(挣扎) to force its body through that little hole.

    Then the nice man decided {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (help) the butterfly, so he cut the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then came out {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (easy). But it had a fat body and small, shriveled(皱缩的) wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body {#blank#}5{#/blank#} would grow small in time. However, neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (lie) with a fat body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

    What the man did not understand was that the struggle was a must for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening. That's the {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (nature) way of forcing fluid(营养液) from the body of the butterfly into its wings.

    In this way, it would be ready for flight when it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly {#blank#}8{#/blank#} we need in our life. If we {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (allow) to go through our life without any {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (difficult), it will weaken us. We won't be strong as what we could have been. And we can never fly.

    From an early age, Parker always said that he would be an astronaut. But no matter {#blank#}1{#/blank#}much he studied, worked, and took tests, he never passed. Finally, he {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (grow) over the maximum(最高的) age for taking the test. He would never be able to realize his dream.

    People {#blank#}3{#/blank#} ( feel )sorry for his dream. Although he{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (tell) about having to give up his dream, Parker continued training and studying, as though he was going to sit the tests next month.

    He carried this on as he got {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (old), and when he was a very old man he heard that they were doing some very important medical experiments. For those experiments they needed {#blank#}6{#/blank#} very old astronaut. Parker, who now walked with a stick, was the only old man in the whole world who was trained to fly in a rocket.

    So Parker found {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(he) flying in space at last. The experiments were very {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (succeed). The knowledge from the experiments helped doctors to cure one of the {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(bad)sicknesses for old people, and Parker was celebrated as a hero. Photos of the astronaut with a walking stick and no{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (tooth) spread all over the world. It showed  that persistent effort always brings reward, even though that reward may not be in the form we had first expected.