Recently, I felt like I reached a very low point in life. My relationships weren't good, I wasn't enjoying my classes, and I felt like I had nothing to1 My life seemed to be full of endless homework, tests and loneliness. Nothing anyone said seemed 2to me. I wasn't sure what to do about myself. All I wanted was to be happy again, but I didn't know who or what would 3 that.
During these days, I had trouble sleeping. I had to take sleeping pills but still woke up in the midnight. I had no4but to tell my dad. He 5 the book The Secret. I immediately bought the e-book online and read the whole thing that night. I'm 6 quite a stubborn person, but the effect on my mood after finishing the book was 7 Suddenly, I felt like life was beautiful again. I had never felt such a deep and quick8 in my life before.
In fact, the book's message was very simple—think positively(积极地). The book had many success stories about how people were able to 9money, soul mates(心灵伙伴)and old friends back into their lives. I started learning to thank everything in my life like them. Little by little, I realized that The Secret could only work10I believed these people's success stories.
Now I'm sure I can bring myself happiness.
I grew up in New Hampshire, a small town in South Canada, where in my father's words for the seasons were "Spring, Summer, Fairtime and Winter!" At that time, a week-long fair was held in the town every autumn. Thousands of people from other towns came to sell and buy things. It was the busiest time of the year.
When "Fairtime" came, my grandma became the most "useful" and busiest person of the family. Grandma was a kind, well-educated old lady. She was good at cooking. All her relatives liked the food she cooked. During "fairtime", they would come to live in her house and have meals there. Grandma was always happy to look after them.
Year after year, many people moved to big cities. There was no longer "Fairtime". Grandma became very old and was gradually going blind. My parents and I moved to live with Granma in her house. We did our best to make her day-to-day life as comfortable as possible. I was at high school then. What I often did at home was to help Grandma with the daily newspaper's crossword puzzle. However, she didn't look happy. She often sat in her room for hours, without saying a word.
To attract people to move back, the Town Hall decided to reopen the Fair. One day, when I came back, I saw Grandma wearing her glasses, washing the dishes in the kitchen. With a big smile on her face, she looked a lot much younger. She told me that her two nieces would come. "They said the food I cooked was very delicious and they want to stay in my house again. " Grandma said happily. "They will stay here for one week and we can have a big party. That must be the busiest week I've had in years!"
I suddenly realized that Grandma didn't want to be looked after. She wanted to be "useful", appreciated and helpful.
Once there was a man traveling in a faraway village. As he was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped. He found that these huge elephants were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains(锁链), no cages. It was clear that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their ropes but for some reason, they did not.
He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and didn't try to get away. "Well, "the trainer said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they still believe they can not break away. They believe the rope can hold them, so they never try to break free. "
How could it be?These animals could at any time break free from their ropes. But because they were always stuck right where they were, they believed they couldn't.
Just like the elephants, how many of us go through life believing that we cannot do something, just because we failed at it once before?
_______. We should never give up the struggle in life.
What do you think of a "talking kitchen"? A French Digital Kitchen has been developed at Newcastle University in the UK. It teaches students how to cook French food and speak French at the same time. For the first time, students can learn a language by the following cooking steps.
All grammar and▲ have been carefully chosen to make sure the users can understand French well. After learning for some time, the users can test themselves by doing a short test on the computer.
The kitchen project was started by Professor Paul Seedhouse. He became interested in the idea after he visited another kind of talking kitchen. He said, "The purpose of the French Digital Kitchen is to make learning a language more interesting and more educational. "
How does the kitchen work? There is a computer in the kitchen. With this computer, the users can first choose a French recipe that they want to follow. Using information in the computer, the kitchen starts to guide the users how to make a French dish. If you follow the instructions on the computer, it moves on to the next. If you go wrong, the program goes back and repeats the recipe or information. At any time, the users can also ask the kitchen to repeat the recipe or any information.
The new kitchen can be used in schools, universities and even people's homes. The researchers will also be developing the European Digital Kitchen, for the next three years.
Lillian Hanson, college student, expected to graduate in about two (year). What made Mrs Hanson (difference) from her classmates was her age –73 years old. Mrs Hanson never (forget) the dream of (get) higher education. When the children grew up, she tried again and succeeded. In class on her first day, when she introduced (her) and explained why she was there and what her aims were, all the other (student) stood up to give her a warm welcome. Among the challenges, Mrs Hanson found that the (hard) part of going back to school at her age was sitting in class for a long time. , she said she would stick to her dream no matter how difficult it was.
