I remember doing the household chores to help my mother when I was nine. I________ changing the vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器) bag and ________ things the machine did not suck up. Twenty years later, in 1978, with this lifelong dislike of the way the machine worked, I decided to make a________ one.

Easier said than done, of course. I didn’t realize that I would spend the next five years ________ my design, a process that resulted in 5,127 different prototypes (样机). By the time I made my 15th prototype, my third child was born. By 2,627, my wife and I were really________ our pennies. By 3,727, my wife was giving art lessons for some extra ________, and we were getting further and further into debt. These were tough times, but each failure brought me________ to solving the problem.

In the early 1980s, I started trying to get licensing ________ for my technology. The reality was very different, however. The major vacuum makers had built a business model based on the profits from bags and filters (滤网). No one would ________ my idea, not because it was a bad one, but because it was bad for________. But soon after, the companies that I had talked with started making machines like mine. I had to fight________ battles on both sides of the Atlantic to protect the patents on my vacuum cleaner.

I was still in ________ difficulties until 1993, when my bank manager personally ________ Lloyds Bank to lend me $1 million. Then I was able to go into production. Within two years, the Dyson vacuum cleaner became a best-seller in Britain.

Today, I still________ risk and the potential for failure as part of the process. Nothing________ the excitement of invention.

One day I was sitting alone on a deserted park bench under an old willow (柳树) tree. I was _________because I felt the world was unfair to me.

All of a sudden, a young boy approached me, out of_________. He was obviously tired from playing and, as he stood before me, he tilted his_________towards me and said with great excitement, “Look at what I found!” In his hand was a flower with its petals (花瓣) all worn out _________from not enough rain, or too little light._________ him to take his dead flower and go away. I_________a smile and then turned my back to him._________leaving, he said, “It surely_________nice and it’s beautiful, too. Here, it’s for you. ”

The flower before me was drying, it had no bright_________, but I knew I must take it, or he might never__________.So I reached for the flower, and replied, “That’s__________what I need.” But instead of him placing the flower in my hand, he just held it out__________for me to take it. It was then that I__________for the very first time, that this happy boy could not see: he was__________.

I heard my__________trembling and tears rolled down my cheeks. I thanked him for picking the best flowers for me. You’re welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play. He was __________of the impact he’d had on my day.

I sat there and wondered how he__________to see a self-pitying woman under an old willow tree. Perhaps from his__________, he’d been blessed with true sight.

Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I __________that the problem was not with the world; the problem was me__________ I myself had been blind for all of those years. I vowed (发誓) to see beauty, and appreciate every second that’s mine.

Not long ago my daughter’s favorite shoes were cut with a knife. She cried. I took them to a shoemaker to get them ______ . The young apprentice (学徒) ______ at the cuts quickly and said, “I can do nothing except ______ the uppers.” The master looked at them and said, “If you trust me, I will ______ more cuts to both of the shoes.” I was ______ and asked why. He ______, “As if the cuts were made on purpose for special style.” I didn’t fully understand him, but I decided to ______ the shoes there.

Two days later, I went to collect the shoes. At first ______, I found there were indeed more cuts on each shoe, but all of them were ______ with red thread around. The shoes looked more unique and interesting than ever. I couldn’t help but praise his ______.

Another time, my wife’s white skirt had an opening. My wife checked it ______ and said, “I’ll mend it myself.” Three days later, seeing the skirt again, I was shocked: the ______ had been repaired by thin and white thread and it looked like a flower. I ______ with praise, “It’s just as beautiful as a piece of art!”

“I got the ______ from that shoemaker. Patches (补丁) are supposed to be ugly, but a skillful person can make it look ______.” replied my wife.

What she said set me thinking: perfection is ______ to achieve in everything; patches are unavoidable, so is human’s life, which will ______ in the form of injury, disability or disease. Now that you can’t ______ the existence of them, all you can do and have to do is to deal with the ______ by patches and try your best to bloom a most beautiful flower on the wound, and that is the ______ of life.