I teach economics at UNLV three times per week. Last Monday, at the beginning of class, I _______ asked my students how their weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been so good as he had his wisdom teeth removed. The young man then continued to ask me why I always seemed to be in high spirits.

His question _______ me of something I’d read somewhere before: “Every morning when you get up, you have a choice about how you want to _______ life that day.” I said. “Choose to be cheerful.”

“Let me give you an example,” I continued, addressing all sixty students in the class. “In addition to teaching here at UNLV, I also teach out at the community college in Henderson, 17 miles down the freeway from where I live. One day a few weeks ago, I drove those 17 miles to Henderson. I _______ the freeway and turning onto College Drive. I only had to drive another quarter mile down the road to the college. But just then my car died. I tried to start it again, but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So I put my flashers on, grabbed my books, and _______ down the road to the college.

“As soon as I got there, I called AAA (汽车协会) and asked them to arrange for a tow truck to meet me at my car after class. The secretary in the office asked me what has happened. “This is my _______ day,” I replied.

“‘But your car breaks down’, she was confused, ‘What do you mean?’”

“‘I live 17 miles from here,’ I replied. ‘My car _______ have broken down anywhere along the freeway. It didn’t. Instead, it broke down in the perfect place: _______ the freeway, within walking distance of here. I’m still able to teach my class, and I’ve been able to apply for the tow truck to meet me after class. If my car was meant to break down today, it couldn’t have been arranged in a more _______ fashion.”

“The secretary’s eyes opened wide, and then she smiled, I smiled back and headed for class.” So ended my story.

I scanned the sixty faces in my economics class at UNLV. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or maybe it wasn’t the story at all. In fact, it had all started with a student’s ________.

What is it that you love to do but never feel that you get it quite right? Perhaps you don’t even try anymore because you think what you do is not _______enough.

Discouragement seems to follow us, _______whatever it is that we work so hard at, it seems that there is_______someone else who can do it much better.

I have always enjoyed music and it is _______to me that every musician has a _______of their own. My father _______ several instruments and when he played with others, it was not difficult to _______ his sound in a group. Whether it was guitar or another instrument, he had his own _______ sound.

I _______ heard of a music teacher who commented to a discouraged student “________else can make the sound that you make. The sound that you make may not be the same as someone else’s. But who is to say which is ________ ?” It is said that, “ ________ is in the eye of the beholder,” perhaps it could be said that “a delightful sound is in the ear of the ________ .”

Every person has a different tone of voice that ________ only to them, ________we all know people with an unforgettable laugh or a way of ________that is unique to them. It might not be the sound of your music or your voice at all. It ________be the way you whistle or the sound of your footsteps.

Each person has a(n) ________on the world in some way. Someone else can do what you do, but they cannot do it ________ the same way that you do it. The next time you feel ________, remember “Nobody else can make the sound that you make.”

One day, the employees of a large company returned from their lunch break and saw a sign on the front door. It said, “Yesterday the person who’s been holding you back in this company _______ . We invite you to _______ the funeral in the biggest meeting room.”

At first everyone was _______ to hear that one of their colleagues had died, but after a while they started getting _______ about who this person might be.

The excitement _______ as the employees arrived at the meeting room to pay their last respects. Everyone _______ : “Who is this person that in my way? Well, _______ he’s no longer here!”

One by one the employees got closer to the coffin (棺材). When they looked inside it, they were _______ . They stood over the coffin, shocked and in silence, _______ someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a ________ inside the coffin: Everyone who looked inside it could see himself. There was also a sign next to the mirror that said: “There is only one person who can stop yourself from ________ : It is YOU.”

You are the only person who can ________ your happiness and your success. You are the only person who can ________ yourself.

Your life does not ________ when your family changes, when your friends change, or when your company changes.

Your life changes when YOU change, when you ________ that you are the only one responsible for your life.