While the story of The Farmer and The Mule(骡子)makes us smile, it does have 【小题1】(wise)in it. It reminded me about defeating adversity(逆境).

【小题2】 we handle adversity determines our success in life. One of my thoughts on adversity is, “Adversity is a fact of life. It can’t 【小题3】 (control). What we can control is how we react to it.”

When 【小题4】 (face) with adversity, we can give up the negative attitude. Or we can look on adversity 【小题5】 an opportunity to find other ways to do things. We should be 【小题6】 (determine)and persistent. It all comes down to your choice and it is a choice of attitude!

You see, the farmer thought the mule was not worth 【小题7】 (save) when it fell into a well accidentally, 【小题8】 he just put it out of its misery by burying it. Despite the farmer’s best efforts to bury it, the mule 【小题9】 (resist) until it was able to climb out of the well on top of all the dirt that was thrown in after it.

The mule, despite the fact that it was 【小题10】 (constant)in a deep well, would not give up. The mule simply shook the dirt off little by little, never giving up the will to live by climbing out of the well.

Last summer, Katie Steller was on her way to work. She stopped at a traffic light, where a man, in his 60s,【小题1】(apparent) looking out of luck, was sitting alone.

“Hey!” she shouted. “I’m driving around to give free haircuts. Do you want one right now?” The man, missing a few teeth, paused and laughed. “Actually,” he said, “at this time tomorrow, I 【小题2】(attend) a funeral(葬礼) of my friend. I was really hoping to get my hair cut.”

The man, named Edward, took a seat. As his curly graying hair was being cut by Steller, he told her about his moving to Minnesota, and no matter 【小题3】busy he was, he still talked to his mom over the phone every day. He said his family consisted 【小题4】four people and that he had been living in Minnesota for about ten years. The 【小题5】(interact) between them was very relaxing and constructive.

“It’s more 【小题6】a haircut,” she says. “I want it to be a way to show value and respect, but also to get to know people.”

Steller knows that a haircut can change a life. One changed hers: A sateen, she suffered from ulcerative colitis (溃疡性结肠炎) that was so serious and her hair thinned severely. Seeing this, her mother arranged for Steller’s first professional haircut. “To sit down and have somebody look at me and talk to me like a healthy person helped me feel cared about and less alone,” she says.

After that, Steller knew she wanted to have her own hair salon so she could help people feel the way she’d felt that day. Not long after finishing cosmetology school(美容学校) in 2016, she realized her dream. Two years later, she began what she now calls her Red Chair Project,【小题7】(reach) out to people on the streets.

Steller said, “As you know, I can’t have their problems 【小题8】(fix), but maybe I can help them feel less alone for a moment.”

【小题9】is evident that it has been working well. “You have no idea what people are going to do with the kindness that you give to them. Kindness and generosity can contribute to a quite 【小题10】(harmony) society,” says Steller.

One summer afternoon, a group of recent college graduates decided to visit their favorite professor at his home. The grads 【小题1】(be) out of school for about a year and they were each making their attempt into the so-called “real world” and dealing with all of the frustrations and 【小题2】 (confuse) that come with it.

Over the course of the afternoon,the grads complained 【小题3】 their professor about how difficult life was after school. They complained about the long hours, the 【小题4】 (demand) bosses, the competitive job market, and 【小题5】 all of them seemed to talk about or care about was money, money, money. 

After a while, the professor got up and made some coffee. He got out six cups, one for each student. Three of them were cheap disposable cups and the other three 【小题6】 (make) of his nicest porcelain. He then invited everyone to get up and help 【小题7】 (they).

Within seconds the 【小题8】 (argue) had already begun. “Wait,why do you get that cup?” “No,let me have it. I drove here.” “No way, I got here first; go get your own.” The students laughed and 【小题9】 (gentle) chided each other over who got to drink what out of what. A silent competition among friends.

When the kids finally sat back down the professor smiled and said, “You see? This is your problem. You are all arguing over who gets to drink out of the nice cups when all you really wanted was 【小题10】coffee.”