I had a great dream when I was in my twenties. I wanted to travel around Africa with my _________. So I left my hometown with great confidence and _________ Cape Town, not really_________ what to do next. Luckily, before my trip actually started, I met a kind, old Nigerian man. He gave me the best travel _________ I had ever received. “Be like a(n) _________on your way around the world.”

It sounded _________, but it really changed my idea about travelling. He helped me realize that travel is about learning and observing local _________. “It’s far too easy to go into a(n) _________ country and believe your ways are better. But if you study, ask questions and try to learn from the locals, you’ll have far richer _________,” he promised me.

On other vacations, when I was on my tour way to Cancun. I was __________ a tourist. I only stayed there for a week to see the __________ and places of interest and then left. The culture didn’t __________me. I left the cities and towns without really knowing anyone or anything that existed in those places to which I had paid a visit.

This time, I promised to myself that I would be a __________ traveler. After seven months of__________ backpacking in Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, I realized that having a student-like mindset (观念模式) helped extend my trip and helped me learn a lot, which __________ me more than any other trips ever did to me.

For a long time Gabriel didn’t want to be involved in music at all. In his first years of high school, Gabriel would look pityingly at music students, struggling across the campus with their heavy instrument cases, turning up at school for practice hours _____ anyone else had to be there. He swore to himself to_____music, as he hated getting to school extra early.

_____, one day, in the music class that was _____of his school’s standard curriculum, he was playing idly (随意地) on the piano and found it _____to pick out tunes. With a sinking feeling, he realized that he actually _____doing it. He tried to hide his obvious pleasure from the music teacher, who had _____over to listen. He might not have done this particularly well, _____ the teacher told Gabriel that he had a good _____ and suggested that Gabriel go into the music storeroom to see if any of the instruments there ______ him. There he decided to give the cello (大提琴) a ______. When he began practicing, he took it very ______. But he quickly found that he loved playing this instrument, and was committed to practicing it so that within a couple of months he was playing reasonably well.

This meant, of course, that he arrived at school early in the morning, ______ his heavy instrument case across the campus to the ______looks of the nonmusicians he had left______.

There was once a boy called Joseph Webb who always loved to show off how many friends he had at school. One day his ________ said to him, “Joseph, I bet (打赌) you a big bag of popcorn that you don’t have as many friends as you think. I’m sure many of them are nothing more than companions.”

Joseph ________ the bet at once. However, he wasn’t sure how to test whether his schoolmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandfather. The old man answered, “Wait a minute.” Then he left and ________ soon as if carrying something in his hands, but Joseph could see nothing there.

“Take it. It’s a very ________ chair because it’s invisible (看不见). It’s rather ________ to sit on, but if you take it to school and ________ to sit on it, you’ll activate (激活) its ________ and it’ll be able to tell who your real friends are.”

Joseph, brave and determined, set off for ________ with the strange and invisible chair.   At break time he asked everyone to form a ________, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. Having difficulty seeing it, Joseph tried to sit on it but he ________ the seat and fell straight onto his backside. Everyone around him had a pretty good laugh.

“Wait! Let me try again, ”Joseph said. But again, he missed the seat,________ more surprised looks and a few catcalls. Joseph didn’t ________ and kept trying to sit on the magic chair. But he kept falling to the ground...until, suddenly he tried again but didn’t ________. Looking around, Joseph saw three of his best friends holding him up.________, many others he had thought of as friends had done nothing but make fun of him. And there, the show came to an end. Joseph understood that true friends were those who care for him, and not just the ________ that happened to be passing by. And someone who took joy in his misfortunes was even less of a friend.