Learning to Accept Defeat

Defeat can be a lot of things. Learning to accept defeat is a bitter pill to ____ but the patience you store is so __.

A few months out of college, I was____the job site indeed in the hope of finding my first job. I just needed to have financial stability away from my parents, and___ to them two degrees was worth the extra fees.

Out of the 34 jobs I ____ ,only four called me back for an interview. I was so excited to finally be given a（n） ___to show my worth and importance. I would say the interviews went __. I hit every question with a solid answer, and even made the     ___ laugh a little. I was sure I'd get four calls back. They said they would ___me of their decision after Thursday. Friday came, and I still had no calls, no e-mails.

After getting in contact with all the places, they broke the news to me of how other people were more ___or I wasn't what they were looking for. I was shocked and ____.I thought I had it all, until the door decided to slam（猛然关闭）in my face four times.

But my parents    ___ me to keep trying and not to give up. I ___ myself back up and decided to look for jobs again. Eventually, one ___ well and I got my first job after what felt like a lifetime.

Forget about all the negatives, and focus on what the positives could be. You never know what the right door is _____ you keep knocking.

Three years ago, I participated in Model United Nations (MUN) held by the Education Department, which was a mock (模拟的) UN activity. During the two days, students are separated in different groups which _______ different countries to debate and try to solve problems. MUN has _______ awards: best delegates (代表), honorary mentions, and verbal mentions.

Each time I participate in MUN, I made good _______ and undoubtedly got a few awards. But I often felt as if I’d _______ because I had never won the best delegate award. I _______ those who didn’t deserve to win the award but won it various times, and I was just filled with _______ at their success. But later I realized that it was also _______ not to get the award because I could actually _______ something, and that I shouldn’t _______ the best delegate award until I was the best delegate I could be.

Failures are completely subjective — we can look at a result as a failure or a ________. Any failure can be regarded as a(n) ________ because you can always learn something from it and do ________ next time. This is supported by John Locke’s theory that we are born with blank views: knowledge and ability are learned from our ________. That’s true. If I make a mistake in the life practice, then I probably won’t ________ that next time. I believe this is ________ the best way to become better.

It is getting hot. It’s time to put on ____ clothes and open up the windows.

Yesterday brought a(n) ____ visit to the kitchen during the brief time we were out. Two daring sparrows had ____ into a dangerous territory—our kitchen.

When you come across such sudden callers, you are ____ to sense it as an action of intruding (入侵) into your comfort zone, or you might ____ it as a lovely shining moment of life. We ____ the second option, with no hesitation. After all, we’ve never stopped feeling urgent to strengthen the relationship with our sparrows more and more each day.

We can’t stop ____ and celebrating their dance from our window. We fed them with the ____ on our tablecloth after every meal. And we have ____ them with every kind of bases and stands on our terrace (露台).

____, they feel at ease in our backyard. And that has led them to ____ courage to slip into our house. Perhaps because they have the feeling that we don’t consider them ____, but friendly neighbors, who only leave some wastes from time to time.

The presence of our dear sparrow holds magical consistency with real life. And we’ve been having lovely sparrows coming over lately, whose presence ____ us out of our dull daily routines and shows us the hidden beauty and charm.

Like different human beings, these sparrows often take different forms. We’ve met sparrows like those, of all shapes and colors. And they’re everywhere. Perhaps all of them are willing to call our ____, making us know they are there. They only ask from us not to be afraid of them or feel uneasy to their ____.