When I was 12, I disappeared into my bedroom with my guitar. I had neither musical ________ -many failed music lessons had proved that –nor musical training. My fingers ached as I tried to ________ the strings without making them buzz (发出嗡嗡声).________, I worked my way through 2-, 3- and even5-chord (和弦) songs and discovered the ________ thrill of these musical notes. No one ________ me to do this. I did this myself and of my own free will for a week, and the sense of happiness-true happiness ________ in absorption in something -has stayed with me. Fifty years later, that week’s ________ practice became a model and ________ for almost every meaningful thing I’ve done since. It makes me understand the ________ between achievement and accomplishment (成就).

The world ________ achievement while ignoring accomplishment. The former is the completion of the task imposed (强加) from the outside-the reward being a ________ to the next task. The latter is the end point of an activity we’ve chosen, whose ________ is the sudden rush of happiness.

The seeking of accomplishment always ________ people. I learned so long ago in that ________ week that simply lifting one finger from the guitar’s C chord, you should get the most moving ________. I didn’t know then that it was a major 7th chord, a favorite of some masters’. I just pursued accomplishment. That’s real human “achievement”.

An 18-year-old student at Stanford University was struggling to pay his fees. Not　knowing where to turn for money, he_________a bright idea. He and a friend decided to _________a musical concert on campus to raise money for their_________

They turned to the great pianist Ignacy Paderewski. His manager_________a guaranteed fee(保证金) of $2,000 for the piano concert. A deal was_________and the boys began to work to make the concert a_______

The big day arrived. But_________they had not managed to sell enough tickets.The total_________was only $1,600._________they went to Paderewski and explained their problem. They gave him the____________$1, 600, plus a check for the balance(余额)of $400. They promised to cash the____________at the soonest possible. Paderewski tore up the check,____________ the $1,600 and told the two boys to____________ the money they needed for the fees. The boys were ____________, and thanked him heartedly.

It was a small act of ____________. But it clearly marked out Paderewski a ____________human being.

Why should he help the two boys he did not even know? We all____________situations like these in our lives. And most of us only think, “If I help them, what will happen to me?” The truly____________people think, “If I don’t help them, what will happen to them?” They don't do it expecting something ____________. They do it because they feel it's the ____________thing to do.

Last May I bought some sweet potatoes for food. Several days later, a tuber (块茎) left in the kitchen was sprouting (发芽). I _________ the tuber into a pot hoping that it might take root and produce something that could be put on the dinner table.

_________ , the tuber did take root and began to grow. In the following months I _________   it when necessary and it grew very well. One day. I decided to harvest. I pulled out the plant, which took some _________ and began to dig with my fingers to see if there was any tuber in the pot.

When my fingers could almost touch the _________ of the pot, I took the root and pulled it carefully, for the potato could break easily. As almost no earth was left, I tried to pull but I failed to lift it up. In _________ . I pushed the pot over and found the root was outside the pot! It had grown through one of the holes in the bottom of the pot.

Then and there I changed my opinion of this plant, for the seemingly weak plant gained the _________ of me.

Very carefully I emptied all the soil out of the pot, _________ the root might be harmed or broken. Holding the root. I was deep in thought. The root outside the pot looked like a _________ and strong finger of an old farmer who had fought his way to make a living. The end of the root was dark gray and __________ . Obviously, the peel must have been removed during its struggle with the __________ of the heavy pot. It struck me that the tuber, though seriously __________ , had struggled hard and it seemed that it had never __________ . Such is a sweet potato, an ordinary-looking plant with __________ characteristics. It managed to grow where I thought it was almost impossible to __________ .