On the last day of college before graduation, our professor walked up on stage to give us a final lesson, which she called "a life lesson on the ____ of mindsets （思维模式）As she _____ a glass of water over her head, everyone __ her to mention the typical "glass half empty or glass half full" question. _____ with a smile on her face, the professor asked, "How heavy is this glass of water I'm holding?"

Students shouted out answers __ from eight ounces （盎司）to a couple pounds.

After a few moments of __ answers, she replied, “In my opinion, the absolute weight of this glass doesn't _____ . It all __ how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it's ___ light. If I hold it for an hour ___, my arm might feel painful. If I hold it for the whole day, my arm will feel completely numb, __ me to drop the glass to the floor. In each ___/the weight of the glass doesn't change, __ the longer I hold it, the heavier it _____ to me."

As the class nodded their heads in ______, she continued, "Your worries, ________ and

My great aunt Cissy was a widow living alone in London, and for years I visited her every Saturday for Shabbat (安息日) lunch. Those weekly ________ taught me how to face life challenges. With the coronavirus pandemic causing ________ and panic, I find the lessons I learned at Cissy's table particularly ________.

On Shabbat Cissy usually wore her only necklace. The delicious smell of Shabbat lunch ________ me as soon as I opened the building's ________ to the street. “Come on up, you're right on time!” Cissy would ________. Cissy usually lived on bread and frozen foods during the week, but every Shabbat she always ________ a feast. For years I was her only ________ for those wonderful meals, but Cissy ________ called off a festive Shabbat lunch. I can't help thinking of her each time I ________ social media posts asking whether or not they should ________ celebrating Jewish holidays because of coronavirus.

I'd ________ into her kitchen chair and Cissy would start talking. She taught me some old ________ her mother and grandmother sang her. She would tell me about her work during World War Ⅱ as an air raid warden (防空队员). Cissy recalled London was ________ every single night. She managed to make sure people went to the air raid ________. She told me about becoming a widow when her children were very young. Far from being ________ tales, the way she told them sounded like adventures. No matter how hard life was, there was a(n) ________ that Cissy seemed to know clearly: we'd ________ difficult times together and better times would come.

In these ________ days, I'm trying to look at the good in others. And like my great aunt Cissy, stubborn ________ on creating a beautiful Jewish atmosphere inside my home rises from the bottom of my heart, no matter what comes.

Another person’s enthusiasm was what set me moving toward the success I have achieved. That person was my stepmother.

I was nine years old when she entered our home in rural Virginia. My father introduced me to her with these words: “I would like you to meet the fellow who is _______ for being the worst boy in this county and will probably start throwing rocks at you no _______ than tomorrow morning.”

My stepmother walked over to me, _______ my head slightly upward, and looked at me right in the eye. Then she looked at my father and replied, “You are wrong. This is not the worst boy at all, but the smartest one who hasn’t yet found an _______ for his enthusiasm.”

That _______ began a friendship between us. No one had ever called me smart. My family and neighbors had built me up in my _______ as a bad boy. My stepmother changed all that.

She changed many things. She _______ my father to go to a dental school, from which he graduated with honors. She moved our family into the county seat, where my father’s career could be more _______ and my brother and I could be better _______.

When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand ________ and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I knew her enthusiasm, I ________ it, and I saw how it had already improved our lives. I accepted her ________ and began to write for local newspapers. I was doing the same kind of writing that great day I went to interview Andrew Carnegie and received the task which became my life’s work later. I wasn’t the only beneficiary (受益者). My father became the ________ man in town. My brother and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer, and a college president.

What power enthusiasm has! When that power is released to support the certainty of one’s purpose and is ________ strengthened by faith, it becomes an irresistible force which poverty and temporary defeat can never ________.

You can communicate that power to anyone who needs it. This is probably the greatest work you can do with your enthusiasm.