A few years ago, I went through a period of depression. It was so severe that life didn’t seem worth_______. It was like permanent winter, so cold that the sun would never_______.

Then I saw snowdrops (雪花莲) pushing through the freezing,   iron-hard_______.   I looked at them every day until I felt that if they could come back to life, then so could_______. Those green shoots gave me_______in a way that nothing else had.

As spring came, I started to put in more and more plants, until the garden was brilliant with_______. I could spend hours _______ in gardening. Life was growing through my hands: gentle, peaceful, but, above all,_______. If I gave love, it was_______, a hundred times.

The   form of depressive illness I have is biological. It has________ generations of my   family and follows no rules nor reason. I can be________ when the sun is shining or when I am with loving friends. Of course, fresh air and exercise help to________ the depression, but for me ________ is more than that. It ________   strength as well as hope. I often stands in the garden before a tall tree, huge and strong. It lives through freezing temperatures and strong winds. It ________ but never breaks. And so I learn that we may be battled and injured, but we should   never give up.

My 18-year-old daughter was admitted to hospital after a serious car accident. Her head was badly_________and she had to have an operation. The whole floor of the hospital was full of patients with brain injuries or _________problems. Some even had difficulty recognizing people. I visited my daughter once a _________. She was the only patient who had_________ visitors; some were lucky to have a visitor once a week.

Christmas was coming, and one day when I visited her, I was asked by the patients to _________a Christmas basket for them to give to the nurses. I was given enough money to make a beautiful basket. My colleague Olive _________my classroom when I was trying to make the basket while my students were out. She could see I was not good at doing this as I_________to put the materials together. Olive _________the task and made a great job of the basket and then carried it to my car. When I brought the basket to the patients, they were absolutely delighted. I was there when they gave it to the nurses. They’d never been given anything like this before and they were so_________. It was a wonderful moment, as those in hospital knew ____________who was caring for them. A few days later, I received a thank-you card and a box of chocolates from the patients for ____________ them with their basket. How touching it was! Olive also bought me a beautiful Christmas gift, saying that she would always be there, ____________ me and supporting me.

This is a great reminder of the____________of love and support. Despite their own health problems, the patients ____________ their love to the nurses and to me as well. We are all here to love and serve each other, and no matter what our personal situation is, loving and serving others is still____________ .

My most extreme case of envy happened at camp this summer with a girl named Megan Martin. We _______ on the first day of archery(射箭) _______. Most of us in my group had completely missed our _______. Except Megan. No matter the activity, Megan was the best. And by best, I _______ beyond the best!

_______ the people who get all braggy(自夸), Megan was modest and _______. So I felt extra terrible the way I did. Then, one day at lunch, Megan sat down next to me. And then she told me a(n) _______ riddle, I laughed heartily. And then we spent a lot of time telling _______. Later I knew we both had five-year old twin brothers. And it wasn’t the only thing we had _______ ! The more we talked, the more I realized how ________ it was that I’d been ________ energy feeling envious when I could have been building a ________.

Megan told me that she ________ she had my creativity in telling stories. That comment ________ me. Hearing that I couldn’t get over how good she was at everything, Megan ________ and suggested we invent a machine that would let people ________ skills for a little while. It was a(n) ________ idea and we spent the rest of lunch ________ the details of the invention.

It’s probably impossible not to feel a tiny bit envious at least once in your life. But try to remember that you have your own ________ unique that makes you special. And I know for a fact that putting more energy into ________ thing like building friendship, and less energy into negatives thing like feeling envious, helps make for happier days all round.