Not long ago my daughter’s favorite shoes were cut with a knife. She cried. I took them to the shoemaker to get them ________. The young apprentice (学徒) ________ at the cuts quickly and said, “I can do ________ except replace the uppers.” The master looked at them and said, “If you trust me, I will add more cuts to both of the shoes.” I was ________ and asked why. He ________, “As if the cuts were made on purpose for special style.” I didn’t fully ________ him, but I decided to leave the shoes.

Two days later, I went to collect the shoes. At first ________ I found there were indeed more cuts on each shoe, but all of them were ________ with red thread around. The shoes looked quite ________ and more interesting than ever. I couldn’t help but speak highly of his ________.

Another time, my wife’s white skirt had an opening. My wife checked it ________ and said, “I’ll mend it myself.” Three days later, seeing the skirt again, I was shocked: the ________ had been repaired by thin and white thread and it looked like a flower. I ________, “It’s just as beautiful as a piece of art!”

“I got the ________ from that shoemaker. Patches (补丁) are supposed to be ugly, but a skillful person can make it look perfect.” replied my wife.

________ she said set me thinking: perfection is ________ to achieve in everything; patches are ________, so is human’s life, which will appear in the form of injury, disability or disease. Now that you can’t ________ the existence of them, all you can do and have to do is to ________ the wound by patches and try your best to bloom (盛开) a most beautiful flower on the wound, and that is the meaning of ________.

Did you ever have a dream? I'm talking about a conscious dream where you would like to ____ a new future, a different choice of employment and a ____ of your own.

Several years ago, I had a dream about inventing a board game that would ___ my fortune. After many revisions, a board game was developed. It was a(n)_____ time. Our dream seemed to come true with sales starting to ___, and our company was also founded.

___ ,another new board game come into the ___ and made great progress in sales. Eventually, our company was dissolved (解散).Perhaps for a game developer, the ____emotions that it never was meant to be will discourage his future dreams of a different life. To me, maybe I didn't succeed to the level I ___, but there is one thing I'm ___ of: at the very least I turned my dream into a reality. If I had never transferred my dream into a ___ and then to action, there wouldn't have been valuable lessons to be learned from the failure. It may take many ___ but success is only achieved. Once dreams are ___ action, failure becomes a better action plan in future. The important ___ here is that success only comes by turning dreams into reality and realizing that the ___ that you fortunately get along the way are only stepping-stones to final success.

It was June a few years ago right around the Summer Solstice(夏至). The first fireflies(萤火虫)had appeared, _______ on and off in the woods around my house. What a(n) _______ it was to see them again! How amazing the natural life was! Their small light made me smile, and I couldn’t help but feel _______ to nature.

As the daylight _______, I saw some children trying to catch the fireflies in the dark. A girl went inside and came back with a clear glass bottle. After several _______ attempts, she went to run after another one instead. _______, she was very happy. Eventually, she caught two fireflies and put them into the bottle.

All the other children including me were very _______. We gathered around, desiring to watch the fireflies’ light inside the bottle. Soon the girl’s mom walked to us and told us it was time to set the fireflies _______. One of the children disagreed. But the girl’s mom explained that the fireflies would die if left in the _______. Then she said something that still stays in my mind now, “Let them go so they can share their ________ with the rest of the world!” Finally, we knew the meaning of life.

I ________ in our childhood, we used to sing the song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine!” But as adults we find it ________ to do so. We often forget to share.

Don’t ________ your “light”. Don’t keep it in a “bottle”. Share your “light”, no matter how ________ it may be. Let love light up your heart and then give it to the whole world. Learn from the lightening fireflies and let the “light” within you ________ the darkness away.