It was an afternoon in September. When I was _______ eighteen, I stood in front of a six-story high, red brick building. It was my first day of _________ and I was a bit _________ and a bit excited at the same time. I had two suitcases and a bag with me. They were _______ with all of my clothes and everything else I thought I would need. I _______them up the five stairs to my room and looked around, _________ what life had in store for me.

It was another afternoon in September twenty-five years later. My daughter and I were standing in front of the _________ building at the same college. As I helped her carry her things up to her room, I _________ that she seemed to have much more _________ than I did years ago. What's more, she looked more worried than I ________________ being on my first day there.

Last night I had a ________________ that I was back in that same room wondering what classes I would take. I often wondered what this dream ________________ but when I woke up this morning it became clear to me. We are sometimes teachers in life, but we are always ________________ in it. We are here taking the most ________________ class ever and it takes a lifetime. The stuff (东西) we carry with us through this life doesn’t matter at all either. It is the stuff we carry inside of us when we leave this life that ________________.

Two Candles

Tom was a middle-aged leather trader whose repeated failure in career made him a depressed man, often ____ that he had been cheated by others. One day he told his wife he was so ____ with the city that he had to leave.

So his family moved to another city. It was the evening of a weekend. When Tom and his wife were busily ____ up their new home, the light suddenly ____. They had to stop work. Tom was regretful to have forgotten to bring along candles and had to wait ____ in a low mood. Just then he heard slight, hesitant ____ on his door that sounded clear in the ____ night.

“Who’s it?” he wondered, since Tom was a ____ to this city. And this was the moment he especially hated to be ____, so he went to the door and opened it ____. At the door was a little girl, shyly asking, “Sir, do you have candles? I’m your neighbor. ” “No,” answered Tom in anger and shut the door ____. “What a nuisance (讨厌鬼)!” He complained over it with his wife. “No sooner had we settled down ____ the neighbor came to borrow things.”

After a while, the door was knocked again. He opened it and found the same girl outside. ____ this time she was ____ two candles, saying, “My grandma told me the new neighbor downstairs might need candles. She ____ me here to give you these.” Tom was very ____ by what he saw. When he became fully aware, he said, “Thank you and your grandmother. God bless you!”

At that moment he suddenly realized what caused his ____ in life. It was his ____ and harshness (刻薄) with other people. The person who had cheated him in life was actually____   else but himself, for his life had been darkened by his unsympathetic ____.