On the day I was leaving for my holiday when I heard a familiar sound of the ferry men urging people to hurry and be on board. As it always was, I was among the late ones(I am still struggling to be on time). In the end, I _________ to get on board the boat and the journey began. After a few days, I was from _________ heading back to work on a small beautiful island. While I was on my holidays, things weren’t going as well as I had _________ . I didn’t feel excited and was in _________ spirits. I sat in a corner of the boat and cuddled up(依偎)with my _________ close to me. In my mind I just wanted to be _________ and I didn’t want anyone to talk to me because I never wanted to take it out on anyone.

_________ in thought, I stared up at the sky and the scene I saw caught my attention. I looked with great care and noticed how a certain part of clouds _________ a thumb(拇指)up pattern. It was laid so _________ that I couldn’t help but smile. Seeing that thumb up pattern was like a breath of fresh air. It reminded me that everything was going to be _________ , and that I had to breathe it in and take one day at a time.

So, life isn’t always perfect. Things happen __________ . At times it gets all messy __________ at times it feels like you have it all. We should learn to take it all in, stop for a while and __________ what we have regardless of how small or big it may seem. Remember to smile and __________ at the sky, or you will never know what cloud pattern may __________ your day!

Yesterday, our teacher asked us when a man could be referred to as an old man. David stood up and said people with wrinkles could be called old people, However, Mary didn’t _______ for some people may gain wrinkles at an earlier age owing to their. _______ life. Then Lily expressed her idea that those reaching their 60s or more could be called old people. However, Emily expressed her _______ and said some old people may still be energetic and trying to pursue their dreams, which makes them appear _______. The class was over and we still didn’t reach any _______, so the teacher asked us to think about it after class.

The _______ has reminded me of the saying of J. Barrymore that a man isn’t old as long as he is _______ something.

My grandma is such a woman who pursues her dream _______ when she’s 70 now. She has _______ her dream of being a painter since she was a little child. ________, because her family was poor, she had to ________ her dream and stepped into the ________ to raise money so as to support her family. Though she has ________ abandoned her dream, she could hardly find any ________ to realize it because of the tough work. ________, chance came when she retired from her work. She began taking her painting lessons ________ she had all-white hair and lots of wrinkles. At first, I was ________ her idea of attending school at so old an age, but after seeing her paint happily and enjoyably, I ________ feeling it a good choice. She seems ________ and looks fine.

So if we have our dreams and seek for them, we aren’t old. It’s when we don’t know what we want and let ________ be the center point of our lives that we can finally be regarded as the old.

My husband, a science writer, had just won an award for his writing from a chemistry association, and we were invited to the big award dinner.

I was excited but also _________, for I was having an identity crisis (危机). I had _________ my job when pregnant, because I thought raising kids was important work, and _________ it. Though working harder than ever, I didn’t get any _________ from my social network, however.

After the host listed all the _________ of my husband, he introduced me, a housewife and mother of two. This was the first time I had found myself _________ by those words. All the people present, mainly scientists, started _________ to each other. My face immediately turned red with _________. I thought they must see me as a _________.

At the end of the dinner, people walked around and chatted. I sat at the big round table alone, feeling __________. Then one of older female scientists __________ me and said what I was doing was so __________. She went away before I had a chance to __________ her. She had given me __________ what I needed at that time.

Now, when I see a woman during the middle of a workday __________ a stroller (婴儿车), I will tell her what she is doing is valuable.