With his leg lame and his teeth uneven, the boy thought of himself as the most unfortunate child in the world. He _________played with his classmates, and when asked to answer questions, he always _________his head without a word.

One spring, his father brought home some saplings (树苗).______of his children would plant a sapling and he promised, "Whoever ________ his sapling best shall get a gift." The boy certainly wanted to get the gift.______seeing his brothers and sisters watering the trees, he_______ an idea: he hoped the tree he planted would die soon. So watering it once or twice, he never_______ it.

Several days later, he was _________ to find it not only didn't die, but also grew so many fresh ________. Compared with those of his brothers and sisters, his appeared greener. His father kept his _______, bought the boy a gift and said he would become an outstanding________ after growing up.

From then on, the boy slowly became_____ and confident. One evening, he suddenly________ his biology teacher once said that plants ________ grow at night. Why not go to see the tree?

When he came to the courtyard, he found his father working near the tree! Immediately he ________: Father had been secretly ________ his tree! He returned to his room, tears in his eyes.

Decades passed. The boy didn't become a botanist. ________, he became the U.S.__________. His name was Franklin Roosevelt.

________ is the best nourishment (滋养品) of life. ________ it is just a bucket of water, it can make the tree of life grow well!

Driving home from work every day on a long winding country road, I passed a house where an elderly man sat on his front porch (走廊）.I had been _____ to him only when I first moved into my home. For these past fifteen years, I have _____ my window, waved, and shouted, "Hi, Charlie. " I felt _____ to greet him in this way because I couldn’t _____ going through a day without hearing someone say my name.I felt he also needed to hear his name _____ by someone else.

I used to _____ at his wife, too, when she was out walking their dog.She was a(n) _____ woman in a long wool coat, whatever the _____ .I didn’t know who she was, but I’d _____ and say "Hi, Grandma" and she’d smile and wave back.

But then came the day when she was not ______ walking their dog； instead, Charlie was doing so.I realized he was alone, and the desire to greet him grew ______ .My window was rolled down before I came around the corner, and ______ he was not on the porch, I’d shout to him, hoping that in his ______ he'd hear me.As long as there was a ______ on in the house, I felt that he was all right.

But that day came when he had to sell his belongings; Charlie’s pickup truck was for ______ on the front lawn.A few days later, a sign was ______ ,and I knew Charlie was gone.I still wave and ______ "Hi, Charlie" as I pass just as I did in the past.The house is dark now.

It is my ______ that all of us need to be greeted at least once a day and that we need to hear our names spoken aloud by another person, to know someone sees us and ______ the truth of our being.I believe it is our duty to greet each other each day, in this way to speak to that ______ .

Walt Disney invented a special word to replace persistence and determination, and he named it as sticktoitivity. The ______ of people are so afraid of failure that they don’t know the Japanese have a fascinating way of looking at ______ . Their saying “Fall seven times; stand up eight” is a(n)______ explanation to sticktoitivity!

A good friend of mine has a business on which he has ______ diligently for over five years. He knows that his business has the potential (潜能) to increase sales ten times.   ______ , to do so, he has to probably break the mold (打破常规) that ______ him unchanged, and create a different blueprint. He ______ gives up his dream, and he is a(n)   ______ of sticktoitivity!

The basketball star Michael Jordan ______ sticktoitivity in one of his shoe advertisements, “‘I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots in my ______. I've lost almost three hundred games. I’ve been trusted to get a shot for twenty-six times but I   ______ . I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is ______ I succeed.”

We also know some examples of ______ people who demonstrated (证明) that they understood “sticktoitivity.” For example, Steven Spielberg ______ high school in the first year. He was persuaded to come back and was ______ in a learning disabled class. He lasted a month and dropped out of school forever. Who could ______ that he would become a most famous director in the US at that time?

Have you ever defined “success” or “failure” on your own terms? I ______ recommend doing so. It certainly creates a sense of understanding in your life. Sometimes ______is learning how to fail. Sometimes success is ______ the obstacles leading to failure. Remember, the only failure is learning ______ from the experience. So it’s important for you to stand up on the eighth time!