Roberta appeared on the stage. She took a deep breath and began to _________. Now she was Portia, a strong-willed _________ in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The theater was filled with people. She was speaking with a power she had never experienced before, the words flowing _________ from her.

_________, Roberta had never acted in her life before the audition (选拔试演). She _________ being in front of other people. She was very shy at school. She had never thought she was good enough at anything to _________ much attention. She stayed mostly to herself, making few friends. She had excellent grades, _________ she always thought that something was missing.

Two weeks before the audition, Roberta’s mother had heard about it and _________ her to join in. “I can’t think of anyone else better suited to play the part. Remember all the plays you used to act out for us. ”

Her mother wouldn’t let the _________ drop. “You’re just a little scared (害怕). Everyone gets scared. You know you may do it. The trick is to look past the __________ to find the love of what you’re doing. ”

So Roberta had made an appointment (预约) with the head of the Drama Club. She had read the play and found herself excited by the __________ of speaking such rich words. In secret she practiced Portia’s part, __________ the lines by repeating them over and over. It wasn’t hard; she __________ every minute of it. Every time she spoke the words, she had a new __________ of the lines, as if Shakespeare had written Portia on many levels.

On the day of the audition, she __________ two of Portia’s famous speeches for the auditors. When she had finished, the head of the Drama Club announced the part was hers.

Accept life as it is. I learned how to do it from my father. _______, he did not teach me acceptance when he was strong and healthy, but rather when he was _______ and ill.

My father was _______ a strong man who loved being active, but a terrible illness _______ all that away. Now he can no longer walk, and he must sit quietly in a chair all day. Even talking is _______ .One night, I went to visit him with my sisters. We started _______ about life, and I told them about one of my _______. I said that we must very often give things up _______ we grow — our youth, our beauty, our friends — but it always _______ that after we give something up, we gain something new in its place. Then suddenly my father ________ up. He said, “But, Peter, I gave up ________! What did I gain?” I thought and thought, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. ________, he answered his own question: “I ________ the love of my family,” I looked at my sisters and saw tears in their eyes, along with hope and thankfulness.

I was also ________ by his words. After that, when I began to feel angry at someone, I ________ remember his words and become ________. If he could ________ his great pain with a feeling of love for others, then I should be ________ to give up my small anger. In this ________, I learned the power of acceptance from my father.

Sometimes I ________ what other things I could have learned from him if I had listened more carefully when I was a boy. For now, though, I am ashamed (惭愧的)for this one word.

I felt gloomy (沮丧的) the other day. The weather had been dark and rainy, and I just didn’t feel so _______.

As I was sitting at my desk I _______ it was the birthday of a dear long-time friend — a single middle-aged woman who has devoted the past 30 years to nursing and loves her _______. Knowing that she doesn’t have family in town I _______ to give her a call. Sure enough she was on B-shift, _______ to work late into the evening and wouldn’t have much of a birthday this year. As always, _______, she sounded cheerful and was happy that I _______.

After I hung up I couldn’t _______ the feeling that she would really appreciate a little attention on her special day. _______ feeling a little gloomy myself, I tried to put it out of my ________, but as the day passed I couldn’t shake the thought. I ________ gave in, and that evening set off to the hospital with a card, a cheese cake, and some balloons. My friend’s grateful smile and joyful surprise ________ me I’d done the right thing and were a generous ________ for the little effort it had taken.

When I got home I realized that not only had I cheered up a ________ friend on her birthday but my own gloomy feelings had also ________. Making her day had made my own!

That’s true ________ we take the time and make the effort to do something for someone else. It’s like the little saying “Loving kindness is twice blessed; it blesses him who gives, and him who ________.”

Cheering up people on their birthdays isn’t the only thing we can do to make their day. Life constantly presents us with ________ to take an extra step or do a kind deed that will make a ________ to someone. And the ________ thing is that as we do, it changes things for the better for us too.