There were once two ____ sharing the same hospital room. One man was allowed to ____in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain(排空)the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the only wall in the room that had a window. The other man had to spend all his time lying ____ on his back,____ at the white, dull ceiling.

The men talked for hours ____ with each other. Best of all, every afternoon when the man by the window described all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour ____ where his world would be ____ by all the activity and colour of the world outside.

The window ____ a park with a lovely lake. Around the lake there were couples ____ romantically arm in arm. Mothers were pushing their baby carts. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.

One warm afternoon, although the other man couldn’t hear the ____ -- he could see the parade in his mind’s eye as the man by the window ____ it with descriptive words. He knew now ____ he had to get better, and get out there to see all the wonderful things outside again, as soon as possible! ____, the next morning, the nurse found the man by the window had passed away ____ in his sleep. As soon as it seemed ____, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse agreed to make the ____ Slowly, painfully, he supported himself on one elbow to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a ____ wall. The man asked the nurse what could have ____ his ______roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse ____ that the man was blind. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

The first time I traveled alone in my life, I was in my forties. ________ travel for business or family reasons, the trip to Colorado was the first one that was just to travel and discover. As I prepared for it, I felt excited and ________ at the same time. Would it be fun? Would I be bored? Would I stay in bed all day or would I jump with excitement to do the next thing? I wasn’t ________. Little did I know that it was going to be a ________ journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me, travel is always about the ________; always thinking of who would enjoy ________. It’s about family time and bonding. But on a(n) ________ trip who would I connect with? What would I do? Well, I found that I could do anything ________!

I met locals while traveling and also other ________. Honestly, I had conversations ________— on planes, while hiking, in restaurants, in the hotel lobby(大厅).

It was quite a(n) ________experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of foster(寄养的) kids, a cookie baker, and an internationally ranked marathon(马拉松) runner. The inspiring stories I discovered were ________ and nothing was like my wonderful ________ life at home. I got to go rock climbing, go hiking solo, and eat ________. And it was all ________. Actually, it felt surprisingly ________. It was just me, my car and my backpack for a week. ________, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t ________ that existed. It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are ________ and there is so much more out there to ________ and be wowed by!

Even our good friends may sometimes hurt our feelings. What should we do, hold on to the _________ or forgive (原谅) and move on?

It was an afternoon in March. Several weeks ago, I finally _________ my favorite novel Pride and Prejudice. It _________ a special edition (版本), which my mother had _________ online. I showed the book to my best friend Yu Xin _________ on our way home. When she asked _________ she could borrow it when I finished reading, I _________ it to her right away, _________ I knew she also loved the novel.

However, the next day she lost the book. She was reading it on the bus and must have dropped it as she was _________ . I was so angry. How could she be so __________ ! I had been expecting the book for weeks. What was __________ , she couldn’t understand why I was unhappy, saying it wasn’t a big deal.

I didn’t speak to her for the following two days. On the __________ afternoon, she apologized to me. She said she was sorry for losing the __________ and understood how I felt.

__________ the tears in her eyes, I knew she felt really bad about hurting my feelings. A friend was much more __________ than a book. I held her hand and told her it was OK.