One evening a young woman walked on the beach. She _______ to see the footsteps (足迹) she had left in the sand, but they had already been washed away by the water. When she turned to continue her walk, she was surprised to see an old woman _______ by a fire.

She walked up to the old woman and asked, “Where did you come from? I didn’t see you here a minute ago.”

_______ answering her question, the old woman said, “Sit with me, my child. I have something to show you.”

As the young woman sat down beside the fire, the old woman handed her a book. She turned the pages of the book one by one and was _______ to discover (发现) they told the story of her whole life, from the early days of childhood to the _______. But when she turned to the next page, she found it empty and the rest of the pages in the book were all empty.

“Does this mean my life ends tonight?” she asked.

“No, my child. It means tonight your life _________.”

At that time the old woman took the book into her hands and began to tear (撕掉) each of the pages that had words out of the book. She then threw _______ into the fire until all left were empty pages. She handed the book of empty pages to the young woman.

“You see,” she said, “just as the water washed away your footsteps in the sand, your past is forever gone. What you _______ have is here and now. Each moment is the beginning of the rest of your life and you should live it to the fullest, because you won’t live that moment a(n) _______ time. For your future, you are free to shape it as you wish, __________ it has not yet been written.”

I lived in a very poor district of Arusha, Tanzania. My family couldn’t ________ me to study abroad. However, continuing my ________ in China was my dream. I couldn’t wait to travel in this country and create new ________. I applied to 12 universities but only got a few acceptance letters.

I ________ got accepted by a university in Shanghai. After the excitement in the beginning, I met great ________. I couldn’t understand what my teachers and schoolmates said. ________ still, I was weak in my subjects at first and realized I could hardly finish one year without a scholarship (奖学金). I had to work hard and ________ every chance to practice my Chinese. ________, I had to save every coin I could.

Luckily, I topped in my class ________ the first term through hard work. The university awarded me a huge scholarship and I was filled with ________. I could complete my course in the university. I valued the chance ________ I managed it with my own efforts. Four years later, when I spoke on the graduation ceremony, I was thankful and ________.

Life is not always easy. But what really matters is to keep positive when we are ________ by difficulties. Some may run away or be beaten while some are able to ________ the difficulties. I believe as long as we ________ long enough, all our dreams are within reach, no matter how big or crazy they might seem.

One day a man found a cocoon (茧) of a butterfly in the forest. He sat there for several _________ and watched it. Suddenly a small worm _________, and it tried its best to _________ its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to make no progress. So the man decided to _________ the worm. He cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon so that it could come out _________.

But to his _________, the worm got a heavy body and very small wings when it came out of the cocoon. He continued to watch it, because he expected that its wings would be _________ enough to support the body and fly up in time.

Unluckily, the flight _________ happened. In fact, the worm _________ crawling (爬) around with a heavy body and small wings until it died. It was never able to __________. The man was in his surprise because he did not understand the __________ of nature. Before the worm came out of the cocoon, fluid (液体) from its body must be forced into its __________, which is the necessary preparation for its flying. As for becoming a beautiful __________, it must have a hard struggle to get out of the small opening by itself.

Sometimes struggles are exactly __________ we need in our life. If we go through our life without difficulties, we would not be as __________ as we could have been. We could never fly.