My parents always say, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” I was _________ in a situation where I was so ready to give up.

It started last week when my friend Ollie and I were helping his grandmother carry the boxes to her car. There was a _________ old trunk and it was so heavy.

“What’s in it anyway?” said Ollie.

“I _________ don’t know,” the grandma answered. “Most probably some things we don’t _________. I can’t find the key. We’d need a master locksmith to open it.”

“I want to _________!” said Ollie. “Maybe there’s a treasure inside!”

Ollie and I were so _________ and got some tools. We believed we could open that lock in two minutes, _________ those two minutes turned into two hours, with no luck at all.

“It’s no _________.” Ollie sighed. “I guess we have to give up.”

“But we _________ give up!” I said, “What about ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again?’” Ollie shook his head. “Unless you know a __________ key, we’re never getting this unlocked.”

Just then, my little brother __________. He climbed on top of the trunk, began to jump up and down and asked __________ to play with him.

And right then, a screw (螺丝) came loose and rolled to the floor.

“That’s it!” said Ollie. “These are common screws. We could probably remove the hinges (铰链)!” Quickly, in two minutes, we opened the trunk.

We paid all the attention to the __________. We tried all the tools we had. We didn’t look to see __________ we could open the trunk another way. Doing __________ the same way over and over isn’t always the best way to get results. So, next time, try different ways!

Many people say playing volleyball is easy. “If you can ______ it in the air, you can play volleyball.” I used to be one of those people. ______, recently I realized how silly I was.

My start in volleyball was hard. ______ practicing with my mother, I was full of confidence that I could join my school team and play well as a “bookworm”!

Unluckily, my dream was broken the next day. It turned out that though I had “skills”, I was unable to work with other players. I also couldn’t deal with balls coming from different ______. I was sad. Isn’t volleyball just about skills?

I began several weeks of training with the team. Then, we had our first match against Park School. Most of my teammates had no ______ in competitions. Looking at the Park School’s players, full of energy, I could already see our failure.

The ball went up. One “thump (锤击)”, a second “thump”, and I jumped with a shout. It flew ______ the net. I totally enjoyed myself in the game, ______ in harmony (和谐) with my teammates. The sounds of running feet, loud shouts and cheers filled us with warmth. During our break, everyone was out of breath and ______, talking about our nice hits.

At that moment, I realized that playing in the school team ______ working together with others. I understood how ______ is a kind of beauty in itself. Volleyball helped me make friends, learn new things, and find my true self within a group.

It was a hot day. At noon I stepped at the traffic lights and saw a homeless man walking up and down in the street.

“This will make me smile,” I thought, and I turned my car towards a frozen yogurt shop. I grabbed a ____ and filled it with a couple of flavors and came to the counter to weigh it. I wanted to add some toppings but my _____ was not enough for that, so I asked the lady if she would have change for a ＄100 bill. She said she wasn’t allowed to accept a bill that large. “All right.” I thought and _____ for the yogurt.

As I was about to leave, she said, “Madam, don’t _____ your children. Please add their favourite things.” I turned to her and said, “Thanks for your _____ but this is not for my children. It’s for the homeless man in the street.” She smiled with surprise and said, “Oh! that’s really sweet of you. God bless you.” She thought for a moment, and then she said, “I think we can do _____ than that.”

She took a bigger cup, filled it nicely and covered it with colorful toppings. Then she _____ it to me and said, “This is from me. Please give it to the homeless man. Let’s treat him nicely.” Now it was my turn to be _____ . I said, “Thanks a lot.”   And I left with a big smile on my face. On the way I said to myself, “Angels are real, aren’t they? I believe them because I saw them one day!”