It was our first Thanksgiving in the new house and I wanted everything to be perfect. But my plan for everyone to contribute some preparation work couldn't be carried out for my husband's business trip. Even worse, I had to ______ two days of planned vacation finishing the extra work. By Wednesday, since I didn't get an ideal table with fresh flowers, beautiful drinking glasses and various homemade desserts, I just hoped that I'd find a clean tablecloth and eight ______ forks.

In my perfect Thanksgiving, there wouldn't be any orange in my salad because I hadn't made the shopping list. There would be no perfect family photos to record that day because I hadn't got the broken camera ______. Someone had brought home the wrong toilet paper, which made me break down.

I don't remember what my son asked me as he was vacuuming (吸尘), but I do remember my serious mom-face before barking out an ______. The noise and anger are terrible to kids everywhere that they might as well ______ me. But he didn't.

Instead of disappearing from my view, my second-grader turned off the vacuum and walked across the room to face me. He never said a word. He just put his arms and around me, making me feel a deep sense of ______ of myself until today.

The end result was that it was a(n) ______ Thanksgiving. The people I loved gathered around my table and dined just one choice of the pie. My dad used a mismatched fork without ______. My daughter drew a picture of us where everyone smiled.

My son took a(n) ______ to teach me that sometimes we need a hug (拥抱) most when we are at least huggable. This is the best gift you can give. One size fits all and no one ever minds if you ______.

In your life, you are sure to have met thousands of people. Can you remember everyone’s _______? Maybe not.

I studied in a nursing school three years ago. During the sixth month there, we had an important ________. I studied very hard for it. I finished all the questions ________ until I read the last one. “What is the name of the woman who cleans our classroom?”

Just then, I was ________ the question. I saw the woman almost every day but I could only remember what she looked like. How could I know her name? Finally I had to ________ my paper without finishing the last question. My classmates didn’t ________ it either.

After class, one of my classmates asked the teacher if the last question would influence our ________. “Of course,” the teacher said. In our life we will meet a lot of people. Many of them are important and ________ to us, although they might play different roles in our society. Anyway, they are worth（值得） our ________ and care, even if all that we can do is just to smile at them or say hello to them.

I will never ________ the test. Don’t ignore （忽视） anyone who should be kindly treated. Sometimes just because of those people, our world changes for the better.

A man who lived a long time ago believed that he could read the future in the stars. He called himself an Astrologer (占星家) and spent his time at night looking at the sky. He was always ________ worrying about future and villagers often came to him, hoping to know what their future holds.

One evening he was walking along the open road outside the village. His eyes were ________ on the stars. He thought he saw there that the end of the world was near. He lost in his ________ about the future. As he was looking at the stars, he kept walking without looking down. ________, he fell into a ditch (沟) full of mud and water.

He was sinking in the muddy water, and madly trying to hold on to the slippery (滑的) side of the hole in his effort to climb out. He was unable to climb out and ________ for his life. He started shouting for help. His cries for help soon brought the villagers running.

As they pulled him out of the ________, one of them said, “You pretend to read the future in the stars, and yet you ________ to see what is at your feet! This may teach you to pay more attention to what is right in front of you, and let the future take care of itself.”

“What use is it,” said another, “to read the ________, when you can’t see what’s right here on the Earth?”

We all want our future to be ________ and happy, but the time doesn’t stop for anyone. Each tomorrow ________ today, and your present is also a part of your future. There is always a tomorrow to look forward to and improve, but you can’t go back to yesterday. So, keep the balance of your present life and work for a better tomorrow.