What to Do when You’re Falling Behind

When I was a kid, it took me longer to learn how to ride a bike. I kept using a bike with training wheels and I didn’t _______ much, so of course I didn’t learn how to balance.

One day I _______ that my sister, 2.5 years younger than me, was getting close to _______ how to ride a bike. She wasn’t quite there yet, but she was _______ much closer to balancing than I was. I couldn’t let her _______ me to it!

So I took my bike, _______ it out to the street, and decided that I was going to learn how to ride it right now. I _______ the training wheels, jumped on, and swerved (突然转向) all over the place like an out-of- control madman. I tried to stay near the grass when I could get some degree of _______, so when I fell, I’d _______ fall to the lawn instead of the street or sidewalk.

After many attempts, I finally learned how to ________ Then I rode my bike a lot that summer and have had the ________ ever since.

Up until that point, I’d been making a big deal out of the whole process. It seemed ________ and discouraging. I was afraid of falling. But once I began to face the fear and ________ the courage to risk getting hurt, I quickly showed my ________ ability on the other side with a whole new skill. From the moment of making the decision to the time I ________ to get the basic skill it probably took me less than an hour.

What finally ________ me to face the fear and take action? It was the ________ that I was falling behind. My sister was leaving me in the dust. She could ride ________ I couldn’t. I really didn’t want that to happen.

I had no idea that I could learn to ride a bike so quickly. The feeling of falling behind served as a powerful motivator (动力). ________ trying to hide the disappointment, I allowed myself to feel the weight of that pressure. I used the ________ feeling to motivate myself to take action.

Doing good daily doesn't necessary mean helping other people. We can also do something good for other little creatures on this earth. Today, I was on my way to home and saw the turtle trying to cross the road. I stop my car, picked up and brought it to a river nearby. It was the rush hour but there were a lot of cars behind me. It took me about five minute to finish doing that. Although my action might be an inconvenience with other cars, I knew that save a life was well worth their waiting. In my mind. what I did was meaningless.

   Even though we are probably not aware of it， on our path. through life， we are setting goals all the time. However， many things will not only depend on how firmly we set a' goal， but how _______ we act in achieving it.

A story shows how smart acting can turn a seemingly _______ crisis （危机） into a（n）_______ . During Roosevelt's third campaign for president ，millions of leaflets （传单） with the president's campaign speech were _______ . People who had no chance to see and hear Roosevelt live would be able to _______ it， hopefully like it and _______ him. Of course，his picture was on the front page. Too _______ no one had noticed that under the picture was a tiny but _______  name， George Moffet， who had taken the picture.

By law， Moffet would have had to be. asked for the right to _______ this picture. As the campaign managers

had. ________ to do so， the choices looked hard：either burn the millions of leaflets，________ losing the campaign and pay the high price to print new leaflets with a ________ picture， or ask Moffet's permission（许可）. Both choices seemed ________. What could they do?

It was the campaign boss George Pekins who ________ the tables. He sent a telegram to Moffet with a great ________ telling him that Mr. Roosevelt's campaign team was planning to print millions of leaflets with Mr. Roosevelt's ________ . It would for sure be a great ________ for the photo studio. How much would he bewilling to ________ for using it?

Moffet said he would pay $ 210. Roosevelt's campaign boss ________ . So， a hard problem was solved wisely. The ________ ? Think of things in different ways.

   Of course, she wasn’t really my aunt and, out of fear, I never called her that to her face. I only referred to her as “My Aunt Fannie” because the name always made my father laugh quietly and gave my mother cause to look strictly at both of us — at me for being disrespectful to my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior. I enjoyed both reactions so I looked for every opportunity to work the name into as many conversations as possible.

As a young woman, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large Victorian farmhouse. During those years my mother helped Aunt Fannie make the best blueberry jam ever tasted by anyone in Glenfield. She was well-known for her jam and for never sharing the recipe (食谱) with others. Even though my mother knew the recipe by heart, as long as Aunt Fannie was alive, she never made the jam without Aunt Fannie in our kitchen to direct the process and kept the secret.

Each August, my mother would prepare me for Aunt Fannie’s visit. One year, after I had helped with the jam process Aunt Fannie gave me a coin and then made me promise that I would never spend it. “Hold onto this coin,” she said, “and someday you will be rich. I still have my very first coin, given to me by my grandmother.” So I kept the coin in a small box and waited to become rich.

I now have the blueberry jam recipe and the coin from Aunt Fannie. In people’s eyes Aunt Fannie’s success resulted from that secret recipe. But to me, it was just a common recipe. Neither has made me become a rich person, but 1 keep them as reminders (提醒人的事物) to hold onto the valuable things in life. Money can make you feel rich for a while, but it is the relationships and the memories of time spent with friends and family that truly leave you wealthy. And that is a fortune that anyone can build.

Last Sunday Li Lin，one of my classmates，and I go to a bookstore. At a counter we noticed that the foreigner was talking to a clerk，and the clerk didn't understand what the foreigner said. So we went up to the foreigner and was asked if he needed help in English. After known what kind of books he really wanted，we took him to the shelf which he was looking. He was interested in Chinese folk music deep. We gave him some advices on what to choose. The foreigner picked some music tapes with his help. He gave his sincere thanks to us and left，satisfied and happily.