There have been many times in my life when I have felt very confident about myself and the outcomes of events, even when there was no reason why I should be.

For example, when I was in my internship (实习期) in my ex-company, I was fully confident that I would perform well and secure the internship — even though it was my first internship, first time working in an actual corporate role and I knew absolutely nothing about what I was going to get.

Another time was while I was still studying in university as a first year student. The people around me constantly discussed the monthly starting pay for graduates, which was around two grand. At that time I simply brushed that aside and was confident I would get a starting pay of at least three grand. The funny thing was that this was simply an arbitrary (任意的) number I picked out of the air which I felt I was comfortable with. There was absolutely no basis or research I did which made me point out that figure.

A more recent example would be when I left my job to pursue my passion. While I had a broad vision of what I wanted to do, I had not developed my plan to the level of specificity, and I was not worried about it at all either. I wasn’t worried about money, about how it would work out, or about the challenges I would face. All I knew was I was going to reach my end goal and I would do everything it took to reach that goal.

In all of the cases, there was totally nothing present that proved my self-confidence. Yet, in the end, everything turned out as well as I wanted, if not better. In my internship, I was one of the few interns to secure a preplacement job offer with my ex-company. For my starting pay, I received a figure which was higher than what I targeted. And for my personal development work, it is currently moving along well toward my vision. Honestly, the self-confidence I had was probably one of the reasons why I achieved those outcomes eventually.

   Two old beggars（乞丐）were sitting on a busy street corner of a big city. They watched _______ as a lot of people walked by without looking at them. Sometimes, a kind-hearted woman or a small child would _______ a few coins in the hats in front of them.

Today was not a _______ day for begging. The men were able to _______ enough for a big meal. As it was getting dark, they started to _______ their things.

Just as they were getting ready to leave, they _______ a man walking toward them. He was a _______ man—they could tell that from his fine clothes. The first beggar said to the second with _______, "He's coming our way！"The man stopped, _______ into his pocket and took something out. What looked like a piece of hard ________, wrapped（裹）in white paper, hit each of their waiting hats. The rich man turned and ________ his way.

"He could have easily left us a few ________ or a bill, but he laughed at us with a piece of rock candy, " said the first beggar. He looked at the offering ________. "There's no way we can ________ this-we have no teeth. "With these words, he picked up the thing and threw it away. Then he collected his things and ________.

The second beggar wanted to do the same, ________ a second thought made him change his ________. "I haven't had anything like this for ages, "he thought. " How ________ of that man to offer me something so sweet！" With that, he opened the white paper. To his ________ there was no hard rock candy inside. ________, a shiny white pearl（珍珠）worth thousands of dollars fell into his hand.

   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.