Blind people can read. They do so by running their fingers along a line of raised points or dots on paper. Of course, they first have to learn the code（代码）. Here are some examples of it. One dot stands for the letter “A”. Two dots side by side mean “C”. Four dots arranged to look like a box（：：） stand for the letter “G”. By placing the dots in special patterns, all the letters of the alphabet can be formed.

This code was made up by a Frenchman called Louis Braille. Though he could see at birth, he became sightless when he was only three. Braille was cutting leather in his father’s shop. His knife slipped and cut his eye. Infection（感染）spread to both eyes, and he became blind.

At 10, he was placed in a home for the blind. But young Braille had great talent. He became a skilled musician and soon got a job as a church organist（风琴弹奏者）in Paris.

Because he had talent and was quick, he became a teacher at a school for the blind. While there, he heard that a captain had sent messages to his soldiers that they could read at night without light. His messages were in the simple form of raised dots and dashes. This was the clue Braille needed. At the age of 15, he worked out his own six-dot code. Each group of dots is called a cell. The cells are three dots high and two dots wide. For the rest of his life, Braille taught his young flock to read both written and musical works using his code.

For the last 17 years of his life, Braille was ill with tuberculosis. He died at the age of 43.

   Just like everyone，I have experienced ups and downs in my life. I am an aerospace engineer（航空工程师）from India. I was told by my relatives，close friends and others that it was _________ for a non-IT student to pursue（继续进行）a master's degree in IT and graduate from a US university.

I had never taken courses _________ to computers or programming. I was never interested in being a _________，but things changed. Computers became my companion and I _________ how dependent on them I was. I _________ imagining the backend processes happening inside the CPU and they amazed me. That's why I _________ to pursue a master's degree in IT.

At first，it was too _________. Coming from a middle-class family，the huge cost was a big _________. My English accent was terrible. Most _________，the course seemed impossible at first. But I never __________.

I got a few offers，but I decided to choose my university __________ it promises students to help them learn practically. During my first month，it was difficult to understand the American's __________ and finish my assignments. But I never gave up. I walked two miles to the __________ every day so that I could use my travel money to buy a meal. I started looking for __________ and I got an offer to work as a student assistant.

I took it as a __________, and I believed that hard work was my strength. Right now I am graduating with good grades and a job offer from a company that has asked me to start right after ________.

If you want to achieve something, you need to __________ yourself and start working on your __________.

Hard work always pays off. To be __________, you need to start from somewhere and always question yourself about the limits of how far you would go to __________ your goals.

   I have received many Christmas gifts over the years. I remember many of them, from the tape recorder I _____ from my dad in 1975 to the black guitar my wife gave me several years ago. The best gift I ever received was presented to me by a _____. I never even knew his name and I only had contact with him for less than 60 _____. His Christmas present to me changed the way I thought about _____ and about Christmas.

It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local _____. They had advertised a kind of _____ for children that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle, _____ his employees to cut the shrink-wrap off the box. After a while the whistle was blown. It was like _____ a bucket of bait (鱼饵) into a tank of sharks. I knew this was going to happen.

As the bikes began to _____ decrease in number, I saw my opportunity to wrap my ______ around the corner of one of the boxes. I ______ one box and suddenly felt some mild resistance. I ______ to see one of the largest gentlemen I had ever seen in my life. I felt somewhat ______. Obviously, tattoos (文身) were his hobby.

I started to ______ the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then ______ it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, ______, and said, “Merry Christmas.” My wife and I went to the ______, paid for the bike and went home. All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best Christmas ______ I had ever received. I will never forget the ______ of a stranger and the gentleness of a human heart in a ______ act.

Some taxi drivers often like to chat with passengers to kill time when the taxis are caught 【小题1】 traffic jams. The other day，I went home by taxi. Knowing I was a student，the driver told me that he was once a student twenty years ago. 【小题2】（fortunate），his family could not afford the school fees，so he dropped out of school at 【小题3】 early age. He encouraged me 【小题4】（work）hard and go to a good college. I 【小题5】 (move) by his kindness, but what really impressed me next was his honesty. After arriving home, I soon realized that I 【小题6】 (leave) my cell phone in the taxi. Greatly worried,I immediately called my number, 【小题7】 (pray) the driver would answer. Then came the driver's voice from the other end. He told me he had been expecting my call and that he would gladly return my phone 【小题8】 he dropped me off 【小题9】 (early) that day. Thanks to the driver, I got my phone back. I believe honesty is one of the greatest 【小题10】 (quality)a person should have.

   There was once a group of young people searching everywhere for happiness，but what they got was only trouble，sadness and suffering.

So they_____ to Socrates for advice on where happiness lay. But_____ giving any answers，Socrates asked them to help with building a_____ first. The group of guys had to_____ the task，laying aside their own business of seeking happiness. It took them a long time to cut down a tall tree，gouging out（挖出）the center. Through great effort，they made a boat out of the tree. They put the boat into a river，and then_____ together in it，singing with ___.

Socrates asked，“My children，do you have happiness now？” They answered in chorus（齐声地），“We couldn’t be happier！”Socrates_____ ，“That’s it！_____ you are too busy pursuing（追求）something to notice anything bitter，happiness will _____ .”

From the story I got to know that happiness______ hides behind every______ thing that you are involved in，and that you may only get pleasure through______ work and creativity.

We may have to______ pain in our daily life and in the process of seeking happiness. Sometimes we______ to look for happiness in______ things，like a new car，new clothes，etc. True long-term happiness，______，comes from within our______ and spirit. So why not turn suffering into______ life，and turn tears into the light in your heart? Only in this way can we find ______ happiness.

So my dear friends，just remember happiness is a state of mind and a matter of ______，and I wish you all a life of happiness.