Summertime has always been my absolute favorite time of the year. When I was in school，I just lived for the long summer holidays when I could play with my friends and my sister all day at our ease. Everyone has different associations with summer. For some，they think of the smell of freshly cut grass，for some it's lying on a beach reading a book and for others it might be the taste of lemonade or ice cream. I am so happy to be spending this summer with my family and childhood friends here in the Highlands of Scotland after a year away in France.

One of my favorite things to do in summer is go to see the Highlands. These events happen all across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland over the summer and are a great chance for friends and families to get together and support the local community. A Highland Games event is a big gathering with food stalls（货摊），fair games for children and sports competitions. Many of the sports are very specific to Scottish tradition such as "caber toss". This is a competition in which the competitors attempt to lift a full-length tree log and throw it into the air. The oldest Highland Games of Scotland are now an iconic（象征性的）part of the Scottish summer.

Summer just would not be complete for me without my favorite fruit-strawberries. Here in the Highlands，strawberries are grown as one of the best-sellers over the summer months and one thing I love to do on a warm summer afternoon is to pick some strawberries to eat with cream at the end of the day. If you come here，I think you will fall in love with them.

   A couple of years ago I graduated from art school. After graduation I was unsure of what to do with my degree. I had majored in Illustration（插画专业）and loved it，but didn't really feel interested in doing illustrations for any companies. This left me with few options other than freelance（自由职业的）jobs and nannying.

I spent two years working as a nanny doing freelance illustrations on the side. It just wasn't quite enough to pay rent, but I loved it, so I worked well over 50 hours a week, trying to keep up with both.

Just under a year ago I went to a friend's wedding. I couldn't think of a gift for them and really didn't have a lot of money to spare so I used my talents to create a portrait for them. It wasn't much, but I hoped it would be a good gift. When I handed the portrait to them and they unwrapped it, the looks on their faces were something I did not expect. There were joyful tears in their eyes as they cried, "That's us! This is so beautiful!"

It's funny because when I was in art school portraits were always my least favourite assignment. I hated drawing people and was always so much more interested in drawing little furry creatures. Once I saw the looks on my friends' faces after giving them their portrait, it was all over. I suddenly loved portraits and wanted to do more.

I now take portraits to every wedding I go to and have given them as gifts to the families I nannied for. Every time the reaction makes all of the hard work and time I put into them so worth it.

I' ve just started offering couple, family and pet portraits as an item on my Etsy shop.

   Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table, reading his book. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to copy him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa, I try to read the book just like you, but I don’t understand it, and I forget what I understand as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the book do?”

The grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandpa laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned. Out of breath, he told his grandpa that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, so he went to get a bucket instead. The grandpa said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough.” The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandpa the basket was empty again. Out of breath, he said, “Grandpa, it’s useless!”

“So, you think it is useless?” the grandpa said, “Look at the basket.”

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean.

“Grandson, that’s what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you’ll be changed, inside and out.”

   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.