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.”

As a popular saying goes, “Time is money.” But does time definitely mean money? In fact this is not the case.

   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.

   Nowadays，an increasing number of people are indifferent to others and unwilling to help others who are in trouble. In their opinion, what _______ is their own interests, and they are simply not _______ about whether those people live or die. How terrible the phenomenon（现象）is!However, I _______ believe that helping others is helping yourself in one way or another.

Then I will explain why helping others can _______ ourselves in more detail.

When you  help others, you will find yourself becoming confident. Take myself as a（n）________ .

When I was a little girl, I dared not talk with others and I preferred staying _______ . One day in an art class, my deskmate _______ to bring color pens, then I _______ lent her mine. She appreciated my help but was _______    because I rarely talked. After that, she often chatted with me and helped me become a（n）________ girl, and she also helped me when I was in trouble. There is no ________ that we became best friends. What benefited me most was that I gained confidence and was willing to ________ others. If I hadn't lent my color pens to her, she might have been punished by the teacher, and I wouldn't have been confident so soon. Through this thing, I have come to ________ helping others is helping yourself in one way.

________ , when you help others, you will feel very pleased. As the Chinese old saying ________ ，“Fragrance（香味）will be reserved in your hand when you present others with roses. ”________ someone meets with some difficulties, then you come to help him. “Thank you”will make you feel that you have done a rewarding thing and your ________ is much more than the person who gets your help. What a wonderful thing it is!

From what have been discussed above, we can safely arrive at the ________ that helping others is helping yourself. Helping others can1 not only bring others pleasure, but also bring ourselves pleasure and confidence. This time we helped others, maybe ________ when we are in trouble, others will help us. So we should try our best to form the habit of helping others. Only in this way can the world become warmer and more ________ .