During my second year at the city college. I was told that the education department was offering a "free" course (课程) called Thinking Chess for three credits (学分). I jumped at the idea of taking the class because, after all, who doesn't want to ______ a few dollars? More than that, I'd always wanted to learn chess. And, even if I weren't excited enough about free credits, news about our instructor was appealing enough to me. He was an international grandmaster (大师), which _______ I would be learning from one of the game's best. I could hardly wait to him.

The instructor Ashley was kind and smart, a former graduate returning to teach, and this meet was no game for him. He meant business. In his introduction, he made it job real that our credits would be hard-earned. In order to ________the class, we had to write a paper on how we plan to _______ what we would learn in class to our future professions and, finally to our lives. I managed to get an A in that ______ and learned life lessons that have served me well beyond the _______.

Ten years after my chess class with Ashley, I'm still putting to use what he _______ me: The most important _______ that you learn when you play chess is how to make good ________. On every single move you have to analyze (分析) a situation, process what your opponent (对手) is doing and evaluate (评估) the best move from among all your choices, these words still ring true today in my ______ as a journalist.