Years ago, a critical event occurred in my life that would change it forever. I met Kurt Kampmeir of Success Motivation Incorporation for breakfast. While we were (1) ______,Kurt asked me, "John, what is your (2) ______ for personal growth?"
Never at a loss for words, I tried to find things in my life that might (3) ______ for growth. I told him about the many activities in which I was (4) ______. And I went into a (5) ______ about how hard I worked and the gains I was making. I must have talked for ten minutes. Kurt (6) ______ patiently, but then he (7) ______ smiled and said, "You don’t have a personal plan for growth, do you?"
"No, I (8) ______."
"You know," Kurt said simply, "growth is not a(n) (9) ______ process."
And that’s when it (10) ______ me. I wasn’t doing anything (11) ______ to make myself better. And at that moment, I made the (12) ______ I will develop and follow a personal growth plan for my (13) ______.
That night, I talked to my wife about my (14) ______ with Kurt and what I had learned. I (15) ______ her the workbook and tapes Kurt was selling. We (16) ______ that Kurt wasn’t just trying to make a sale. He was offering a (17) ______ for us to change our lives and achieve our dreams.
Several important things happened that day. First, we decided to (18) ______ the resources. But more importantly, we made a commitment to (19) ______ together as a couple. From that day on, we learned together, traveled together, and sacrificed together. It was a (20) ______ decision. While too many couples grow apart, we were growing together.
It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.
In recent years, many writers have begun to speak the 'decline of class' and 'classless society' in Britain. And in modern day consumer society everyone is considered to be middle class.
But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging society of public opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in particular class; 73 percent agreed that class was still a vital part of British society; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an important part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.
One unchanging aspect of a British person's class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice, Most people said this accent sounded 'educated' and 'soft'. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional（地区的）city accents. These accents were seen as 'common' and 'ugly'. However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice.
In recent years, however, young upper middle-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song 'Common People' puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may 'want to live like common people' they can never appreciate the reality of a working-class life.
假如你是李夏。你看到有美国留学生Sharon在网上发贴，希望有人能帮助她提高普通话（Mandarin）水平，她可以教英语作为回报。请银据以下提示用英语给她写一封电于哪件。
(1) 表达给她提供帮助的意愿；
(2) 说明你能胜任辅导的理由；
(3) 给出讲好普通话的两点建议；
(4) 提出你学习英语的具体需求。
注意：
(1) 词数120左右，开头语已为你写好；
(2) 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
(3) 文中不得透漏个人姓名和学校名称；
Hi Sharon,
This is Li Xia. I learned from your post that you want to improve your Mandarm.
In 2004, when my daughter Becky was ten, she and my husband, Joe, were united in their desire for a dog. As for me, I shared none of their canine lust.
But why, they pleaded. “Because I don’t have tine to take care of a dog.” But we’ll do it. “Really? You’re going to walk the dog? Feed the dog? Bathe the dog?” Yes,yes and yes.”I don’t believe you.” We will. We promise.
They didn’t. From day two (everyone wanted to walk the cute puppy that first day), neither thought to walk the dog. While I was slow to accept that I would be the one to keep track of her shots, to schedule her vet appointments, to feed and clean her, Misty knew this on day one. As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large), she calculated, "The medium one is the sucker in the pack."
Quickly, she and I developed something very similar to a Vulcan mind meld(心灵融合). She’d look at me with those sad brown eyes of hers, beam her need, and then wait, trusting I would understand---which, strangely, I almost always did. In no time, she became my fifth appendage(附肢), snoring on my stomach as I watched television.
Even so, part of me continued to resent walking duty. Joe and Becky had promised. Not fair, I’d balk(不心甘情愿地做) silently as she and I walked.“Not fair,” I’d loudly remind anyone within earshot upon our return home.
Then one day-January 1, 2007, to be exact-my husband’s doctor uttered an unthinkable word: leukemia (白血病). With that, I spent eight to ten hours a day with Joe in the hospital, doing anything and everything I could to ease his discomfort. During those six months of hospitalizations, Becky, 12 at that time, adjusted to other adults being in the house when she returned from school. My work colleagues adjusted to my taking off at a moment’s notice for medical emergencies. Every part of my life changed; no part of my old routine remained.
Save one: Misty still needed walking. At the beginning, when friends offered to take her through her paces, I declined because I knew they had their own households to deal with.
As the months went by, I began to realize that I actually wanted to walk Misty. The walk in the morning before I headed to the hospital was a quiet, peaceful time to gather my thoughts or to just be before the day’s medical drama unfolded. The evening walk was a time to shake off the day’s upsets and let the worry tracks in my head go to white noise.
When serious illness visits your household, it’s not just your daily routine and your assumptions about the future that are no longer familiar. Pretty much everyone you know acts differently.
Not Misty. Take her for a walk, and she had no interest in Joe’s blood or bone marrow test results. On the street or in the park, she had only one thing on her mind: squirrels! She was so joyful that even on the worst days, she could make me smile. On a daily basis, she reminded me that life goes on.
After Joe died in 2009, Misty slept on his pillow.
I’m grateful-to a point. The truth is, after years of balking, I’ve come to enjoy my walks with Misty. As I watch her chase a squirrel, throwing her whole being into the here-and-now of an exercise that has never once ended in victory, she reminded me, too, that no matter how harsh the present or unpredictable the future, there’s almost always some measure of joy to be extracted from the moment.