I regret ________ that you have failed the exam, but what you should do now is not to regret ______ so much time but to seize every moment from now on.

I was working with a client who was completely burned out on her career and life and then ready for a career change. As we were talking, she said, “I just wish I had meaningful work. I don’t feel like I am making a difference. I am just wasting my life.” This is the theme I hear most often from clients who have been in the workforce awhile.All of us want to feel like we are making a difference. We want to believe our work means something. The problem comes in defining “meaningful work”. What is it? That answer is different for everyone. For some meaningful work might be helping others organize their office. For others it may mean making a million dollars.
What really matters is how you see it. What is meaningful work to you? Take out a piece of paper and answer these questions. How do you define meaningful work? When do you feel like you are really making a difference? What work have you done so far that feels the most meaningful? Write down whatever comes to mind.
What you want to do is meaningful. It is very easy to start judging yourself as being selfish. Stop! Allow yourself to be honest. The fact is when Picasso painted; he was doing it because he liked to paint. He was not thinking, “Oh, I hope this brings joy to others’ lives.” He painted because he wanted to. When Beethoven composed, he did it because he loved music. Even scientists searching for a cure for cancer are immersed in their work because it fascinates them.
Don’t look down on your work. It is easy to downplay the importance of work that feels meaningful. I remember Tony Robbins told a story of talking with the owner of a major company. The man said to Tony, “I wish I could do what you do because it makes such adifference in people’s lives”. Tony said, “You have got to be kidding! Look at what adifference you make. You provide work, health insurance and security for thousands ofpeople!” Don’t underestimate the value you provide.
Take a look at what you have written about meaningful work. Do you see any themes? How do you wish to contribute to this world? Whatever you choose, remember that the greatest gift you can give is to find work that makes you feel fulfilled and delighted. Respect your preference because giving your gifts to the world, whatever they look like, is the most meaningful action you can ever take.
【小题1】. What does the writer mean by mentioning the famous people?

One topic is rarely mentioned in all the talk of improving standards in our schools: the almost complete failure of foreign-language teaching. As a French graduate who has taught for more than twenty-five years, I have some ___1_____ of why the failure is so total.  2  the faults already found out in the education system as a whole, there have been several serious  3  which have a direct effect on language teaching.

The first is the removal from the curriculum (课程) of the thorough teaching of English  4?????? . Pupils now do not know a verb from a noun or the subject of a sentence from its object.

Another important error is mixed-ability teaching, or teaching in ability groups so  5  that the most able groups are  6  and are bored while the least able are lost and  7  bored.

Progress depends on memory, and pupils start to forget immediately they stop having 8  lessons. This is why many people who attended French lessons at school have forgotten it a few years later.

Most American schools have accepted what is necessary and  9  modern languages, even Spanish, from the curriculum. Perhaps it is time for Britain to do the same, and stop 10  resources on a subject which few pupils want or need.

A. questions   B. evidences     C. ideas          D. knowledges

A. Due to      B. In addition to        C. Instead of        D. In spite of

A. errors       B. situations             C. systems               D. methods

A. vocabulary   B. culture          C. grammar             D. sentences

A. wide        B. similar                C. separate               D. unique

A. kept out    B. turned down        C. held back            D. left behind

A. surprisingl   B. individually     C. equally              D. hardly

A. extra          B. traditional          C. basic                   D. regular

A. restored      B. absorbed            C. prohibited           D. remove

A. wasting      B. focusing          C. exploiting            D. sharing

— I regret _______ you that you failed the exam.

   — How I regret _______ so much time playing computer games.

    A. telling; wasting                         B. telling; to waste

    C. to tell; wasting                         D. to tell; to waste

Directions: For each blank in the passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
Many years ago I was on a bicycle trip through some exceedingly picturesque (如画的) countryside. Suddenly, dark clouds piled up overhead and rain began to fall, but strange to ___50___, several hundred yards ahead of me the sun shone brilliantly. Riding, however, as rapidly as I could, I found it ___51___ to get into the clear. The clouds with their rain kept advancing faster than I could race forward. I continued this unequal contest for an exhausting half hour, ___52___ realizing that I could not win my way to the bright area ahead of me.
Then it dawned upon me that I was wasting my strength in unimportant hurry, while paying no attention whatsoever to the landscape ___53___ which I was making the trip. The storm could not last forever and the discomfort was not unendurable. Indeed, there was much to look at which might ___54___ have escaped me. As I gazed about with sharpened ___55___, I saw colours and lines and shapes that would have appeared differently under brilliant light. The rain mists (薄雾) which now ___56___ the wooded hills and the fresh clearness of the different greens were entrancing (迷人的). My annoyance at the rain was gone and my eagerness to ___57___ it disappeared. It had provided me with a new view and helped me understand that the ___58___ of beauty and satisfaction may be found close at hand within the ___59___ of one’s own sensibilities.
It made me think, then and later, about other matters to which this incident was related. It helped me realize that there is no sense in my ___60___ ever to flee from circumstances and conditions which cannot be avoided but which I might bravely ___61___ and frequently mend and often turn to good account. I know that half the battle is won if I can face trouble with courage, __62__ with spirit, and triumph with humility. It has become ever clearer to me that danger is far from disaster, that defeat may be the forerunner of final ___63___, and that, in the last analysis, all achievement is dangerously weak ___64___ based on enduring principles of moral conduct.