When my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks in the countryside with our uncle. He was a geologist(地质学家) and loved to go on walks to1 stones. One day, he bought us2 and asked us to go to the mountain with him and carry the stones.
The whole day we walked around. Every now and then he put 3 in our bags. We were a bit 4 that he also took some stones out from our bags at times. But we thought he had just found5 stones than the ones we already had.
Still, 6 we returned to the house, we were very tired. The backpacks were so heavy that we felt great 7 when we took them off. 8 uncle's backpack was half empty.
"Why did you give us so many stones?" we asked.
"l didn't.9 did," he said. "You didn't know it, but I gave you a little attitude ( 态 度 ) test today."
"What do you mean by an 'attitude test'?" we wondered.
"10 you were complaining(抱怨), I added a stone to your bags. Whenever you talked about something with positive( 积 极 的 ) thinking, I11 a stone. And now look at your backpacks."
We did. The bags were almost12.
"Your negative(负面的) thoughts are like stones. You carry them in your 13 just like those stones in a backpack. The more negative thoughts, the 14 your mind. So look at those bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say things."
With great love, our uncle taught us one of the most important 15 in life—the power of attitude.
