A man found the cocoon ( 茧 ) of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to get out of the cocoon. Then it seemed to stop . It appeared to have gotten as far as it could, and to be able to go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remainder of the cocoon. The butterfly then got out easily. But it then had a weak body and small, shriveled ( 皱缩 ) wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he’d expected that, at any moment, the wings would grow, and it would fly off.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling ( 爬行 ) around weak and small. It was never able to fly .What a shame!
What the man, in his kindness and fast action, hadn't understood was the struggle required for the butterfly .The butterfly needed to get through the small opening itself ,so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If nature allowed us to go through our lives without any difficulties, it would weaken our abilities. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.
Fill in the blanks with the proper words or phrases.
| The man | The butterfly |
| found a cocoon and watched it | struggled to get out of 71 |
| 72 the remainder | got out easily, with a weak body and small wings |
| continued to watch | crawled and was never able to 73 |
| It’s through __74__ that a man can become __75__. | |
