The Gist & Tolerance of Ambiguity

Today students had to hand in their assignment for last weekend. It was an article entitled "Wings of Life," which is one of my favorites. The article was given with 10 words missing, which are all verbs. The students had to choose from the ten words given below the article a right word for each blank and then on the back of the handout write the theme of the story.

A student in Class 311, when handing in the assignment, asked me to go over her answers. Though she made a few mistakes, she told me she could still know what the story was about. I told her she was on the right track. In reading an article, we don't need to understand every single word in order to know what the article is about. Tolerance of ambiguity comes into play here.

According to some studies, people with higher tolerance of ambiguity are better language learners. They won't be intimidated by unfamiliar words or difficult sentences, but just keep going.

The following is part of the assignment. 

Mission 1: This is a game. Select a word from the box for each blank to complete the story. 

Due on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011 

Wings of Life 

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it ¹___________________ to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to ²___________________ making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further. 

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and ³____________________ off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then ⁴___________________ easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. 

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would ⁵__________________ and expand to be able to support the body, which would ⁶___________________ in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. 

What the man in his kindness and haste did not ⁷_________________ was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle ⁸__________________ for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it ⁹___________________ its freedom from the cocoon. 

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would ¹⁰___________________ us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. 

And we could never fly.  

achieved... contract... cripple... emerged... stop  enlarge... required... struggled... snipped... understand