3 . It was when I first started college. People in my dormitory “warned” me about a(n) ________ character that would randomly appear around campus. She would wear a teddy bear costume and hug ________. No one had any clue as to her ________ or why she was doing it.

One late night when I was ________ my dormitory, and right behind a building, a teddy bear head popped out! I was full of ________, and she started to jump into the air and ________ at me! Then she stretched her arms out for a hug. Not quite knowing how to ________, I reached my arms out, and she ________ me like we were best ________! She then waved goodbye and skipped away into the night.

Then, one night, I was out and ________ a figure running across a parking lot. Moments later, I heard sickening crying; ________, someone was ________. I made my way over to find the girl lying on the ground, ________ injuring herself. I helped her up and ________ for an ambulance and as we waited, I eventually ________ her to take off the costume. She looked like any ________ girl in her late teens to early twenties.

When I called the police a few days later to make sure that she was okay, I was told that she was actually ________ throughout the local police department. As it turned out, she suffered from a mental illness, and to ________ some of her pressure, she gave people hugs and it made her calmer. She chose to dress up in a teddy bear suit to make herself look less ________ to other people. No one saw her again after that. I chose to keep that encounter and her identity as a (n) ________ to protect her.

5 . “Anything is possible at any age.” I got a deeper understanding of it when in college. On the first day of school we were challenged to get to know a new classmate. I was looking around ___________ a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I found a little old _________with a warm smile.

She said “Hi, handsome! I’m Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug?” I laughed and _________ responded, “Of course!”

“Why are you in college _________ such a young innocent (天真无邪的) age?” I asked.

“I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have children, and then travel around.” She jokingly replied.

“Seriously?” I asked. I was _________ why she took on this challenge.

“I always _________having a college education and now I’m getting one!” She told me.

We became _________ instantly.

Over the year, Rose became a campus icon (偶像) and she easily made friends _________ she went. She loved to dress up and she enjoyed the _________ from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the term, we ____________ Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never ____________ what she taught us.

“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we ____________ playing. Here are the secrets to staying young. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a ____________. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have many people walking around ____________ are dead, and they don’t even know it!” she said.

“There is a huge ____________ between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t ____________ any talent or ability,” she added. “But growing up ____________ finding the opportunity in change. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what they did, ____________ rather for things they did not do.”

One week after ____________ that year, Rose died peacefully in her sleep. She taught us by example that it’s ____________ too late to be all you can possibly be. Just keep doing what you love.

6 . The New Year was heartbreaking for Melanie Lee. A few weeks earlier, her 33-year-old son had ________ his battle with a long illness. Then the engine on her old car ________ working. She had no means of paying for it to be fixed.

“When it ________, I broke down,” Lee said. “Now I don’t have my ________, now I don’t have transportation. How am I supposed to stay ________ in my grandchildren’s lives?”

Eliot Middleton, 38, the owner of a barbecue restaurant and a former auto mechanic who, in his free time, ________ and gives away used cars. He’d heard about Lee’s difficult ________ from her nephew. On New Year’s morning, Middleton showed up unannounced at Lee’s home with a(n) ________: a white 1933 Oldsmobile.

“I had no idea what was going on,” said Lee. “He ________ me the keys and didn’t ask for anything.” Once again, she was able to ________ her granddaughters from school and take them to dance classes. “I got my ________ back.”

The ________ for the used-car giving away came to Middleton a year earlier during a ________ drive he’d organized. Many of those who’d lined up for a meal ________ up to four miles to get there because they didn’t have cars.

________ are the lifeline in this part of South Carolina, Middleton said. There’s no public ________, no taxis to take people to doctor appointments, even food shopping. So he ________ on a social media platform an offer to trade his restaurant’s specialty for broken-down ________. Since then, people have left more than 100 cars in ________ states of disrepair. Many cars sit in Middleton’s yard waiting to be fixed and ________, usually to those he’s heard about by word of mouth.

It’s a list of names that grow daily.

“People think Middleton is a good man,” Lee’s nephew said. “And I do too.”

7 . In 1971 a young man who grew up very poor was travelling across the country, trying to make a new start for himself. Along the way he had completely run out of _________ and was forced to spend the night in his car. This _________ until one morning, after a week of sleeping in his car, he walked _________ into a restaurant and ordered a big breakfast.

After eating his first good meal in _________, he found himself _________ to the waiter, telling him he had lost his _________. The waiter, who was also the owner, walked _________ the chair where the young man had been sitting. He bent down, _________ a $20 bill that looked _________ it had fallen on the floor and said, “Son, you must have __________ this,” the owner said. The young man couldn't believe his good __________! He quickly paid for the breakfast, left a __________ , bought gas with the change, and headed West.

On the way out of town, he began to understand __________ the fellow did. Maybe nobody dropped the money __________ . “Maybe that fellow just knew I was __________ and he helped me in a way that didn't embarrass (使困窘) me. So I just made a __________ to help others if I can.”

Later, he worked very hard and became a (an) __________ man. Now, he lives near Kansas City. Each year he __________ thousands of dollars. He is known as the “Secret Santa” because at __________ time each year, he personally hands money out to those on the streets and at __________. Last year, he gave more than $50,000 away in Kansas City.

8 . I’d just gotten out of hospital myself. Five days after my mother________ , a tire of my car blew. I was going 50mph when I completely lost ________: my car________ head—on into a concrete barrier. I should have been ________ but fortunately I survived. Physically I healed quickly, but the________ injuries and fear of my own death stayed on. Soon even________ activities, like driving a car or visiting my doctor, filled me with great fear. Eventually I fell into a state of________and stopped seeing friends. I even didn’t want to go anywhere and feel anything.

Then, last February, I was invited by my friends to go________in Colorado. My first response was to________. I didn’t want to get on a plane, attach sticks ________ my feet or slide down a mountain. The mere thought of meeting new people________me. But I had a sense that this journey might be the brilliant sunlight I________needed. I finally agreed.

The first day, I was________with Peter, an experienced coach. He sensed my fear, patiently removing it with a smile and jokes. I was absolutely terrified of ________myself, but his gentle encouragement kept me going. Then he said something that made me nod in recognition, “Jill, fear________everything.” Peter was talking about skiing, about how your muscles ________when you are afraid, often causing you to fall. And it’s particularly true in life as well. When you permit fear to ________you from doing what you love, life stops. With Peter’s words in mind, I kept practicing.

By the end of the day, I’d improved enough to fly down hills that had ________me, a bright smile on my face and tears in my eyes. Tears were not from the cold but from________. I’d faced my fears on the mountain, and I knew________the rest wouldn’t be far behind.

10 . My wife and I owned two dogs that we had owned before we met and brought into the ________. Her dog was a pit bull named Zack, and he ________ me. When our daughter was born, I was worried that the pit bull would be dangerous to be ________ our young daughter. I warned my wife that the dog would have to go at the first ________ of trouble. I said, “If he nips (啃咬) at the baby, he’d go. ”

We brought our daughter home in a car seat, and both dogs sniffed and licked her, tails wagging. I had to ________ Zack away from her because he ________ stop licking her. Zack immediately became my daughter’s ________, and when she was lying on a blanket on the floor, he always had to have one foot on the blanket.

Zack loved my daughter ________, and when she became a little older he always walked her to bed, and then slept on the bed with her. He ________ knew whenever it was time to go ________, and he would wait at the ________ of the stairs for her, and then follow her up to bed.

Zack was poisoned by some neighbor kids, and we had one of the worst days of our lives.________ my daughter say goodbye to him as he lay ________ on the kitchen floor, my wife and I were both sobbing.

At 8:00 that night, my daughter walked to the stairs to go to bed. At that moment, all three of us realized ________ was about to happen. My daughter looked at her mother and me with a look of horror and ________. It was at that moment ________ my dog, Sam, which loved my daughter dearly, stood up, walked over to her, and ________ her with his head. He put his foot on the ________, and looked up at her. They walked up to bed, with my daughter holding his neck ________.

For the next six years,________ he died, Sam waited for her by the stairs each night.