3 . When Marco was a boy, he tried everything to get his father’s love and attention. He studied hard to get good _______ and tried to behave well. He was shy and shorter than the other boys. Besides, his father was _______ and had little time for him. Except for his _______ for housework after school, there was no communication. Marco felt very _______.

One day, his maths teacher called him that some young teenagers were _______ a public speaking contest. She thought he should give it a _______. She firmly believed he could perform on stage (舞台) like other kids. Feeling her strong trust, Marco agreed to _______ the contest.

All winter, he took a bus to _______ twice a week in another city, where the competition would take place. Marco was taken by a strong _______ he never felt before. Finally, the big day arrived. His father, and yes, his maths teacher, were present. When he stepped onto the stage and began to speak, he felt ________ at home. He was funny, and acted very natural. He won! He noticed his father’s eyes were ________— he was so proud. It was then that his father ________ he should pay more attention to the child.

As the winner, his name was ________ in the local papers. He knew this was the ________ of his new life. It all happened because of a phone call, from one who ________ him.

5 . The Best Thing that ever Happened for Being Nice

A few weeks ago, my family and I were at a restaurant. We had just finished having lunch when I excused myself to go to the _________.

When I was in one of the stalls (隔间), the lady in the stall next to me was saying something. At first, I didn’t realize what she was saying, but _________, I heard her say, “No tissue! No tissue!” with an accent (口音). She seemed like she was really panicking (恐慌), so I asked her if she ran out of toilet paper. Thankfully, she   _________ me and said, “Yes! Yes!”

I passed her some paper. When we got out of the toilet stall, she kept _________ me over and over. I said, “You’re welcome, Ma’am,” and tried to leave. The lady stopped me _________ the toilet again, saying some things that I couldn’t understand. I simply smiled at her and agreed quietly. She then _________ on buying my lunch. I tried to politely _________, but the lady seemed so happy and determined to_________ me to lunch that I finally accepted.

Some people were staring at me and the lady as I walked back to my family and our table, but I didn’t care. The lady was _________ like I had just saved her life, and I was feeling like a _________.

When I got back to our table, my parents were looking at me, puzzled. Their daughter had simply intended to go to the toilet for a minute or two, _________ she came back with her entire meal completely paid for. When they asked me to explain everything, I kept laughing for a while before I could get out a single word.

A few moments later, someone came up to us. It was the lady again. She thanked me again then _________ that she had just moved to our _________ and that her English wasn’t very good. She also said that she had been in that toilet stall for a long time, and despite her calling out to people, no one gave her toilet paper. She thanked me again.

The best thing that happened to me that day was not only getting a _________ meal, but more importantly, gaining a new understanding of what it means to be truly _________. The next time you have a chance to help a stranger, remember this story.

7 . The First Try

Every girl dreams and Mary is no ________. She has read dozens of books on how to be a ballet dancer and Swan Lake is her favorite. She ________ one day her dream will come true. She has taken ballet lessons and all her teachers ________ she is a good student.

One day she saw an advertisement that a famous ballet troupe（芭蕾舞剧团）will be ________ in her hometown. Her thoughts ran wild, “I must meet the leader of the troupe and show him my ________.”

She dressed herself in her ballet costume and ________ to hide in the dressing room. To her luck, the leader entered and she ________ approached him and handed him a bunch of red roses and in her ________ the thorns（刺） pricked her hand but she did not ________ the pain. Mary told him her dream. “Alright, you dance and I will give you my verdict（意见）.”________, half way through the dance he stopped her, “I’m sorry you’re not good enough!” On hearing this Mary was ________ and gave up her dream.

Years later, the same ballet troupe was performing in her town again. Bitter（痛苦的） ________ of the leader’s harsh words came back to her. This time she was determined to find out why the leader had told her she was not good enough when all her teachers thought ________.

This was his reply, “I tell this to every student.” She angrily shot back, “You’ve ________ my life!” Then she got a further shock. “I remember your gift of roses and how the thorns had pricked your fingers but you carried on bravely. If you only had treated ballet like that and did not give up so easily; therefore, you still ________ my verdict!”

8 . One day, it was raining heavily and I didn't have an umbrella I had just ________ a bus and had to walk back to my house. I ________ walking in that direction, when 1 heard somebody shouting, “Sister, sister.” I looked back and saw the stationery shopkeeper. I went to him and asked what was the ________. He said that ________ it was raining heavily, I could take a seat in his shop, have a look at his new ________ and go home when the rain stopped.

I ________ for a moment, but the idea of getting to have a look at the pens made me nod.

To my ________ I found that the shop was larger than I thought. The stationery shopkeeper offered me a chair and took out the pens for me. I ________ a beautiful Parker (派克) pen and had a try. It wrote so ________ that I wanted to buy it with all my heart, ________ as expected it was very expensive. The shopkeeper said, “I can give you the pen for ninety-five dollars ________ one hundred.” I looked up and thanked him for the ________ but refused politely as it was still quite expensive for me. By that time, the rain had stopped, and after ________ his kindness, I quickly walked back to my house.

After that day, the shop became my favourite place to ________. Although both of us knew nothing about each other, we had a deep friendship based on our ________ interests.

9 . Being admitted to hospital is boring. Since childhood Kevin Gatlin has been bored by the ________ environments of hospital rooms so he came up with a ________ solution to help with the hospital depressions as a means of making sure that his children were never forced to ________ the same boredom.

Gatlin is the ________ behind Playtime Edventures, featuring dozens of games and lessons for children ________ to their hospital beds. Several years ago, Gatlin went to ________ his friend's child in hospital. He got the ________ for the bed sheets.

It was ________ to see a child spending hours and hours in a plain white room. He ________ how his wife had always played games on his son's bed in order to ________ him to fall asleep. Gatlin then spent the next two years ________ the sheets so that children could be entertained from ________ of their own bed.

He also worked with teachers to make the games ________ "We put together bedsheets and sleep bags that cover everything from geography, math, science, grammar, word find games...all on a three-piece set," Gatlin said. Up till now, Gatlin knows that his ________ are being used in 10 different hospitals. But since his customers are able to ________ the bedsheets to their own local hospitals, that number could be much higher. Therefore, more kids can benefit.

10 . I remember sitting in an airport one day, waiting for my flight. 1 was______because I had a first-class(头等的)ticket. And in first class, the seats are______and the food is more delicious. Actually, I had the best seat on the whole plane! Seat 1A. Before boarding, I______a young lady who had a big suitcase(手提箱)and several carry-on bags was holding a crying baby. _______,the handle(把手)of her suitcase broke and the suitcase fell to the floor．She tried______the case and her bags landed on the floor, too.

“Let me help,”I said to her.

__ her suitcase over my left shoulder，put her bags on my right and asked, ‘‘Where to?”

“Gate 20, ”she said, and showed me her ticket. Seat 24B.

“Oh, we are on the same flight.’’

Boarding started, and I______that she needed the first—class ticket. ‘‘It looks like you could use this first-class ticket more than me. I know how______it can be flying with a kid. Why don’t we trade tickets?’’

“Are you sure'?”she asked.

“Yes, just take my ticket and give me yours. I really don’t______. I’m just going to be working the whole time, anyway.’’

“That’s very kind of you,”she said, and expressed her______as we traded our tickets.

Then we boarded the plane.I was surprised at the good______it gave me while watching her sit down in seat l A. In fact, seat 24B or______I was sitting didn’1 seem that bad at all. At one point during the flight I really wanted to see how she was doing. So I______, walked to the first—class section, and had a look. There she was with her baby, ______asleep. Seeing they were sleeping in big and______seat l A, I felt like a million bucks. I’ve got to keep doing this kind of thing.