1 . My name is Miranda Gibson. I have been at the top of a tree for five months now. Some people might wonder________on earth I would choose to do that.

I have walked through this forest many times. On December 12, 2011, ________rolled into the forest and the destruction (摧毁) began. I couldn’t________the thought that these forests would be________ forever. So, on December 14, 2011, I packed up my life, ________of my job plans, and climbed 60 meters to the top of this tree. I have been here ever since.

Life in the tree top can be________at times. I have times when I feel frustrated (沮丧的) and wish I could________, to anywhere, just have a ________of scenery for a minute! There are times too, when I feel terribly________.I miss my friends and family.________these times, I find myself loving the________.

Living on the tree has been inspiring. I am willing to________ here for as long as it takes,________I honestly hope it won’t be too________before I can put my feet on the ground below and stand in a forest that will never be________.

2 . It was just after sunrise on a June morning. “Nicolo,” whose real name cannot be _________ to the public because of Italy’s privacy laws, _________ working the whole night at a factory in Turin. As he often did, he stopped by the “after work auction (拍卖)”. There, among many other things, Nicolo spotted two paintings he thought would look _________ above his dining room table. Nicolo and another bidder _________ until Nicolo finally won the paintings for $32.

When Nicolo retired and went to live in Sicily, he _________ the paintings with him. His son, age 15, who had _________ an art appreciation class, thought that there was something _________ about the one with a young girl sitting on a garden chair. It was signed (签名)”Bonnato” or so he thought, but when he _________ it, he only found “Bonnard,” a French _________ he had never heard of. He bought a book and was __________ to find a picture of the artist Pierre Bonnard sitting on the same chair in the same __________ as his father’s painting.

“That’s the garden in our picture,” Nicolo’s son told his father. They __________ learned that the painting they __________ was called “The Girl with Two Chairs.” The __________ called the Italian Culture Ministry; the official confirmed that the painting was __________ and worth as much as $50 million.

3 . Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are ________ in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experienced ill fortune. I ________ notices in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my ________. Over the years I interviewed them, watched their lives and had them ________ various experiments.

I carried out a simple ________ to discover whether their differences in luck was due to differences in their ability to ________ opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had ________ placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying “Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50.”

This ________ took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to ________ it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more ________ than lucky people, and this anxiety affects their ability to notice the ________. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to gatherings focused on finding their perfect partner and miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers ________ to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there ________ just what they are looking for. My research eventually showed that lucky people create good fortune via four ________. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition (直觉), create self-fulfilling prophesies (预官) via positive expectations, and adopt a “never say die” attitude that ________ bad luck into good.

4 . Kimberly and I had planned a trip to Europe for a long time, but we encountered some curveballs. Getting the departure time wrong, we had to ________ from the original train trip to a ship one.

Boarding the ship, we ________ it was not like a spacious hotel. The room was incredibly tight. The ________ in the small bathroom was a spout (喷头) connected to the sink. You turned it on and sprayed yourself,________ the rest of the room.

The week-long ship travel was full of ________. There were people from diverse backgrounds speaking different languages. We had stopovers on ________ of all sizes, where we cycled 30-40 kilometers. Then there were whole gales (狂风) — so fierce that even the buses couldn’t pass for safety ________. So finally we ________ back home.

We still appreciated the experience. Our real passion was about the ________ rather than the destination — the missed rides, the ________ ship, the mixture of cultures, and all the ________.

Sometimes people are so ________ to their comfortable life that it scares them to be off the beaten track. Yet, once out of their comfort zone, the different experiences are what actually ________. Mixing things up, trying new things, seeing something through another person’s eyes, being ________ to adventure — this is how you create ________.

6 . The school where Rachel teaches serves free meals to its students. Before her adoring students left for their new year vacation, they ______ her with lots of gifts. But one gift from a girl, in particular, ______ her heart.

This girl wanted to get Rachel something so ______, but had nothing to give. So rather than offer nothing, she ______her free breakfast cereal (混合麦片) at school.

She took the ______ to pick every dried grape, the favorite part of her breakfast, out of her cereal and ______ them as an unusual new year present for her teacher.

Rachel posted the ______ story on Facebook, hoping to help people gain some ______ for what they have in their lives- because even when this youngster had nothing to offer, she was still willing to ______ her favorite dried grapes. Inspired by the kind gesture, many people contacted the school headmaster to make ______ “It makes me so proud of my kids that they have touched your hearts along with mine. ”

Rachel said. “Your ______ in offering gifts to both the students and me and your donations to our school have not gone _______. We are all deeply moved. ”

“My wish for all of you is to remember this kind and simple ______ of love from one of my school babies and carry it with you and continue to ______ love and kindness to everyone you meet-not just during this ______ season. ”

7 . Beer is the founder of United Hatzalah, a volunteer-run organization in Israel, dedicated to saving lives. Every year many people die from waiting for an ambulance to arrive because the ambulance got ________ in traffic or was simply too far away. Trying to solve this problem by using motorcycles, Beer ________ a team of volunteers from all ________ and stages of life and trained them to respond to emergencies. He then gave each of them a motorcycle equipped with medical ________. Then the volunteer went ________ to their daily lives.

United Hatzalah has a call center staffed ________ by volunteers. When someone calls to tell them of an emergency, they answer it in three seconds or less. Then Beer’s technology calculates which volunteer is closest to the ________. As soon as that volunteer is notified（通知）he or she ________ everything and rushes over.

When a volunteer arrives, he or she ________ CPR（心肺复苏）if necessary, and uses the medical equipment in the motorcycle to help the ill or ________. The goal is ________: Keep the patient alive until the regular ambulance arrives. According to Beer, an ambulance’s average response time is 12 to 15 minutes, while United Hatzalah volunteers ________ in three.

United Hatzalah’s medical care is ________ for patients because it’s run mostly by volunteers, and donations cover the ________ of supplies and staff. It clearly shows the ________ of individuals willing to use their abilities to help others.

9 . It was 2002. It was suggested that I should learn to drive, so my father decided to teach me.

Easier said than done. The driving plan was quietly _______ after I almost crashed his car into a stone wall. My next _______ was in 2006. This time, the_______ was a very nice friend. But after three sessions, he _______. “I can’t teach you,” he said. “You have no _______ at all.” To be honest, that was _______ to me. Actually, I thought I was afraid of many things — thunderstorms, forest fires, bears, but these were not the _______ kind for driving.

Nine years later, I had a life partner — Graeme Gibson — and a baby. One day, Graeme got his _______ seriously bitten when he helped _______ a dog trapped in the wire fence. Even so, he had to drive himself to the hospital ________ thanks to my inability to drive.

This accident ________ me and awoke my enthusiasm for learning. “That’s it,” I said, “I’m learning to drive.” I must ________ myself to support and protect my family. This time, I ________ a professional with nerves of steel. Despite various ________ ,I got my license finally. I was pleased with myself: it seemed I now had the appropriate kind of fears. Learning to drive makes me a more grown-up and ________ adult.