1 . My father, Paul Andrew Figura, was a die-hard fisherman. In my _______, we went out fishing in all kinds of weather, catching and missing nearly every fish in countless waterways.

Whenever we _______, Mom would ask: “What time will you be back?” “When we can’t see the _______.” Dad would respond. He often _______ it. Sometimes Dad would ask me to _______ some food and water and we’d fish the entire day. I observed firsthand his insistent, rapid-ire casting technique, to which he credited as a _______ factor behind his success. It was one _______ after another after another.

The greatest life lesson that Dad taught me involved dealing with those times when the fish weren’t _______ Days when the weather was awful, when the mosquitoes were biting, when my hands were cold. Times when I just wanted to _______ and go home. Dad’s ________? “Son, you’re not going to catch any fish unless you ________ your line. Keep casting,” he’d say.

I learned early the importance of ________ and willingness to keep trying different fish food if you wanted to catch them. Sooner or later they’d ________. I took that same attitude into my school work. ________, I got many awards at college. I applied it ________ to whatever job I had as an adult and it made me the person that I am today.

2 . While in middle school, students seem to have one goal: to be popular. Like most thirteen-year-olds, I gave in to this need to ________.

One afternoon, I told my father that I wanted to be popular. He looked at me and asked me why I felt that way. I ________ my shoulders and looked back into my drink. I had never stopped to think about why I felt the need to settle in.... I ________ did.

My father ________ to tell me a story from his college days. His mother had made him several sweater vests to wear at school. These sweater vests were ________, but hardly “in style.” Nevertheless, they became a ________ in my father’s closet. He didn’t care that he wasn’t_________ the latest fashion. In fact, he didn’t care what everyone thought of him, either. I was ________. What was even more surprising was that by breaking with convention, my father started a ________. What he wore became fashionable because the other students saw the ________ with which he dressed.

As the days passed and I thought about it, I realized there might be some ________ to what my father said after all. I tried to make a change from just ________ the audience to focusing on the behavior that I really enjoyed. From then on, I found myself ________ less and less about what other people thought of me. It was a wonderful ________! I learned a valuable lesson in the process: ________ against the current can only make me stronger.

3 . Everyone has a different way of showing how much they love their family members. When you see the beautiful and ________ “safety bed” a man made for his autistic (自闭症) grandson, you can’t help but feel the depth of his love!

In a video that has gone viral, the ________ grandpa Reddor shows off the custom bed he ________for his 3-year-old grandson. “Some kids with autism and other ________ need a safety bed to keep them safe and contained”. He mentions that he keeps his grandson’s well-being in mind while making the bed a(n) ________ environment with sweet pictures depicting Winnie the Pooh (维尼熊) and friends. He also ________ that the bed is on wheels, so it can be ________ to change the sheets and clean underneath.

To ensure that this bed would be safe in the event of an emergency, Reddor even ________ with the local fire department who familiarized themselves with the bed and gave their ________ throughout the design process. The grandpa even ________ a wrestling mat to prevent self-harm, and a Bluetooth sound system, adjustable LED lighting, and double-monitoring cameras.

The response to the safety bed has been overwhelmingly ________. His grandson was so excited when he first saw it that he cried.

Obviously, no two autistic people’s experiences or needs are the same, but this grandpa made sure what he built was just ________ for his grandson. Just as one netizen wrote in a ________, “Your grandson may not currently have the capacity to fully ________ your efforts, but I do hope he’ll eventually show his ________ to you for this beautiful thing you made for him! ”

4 . Every Christmas, my mom would fill our stockings with small toys and candies. At the very tip of the stocking, the very _________ thing that we would pull out was an orange. For years, I hated the tradition. It was _________ to pull an orange out of my _________ after uncovering so many fun and delicious treats. An orange wasn’t special. I could eat one any time of the year, and it was just _________ room that could have been filled with more candy.

When I was thirteen, I _________ asked my mother why she put oranges in our stockings. She _________ my grand-father had grown up very poor. His father had a brain tumor that left him blind and _________ to work, so his mother relied on _________ from the church to take care of her seven children. Every Christmas, a local church donated a basket of fruit to their family. This was my grandfather’s favorite day of the year because it was the only day when he could eat fresh fruit. The oranges were his favorite because they _________ like sunshine. When he grew up, he always __________ to have a bowl of oranges around at Christmastime so he could __________ his favorite Christmas memory with his children.

When my mom finished telling the story, I felt __________. In my rush to collect as much candy as possible, I had __________ to be grateful. Now the orange at the bottom of my stocking is a __________ to be grateful for the beautiful Christmases that my parents gave me and for the hard work they did that ensured I could have a（n）__________ any day of the year.

5 . Bryan was driving home one evening. It was starting to get dark and cold. Ever since the factory closed, he’d been unemployed. Suddenly, he saw an old lady ________ standing beside a car on the side of the road. So he ________ in front of her and said, “I’m here to help you ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s ________? By the way, my name is Bryan.”

All she had was a ________ tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car and soon he changed it. The lady asked him how much she ________ him. Bryan never thought twice about the ________ and told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give the ________, and Bryan added “... and think of me”. She started her car and drove off.

A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small cafe and went in. She ________ that the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but never let the strain and aches change her attitude. Then she remembered Bryan. As the waitress went to get the ________ for her hundred-dollar bill, the lady slipped right out the door. ________, the waitress noticed something written on the napkin under which were four more $100 bills. There were ________ in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote. It ________ : “Somebody once helped me out the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, do not let this chain of love ________ with you.”

That night when she got home from work, she was thinking about the lady. With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. She knew how ________ her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and ________, “Everything’s gonna be all right; I love you, Bryan.”

6 . For the past 18 years, my daughter has been around me all the time. Now that she is in college, the _______ of our relationship has totally changed and our relationship is completely _______. I’m not going to be there every morning to have breakfast with her. I won’t know when she’s mad or when she’s happy. Here’s a little story of our new _______.

A week ago, my daughter wanted to _______ so she called me during the day as I was in meetings. I _______her later on, but she was in class. At midnight, she reached out _______ to ask if we could talk. Well, guess what? I was _______ . I thought we would talk the next day, but she was not   _______ .

Research shows that parents are _______ when their children are grown up, but for me that is when I start to get concerned. I am always left to________ , how can I, as a parent, remain ________to my daughter to guide, support and love through life's changes?   

We may have to ________ the way we communicate. My daughter encouraged me to go digital. That’s how I ventured into the world of social media, following her updates and occasionally sharing my own experiences. Through this   ________ presence, the physical gap is ________and I feel I still have an active role in her life. This experience serves as a reminder that ________, however scary, holds the promise of growth in our shared journey.

7 . Adrienne Tully, an amateur photographer, went to the coast of a beach in Belmar, New Jersey. She planned to take photos of the ______ against the sea. Instead, she was able to ______ a frightening but happy journey. It all started last Sunday morning when she noticed a crowd ______ on the beach. Naturally, she joined them in the ______ of learning what was going on.

For a minute, Adrienne was ______ about what everyone was looking at. From how far away they were, it almost seemed like a bird. Looking closer, ______ , it was clearly a deer who was ______ on a raised rock in the middle of the ocean. The deer made a couple of ______ to swim back to the shore but the turbulent (汹涌的) water ______ all its efforts. Then someone who came out of nowhere ______ rode his surfboard to the deer. After a short magic while, the ______ managed to guide the deer out. Upon ______ ashore, the deer just ran north on the beach. Those watching nearby were no doubt ______ at the way this nameless young man ______ to help. But he somehow disappeared too, leaving people to hope he knows that he is greatly ______ for what he did.

8 . I am the “Laundry Goddess”. Well, that’s what my kids call me anyway because I have the talent for finding the right ______ for any stain. From spaghetti sauce and grass marks to ballpoint ink stains, whatever my family ______ me, I seem to be able to find a way to make it look brand new again. It’s a skill I got from my mother. My mom wouldn’t admit it, but I think she ______ doing the laundry.

The laundry room was Mom’s territory. It was ______ , with only the shushing (沙沙声) of the washing machine or the hum of the dryer to interrupt her. She would ______ down early in the morning, often still in her housecoat, to put in the first ______ of the day. We would find her there, leaning on the freezer, happily having a coffee and reading the newspaper or her library book.

I don’t remember Mom teaching me the ways of the laundry room. I learned to ______ towels and small items as a youngster. I spent many hours ironing clean cotton handkerchiefs and pillowcases. But the ______ wasn’t part of my training. So when I left home and moved ______ the country, stain ______ required an expensive long-distance phone call home.

My washer and dryer seem to have more ______ than a jet plane, certainly many more than the machines used by my mom. I have made the ______ from laundry powder to liquid, and I have my own favorite stain ______ . But every time I step into the laundry room and think about how to deal with a particularly difficult stain, I ______ the Laundry Goddesses who came before me for her wisdom and perseverance. And each clean item of clothing is a ______ force in a chaotic world.

9 . Some started to run. A woman sobbed beside me, her husband dragging her along by the arm. Families begged for a _______ in vehicles(车辆) with no space, and cried when they were _______ .

Finally _______ it to the slightly higher ground of the evacuation(撤离、疏散) zone, it took me a few minutes to find Lauren among the crowds. Holding me and crying, she told me of her own walk twenty minutes _______ . Somehow, she had _______ to get back inside the airport before it was locked down, throwing our bags onto a trolley(手推车) and pushing it all the way to where we stood.

She was extremely tired, physically and emotionally, _______ finally calmed down enough to ask a simple question: “what happens now?”

I had no idea. Rumors(谣言) were flying around the crowd; _______ being spread far and wide. A six-meter tsunami was _______ our way. We were safe? No, we weren’t. People would be trapped in their hotels for days.

In short, nobody had a clue. The authorities(官方) were doing their best, _______ water-and later, food —to everyone, but they couldn’t provide the one thing people were most ________ for: information.

Finally, an announcement was made that the ________ had passed, and if there were no further quakes, we would be free to go in two hours. The airport would not reopen that ________ and buses would turn up at some point to take us to Phuket Town.

Suddenly, another announcement was made. Four hours after it closed, the airport was going to reopen in half an hour and our flights would ________ at some point after that. Some of the airport staff got into minivans(小型货车) and headed away.

Happy to be alive, we almost ________ back through security and into the terminal(航站楼). We found a slightly comfortable piece of floor, and prepared to wait it out.

Afterword: After I started queuing at 4 am, we were ________ enough to get on the first flight to Chiang Mai the next morning.

10 . The first time I saw the real Santa, he drove a big, charcoal-colored truck, not a cherry red sleigh, in the August heat. He wasn’t what I _______ at all.

My husband had lost his job early in July, and we’d been _______ expenses everywhere we could. He’d been looking for a job but _______.

One afternoon, we were feeling particularly _______ so we decided to treat ourselves to a meal from McDonald’s. Just a quick drive-through run, no big deal. When we got to the window to pay, the employee said our meal had been taken care of by the car _______ us. We attempted to keep the pay-it-forward chain going by offering to pay for the _______ for the car behind us. “No, that man just paid for everyone in line,” said the employee. She _______ toward the truck that was slowly pulling away to _______ the parking lot. We had no choice but to get _______ with the fact that a stranger had just done something kind for us, and there was no way to repay it, pay it forward, etc.

I looked toward the truck and thought I could see the man’s grin in the driver’s side ________. He ________ his hand out the window and gave a cheerful wave, and it ________ reminded me of the illustration of a Christmas poem where Santa was flying away into the night, gloved hand up in a goodbye wave.

It seemed like a little ________ that we’d be alright. My husband found a wonderful job shortly after that. We’ve gone on to do random acts of ________ for others, remembering the effect this free meal had on us that ________ day when Santa drove a truck and left with a big grin and a little wave.