1 . My life as a tax-paying employed person began in middle school, when, for three whole days, I worked in a baking factory.

My best friend Betsy’s father was a manager at Hough Bakeries, which, at Easter time, _________ little bunny (兔子) cakes for all its _________throughout Cleveland. It happened that the plant downtown needed eight kids for _________ help during our spring break, for which I had no_________ beyond listening to my favorite records. I’d _________ minimum wage. I’d see how a factory_________. My parents thought all of this was a grand idea and called Betsy’s dad with their _________.

Our_________in the factory were simple: Place cakes on a moving belt. Attach icing (糖霜) ears. Apply icing eyes and nose._________ bunny from the belt. This was ____________ than it sounds.____________ a bit and the cakes pile up. As I told my parents at dinner that first night, it was all a little more high-pressure than I’d   ____________ .

Dad __________. The son of a grocer, he’d spent the summers of his childhood____________ food in Benardsville, New Jersey. This was the sort of work that made you____________ the dollars you earned and respect those who did the work, he told me.

3 . It was a small graduation party. Only Ed, Max, Raul and I were there. All three men, each over the age of fifty, had achieved a_______in their lives. They could_______.

Overcoming decades of_______and a lifetime of covering up their illiteracy, these three men had signed up for a free three-month course, taught by me.

"I take the bus every day to work," said Ed. "Have done for over thirty years. Just yesterday I _______what the words' Emergency Exit' mean." Max reported that he was_______to understand much of Monday's newspaper sports article on his beloved Dallas Cowboys.

_______, his break time was spent _______to read in the hope his co-workers would never discover his shameful secret. As our final night came to a close, Raul took my hand between his rough ones: " You gave me a_______. You gave me a new life."

Being so young, I did not grasp the full _______of his simple statement until my own gray hairs appeared, a(an)________downturn robbed me of my work and income security. Now I'm the________ of my former pupils and my future needs a ________ button. I realize that limiting my destiny (命运) because of my age or my lack of skills is ________A future with many wonderful opportunities could belong to me as long as I have the courage to ________ it out and work for it.

Like Ed, Max and Raul, I am determined to make a new life for myself. They________me well.

5 . I was driving into my little town in Newlands when I blew a tyre. Fortunately almost outside our local garage, unfortunately after 5pm it was _______.

There was a young couple sitting in the open door of their _______ in the garage’s car park, with the hood (折叠式车篷) up, looking a bit _______. I knew I had a spare tyre in the _______ of my car but no tools, and I’m pretty unconfident with the old tyre _______ anyway. So I was sort of _______ wondering what to do next when the guy _______ next to me and asked if I _______ a hand with the tyre.

I was so grateful, and he _______ out some basic tools quickly and got things started. It turned out that they were on a tour around the country and their truck had just ________ from something expensive and slow to fix. Thus, they were forced to ________ in the car park of the garage that night.

Well, he fixed my wheel up lovely and I took them both home to my cottage, to a homemade ________ and apple cakes and a cosy little spare room, and ________ them back into town the next day.

What was a pain in the trouble for all of us ________ into a fun night of laughter and good food and nice company because they generously offered a ________ hand to a lady meeting with difficulties.

6 . A woman is volunteering in ashelter. It all started because she missed her own _________ .

Sandy was at a loss when her beloved Angus died last year — terribly lonely, yet not quite______for a new dog in her life. ________, she decided to volunteer at the local animal shelter and spend some quality time with furry friends who, like her, were ________ their old buddies (伙伴).

Remembering that her dog had loved being read to, she brought along a ________   there.

It's now been 18 months sinceSandy first began ________ her chair beside the dog house. Shelter workers say it really calms down the dogs, but Sandy says it does more ________ to her than it does to the dogs.

Sandy was ________ that photos of her reading to dogs were spreading on the Internet until the media started calling. Kathleen, a fellow shelter volunteer was so touched by the sight of her     ____ to an old dog that she took a photo and posted it on the Internet. She was so ______ with the dogs — I watched her read to several — and they just loved being ________ by her, "Kathleen said.

Inspired by Sandy's style of _________, the shelter has announced that a reading marathon is being ________ for next September. The plan is to get kids in the neighborhood ______ in reading to the animals, with the added benefit of reading practice for the two-leggers, along with plenty of friendly _______ for the four-leggers.

7 . I came upon a photograph in the old desk. It was_________with age, but if I looked hard enough, I could still make out the_________of two little girls, arms wrapped around one another, smiling into the_________. What a fold of memories that old photograph brought!

It was from twenty-four years ago when our youngest daughter, Nancy, and Caroline, the beautiful child, were eight years old. They were best_________from nursery school.

In third grade, they were put in different classrooms. But they still_________to find each other whenever they could—at_________, in the lunch line, on the school bus. "_________me a seat!" never needed to be said. And they had thought it would_________forever. Until one day, in a choked voice, Caroline said: "I'm moving. "

Moving. The word made no_________to either of them.

"Not fair!" cried out Nancy.

"I'm not going," Caroline said darkly.

And there were desperate phone__________and whispered plans that both girls knew would never come to pass.

Sure enough, one day the for-sale sign went up on the__________of Caroline's house. And too soon, there was a moving__________in her driveway and then three movers were carrying out the kitchen table, the sofa and the animals that two little girls had played with from childhood to adolescence.

People were too busy that day to really__________two fourteen-year-old girls in matching jeans, trying to figure out how to say__________to each other. But when I looked at that fading picture of Nancy and Caroline, I remembered another image—two girls stood on the lawn with a sold__________, tears streaming unashamedly down their cheeks.

9 . It is well-known that all the world is a stage and all the men and women are merely players. _________, now one homeless dog in the Turkish city of Izmit seems determined to perform on that stage as well. It is surprising but heart-warming.

When the dog made his _________ during an outdoor performance being given by a local theatrical troupe(剧团), he wasn't _________applause. It seems that Numan Ertuğrul Uzunsoy's acting of an injured man was so _________ that the dog believed the actor was actually hurt and in need of _________.

As Uzunsoy lay on the ground _________ a fall from a horse, the dog came up to him and _________ began to lick his face and neck. It took a few seconds for Uzunsoy to _________ what was happening. “I felt warmth on my face. At first, I thought another performer was _________ me ,” Uzunsoy said. “I was very ____________ when I felt the dog’s kisses...I was very glad. He wanted to help me. It was a very emotional and surprising moment for me. I was not ____________ it.”

While the audience and cast members were obviously amused by the dog and didn’t mind the ____________, the dog was led offstage later. Uzunsoy continued his character and the ____________ went on. The dog did not____________around to take his curtain call(谢幕). However, since the good dog was known to frequent the area where the performance took place, dog-loving Uzunsoy was ____________ that he would see his unintentional costar again.