2 . With Christmas approaching, I often reflect upon one particular evening in the early 1960s. Back then, we decided to go carolling (唱圣诞颂歌) to spread the Christmas spirit which might ________ someone else’s life. So we needed to take ________ new members, for whom the only ________ was warmth of spirit.

Soon we discovered that carolling brought various ________. Sometimes we were greeted with open doors and open hearts, while other times, folks remained in the safety and cosiness of their homes, watching ________ through their windows.

One stop on our journey particularly ________ our memory. That night, after a couple of songs, one door swung open. A gentleman, gray haired, tenderly ________we go upstairs to sing for his bedridden wife. He added ________, “She loves music and used to be an opera singer.”

We stepped briskly upward into the couple’s ________ apartment. Books, records, and antique furniture whispered stories to us. I reminded myself not to stare ________ showing disrespect to them.

Sitting beside his wife, the gentleman gave us a ________. Then our voices rose and lingered around their small home. Had our voices been given extra ________ and beauty for this occasion? Perhaps they had.

A smile flickered on the woman’s ________, yet beautiful face. She snuggled her head against her husband’s shoulder and both of them heartily enjoyed our performance. Witnessing such a heartwarming scene, we felt it was a holy night, for we were in the ________ of love that was gentle and mild.

At that moment, we found, and maybe even _______, the Christmas spirit.

7 . Girls are better at reading and writing than boys as early as fourth grade, according to a study, and the gap continues to widen until senior year.

Scientists generally agree that boys and girls are psychologically more alike than they are different. But reading seems to be a(n)________, with growing evidence suggesting a similar ________in writing. The study, published in the journal American Psychologist, provided further ________ to support this view.

David Reilly, lead author of the study, said the study ________the commonly held view that boys and girls start grade school with the same cognitive abilities. “It appears that the gender gap for writing tasks has been greatly________, and despite our best efforts with changes in teaching methods, that does not appear to be ________ over time,” he said.

Factors explaining the results could include learning ________ being more prevalent among boys; the pressure to conform to masculine (男子汉的) ideals and the idea of reading and language being feminine (女性的); and slight________in how boys and girls use their brain hemispheres (半球), the authors believe.

To investigate how ________ levels differed between boys and girls in the U.S., the team studied data collected over three decades in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This database of test scores on over 3 million students in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades________national and state performances in a range of subjects, and considered such variables such as disabilities or whether children were English learners. Reading and writing was ________according to children’s understanding of a range of different passages and genres.

________, girls were found to perform significantly better in reading and writing tests by fourth grade when compared with boys of the same age. As children progressed to eighth and twelfth grades, girls continued to ________ boys, but the difference was more noticeable in writing than reading. But what caused this difference in abilities? Evidence suggests ________ problems, such as being disruptive（扰乱性的） in class or being aggressive could be linked to neurological conditions. What is known as lateralization (偏侧化) could also play a role. Boys are believed to use one hemisphere when reading or writing, while girls appear to use both. The data did not, however, provide evidence to argue ________ the two genders having different learning styles.

8 . In April last year, I saw a post on the PNP (Pilots N Paws) website from a family in Topeka. They had to move to Virginia but they were on a very tight _______ . They could not afford to pay for _______ for their dog, Tiffy, and _______ wanted to take her with them.

It just _______ that I was planning another PNP flight with another pilot, Karen, who _______ to take Tiffy from Kansas City to Virginia. What I was to do was fly to Topeka to _______ Tiffy.

When I met Tiffy’s owners, they seemed very _______ . George, the husband, was trying to be calm, but I could tell this was _______ for him, having to leave his dog to a _______ and trust that everything would ________ .

After some goodbyes, I asked George and his wife to help me ________ Tiffy into the plane. I promised to take care of Tiffy and ________ them as soon as we got to Kansas City.

The flight was ________ , and Tiffy was a great passenger. The next day, she ________ with Karen and made it back to George in Virginia within a few days. He was so ________ and sent me a nice e-mail with pictures. It felt great to know that I had helped bring this family together again.

9 . Bruno went into the kitchen and got the biggest surprise of his life. He could barely believe his eyes. “Shmuel!” he said. “What are you doing here in my kitchen?”

Shmuel looked up and his terrified face _________ a broad smile on seeing his friend. “Bruno!” he said. “They asked me to polish the glasses. They said they needed someone with tiny _________.”

He held his hand out and Bruno noticed that it was like the hand of the pretend skeleton. In reply, Bruno held his own hand out, which appeared _________ and full of life. The veins (血管) weren’t visible through the skin, the fingers weren’t little more than dying twigs (细枝). Shmuel’s hand, however, told a very _________ story.

“Shmuel! Here!” said Bruno, stepping forward and putting some slices of chicken in his friend’s hand. “Just eat them.” The boy stared at the food in his hand for a moment and then looked up at Bruno with wide and _________ but terrified eyes. He threw a _________ in the direction of the door and then thrust all the slices into his mouth in one go.

“Thank you, Bruno.” said Shmuel, giving a faint smile.

Bruno smiled back and was about to offer him more food, but just at that moment Lieutenant Kotler reappeared. Bruno stared at him, feeling the _________ grow heavy, sensing Shmuel’s shoulders sinking down.

_________ Bruno, Lieutenant Kotler marched over to Shmuel and glared at him. Shmuel looked up at Lieutenant Kotler, who frowned, leaning forward slightly as he examined the boy’s face. “You have been eating,” said Lieutenant Kotler. “Did you _________ something from that fridge?” Shmuel looked toward Bruno, his eyes pleading for __________.

“Answer me!” shouted Lieutenant Kotler.

“No, sir. He gave it to me,” said Shmuel, tears welling up in his eyes. “He’s my friend,” he added.

“Do you know this boy, Bruno?” he asked in a loud voice.

Bruno’s mouth __________ and he tried to say the word “yes”, but then he realized that he couldn’t because he was feeling just as __________ himself.

“Tell me, Bruno!” shouted Kotler, his face growing red. “I won’t ask you a third time.”

“I’ve __________ seen him before in my life,” said Bruno immediately, “I don’t know him.”

Hearing that, Shmuel wasn’t crying any more, merely staring at the floor and looking as if he was trying to __________ his soul not to live inside his tiny body any more, but to __________ away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it was far away.

10 . I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the _______at a young age. Sometime in the middle of fourth grade, I _______ trying. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was _______, disrespectful and rebellious.

It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the _______ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was _______ lost, and using drugs as a way to deal with the fact that I had no education and was _______ in a dead-end job carrying heavy construction materials up a ladder all day.

_______, now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any point in your life, if you have the right _______. Mine came from a surprising source.

It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of _______ responsibility, now I was in charge of something so ________. Over the years, as I grew into the ________ of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. In a way, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books. ________, I practiced reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I knew I wanted to be a good role model, so after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I ________ my GED test on my son’s fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I’m surely not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done ________.            

It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great turn-around stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they ________ to me. Now I believe it’s a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.