1 . Bill Sumiel was having a tough Friday. It was October 2020, and the 71-year-old, who was dealing with kidney (肾) failure, found himself at a medical center 30 miles from home.

Sumiel was no stranger to the ________ of kidney disease. He’d suffered from diabetes (糖尿病) more than 20 years before, which ________ his kidney problems. He was on the transplant ________, but no matches had yet appeared. So he continued with his treatments and took a taxi to and from his ________.

Timothy Letts, 31, was driving north to visit a friend when his phone rang with the ________ for Sumiel’s ride home. The trip was out of Letts’s way. ________, he took the order.

When Sumiel got into the car, the pair got to ________. Sumiel ________ that he was searching for a kidney donor. Letts joked that he’d be a good donor (捐赠者), ________ that he didn’t drink or smoke. Sumiel ________, though he didn’t think much of it as they kept driving. Letts, however, couldn’t stop thinking about it. About a quarter-mile away from Sumiel’s house, Letts said, “I’d like to see if I could be a ________ to give you a kidney.”

Sumiel was touched by Letts’s ________, though he wondered if it had just been a(n) ________ moment. But Letts was ________ to his word. He got in touch with Sumiel just a few hours later, and by the next week, Letts had ________ the kidney transplant program. After a long screening process, the results were in: Letts was an ideal donor, and he and Sumiel were a perfect match.

2 . I have struggled with feelings of unworthiness since forever. My most painful moments were at parties. My friends made fun of me because I was rhythmically (有节奏地)__________ and I couldn’t get my__________ body to imitate the latest dance moves. I was never chosen to dance. I felt like I didn’t__________.

Around age 12, I decided that the way to__________ these feelings of unworthiness was perfection. If I was just perfect then I would fit in. But this strategy didn’t__________.My self-esteem (自尊心) was high when I got good grades and felt__________, but crashed when I didn’t do well__________, or was left out.

After several years of spiritual growth, it__________ me that for many of us, self-worth is tied to our__________. We experience low self-worth__________ we fail or lose approval. So I have begun to cultivate an unconditional self-worth. It’s not about doing things perfectly.__________, “Unconditional self-worth” is the______ that you deserve to be alive, to be loved and cared for.

The__________ to unconditional self-worth is not always easy. It takes courage to free yourself from the __________ you’ve placed on your worth. But this journey is beautiful and worth taking. So I challenge you to embrace yourselves and find your metaphorical (隐喻的) __________ floor and move freely.

3 . Retirement hasn’t slowed down 90-year-old great-grandmother Jeanie Shaffer. She has made more than 11, 000 tiny _______ for newborns in her golden years. Every hat is made with special care and she has _______ them all to the local hospital for the last 15 years.

Hospital staff put a hat on a baby soon after _______ to keep warm. A warm hat calms and _______ newborns as they adjust to life _______ the womb (子宫). That is why the hospital staff and new _______ are so appreciative of Jeanie’s handmade hats. Many families _______ the hats because they _______ emotional value to their baby’s first hat.

Jeanie and her husband have a _______ family, with seven children, 15 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Although she has plenty to keep her ________, she still found time to start a fun hobby in her 70s after she ________.

To honor Jeanie’s years of hard work and selfless volunteerism, the staff decided to ________ pictures of her creations to fill an album (相册). The hospital made a special ________ on social media to all the new moms to submit a picture of their newborn wearing the hat they had received, which was responded ________. Thousands of grateful new moms soon shared ________ photos of their newborns wearing their special hats. The staff then selected part of the pictures for the album that they presented to Jeanie.

4 . In the summer of 2015, Brian Peterson and his wife, Vanessa, had just moved to Santa Ana, California. One day, Peterson was reading the book Love Does, when his quiet was ________ by a homeless man. Encouraged by the book’s sympathetic message, Peterson made an conversation with him, and ________ that the man called Merda had moved here to ________ a career in music, but he ended up living on the street for years.

“It was the ________ thing to me,” Peterson recalled later on the podcast Top Artist. “I saw the ________ on the face of a man who hadn’t ________ or showered in probably a year. But his story, the life inside of him, ________ me.” And even though Peterson, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, hadn’t ________ a paintbrush in about 8 years, he ________ himself asking if he could paint Merda’s portrait．

Peterson painted Merda’s portraits, ________ his traits and life experiences．________, the painting was sold for a few thousand dollars, and the money was put into a “love account” by Peterson for his model. Merda used the funds from his portrait to ________ an album, fulfilling his musical dreams.

Peterson’s ________ with Merda led him to form Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit organization focused on befriending and painting portraits of members of the community who are ________. Up till now, with 41 portraits painted and sold, Perterson has helped many people get back on their feet, and established the friendship with someone people might have ________.

6 . Andrea works in a donation store. One day, Andrea was checking the quality of the _______ items. As she pulled out two sweaters tied together, she felt something _______ in between them. When pulling the sweaters apart, to her _______, she found several envelopes filled with cash. The cash was in $100 bills and _______ $42,000. The question of what to do with the _______ came easy for the honest employee. Without _______, she handed it over to the manager so he could inform the rightful owner.

Some might have thought that it was Andrea’s _______ day, coming across a small fortune. However, Andrea’s _______ nature urged her to do the right thing.“I do believe that if you do something good, something good will _______ you, ”said Andrea after returning the money.

Fortunately for the ________, there was identifiable paperwork along with the donated items. The store’s manager was then able to   ________ and return the money to the donor who had mistakenly placed the cash in the wrong box.   “________ we have no way of knowing who the money ________, ”said the manager. “Luckily this time we did. ”

It was hard not to think of the many wonderful things she could do with that much money. However, the ________ to keep the cash was just a passing thought. She always tries to be a good ________ to her daughter.

7 . Last year I attended the annual autumn saffron (藏红花) harvest festival on a trip in Italy, known as the sagra. Giovannina Sarra and her family ________ me at their home. Early the next morning, we ________ among the fields and participated in the harvest.

Saffron , taken from the stigmas (柱头) of the saffron flower, is a(n) ________ crop. Also called red gold, it is a(n) ________ from Spain, first introduced into the region around the 13th century. Saffron is ________ in the hours just before ________, while the petals (花瓣) are closed. This helps protect their precious stigmas and makes the flowers easier to ________, especially preferred by the acquirers (收购商). Later, on the same day, the stigmas — three ________ strings per flower — are separated from the petals. It’s a delicate ________ that takes hours with a skilled and ________ hand. In the evening, over an open wood fire, the stringlike stigmas are ________ to make saffron powder to add to the richness of the color and the flavor, which brings considerable income.

Now sitting at a mouth-watering plate of Risotto alla Milanese, a dish cooked with saffron, I ________ the freezing morning with Sarra and her family. There’s no ________ that it is the families like the Sarras that stick to the many ________ that have survived from generation to generation. ________ more people will join them.