1 . It was a cold and rainy day in March. Across the room in the retail store where Mandy ________, sat Laura, a woman about Mandy’s age. Other workers did not ________ Laura, they thought of her as ________ and so did Mandy.

But sweeping the ________ from her eyes, Mandy made up her mind to say something kind to Laura. Finally, she managed, “Do you know, Laura, that I’ve worked in this room with you for several years? And ________ I glance up every time, I see your head silhouetted (使呈现轮廓) against the window there behind you. I think you have the prettiest profile and hair that I have ever   ________   on anybody.” Her words were not false ________. She meant it.

Laura looked up and said, “That’s the first kind word anybody has ever ________ to me since I’ve worked here.” After that, they often talked to each other after work. Through their ________ Mandy realized that Laura’s coldness was not   ________   arrogance, but to shyness. They soon became friends. Other colleagues soon began to ________ Laura in their activities, and she blossomed like a flower that, for the first time, had found sunlight. The right words made all the ________ when spoken in kindness.

Words carry the ________to tear down or to build up. When they are both sincere and kind, they are instruments that   ________ great power. Never ignore the potential and power of ______.

2 . Several years ago, when I was in New York, I decided it was time to get my middle­aged self back into shape. The _________ near my house was tiny. I was the weakest person there and I felt _________ as I did my pull­ups (引体向上). However, nobody really seemed to _________ me.

One day, I was on my favorite machine, one assisted pull­up machine that nobody else had ever needed to _________. I had just _________ a set when a huge guy walked up to me and asked, “Why are you always doing assisted pull­ups?” I looked at him, embarrassed, searching for a(n) _________. “Because I can’t do real ones,” I finally _________.

“Yes, you can. You are strong,” he smiled. “Get over here, and I’ll _________ you.”

We walked over to the “real” pull­up bar, and he _________ how to do it. He watched me carefully. Then he told me to come back the next day and try a real one. So I did. “__________ practicing,” he told me. “By the end of the month, you’ll be __________ to knock out four or five.”

After that day, I started to love going there. I was still the weakest one there. But I could do pull­ups: first two, then nine. When I stopped __________ looking foolish, I started asking others questions.

There were __________ everywhere in that gym, as long as I was willing to ask for __________. By the time I left New York, I could complete ten pull­ups and I had been certified as a personal __________, so I could teach other women what I’d learned in that gym.

3 . Once, when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus (马戏). ________there was only one family between us and the ticket counter. This family had eight children, all probably________the age of 12, who were________talking about the clowns, elephants, and other acts they would see that night. The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him with a big smile on her face.________, when the ticket lady quoted (报价) the price, she let go of his________, and her head dropped. The father’s lip began to shake. He moved a little________and asked, “How much did you say?” The ticket lady again quoted the price. Obviously, the man didn’t have enough money.

Seeing what was going on, my dad________a $20 bill on the ground. Then he picked it up and said to the man, “Excuse me, sir, this fell________your pocket.” The man________what was going on immediately. Looking________into my dad’s eyes, he took the money and said “Thank you, sir. This really________a lot to me and my family.”

That day we came home without any tickets. When I asked dad why he did so, dad said, “My child, it was heartbreaking and________for a father in that situation. Surely he wasn’t________a helpful hand, but he needed our help.” “We couldn’t enjoy the circus tonight, but they could because of our kind help,” added my father with________on his face.

That was a________lesson I learned from my dad.

4 . Clara Daly was seated on an Alaska Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Suddenly, an air attendant (空乘) asked a(n) _______ question over the loudspeaker, “Does anyone on the _______ know American Sign Language (ASL)?”

Clara pressed the call button. The air attendant came by and _______ the situation. “We have a passenger on the plane who’s _______ and deaf,” she said. The passenger seemed to want something, but he was traveling _______ and the air attendants couldn’t understand what he needed.

Clara had been _______ ASL in the past year and knew she’d be able to spell with her finger into the man’s _______ to help him. So she walked toward the front of the plane and _______ by the seat of Tim Cook. _______ taking his hand, she spelled, “How are you? Are you OK?” Tim ________ some water.

When it arrived, Clara went back to her seat. She ________ again a bit later because he wanted to know the time. On her third visit, she stopped and stayed for a while.

“He didn’t need anything. He was lonely and wanted to ________,” Clara said. So for the next hour, she talked about her family and her plans for the future. Tim ________ stories of his days as a traveling salesman. Even though he couldn’t see her, she looked attentively at his face with ________.

“Clara was such an angel,” an air attendant told Alaska Airlines in a blog interview. “You could tell Tim was very happy to have someone he could ________ with.”

Tim’s reaction: “It’s the best trip I’ve ever had.”

8 . It was the night of the full moon, a time which always drives Java’s young people mad with excitement.

Fireworks were lit long before the moon _________. The big noise brought people out into the warm night to enjoy the interesting scene. Everywhere, there were the paper remains of _________ fireworks lying on the ground. Little boys _________ more and covered their ears as they waited _________ for the explosions.

The moon appeared above the horizon (地平线): huge, _________ ball high above the city, and the _________ filled with people, as Java began to enjoy one of the year’s greatest _________: “the Night of the Full Moon”, a festival (节日) that is especially popular with young people.

More and more young Javanese _________ together and walked slowly through the _________. Joking and chatting, they moved towards the mountain __________ the city. They continued to climb until they reached the old temple (寺庙) at the __________ of the mountain.

After they were inside the temple, they drank their water and ate their mooncakes — delicious homemade ones, __________ of dried fruit and nuts. Outside, on the mountain, young people __________ cross-legged in circles, chatting and telling each other jokes. And still, in their hundreds, more young people continued to make their way up the mountain to __________ the brightly shining moon.

By midnight, the fireworks had stopped __________ up from the gray city in the valley below them. But during the night, the sound continued to be heard from the distance.