3 . Nixon, 59 years old, was born and grew up in St. Petersburg. Each morning, he sits on a bench, watches the sunrise, and connects with _________ from all walks of life.

Eight years ago, he decided to begin each day from a bench (a kind of chair) with an impressive view of the St. Petersburg waterfront (圣彼得堡海滨), because it made him feel calm and _________ before starting his day.

About a year later, a woman stopped to say hello, and she said something that _________ Nixon’s view on his daily visit. She said, “Every morning when I see you sitting here, I know everything is going to be OK.” That’s when Nixon _________ he needed to pay attention to the people walking past.

Instead of staring straight ahead at the waterfront, Nixon started _________ at people and talking to them. And pretty soon, some early risers began _________ him on the bench, sometimes sharing their pressure and asking him for advice about personal problems.

No matter what problem a person wants to _________, Nixon lends an ear. One day, a couple came by to talk about their problems. The husband was always working. It was destroying their _________. Nixon told him, “You have to know what’s really important.” The man admitted he’d put everything he had into his _________ for many years instead of focusing on his family. “He started to cry and agreed that he needed to __________,” Nixon says. “We hugged each other and became friends after that.”

Nixon was always happy to listen, and he listens without __________ and without any kind of return expected. “You have to listen with an open heart, because you never know who’s going to walk up,” Nixon says. He is a loving and loyal __________ to many. For those who walked past the bench, they were always __________ with a smile and asked how they were doing. No topic is off limits, but some people don’t want to talk. They simply want to sit next to someone and share the __________. Once a woman stopped and just sat with Nixon for an hour; then she said thanks and walked away. She just wanted a moment of peace and to know she wasn’t __________.

And at that moment, she truly wasn’t.

5 . A long walk is a good way to work up an appetite (食欲), but for Emma Reade, who is six years old, it’s also a way to solve hunger.

Emma is taking part in the FareShare FootSteps Challenge, promising to walk 100 km to _____________ money to help feed people in need. And her efforts are already _____________. So far she’s clocked up 19 km and is on the ___________ of the Little FootStep leaderboard, well on the way to meeting her fundraising _____________ of $2, 000.

“Moving makes you feel happy and ___________ other people makes you feel happy too,” said Emma. “Every _____________ day I am walking, running or riding 1 km. Then on the weekends, I am doing a lot more.” Growing up in the country with lots of fruit and _____________ in her home garden, Emma understands the _____________ of nutritious (有营养的) food. “It helps us grow and stay _____________. It also helps us stay alive and have lots of ____________,” she said.

The FootSteps Challenge is run by charity kitchen FareShare and is ____________ by its chefs (厨师) who walkabout 15 km a day as they ______________ rescued and donated food into 50, 000 free and nutritious meals for the ______________ each week. The charity rescues ______________ produce from supermarkets, manufacturers, farmers and wholesale businesses, which would ____________ be thrown out because it is surplus (过剩的) and has not been used.

A small team off are Share chefs and 1, 500 community volunteers cook home-style meals for hundreds of charities across Australia, including homeless shelters and community food banks.

7 . Five years ago, I got an email from a well-known professor in my field in March. He invited me to________ for a position in his lab. Things went well and all I needed to do was finish up my thesis (毕业论文) and I decided to ________ it in the following months.

One night, my mother came up to my room, asking softly, “Have you ________ your thesis yet?” “Not yet, Mom,” I ________ , even too busy to look up at her. Then she mentioned that she had some ________ symptoms (症状) in her body that had never been seen before. She wanted to say something more, but my academic (学业的)________ made me hardly take her words to heart.

However, two months later, the doctor announced my mother might ________for less than a year ________cancer (癌症). It was then that I was ________that things became more serious than I had imagined. Before it was too late, I was________to stop my thesis and be there with my mother for her rest life. ________ , my mother failed in the battle and passed away at the end of the year. The next July, I finished my scientific thesis and got the________from the lab.

When looking back today, I feel ________for losing precious time with my mother. The ________ of my mother gave me a new way to think about life: If your loved ones need you, be there for them. Sometimes, just being a listening ear to them can really ________.

8 . Like many young people, Jessica wants to travel the globe. Unlike most of them, this 25-year-old is doing it _________. She and her husband have spent the last two years traveling the world, stopping everywhere from Paris to Singapore. It might sound like one long, expensive _________, but the couple has an unusual way to make their travel _________.

They’re part of a new form of the _________ economy (经济): an online group of house sitters.

Throughout their no-cost stays in _________ homes, they feed pets and water plants in the homeowner’s _________.

It’s not all sightseeing. The two travellers carefully _________ their trips, scheduling their days around the pets that are sometimes difficult to _________. But house sitting also offers a level of _________ they can’t find in a hotel. “It’s like __________ at a friend’s house,” Jessica says.

The couple has a high __________ rate in getting accepted as house sitters and they always go beyond the homeowner’s __________. For Jessica, that means __________ plenty of pictures of happy pets, keeping the house __________ and leaving a nice small gift before heading to the next house. “You want to make the homeowner feel that they made the right, __________” she says.

9 . Do you have a best friend at work? A person once said, “Relationships _______ more than work. Years from now, you will forget all the _______ of the work you did, but you still _______ the people there and the relationships you built.”

We hear a lot about this and it’s true. We spend more time with our co-workers than our families. Getting along well with workmates is the _______ to our success in the job.

Gallup, our employee engagement survey provider, has been asking us to _______“Do you have a good friend at work?” for 30 years. He has discovered a strong _______ between having a good friend at work and performance on the job.

I’ve worked with a lot of people over my career. The most _______ achievements were with _______ that I felt a strong social connection with. We were not only working as a team but also spent our spare time _______ with each other and caring for each other’s normal life. I do believe that our success ________ strong social connections at work.

I’ve been through a lot with many people I would ________ my best friends at work. We’ve celebrated our work ________, promotions (升职) and retirements together. We have supported each other through marriages, adoptions, illnesses and even deaths.

Good relationships and a sense of ________ are a part of work culture that we shouldn’t ignore. ________, I have been working with amazing people over the years. Can you imagine going to a ________ every day where there is no fun, laughter or friendship?

10 . I used to think my life was perfect. My mom had her dream job and a beautiful office and I had my own room with a computer and a garden to look after. But one Sunday, everything changed. A hurricane _______ our neighborhood while we were visiting my grandparents in Raleigh. Our kitchen was ________, and our clean and comfortable home was in ruins.

But something ________ happened. Our neighbors, the Flores family, came to our ________. They helped clear broken pieces and offered us a place to stay. Their ________ was most impressive. We had never ________ spoken to them before, but they ________ their home to us and made us feel like family.

We started a new ________ of having weekend dinner together. We invited other families from the neighborhood to join us, and our ________ were filled with laughter and delicious food. It was a beautiful thing to see our ________ come together in the wake of a disaster.

I ________ knew Rosica, their daughter, before the hurricane. But she quickly became my friend. She had a gift for ________ and our evenings together were filled with adventure and laughter.

Looking back, I realize that the hurricane ________ unexpected benefit. It brought us closer to our neighbors and ________ our lives in ways we never could have imagined. Sometimes, it takes a(n) ________ to bring out the best in people.