1 . My friends and I had just finished lunch at a hotel when it started to rain heavily. When it became lighter, I decided to get my _______, which was parked at my office three streets away. My friends _______ that I shouldn’t go, mainly because I was seven months pregnant (怀孕) then. I promised them that I’d be very _______. One of them wanted to come with me but I asked her to stay with another friend who needed help _______ her baby.

I walked out of the hotel and started making my way to the car. At the crossing, a van stopped and a man came out with an umbrella. Before I knew what was happening, he walked right _______ me and told me he’d escort (护送) me. Although I refused, he said that he would.

During our walk, he kept telling me to walk slower, as the ground was _______. When we got to the car park, I thanked him and he went away. I did not get his name and can _______   recognize (认出) him now. Did he stop for me? I’ll never know.

So how did I pay it forward? I was at home when I noticed two Indian workers _______ in the heavy rain. They were probably on their way to the working place near my home. I went out and passed them my _______. I told them they should take and keep it. They were surprised by my action. They were very grateful to me, probably ________ why a stranger was offering such kindness. I was so relaxed and happy that day.

2 . 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.

3 . “You’re very talented, dear. I hope everything turns out great. I’ll tell my friends about the animal shelter (避难处),” a kind old lady told Conrad, who smiled _______ as she left $20 in his hat.

Conrad was proud of what he was doing and people in the _______ loved hearing him sing and play his _______ . The 11-year-old didn’t know _______ how much money the local animal shelter needed.

His mother, Sandy, worked at the shelter and had always been a(n) _______ animal lover. Therefore, he grew to be fond of animals as well. _______ , he recently heard his mother telling a friend that the shelter was not doing well. It _______ purely on donations, and not much donations were _______ . This made the boy very _______ . So he grabbed his guitar and ________ the local town square to sing and play.

He placed a ________ to tell people he was doing it to raise money for the animal shelter, which helped greatly. People ________ and gave him mostly $1 and change, and others, such as the kind old lady, were more ________ . He was grateful to everyone and continued playing songs and ________ money.

Raise your kids to love animals, and they’ll be better people. Caring for innocent animals makes people more selfless, ________ and caring. That’s why Conrad used his skills to raise funds, knowing how vital the shelter was.

5 . 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.

6 . Every year I’d read over 2,000 college applications from students all over the world. It is quite _______ to choose whom to admit. _______, in the chaos of SAT scores and recommendations, one _______ is always irresistible in a candidate: kindness.

The most surprising _______ of kindness I’ve ever _______ came from a student who had excellent scores and a supportive recommendation from his college counselor (顾问). Even with these qualifications, he might not have _______. But one letter of recommendation caught my eye. It was from a school security _______. Letters of recommendation are typically written by people like former presidents, celebrities, and Olympic athletes.

The security guard wrote that he supported this student’s admission because of his _______. This young man was the only person in the school who knew the names of every member of the guard staff. He turned off lights in empty rooms, consistently _______ the hallway monitor each morning and tidied up the classroom after his peers left school ________ nobody was watching. This student, the security guard wrote, had a(n) ________ respect for every person at the school, regardless of position, popularity or power.

It gave us a ________ onto a student’s life in the moments when nothing “counted”. That student was admitted by unanimous (一致的) vote of the admissions committee.

Next year there might be a flood of security guard recommendations ________ this essay. But if it means students will start paying as much ________ to the people who clean their classrooms as they do to their principals and teachers, I’m happy to help start that ________.

8 . As Norwood drove through St. Petersburg, Florida, the laughter from the four teenage girls inside her car suddenly gave way to _________. They were hit by another car and _________ into a tree.

Then smoke _________ from the car. A bystander shouted, “It’s about to _________! Get out!” Norwood immediately crawled out. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to _________ themselves, she ran for her _________.

But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back and found Simmons stuck in the back _________. “She wasn’t _________,” Norwood told Inside Edition. She _________ open the back door and pulled her friend out. She dragged Simmons a few feet to __________ and laid her on the ground. “I checked her pulse and put my __________ against her chest.” No sign of life. “That’s when I started CPR (心肺复苏术).”

Kneeling on the lawn and looking down at her __________ friend, Norwood started pumping Simmons’s chest. She breathed into her friend’s mouth in __________ of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. Fortunately, Simmons began coughing and breathing for __________.

Soon, paramedics (医务人员) arrived and rushed Simmons to hospital. When she heard how Norwood had saved her life, “I wasn’t __________,” Simmons said. “She always backs me up.”

10 . UPS deliveryman Ryan Arens was making his rounds near a pond, when he heard a strange sound. It was December, and about 15 feet from the frozen bank was the _________ of that sound — a brown-and-white wire-haired hound（猎犬）had fallen through the thin layer of ice. An elderly man was already on the _________, determined to save her. He was trying to _________ the pond and was striking the ice with a rock to create a(n) _________ to the dog, but seemed to be struggling.

Arens, 44, thought he _________ a better chance. “Animals are my weakness,” he said, explaining _________ he chose to take off his overcoat, even though the temperature was minus 15 and _________ the rescue task.

After breaking the ice using the man’s rock, Arens jumped into the icy water. He surfaced in time to see the dog going under. Arens swam about five feet toward the dog, grabbed hold of her collar, and _________ her out of the water and onto the ice. He then put the dog into the boat and slid it back to the bank, where _________ bystanders carried the dog to the home of the rowboat’s owner, a retired vet. __________ in the house himself, Arens jumped into a warm shower with the dog. A few more minutes in the pond, the vet told Arens, and the dog would have likely __________.

The next day, Arens was again making his __________ in the neighborhood when the dog’s owner came __________ to thank him for saving Sadie. “Would you like to meet her?” he asked. Then he opened the door of his pickup, and Sadie jumped out. She went __________ toward Arens, leaping around him and kissing him. Arens said that special delivery was the __________ of his UPS career.