1 . When I was a young boy, our whole family lived in my grandma’s old house right beside a set of railroad tracks. I can remember the whole house would ________ when the trains rolled by. These trains hauling (运；拉) coal cars were few and far between, so I often spent my summer afternoons walking down the ________. I can remember the first time I tried to ________ myself and walk on a single rail. The steel rails were very narrow and quite slippery ________ I didn’t have much ________. First I tried ________ my arms and watching my feet as I walked. This only ________ to me shaking and falling off after a few steps. I decided to walk backwards once but quickly slipped off and skinned my ankle on the rail. It was only when I started looking ahead down the length of the tracks ________ I was able to walk the rail. Keeping my eyes forward, I put one foot in front of the other and was soon walking with ease.

Looking back on this time, I now ________ that it also gave me a ________ lesson about living. You can’t go through life watching and worrying about every step you take or ________ you make. This only leads to second guessing yourself and you soon go off the rails. Looking behind you is even worse. ________ your eyes on the past, you can’t see the way ahead. You can only stand still and stay ________ in your regrets. It is only when you look ahead that you can really move forward and see the life you want to lead. Then each step you take and the choice you make is ________ with love and enjoyment for life and you will walk on with a ________ heart.

We all need to keep our eyes forward. We all need to look ahead with love and enjoyment for life. We all need to see with our hearts the life we want to live.

3 . My 14-year-old son, John, and I found out the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. All the other coats drooped (低垂)________this one looked as if it were holding itself up (支撑起来). The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a (an)________price of $28, which was popular just then with________, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better with that________of classic design. John tried it on and fit was perfect.

John wore the coat to school the next day and came home________a broad smile. “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said,________folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a________came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and polite discussion replaced rude________. He became more mannerly and________, eager to please. He would generously lend his younger brother his bike, which he________wouldn’t.

When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and________what caused the changes, she said laughing, “It________be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned________but because she liked his coat. At the library, we________a friend. “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly,________John’s new height, assessing (评估) the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.

John and I both know we should never________a person’s clothes for the real person within them.________there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for________what is on the inside to what is on the outside.

For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to life as it is to try on a________. The whole world, the whole future is right ahead, a vast landscape where all the doors are open. And he could________himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.

4 . One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his way through school by selling goods from door to door found that he only had one cent left. He was hungry so he decided to ________ for a meal at the next house.

However, he lost his courage ________ a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked ________ so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it ________, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”

“You don’t owe me anything,” she ________. “Mother has taught me never to accept pay for a ________.” He said, “Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger_________, but it also increased his faith in human race. He was about to give up and quit before this point.

Years later the young woman became ill seriously. The local doctors were baffled (为难). They finally sent her to the big city, where specialists can be called ________ to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly, now ________, was called in for the consultation (会诊). When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light ________ his eyes. Immediately, he ________ and went down through the hospital hall into her room.

________ in his doctor’s gown (长袍) he went in to see her. He ________ her at once. He went back to the consultation room and ________ to do his best to save her life. From that day on, he gave ________ attention to her case.

After a long ________, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly ________ the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval (批准). He looked at it and then wrote something on the side. The bill was sent to her room. She was afraid to open it because she was ________ that it would take the rest of her life to pay it off. Finally she looked, and the note on the side of the bill caught her ________. She read these words...

“Paid in full with a glass of milk.”

(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly

Tears of joy ________ her eyes as she whispered, “love has spread through hearts and hands.”

6 . I used to hate being called upon in class mainly because I didn’t like attention drawn to myself. And _______ otherwise assigned（指定）a seat by the teacher, I always _______ to sit at the back of the classroom.

All this _______ after I joined a sports team. It began when a teacher suggested I try out for the basketball team. At first I thought it was a crazy _________ because I didn’t have a good sense of balance, nor did I have the _______ to keep pace with the others on the team and they would tease me. But for the teacher who kept insisting on my “_______ for it”, I wouldn’t have decided to give a try.

Getting up the courage to go to the tryouts was only the _______ of it! When I first started _______ the practice sessions, I didn’t even know the rules of the game, much _______ what I was doing. Sometimes I’d get __________ and take a shot at the wrong direction—which made me feel really stupid. __________ , I wasn’t the only one “new” at the game, so I decided to __________ on learning the game, do my best at each practice session, and not be too hard on myself for the things I didn’t __________“just yet”.

I practiced and practiced. Soon I knew the ________ and the “moves”. Being part of a team was fun and motivating. Very soon the competitive ________ in me was winning over my lack of confidence. With time, I learned how to play and made friends in the __________ — friends who respect my efforts to work hard and be a team player. I never had so much fun!

With my __________ self-confidence comes more praise from teachers and classmates. I have gone from ________ in the back of the classroom and not wanting to call attention to myself, ________ raising my hand—even when I sometimes wasn’t and not 100 percent __________ I had the right answer. Now I have more self-confidence in myself.

7 . Exercise and I had never had a good relationship due to my fear of sports. From a young age, my dad _______ me into a dozen sports. I didn’t like any of them, _______.

When I entered the University of Regina, my dad _______ telling me “You have to find a way to stay _______.” or “You don’t want to get the Freshman 15, do you?” So I _______ to give swimming a shot, but I _______ managed to go to the pool twice during the fall semester (学期). Worse still, I was _______ to convince myself that’s OK.

The spring semester came. A friend of mine _______ me if I wanted to try Zumba (尊巴) with her. All I knew about Zumba was that it was basically a kind of exercise: dancing to Latin pop songs. It didn’t sound too bad, but I couldn’t be _______.

I went, and that was it. Zumba became my ________ of tea. The instructor would always say, “Don’t worry about the steps. Have fun. Do your own thing.” That removed my ________ of sports. I didn’t have to be ________. I didn’t even have to be good. I just needed to ________ the music and move. Zumba did ________ me from the Freshman 15, and it also did so much more. It let me make ________ with my unpleasant past about physical exercise, and enjoy staying healthy.

9 . My husband and I embraced (拥抱) and sobbed when we learned our home had been destroyed in the fire. The ________ of ours along with generations of irreplaceable items no longer existed in our life.

Several weeks later, we were allowed into where our home once stood. The drive there was ________. Some vehicles had been ________ on the side of the road. I had ________ online what was wouldn’t be destroyed by fire and was ________ to find as many as possible while digging through the ________. Tears streamed down my face as I dug. Every item I found was a(n) ________ to me.

After hours, we loaded the precious items we had ________ into our vehicle. I stood in the driveway and looked at what was once our home, ________ where we would find another home and how we could start over. Feeling empty, I questioned my ________ to survive the oncoming ________?

An afternoon breeze started and ________ burned pages from buried books. I thought about the books I had lost and the ________ they had given me. As I turned to leave, I noticed a piece of paper stuck to my boot. I pulled it off and read the printed ________. If life is difficult, pause and ________ on the fortune sometimes hidden within every circumstance.

With ________ faith and courage, I began again. I kept that piece of paper ________ and put it in every hotel and motel room we stayed in during the coming months. The message now sits on a shelf in the home we ________ into after the fire. It ________ me during that time and helped me through the long ________ recovery process.