1 . The caller said she was in trouble and that he could help. Mom________it and lost thousands of dollars. It took us months to recover her money and her________.

One April morning, my mother’s phone rang. The man that greeted her sounded________“Someone has____to your bank accounts and can take all your money.” The warm voice was exactly what she badly________during her isolation from the community due to COVID-19. The man said he needed information to ensure the money was safe and she tried to follow his________though her brain injury made it rather hard.

He explained slowly what to do and hours later, she said she had to relieve herself. “OK, but Stay on the line_________we will lose our progress.” Then she________the phone on the shelf in the bathroom. Suddenly the phone buzzed with a text-it was my father, checking in. She typed back there was a problem, but she was ________it. Then she________out her worn, printed-out packet of passwords from a pile of books and entered them.

My Mom thoughts he had labored for hours protecting her family. ________, the scammer (诈骗犯) had taken away her personal information and money. After learning the truth, my mother sought to________the conversations with the scammer but just said, “I can’t remember. I don’t know what to do. This was so stupid.”

I tried different means and________got the money back. We didn’t blame her as the internal shame my mom felt could turn into something more________depression and even suicide.

The other day my dad mentioned, “You know, another scammer called your mama. She did the right thing, though. She hung upon him and called me.” My mom was smiling at me and I knew she was________.

2 . Mrs. June P. Garrett was my seventh-grade English teacher. Back in 1968, she had a major_________ on my life.

When I was in seventh grade, my father _________ me to play sports. Unfortunately, I did not have any of what might be called “_________ talent.” But I wanted to make my father _________, if not proud. So, I _________ the junior high school football team.

In the meantime, I _________ a post on the junior high school newspaper. I even created a parody (拙劣的模仿) advice column called “Dear Gertrude.”Mrs. Garrett, also the advisor for the newspaper, _________ my unconventional (非常规的) writing. One day, while grading a homework assignment, she wrote this short but _________ note: “You will make a living as a writer someday.”

From that point on, I _________ what I wanted to do with my life. In fact, in 8th grade, when it came time to write that “What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?” essay, I no longer wanted to be a doctor (which is what my four brothers all became). __________. I wrote these words:

Now my mind wanders to a __________ thought. To be a writer is my search.

I got a B+ on that paper, and my path in life was __________.

Soon I ________ playing football in 8th grade and focused the rest of my school years on __________ !

We all have talents. Fortunately, I had just the right teacher at just the right time to help me __________mine.

3 . I was eating breakfast at home in Hampshire in March this year, scrolling through (滚动浏览) social media on my phone, when a story ______ my eye. It was about a 9-year-old dog, Charlie, considered as the ______ in Britain. He had been in a rescue center in Somerset for more than 500 days.

I ______ the link, and straight away, these huge, sad eyes stared at me. I fell in love with it at first sight. My husband Sam felt ______ the same way. We ______ our time with the application, and a few days later, we received an email asking us to visit him. We were ______.

Before we arrived, we didn’t know what to ______. We hadn’t been told much about Charlie’s condition, but ______ he hadn’t been placed with a new owner for so long, we thought there might be problems. But the dog that ran in was full of ______ and energy. He came straight over to us, quite ______. He wagged his tail and even jumped on Sam’s lap as if they’d been ______ forever. We were delighted when they said we could take him home.

Charlie is a dog who knows exactly what he wants, and that’s to be with us ______. If you give a dog love, they’ll give you a number of wonderful things ______. Now we get out every day on walks and we’re more ______. He’s always so happy to see us when we come through the door. We spoil him and enjoy his ______ so much. Charlie was once the loneliest dog in Britain, but he’s not alone anymore.

4 . In a Meigs Academic Magnet School classroom in Nashville, Tennessee, a sign reads, “choose kindness.”

Teacher Lisa Shaffer is making the extra _______ to have her sixth graders _______ those words. She _______ her class can learn empathy (同理心). When Shaffer read about someone hiding money around the city, she told her class about it. The students were very _______.

Deciding to take classwork a bit outside the _______ , Shaffer took $5 bills, and the class began to throw out _______ where in the city they should put them.

“You’d have to put it somewhere where people would need the _______,” said student Thomas Grant.

“It needs to be someplace in town where people are maybe _______,” added student Cassidy Gambill.

The money went in bags with a _______ , which said, “If you need it, please take it and use it for whatever. If you don’t ________ $5, leave it where you want to put it until someone else picks it up. If you find it, please email us.”

What six sites were ________ for the money? Two of them were hospitals, another two were near humane organizations and the last two were at sites ________ where people were experiencing homelessness.

The class heard one of the bills had been ________. It was given to the Nashville Humane (人道的) Association. Shaffer said this was ________. She said maybe the person was encouraged by her class to choose ________.

5 . Sometimes, a picture is all it takes.

Sherry Lankston, who lives in the Seattle area, started a(n) ______ after she came across a Facebook post by Joy Ollinger, who works for the San Diego Department of Animal Services.

Ollinger had shared ______ and a note about Harvey, a young dog who was looking for a ______. “Harvey has a facial deformity (畸形), which makes him ______. To let people know more about Harvey, I ______ posted him on my personal Facebook and that’s how Sherry ______ him,” Ollinger said. “People often judge a book by its cover. No adopters (领养者) were interested in Harvey until Sherry ______. I’m glad he finally met someone who likes him.”

When Sherry first saw the photos of Harvey, she ______ the cute dog. “It seems that he’s just smiling and looks like the happiest of all dogs,” Sherry said.

Sherry quickly sent a message to Ollinger but the only ______ was that she and Harvey were in two states and over 1,300 miles apart. While Ollinger was thinking about how to ______ Harvey north, Sherry ______ to drive there and bring him back. “I took a day to ______ and left the next morning,” Sherry said. “Three days later, I was there. ______, Harvey’s facial deformity didn’t cause any health problems, and he ended up being part of our family.”

Sherry hopes the unusual ad option ______ can encourage other families to consider adopting or ______ animals in need.

6 . I was the new teacher at school, and Clarissa, a fifth-grader, was messy. Clarissa saw no need for _______. “It’s my space!” was most often her _______ when requested by classmates. So the days went by and the _______ began to worsen.

“Clarissa, get your purse out of the doorway. I’m tired of tripping over it!” they’d say. I _______ she was beginning to keep herself away from her classmates. I had to find a _______.

One afternoon when I sat at my desk looking around the room, an idea sprang into my head. Standing near my desk was an old and _______ filing cabinet (柜). What if Clarissa had some space that was _______ her own?

I began to work. I moved her desk and all her things near the cabinet. I selected some clean _______ and cut out a place card. On it I wrote, “Clarissa’s Space” and _______ it on top of the cabinet.

The next morning she came in the room ________, already arguing with a classmate. She ________ her new space almost immediately. Quietly she asked, “Is this mine?”

“It’s for your things if you feel like you need it,” I said ________, busying myself with papers on my desk.

Clarissa spent the rest of the year keeping her things together in her space. ________ was at hand in our classroom. A beaten-up old cabinet gave a gift to this child, the gift of ________ a different path for someone to walk who might be ________ in some way.

7 . It was a sunny afternoon in June of 2022 when Perry stepped off the train at Chicago’s station. Perry, who worked in a grocery store, was on his way to look at a _________ he was thinking about buying.

On the platform, two men were fighting. Then an _________ scene happened: A man fell onto the rail, hit by the electricity wire that powers Chicago’s trains and the other man _________. As Perry and other horrified onlookers watched, the man _________ as the current shot through his body, his head moving up and down.

“Help him!” a woman cried. “Please, someone!”

Perry couldn’t just stand there and watch. The guy looked _________. The train he’d just gotten off was idling (低速运转). Would it start up again? Putting his _________ in God, Perry reached down and grasped the victim’s wrist. _________, he felt a wave of electric shock shoot through his body, only to jump back. He reached down a second time and was shocked again. But the third time he _________ the man’s wrist, pulled quickly and _________ it.

The man was breathing weakly. __________ a professional, he had to work on the man’s heart until the victim came to life. Then medical workers and firefighters arrived. Perry let them __________. As planned, he went to look at the car he wanted to buy, but it had been sold.

The evening news reported the incident, praising an __________ hero for saving the victim’s life. After a friend outed him to the __________, Perry became famous. Just days after the incident, a local philanthropist (慈善家) __________ him with a car. Perry was then employed by the Chicago Fire Department.

Out of all the people on the platform that day, why was Perry the only one to help? As he saw it, he alone was not thinking about what harm might happen to him. “The word I’ll use is __________,” he said. “Belief over fear.”

8 . Patrick, Scheels store’s fishing manager, always helps customers with their angling (垂钓) needs, but one ______ stood out.

One day, a young boy named Xander entered the store with his mother, Brynn. Patrick noticed his eye were filled with ______ about the world of fishing. For nearly half an hour, they ______ their shared passion.

Brynn shared the ______ of Xander’s connection to angling, explaining, “My dad, a fisherman, passed away last year, but Xander never got to go fishing with him. So over the last year, he’s been ______ grandpa, wishing he could go fishing with him.”

______ by Xander’s longing for a connection to his late grandfather, Patrick decided to take action and ______ Xander his first fishing pole. “It was sixty dollars and he bought it with his own money,” Xander said. This ______ gesture brought tears to Brynn’s eyes, and she acknowleged that such acts of kindness aren’t ______ .

However, Patrick’s generosity didn’t ______ here. The 22-year-old fishing enthusiast went a step further by ______ a memorable fishing trip for Xander and his family. To ______ that Xander had an enriching experience, two professional anglers from Scheels ______ him on the trip, offering guidance and teaching him valuable skills.

Patrick’s kindness was ______ a breath of fresh air for Xander and his family, who described the fishing trip as a once-in-a-lifetime ______ . “I felt like it was my due diligence to pass on the good word of fishing,” Patrick said.

9 . I live in a part of New York City one writer recently described as “not a people place.” Less residential neighborhood than busy transportation center, it has been _______ hard hit by the shift to work-from-home. Every month a restaurant that used to _______ workers buying lunch drops its gate for the last time: the fancy French-sounding bakery was the first to _______, then the bar across the street, _______ even fast-food joints.

Somehow, an Indian restaurant has _______, staffed six days a week by a young guy named Ram. As our dining options and his customer options _______, we began to see each other a lot. Ram now knows where I grew up and that only one member of my _______ can tolerate spicy (辛辣的) cooking.

Recently he asked me for book recommendations, which either means business is even _______ than I feared or we’re getting to be _______. I want to ask him how he could possibly be earning enough from the ________ when huge chains around him are ________, but instead I just enquired ________ things are picking up. His answer is always the same: No, but we are ________ they will soon. It’s hard to ________ whether I keep going there for the chicken tikka masala, which is ________, or the positive attitude, which is even more nutritious.

10 . It was a cold winter evening in an unfamiliar city. My car had broken down, and disappointment was slowly replacing the ______ of my road trip. As I stood on the sidewalk,   a stranger ______ towards me.

“Do you need any help?”   he asked. I explained my situation. Immediately, he ______ to call a tow truck (拖车) for me. As we waited, we started a(an) ______ and I learned he was a local named David.

David’s ______ went beyond what was expected. He lent me his coat to keep ______ and even invited me to a nearby cafe for a hot drink. I realized how ______ I was to have come across such a kind stranger.

During our conversation, David ______ stories of similar experiences in the past. He believed in the ______ of kindness to bring people together. When I saw his ______ belief in humanity (人性), my belief was also recovered.

When the tow truck ______ , I thanked David from the bottom of my heart. He _____smiled and said, “We all need a little kindness in our life. Pay it forward when you ______ the chance.”

As I continued my journey after that ________ experience, a sense of appreciation and awareness filled my heart. The kindness of strangers can truly make a difference in someone’s life, serving as a ______ that there is goodness in the world, waiting to be shared.