2 . Tired of the busy and chaotic life in Las Vegas, Nevada for nearly ten years, my family and I decided to slow down to lead an eco-friendly life. None of us felt that this could be _________ where we were living and we all agreed that a move to the country would be great for everyone.

Before long we _________ looking for a home in Yucca, Arizona, a very small town of less than 1,000 people. When I called to inquire about the property, I was _________ that there was no electricity available in the area. What? No electricity? I almost _________ the idea immediately. But what better way is there to go green? After giving it a second _________, we _________ to put in an offer and moved in on Thanksgiving Day.

When we first moved to the property, we did some _________ and stayed in our motor home. We were faced with real challenges at the time. But the _________ just made us work harder. We slowly got things fixed and moved into the house after 38 days.

While living here for the past four months has been a big adjustment, there are many _________ to living off the grid (电网). I think one of the most __________ lessons is teaching my kids the importance of __________. We started taking quicker showers, doing only full loads of laundry, turning off the water while brushing our teeth. __________, we are also trying to make other changes which include reducing the amount of trash we generate by __________, growing our own organic vegetables and re-purposing things that we would __________ throw.

Overall, going off the grid has been __________ to our family. I hope that once my kids move out of the house, they will keep the habits that they have learned by living off the grid.

3 . I still remember it was some fifteen or sixteen years ago, a warm, sunny, Saturday afternoon. I ________to take my kids to the local playground. As soon as we got there my daughter headed for the ________ and asked for a play. As I was helping her to go higher and higher, I noticed another little girl trying ________ together own swing going. Her elderly grandmother was sitting ________ on a nearby bench and smiled at me.

I gave my daughter one big ________ and then walked over to the little girl and asked if she wanted a favor. She smiled and said “Yes!” I soon had her feet ________ towards the clouds while she laughed happily. For the next two hours I found myself playing on the swings and hiding and seeking with my son, daughter, and the other little girl. By the time we went home, I was ________ worn out, but my spirits was still flying higher than those swings.

Two years later I was ________ again after a long day’s work. Still, I needed to ________ my kids from the local grade school before going back home. I stood wearily in the ________ waiting area watching for my children. Suddenly, I felt two tiny arms wraparound my ________ I looked down and there was the little girl from the playground smiling up at me. She gave me one more big hug before ________off to catch her school bus. As I watched her back, I didn’t feel quite so tired anymore and my spirits were once again flying in the Heavens.

In this life every single bit of love we share ________ its way back to us again. It may travel from heart to heart or it may blossom in the soul where it was planted. It may take seconds or it may take years. The law of love, ________, is never broken. What we give, we get back, we reap what we sow. The love we share, the kindness we give, and the _________ we create will always comeback to bless us.

4 . Everyone is calling this lovely long-haired cat a hero. And when you hear what Masha did on that day, you’ll know how this furry friend saved a baby’s life!

After finding an abandoned baby boy on the street, Masha ________ into the box the boy had been deserted in as if to keep him warm. Then, the caring mother cat got ________ by crying non-stop to draw ________ to the poor 3-month-old baby boy.

A retired woman, Irina, who ________ nearby, walked out to empty her household waste. Suddenly she heard Masha crying out loudly and ________. She spotted Masha. It was a lost cat that she and her neighbors had begun ________ and she knew Masha was normally very calm and friendly.

“When I heard her crying, I thought that perhaps she had ________ herself because she would come to greet me or give me a sign for help,” Irina said. Concerned for the cat, Irina went to ________, and then she spied the cat ________ her from the abandoned box in the middle of the cans.

She walked closer, and was completely ________. She could not believe her eyes when she looked inside the box and saw the baby there with Masha ________ next to him! Clearly her mothering nature had taken over her and she wanted to ________ the child from the cold. Quickly, Irina called a(n) ________, and the baby was directly taken to hospital where he was given a check-up. Unexpectedly, doctors said the baby was ________. A hospital spokesman said, the baby had only been outside for a few ________ and thanks to Masha and the child’s clothing, he was not damaged. Now the residents like Irina on the street are treating Masha as a hero.

5 . As a ski instructor for children, I work with all sorts of behavior challenges. Kids seem to mask _________ less effectively than adults, so it’s _________ to see when they are cold, scared, or just not having fun. On one occasion, I was working with a group of _________ when one of them started to act out. He began spitting rude remarks and _________ instructions. After five years of working in this environment, I recognized that his _________ were not being met. Did he deserve _________ if he was not being kind himself? Maybe. So, I took him aside and tried a(n)_________.

I showered him with every ounce of _________ I could. I reassured (使安心)him and smiled when his skis responded effectively to his movements. I _________ him when he fell. As the class weaved through trees, I saw his __________ grow. By the bottom, he was smiling as well. He quietly apologized for being __________ and thanked me for being his teacher.

Although this is an oversimplified example of kindness and behavioral psychology I know little about, I learned something that day: Kindness __________. I often think that we are still like kids as adults. We’re just better at __________ our unpleasant feelings. But our inner child needs healing and security. And when someone offers a hug after a long day, souls can be __________. So, whether they __________ it or not, be kind.

6 . Diebedo Kere is a young architect from Africa. There was no __ school when Mr. Kere was growing up in Gando, one of the world’s poorest countries. Since childhood he had already had a keen sense of __ . His family sent him away to school when he was seven and he did not __ them. He won a scholarship from the German government and went to study in Germany.

__ still studying for his architecture degree in Berlin, Mr. Kere learned that the school building in his hometown was on the point of __. The school had been built some years previously. __ to share with his village the advantages that __ had given him, Mr. Kere launched the School Bricks for Gando project and __ raising money needed to build a school.

Opened in 2001, the school now __ more than 300 pupils. The school not only __ education for the village children, but is used to pass on new skills and __ to the entire village.

“Africa is full of very bright and __ young people. But only through __ to education will they be able to build themselves a better world. For me, Gando School is a __ because the villagers no longer see it as a waste of time for their children to be in school instead of working in the __ .” Kere said.

8 . No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own efforts.

I learned this lesson from a(n) ________ many years ago when I took the head ________ job at a school in Georgia.

It was a tradition for the school’s old team to ________ the new team at the end of spring practice. The old team had no coach and they even didn’t prepare for the game. Being the coach of the new team, I was ________ because I knew we were going to win, but disappointingly, we were defeated. I couldn’t ________ I had got into such a situation. Thinking hard about it, I came to ________ that my team might not be the number one team, but they were ________ me. I had to change my attitude about their ability and potential.

I started doing anything I could to help them build a little ________. Most importantly, I began to treat them like ________. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their vacations, we met every day and practiced.

Six months after suffering our defeat, we won our first game and our second, and continued to ________. Finally, we faced the number one team in the state. I felt it would be a ________ for us even if we lost the game. But my boys beat them, giving me one of the greatest ________ of my life!

From the experience I learned a lot about how the attitude of the leader can ________ the team. Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I pushed and ________ them. I helped them to see themselves ________, and they built themselves into winners.

Winners are made, not born.

9 . It was the first night of a tiring seven-day 250km race across the Gobi Desert a year ago. Mr. Leonard___________a little dog going around his camp trying to ___________herself.

“Cute, but I’m not giving you any,” Leonard thought. Like all ___________, he had packed just enough for the whole ___________. He’d been running competitively for three years, and he had a___________ to win.

The next day, at the starting line, the dog ___________ him again. He waved her away, worried that she might be stepped on by the runners. ___________, the dog followed him all the way until the day’s race ___________. That night the dog snuggled (偎依) up to Leonard and even___________ to get a little food from him. By then, he was determined to name her Gobi.

The pair went on to finish the seven-day race, with Gobi____________ a distance of 125km on her own, and winning Leonard over, enough for him to make a____________ — he would take her home to Edinburgh. “Seeing Gobi on the race ____________my attitude to things. It made me think more about stopping and helping her, rather than just focusing on winning, ” said Leonard, who finished second. “It also made my running more enjoyable , giving me a lot of pleasure.”

As Leonard was preparing to get Gobi home, she was missing. With a group of 20 local volunteers coming to his ____________ , he finally found her. After that, Leonard never let Gobi out of his____________. Now Gobi’s favorite activity is still running, and she__________ does at least 8km a day with Leonard up the hills.

10 . Many cities around the world today are heavily polluted. Careless methods of production and ________ of consumer demands for environment friendly products have ________ the pollution problem. One ________ is that millions of tons of glass, paper, plastic, and metal containers are produced, and these are difficult to get rid of.

________, today, more and more consumers are choosing “green” and demanding that the products they buy should be safe for the environment. ________ they buy a product, they ask questions like these: “Will this shampoo damage the environment?” “Can this metal container be ________ or can it only be used once?”

A recent study showed that two ________ five adults now consider the environmental safety of a product before they buy it. This means that companies must now change the ________ they make and sell their products to make sure that they are “green,” that is, friendly to the environment.

Only a few years ago, it was impossible to find green products in supermarkets, but now there are hundreds. Some supermarket products ________ labels to show that the product is green. Some companies emphasize that their products are clean and safe in their advertising and have made it their main selling ________.

The ________ for a safer and cleaner environment is making companies rethink ________ they do business. No longer will the public accept the old ________ of “Buy it, use it, throw it away and forget it.” The public ________ is still here, and companies are ________ their act gradually.