1 . Callie Clemens was close to falling asleep at around 11 p. m. Just then a (n) _______ message on the Weibo page she runs — Lost & Found Pets — caught her eye. A puppy had been spotted crossing a road quickly in her neighbourhood. Weak _______ had been heard from inside a nearby drain (下水道) , so there was likely another puppy— maybe more than one — _______ down there.

Clemens sprang out of bed and _______ to the scene. Once there, she heard _______ cries echoing (回响) through the drain. She grabbed her son’s _______ from her car and then walked down. She wasn’t well _______, and was not expecting to go into the drain. But nobody else was around and puppies were stuck in. Somebody had to do it! It was 700 meters of total _______. She lowered herself with the only light from her flashlight and searched for any _______ sound. Around midnight, staffers from the local SPCA, an animal protection organisation, arrived and ________ Clemens in the drain.

They searched end to end, side to side. ________, at about 3 am, they found a tiny black puppy. While Clemens was still underground, one staff spotted another dog standing outside at one exit of the drain. “We were very excited,” says Clemens, adding that the puppies weighed about five pounds and four pounds ________. They were named Timmy and Tony and ________ by the SPCA.

Clemens’s ________ doesn’t surprise people in her neighbourhood. “Once she becomes focused on a ________ situation, she is unstoppable.”

2 . I went out to dinner at a chain restaurant. I’m blind but I didn’t want to trouble anyone. Out of ________, my walking stick was beside my right hand. The restaurant had braille (盲文) menus — most chains do — so I ________ asked for one.

I was truly amazed by the thoughtful ________ given to me. The waitress took my hand and guided me to sit at the table. Then she got everything for me, and ________ while I read the list for what I wanted.

Then, as I ________ my steak, politely and without any feeling of ________, she asked if I wanted my steak to be ________. I can use knife — not well, but I can do this. I have never felt so ________ in my life.

This also included how she led me to the restroom as a sighted ________. I grabbed her arm, walking half a ________ behind her. She even placed my hand on my chair when we got back.

Unfortunately, not all of us are greeted warmly when we go to a dining spot. I once experienced a particularly ________ service, for which my heart ________ a little. Now I was deeply moved and started crying. She placed her hand on my shoulder in a ________ manner.

I made sure the woman’s manager was informed about how ________ she was. I tipped her, but she wouldn’t take it. I ended up ________ it gently into her hand.

3 . A mom named Mimi Wallace discovered her daughter Olive’s handwritten composition. She was naturally ________ about what it would sound like. So, she shared the sheet music on TikTok and challenged other musicians to ________ it. “So my 10-year-old daughter wrote this.” Wallace said in her video. “I need to know if it’s any good or if it makes any ________,” Wallace added. “I wanted to know what Olive’s music sounded like, so I ________ TikTok.”

This call for musicians of all kinds to try playing it with their instruments of ________ immediately received a series of responses. People from different musical backgrounds shared their ________ of the composition.

Olive, who ________ studies the violin and dreams of becoming a professional, also seems to be ________ her music being brought to ________. “I never would have expected this to happen,” Olive said. “I’m ________ by how many people put their time into that. It was just really ________.” Olive hopes her music inspires others to ________ their love for music. “I’m happy that it ________ so many people and brings so many people joy. I think that’s what music does for people,” Olive said.

Though she has so far received lots of responses, Wallace still wonders what the ________ would sound like on a bagpipe (风笛) . Hopefully, more people will come forward to share their ________.

4 . I’ve been interested in diving. I wanted to experience it but was ______ by the fear of deep water. Last year, encouraged by a diving enthusiast, I decided to ______ my fear. I signed up for a diving course.

After a few days of theory sessions, I surprisingly ______ all the theory exams. But then followed the biggest ______. I was visibly ______ underwater. My instructor asked me to do a few more dives with him to ______ my confidence. However, I could see a huge ______ between what I thought I’d be doing and what the course ______ required.

Over the next few weeks, I looked back on the past and thought about what I could have done differently to have had a more pleasant ______. It was a ______ game! If I could win, I would be able to ______ this course.

A week before the end of the diving course, I went to complete two dives with my instructor. I knew that if I didn’t give it another ______, I would always carry the fear with me, and it would only get ______ with time. As I revised the ______ and put on my gear (装备), I thought to myself, “This is it!” I took a deep breath, held my mask in place with my fingers, and did a back roll into the sea.

Three hours later, I became a ______ diver. I finally overcame my fear!

5 . Twelve-year-old Daya Modayur, attending a camp at the MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning, created a postcard for her grandmother. She wanted to send the postcard to return the _______ after her grandmother had sent her several letters while on a road trip. But she _______ forgot to put the stamp on when she was taking it out.

Noticing the missing stamp, a camp counselor (辅导员) quickly _______ a plan. She wrote a note and _______ it to a nearby post mailbox. The note _______, “Dear postal worker, at our summer camp we made postcards and one person sent one to her grandma without a stamp. If you find it, can you please use the stamp on the back of this page? We would really _______ it.”

The request did not go unanswered. Shortly after, a _______ appeared on the same note. “Found it and _______ it. Have a great day!” read the _______ from an unidentified post worker.

The postal employee was Christine Fong, a ________ delivery agent with Canada Post. Fong carefully ________ through every envelope until she found Daya’s postcard.

“When I read that a child had sent a postcard from a day ________ to her grandmother with no postage, obviously, the first thing I thought when I ________ the mailbox was to find this piece of letter mail without a stamp,” she explained.

This experience left a ________ impression on Daya, reinforcing the importance of small acts of ________ and the power of a handwritten note.

6 . GRIEVOUS LADY

Perhaps she should have worried, because her heart was suddenly in pain.

The cruelest fate is to have hope and see it crushed before your eyes. And so the girl sat on her knees in a malformed circle of death, looking at a world coming to its end. This was the first time she had felt the emotion of sadness, and it was quickly turning into despair. The world of Arcaea was a pointless world. It was the manifestation of worlds gone. It had no substance, only the reflections of such. Even the glowing (热情洋溢的；灼热的) and joyful memories she had sometimes _________ on her way were still only memories of the past. Like night comes after day, they had to have led into the end she now saw spinning slowly in the air before her. Her eyes welled with tears.

…

Like an ocean _________ with oil, the memories of a cursed labyrinth and the memories she had brought with her all fell and muddled into the soothing glass around her. Most of them churned into a gray mass, some would suddenly jut (伸出) up from the ground like _________. She went still, and slowly looked over every shard, just…_________ them. Even when memories came shooting up sharply near her eyes, she continued to count.

Eventually she lifted a finger, beckoning some of the _________ towards her. And, with a simple thought, the fragments came together in the shape of a fragile butterfly. She _________ it into the sky, to reflect the world of white, and when it came down again to tell her what it had seen, with a simple thought she slowly _________ each of its wings, and let it fall into nothing. Then, she walked forward from the corrupted sea, willing each pillar of lost time that entered her path to explore and shatter.

…

Time passed. She _________.

She no longer sought to collect _________. She walked through the world mostly absently. She discovered things about it and about herself, but she had no __________.

Now she walked beside an old and crumbing building, __________ a parasol (遮阳伞) she had found in the ruins some day. __________, a creature formed of glass reflecting bitter days glided down toward her from the sky. It resembled a glistening and jagged crow, and it was something she considered no more than a tool. __________ that day at the now-fallen tower, she’d become more in tune with the chaotic Arcaea and was able to call upon things like this. In its own way, it whispered to her of places beyond her reach in the blinding white world. Glaring at it, she had it burst and fall apart, and she moved on.

The __________ of hers sickened her with news. The world was empty, that’s all it said. That she knew. She’d never find anyone else here.

She wanted to. She need to. But it was not because she hoped to have someone to share her __________ with.

She needed to let this frustration out on something alive. She needed someone to hurt.

7 . Mary McCollum and her friends, all university students, were on a drive. Suddenly, they _________ a white car went off the road and rolled into a river. Without _________, these extraordinary individuals sprang into action. Turning around, they _________ to the crash site at once.

“We saw a _________ stuck in the middle of a river. It was _________ at the same time, so we just threw our belongings aside and jumped in,” Mary told ANF. She recalled the _________ moment when she and her friends stood on top of the car, _________ every imaginable method to break open the door.

Luckily, with _________ and teamwork, they managed to open the door and _________ the mother and her two children. But their heroism didn’t __________ there. Clarke Jones, Mary’s friend, performed first aid __________ on the younger child, who was in a state of unconsciousness.

The actions of these students weren’t __________. The local police office took to social media to express their gratitude and admiration,__________ what the students did. “Thanks to your quick thinking and bravery, the family may now keep alive. Your behavior is absolutely __________. We are grateful you were in the right place at the right time.”

As for the students, they had never imagined that a routine drive would turn into an urgent rescue mission, and they were really proud of the __________ they made.

8 . Over a decade ago, Heather Benoit was given a crayon as a gift by one of her students. This may seem _________, but the reason behind it couldn’t be more heartwarming.

At that time, it was Heather’s last Christmas as a(n)_________. Students and their parents _________ her — they gave her lots of presents, which moved her. One little kid, who didn’t have a present to give,_________ this. Still, he tried to think of a way that he, too, could _________ how much he cared about her. Knowing that her favorite color is purple, he _________ a gift from an already opened box. Inside was a single, purple crayon. “He gave me so much _________ a purple crayon. He gave me a kind gesture. He gave me _________. It is his thought that counts,” said Heather.

It’s been over a decade since her retirement. But Heather Benoit still _________ it. Now she volunteers at the Wallace Community Center to work with the youth, many of whom she says __________ a variety of hardships, like that student. “And I often show them the crayon and tell them ‘You don’t have to take money to show somebody that you __________ them,’” Heather shares. “I want to __________, by doing this, that just the __________ goes such a long way.”

This crayon has been so __________ that Heather plans to write a book about it called The Giving Crayon. With it, she hopes to show the importance of __________ gestures and shedding (散发) light, hope and positivity.

9 . Jonah Larson, 15, of La Crosse, was awarded the 2023 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. He founded Jonah’s Hands to use his passion for crocheting (钩针编织) to_______$75,000 for school improvements in the Ethiopian village where he was born. He is a crochet talent who taught himself the craft at age 5 and was soon winning _________at the county fair. At age 11, he co-authored a book ________“Hello, Crochet Friends!” with his mother and started on a book tour to inspire other kids.

Larson’s story and mission have since gone viral, inspiring a large number of followers and________to his cause from around the world. Larson uses his platform to share his_______of giving back specifically, of fulfilling a promise his mother made while________him as a baby from Ethiopia. The orphanage (孤儿院) nurses there asked that she never let him forge this_________

A passionate reader, Jonah was disheartened to learn that the Ethiopian village primary school _______a library, so he sold his crochet pieces online, along with other fundraising________, to create one for the school’s 3, 000 students.

________, Larson has funded a science lab for the school and an eight-stall toilet for girls. He also bought desks and created a soccer program complete with________, balls and goals. He is now working to improve the high school. “I hope my work can help bring the world together.” said Larson.

The Barron Prize was_________in 2001 by author T.A. Barron and was named for his mother, Gloria Barron. Since then, the Prize has________more than 500 young people who show heroic________like courage, passion, and perseverance as they work to help their communities or protect the planet.

“We shine the spotlight on these________young people so that their stories will inspire others,” said Barron.