1 . I was born in a large family of twelve siblings (兄弟姐妹). We weren’t poor, but there were times when we couldn’t _______ certain things my friends had.

Back in those days, hot lunch was a luxury (奢侈品). And usually hot-lunch buyers and the students who brought cold lunch sat _______. My siblings and l brought lunch from home every day: thick _______ of homemade bread. We would look on _______ as the rich kids proudly sat down with their _______ food like chicken fricassee (白汁烩鸡).

I never said anything, _______ my teacher Mrs. Caruso, must have seen the eagerness in my eyes. One day she quietly pressed a _______ into my hand and whispered, “Give this to your mother.”

I skipped home and handed my mom the note. She read it and smiled “Well, Mrs. Caruso said because of all your hard work, she wants to _______ lunch for you tomorrow.” The next day, I proudly carried my tray of chicken fricassee and sat with the students at the hot-lunch table. Honestly, the _______ wasn’t as great as I had imagined, but I was ________ to be a part of the group.

I don`t know why Mrs. Caruso ________ me. Maybe she also grew up in a family that ________ to make ends meet. Maybe she knew what it was like to feel just a little ________ than everyone else. Somehow, with her ________, she never made me feel ashamed. She just made me feel loved and ________. Thanks to her, I learned that I had just as much right as anyone to sit at the hot lunch table.

2 . It was a Saturday night. I circled the neighborhood a few times, looking for a place to _________ my car. Finally, I found one, which was behind a late-model Jeep. I tried to back into the space, but _________ to see the angles _________. I heard it before I felt it, the sound of plastic on plastic. I got out of my car to _________ the damage. My car was _________. However, there were two distinct _________ on the Jeep.

Then I noticed a woman, walking her dog, who was now _________ me with her phone. “Hope you’re not planning to drive away,” she said quietly. Until then, I was annoyed with myself for having been careless, but now I was _______ with her for taking my picture. How dare she, I thought. She had no respect for my _________. And how dare she assume I would do the wrong thing? But soon I calmed down because I knew she wasn’t entirely __________. I made no decision to drive away without leaving a note, but that idea did flash across my mind. It was dark, and __________ her, no one was watching. It happens all the time—the hit-and-run in the parking lot.

We all have those __________ to behave selfishly. It is not the thought but what we do with it that __________. It is the commitment to take __________, to care for one another, and to think about the greater good that makes this world a better place to stay. Eventually, I left a(an) __________ with my name and phone number under the wiper blade of the Jeep.

3 . On Monday, April 20, we experienced heavy rain and fierce winds. During a break in the weather on Tuesday morning, I stupidly decided to _______ into town to buy some food.

I left the supermarket around 10 am. However, as I drove the six kilometres back to my home, the weather took a turn for the _______. It was raining very heavily and I was forced to take a _______ I don’t usually travel. Nearing my town, I watched as the water level on the road _______ in front of me. I had nowhere to go.

The driver of a four-wheel drive signaled from his car to tell me not to try and cross the _______ road. Then I noticed a man in his early 30s in his front yard _______ the situation. He quickly waved to me to come and _______ in his driveway away from the rushing water.

The man called Trent then _______ me to wait inside his house. I told him I was concerned about the _______ to my father’s car, which I was driving, as the continuing rain started to turn into hail (冰雹). Trent then took a cover from his garage and ________ my car to protect it from the hail. ________, his efforts saved Dad’s car from being destroyed by the hail.

While waiting for the weather to improve, I learned that Trent had ________ his job ten months ago and was trying his hand as a local handyman (做零活的人) to make ends meet.

By 12:30 pm the rain ________ so I asked Trent if he thought it would be safe enough to ________ — he told me it was. As I left, I insisted on ________ two of his business cards, and my father has since called Trent to offer him work as a handyman at our place doing various small jobs.

4 . Jodi and Chase’s family liked to kayak (划皮艇) out to a small cabin down the river. Each summer the parents always ________ them of the dangerous brown bears nearby.

Today, Jodi and Chase were allowed to paddle ahead alone. They put on life jackets and started their ________. After a while, Jodi took a break and laid her paddle (船桨) ________ her kayak, taking out their smoked salmon sandwiches with onions. Chase raised his eyebrows. “We’ll have to ________ the fish smell on our hands when we’re done,” he said “We don’t want to smell like a bear’s favorite snack.”

Jodi stared at him as she ate. “Not funny.”

“I never ________ about bears.” Chase responded.

Shortly, they arrived at the usual stop: a cove (小河湾). Stepping out of their kayaks excitedly, they ________ it above the waterline, secured the rope around a tree, and washed their hands in the water.

“You go ahead,” Jodi said. “I need to grab some berries.” Then she got off the road. Walking alone, suddenly, Jodi sensed ________. She stopped and listened carefully. There was rustling (瑟瑟声) on the far side of the stream. She wanted to ________ down the road immediately. Would that be a ________? Just as what Dad had told her?

Then, a giant creature came out from the shadows. At that moment, Jodi was ________, going through a checklist in her mind: round ears, dark fur and a straight body… It’s a black bear! She ________ breathed out, for this kind was not so dangerous as the brown ones. But still, she could smell its stinky breath from across the ________. Yet, as quickly as it had appeared, the bear escaped. Jodi breathed a sigh of ________. When she arrived at cabin. Mom, Dad, and Chase were already there.

“How did it go?” Dad looked ________ Jodi smiled broadly. She did have a ________ for them!

6 . Snow had just melted off the ground that April day at our house in Regina Beach. My husband, Carl, had just cleaned up the pool in preparation for selling our _______. The year before, Carl had lost his job, and our economic situation was _______, so we had finally put our home on the _______. The thought of losing our beautiful home was almost more than I could bear.

Deep in despair(绝望), I sat _______ a job application letter for Carl. Out of the corner of my eye I could see our thirteen-month-old son, Forrest, playing near our two beloved dogs, Nana and Sasa. I hadn’t typed more than two sentences when Nana, began _______ violently at the pool and running back and forth.

I _______ to see what was happening. Suddenly, I realized Forrest was nowhere to be seen. Then to my _______, my eyes _______ Forrest’s yellow sleeper in the pool. Sasa was _______ doing her best to keep him afloat by holding on to his sleeper with her mouth. I realized that Forrest had somehow fallen into the ________.

In a split second, I dove in, lifted my precious baby out and carried him inside. But when I realized Forrest wasn’t breathing, I began to go into shock. ________, Carl, who was trained in CPR, arrived and then took over. I stood by with my heart in my ________, and after about three minutes, Forrest began to ________ again.

Things in our lives are much better now. Most importantly, almost losing Forrest —and then ________ — erased any despair I might have had about losing our home.

A house can always be replaced, but knowing we have each other is the greatest ________ of all.

8 . Last summer, I was suffering from too much stress. I’d just graduated from a(n) __________doctoral program and was exhausted from the years of research, study and writing. I took a __________to celebrate, but the academic intensity had become a __________. Sitting on the beautiful lawn of the hotel on Mackinac Island, I just felt like I should be studying or working __________.

Generally seeing natural beauty would have __________ me, but I couldn’t slow down. I couldn’t help looking at my cellphone __________in case I missed something important. “Enough,” I murmured. I needed to unwind, but why couldn’t I?

A dragonfly (蜻蜓) buzzed around me.With each __________, this creature’s wings __________ color — blue one moment, green the next. Dragonflies usually fascinated me with their quick movements that __________ me of acrobats (杂技演员) in the wind, but I wasn’t in the __________ that day. What I needed then was stillness, not movement. Suddenly, the dragonfly came to rest on a blade (叶片) of grass in front of me.

I watched that dragonfly carefully for many minutes. So did the dragonfly. “It’s not a matter of relaxing,” it seemed to say. “Life is so short.Be here in the __________ and let the mood take care of itself.” Suddenly, it __________ me that this beautiful creature, which only had months to live, was “instructing” me about the __________ of life and I felt much relaxed. The dragonfly seemed __________ that its message had been delivered. It sprang from the grass and flew away. I didn’t see it again. But I would never forget what it taught me: Be here and _____________ yourself.

10 . “Tom, you have a hairless spot on the back of your head!”Mom’s alarmed cry hit me like a shock.

I tried to shrug (耸肩) it off. “It’ll grow back. ”I worked to sound ________.

At first, the loss was minimal. ________the spot with my fingers became the top priority every day. No new hair, smooth as an egg. Weeks later, the spot was a little larger, and there was still no_________of any hair becoming visible through the skin. I began to________, but continued to try to be cool about it.

As days went by, my hair started to fall faster and more. ________ my fingers through it, I would stare at the alarming quantity of hair in my hands, willing this to ________ happening to me.

We went to see a doctor, who diagnosed my condition as alopecia (脱发症) . He recommended an injection ( 注 射 ) to try, which would be ________ to the head skin. I underwent several costly injections over a few months, but in vain.

________, the injection began to trouble my sleep, and we finally had to stop the __. My hair still didn’t grow back.

I had to wear a wig ( 假 发 ) to school every day, worried it might slip one day and that everything would________. Though aware that I should ________the fact to my friends, I was scared, not knowing how they would handle the information. ________, hesitantly, I told them what was happening after days of struggle. To my surprise, they all thought nothing of it. This was a(n) ________ for me.

I came to realize that what had happened was not my fault, and not something I should feel________of. I am learning that being bald doesn’t change who I am, and if I don’t let it affect myself ________ , then other people are much more likely to accept me as I am, too.