1 . When I was little, my classmate and neighbor Paul would take wonderful Santa face cookies to school every year as his birthday ________. In those days, I would always follow him when he shared the cookies with other classmates, just in case someone had been ________ and as a result he had an extra ________ or two. Somehow, one cookie ________ long enough for me to show it to my mother. She got the ________ from Paul’s mother and bought the special cookie cutter at Morley Brothers, our local hardware shop.

Over the years, my mother and I would ________ to make these cookies. After I got married, I bought my own cookie cutter and the cookies remained a ________ for the Christmas time. Later, my mother gave me her cutter. I ________ both of the Santa face cookie cutters because Morley Brothers had ________ years before and we never saw anything that even ________ these wonderful Santa faces.

One year, after I made the cookies, the two cutters were waiting to be hand washed and ________ for another year. Well, my oldest daughter decided to help out by ________ the dishwasher. You guessed it. ________, the two treasured plastic cutters, came out distorted and totally ________. I knew if I couldn’t ________ them, a long-standing tradition would come to a ________.

After making several telephone ________, I learned a woman named Pat Kimbrel had ________ the hardware business from her grandmother. I was excited! Immediately, I called and managed to talk with Pat about the happy memories connected with her grandmother’s cookie cutters. Eventually, through Pat I got four Santa face cookie cutters.

Now the family tradition is ________ in both our and our daughters’ houses. So, Paul, thanks to you and your grandmother. I’ll bet you never know how many lives you affect or for how many years the ________ will be felt.

2 . There he was, turning the corner of Hawley and Main Street like clockwork. His red hair seemed to catch the sunlight, giving his head a soft candle-flame glow. He caught my eye, and up went his arm in his usual wave. As usual, I _______back and gave him a warm smile. I didn’t know his name, but he was very _______to everybody. No matter the weather, I saw him walking out there almost every day.

Having moved from a larger city, I wasn’t used to waves from _______. Actually, wherever we were, people hardly_______each other. We simply passed by each other, heads down, minding our own_______.

Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed these daily waves. It felt great to be _______and receive that message of “Hello!”. On days when we didn’t _______ to pass each other, I missed him and wondered if he was all right. The next day, I’d find myself driving with one eye on the _______. It was a happy reunion when I spotted him, and I’d wave first in my _________.

One night I was walking in the street, my thoughts traveled to “The Waver”, wondering if I could be________enough to wave at people I didn’t know. Just at the point.

I heard a car ________. I made eye contact with the person in the car, smiled and waved at her. The woman’s face____________, and she waved back. I was a little surprised. I reminded myself, “It’s okay. It’s actually kind of ________!” I waved to everyone I saw the rest of the way home.

Everyone at some point in their lives wonders if they’ve made any ________on the world. I can tell you that you don’t have to change the world ________. It’s enough to help sweeten it a little, even simply by a heart-warming wave.

3 . Lazer loves running, and although he experiences a series of potentially fatal heart problems, he always cherishes a new finish line to inspire his _______.

By 2008, Lazer had undergone six heart _______, and the last one left him _______. In an attempt to feel_______, he decided to_______ his diet and, at the suggestion of a friend, started drinking more nutrient-packed juices._______, he began to feel good enough to _______ his sneakers and hit the_______again.

“After _______ the hospital, my goal was not to ________. I wanted to live my life as I desired, and that meant to ________ running and be in the best shape that I can,” he says. “I wasn’t going to be sedentary and sit on a sofa and ________ the remote. The big thing for me was that I wanted my own life. I was going to do everything I could to get my life back.”

To Lazer, that meant running, since it was such a big part of that life. ________, just months after that sixth surgery in 2008, he was back________ the starting line of the Las Vegas 26.2. And this past November, he crossed the finish line of his 18^th ________ race.

Lazer ________ running as one of the main reasons he’s lived well beyond that one-year prognosis he got back in 2004. “I believe I started running ________ knowing that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be living too ________,” he says. “Running is a part of who I am—I am ________ to be the best that I possibly can be. It’s such a huge part of my life that my life seems out of order if I’m injured or I can’t run. It’s kind of my ________.”

4 . Having a positive attitude can mean the difference between living a life full of joy and happiness and living a life full of depression and misery. Your_______ determines what you will experience in life_______ what the actual circumstances are.

Reality can be a difficult concept to _______ . How is it that two people can have the _______ experience yet one person comes out of it loving life while the other comes out of it_______ life? There was a story of two brothers who were_______ in a home with a father who_______ all the time. It would be no _______ if both of the boys grew up to be alcoholics themselves with a hatred for life. One of the two brothers did just that. He_______ his father’s footsteps. However, the other brother grew up ________ the opposite. Having experienced that ________ , he made up his mind to be a________ and loving father because he didn’t want his kids to go through what he was forced to go through.

So what made the difference in the ________ of these two men’s lives? You see, it’s not what happens to you that ________ how your life will turn out; it’s what you do about it that counts much. The ________   for having a good attitude is that your decisions and actions will be different. On the contrary, if you had a________ attitude, you will probably experience a different outcome as a result of those________ .

It’s true that you can’t control outside circumstances and events, ________ don’t feel discouraged, for you have total control over what you decide to do with those circumstances. By________ feeding your mind with positive material, you will be more likely to________ the decision that will eventually bring you closer to your goals.

5 . When you walk through the doors of Morton Plant Hospital on an early Tuesday afternoon,you’ll be greeted by the comforting voice of Mary Ellen Owens.

Owens, who is now 98, started _______at the hospital after her husband died nearly 20 years ago. “ My husband was a ( n) _______here, off and on for about six weeks over four years, ” she _______. “ Everyone at the hospital had been so good to us when he was sick. ” To show her _______, Owens wanted to give back in a big way. “ I don’ t have several million dollars, but I can give my _______, ” she said.

Owens is approaching 7, 000 hours in volunteer time. “ I used to give three days a week,”she said. “ Now I’ m _______. So I don’ t get around as much as I _______, so I only give one day a week. ”

To get to her weekly four-hour _______, Owens receives a ride from a volunteer who she now calls her friend. “ Every _______, Richard picks me up from my home and brings me here, ”she said. “ I don’ t believe people of my age should be ___________. ”

In her younger years, Owens used to walk up and down the fashion runways in New York City and Richmond, Virginia. She also had a( n) __________to be in the 1939 film classic Gone with the Wind. Because she had other work at the time, however, Owens _________to turn it down.

“ What I didn’ t do in my life is more __________ than what I’ ve done” , she laughs. __________ she’ s in her golden years, Owens plans to continue to live her life with __________by greeting each patient with a smile.

6 . In October 2016, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the first to receive this_______for songwriting. He has been regarded as the _______living artist in popular music and culture for more than five decades.

In his_______ years he listened to the radio-first to blues and_______,when he was a teenager,to rock and roll. He formed several bands while_______Hibbing High School. Their_______ of"Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay"at their high school talent show was so _______ that the principal cut the microphone. But this didn't cause him to _______ interest in music in and after high school.

At the University of Minnesota,his_______on rock and roll gave way to American________music. He said, "Songs of rock'n'roll weren't________ or didn't reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I   ________ folk music,it was more of a serious type of thing. The ________are filled with more despair,more sadness,more success,more faith in the supernatural,much deeper ________. "

However, Dylan ________ college at the end of his first year and traveled to New York City where he performed and________ materials from other folk singers. He made a lot of attempts to show his talents and ________ gained public recognition.

Dylan has________more than 100 million records as a________ ,making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. On the road to success, Dylan has ________ many difficulties with great efforts and persistence.

7 . A few years ago, I decided to read a novel or a short story collection from every country in the world. But when it_______to reading the world, the biggest _______ for me was that I didn’t know what to read and how to get the books. I had to turn to others for _______.In October, I _______ my blog and posted a short appeal online. I explained who I was, how_______ my reading had been, and I asked anyone who _______ to leave a message suggesting what I might read from other parts of the planet. I had no idea _______ anyone would be interested, but within a few days people started to get in _______.

Books often came from surprising _______. People gave me different ideas about what to do, I got a message from a woman called Rafidah in Malaysia. She said she loved my project and that she could go to her __________English—language bookshop and __________ a book I needed and post it to me.

I accepted __________, and a few weeks later, a package arrived, __________   not one, but two books —Rafidah’s from Malaysia, and a book from Singapore that she had also __________for me. I was__________that a stranger more than 6000 miles away would go to such lengths to help someone she would probably never meet. But Rafidah’s __________proved to be the pattern for that year.

I was deeply __________ by these kind-hearted strangers around the world and I know it’s the power of books that has __________us across the world. I hope more people will __________ me. If we all read more __________ ,we would all be richer for that.

8 . Sarah Ivermee is a mother from the UK who gave birth to her son Freddie back in 2011. _______, the little boy was born deaf in one ear and nearly deaf in the other.

In 2014, Freddie was given a cochlear implant (人工耳蜗) for his deaf ear, and he absolutely _______ it. Though Freddie was happy with his implant, Sarah quickly learnt that not all children in his situation accept implants _______.

“We learnt very quickly that not all families have had such a smooth ride, having lots of problems with children not _______ to wear their devices as they look ugly and _______ ,” Sarah said. “We did some _______ and found there was not a lot available to _______ the look of hearing devices and _______ there must be something we could do.” When Sarah _______ that a friend's 9-year-old daughter felt out-of-place while ____________ her device, she offered to decorate it for her, ____________ it into something the little girl loved. “She loves them and loves the fact that she can have ____________ designs that her friends don’t have,” Sarah said. This experience inspired Sarah. In 2014, she founded the company Lugs, which ____________ custom-made kits (配件) families can ____________ to decorate hearing devices and cochlear implants. Thanks to these kits, kids can decorate their devices with everything from flowers and butterflies to superheroes and cartoon characters.

“I thought there would be a lot of families ____________ with children who don’t want to wear their hearing devices, and I felt I had to ____________ ,” Sarah explained. “Knowing children are not only ____________ to wear their hearing devices but also ____________ to show them off makes it all worthwhile.”

The kits are ____________ the lives of families all over the world. One mother even said that she used a kit to decorate her three-month-old daughter’s device!

We applaud (赞赏) Sarah for going above and beyond to help these kids feel more ____________ about themselves!

9 . Last year, I received a special present. My children ________ me a stainless steel coffee machine for my birthday. I love drinking coffee every morning and couldn’t ________ to use it. But ________ I poured my first cup, the coffee spilled (洒出) all over the table. Thankfully, no one was around to see my ________ face! I kept trying, but each morning I ________ be seen wiping up the coffee. Then I realized if I poured very ________, there could be no spilling. My normal ________ was to rush through breakfast to get on with my day. But eventually I learned not only to pour but to ________ the experience: the taste and the stillness of a new day.

It promoted me to ________ upon whether I was rushing through in other areas of my life. So I started to appreciate even the most ________ moments. When shop owners apologized for keeping me waiting, I’d say, “Not a problem. I’m not ________.” I even enjoyed sitting in front of my house talking with ________ and sharing our own stories, ________ we had known each other for a long time. It seemed that the world around us slowed to a ________ we could handle.

Stillness not only slows the pace of life, but also ________ the soul, helping us to enjoy the world’s small pleasures and realize the truth of life.

10 . A group of graduates, successful in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complain about stress in work and life.

Before offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and a variety of _______ — porcelain (陶瓷), plastic, glass, crystal (水晶), some plain-looking and _______, some delicate (精致的) and expensive — telling them to _______ themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you _______, all the nice-looking and expensive cups were _______, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is _______for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the _______ of your problems and stress.It is definite that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. _______ all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you all went for the _______ cups. And then you began ____________ each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and ____________ in society are the cups.They are just tools to hold and ____________ life, and the type of cup we have does not change the ____________ of life we live.Sometimes, by ____________ only on the cup, we fail to ____________ the coffee.