2 . My first care giving experience involved driving 2 hours every day to see my grandmother who was terminally ill. I was certainly _______ as the weeks turned into months, but the desire to _______ my grandmother in her last days was overwhelming (无法抗拒的).

Years later, my 87­year­old father required more _______ skills than I could provide. As he lived 700 miles away from me, I deeply _______ that I couldn’t take care of him myself, but I thought my nightly phone calls, filled with laughter and family news, provided him with _______ support.

Then, _______ , because of cancer, I became the one who needed _______ . Friends provided meals, house cleaning, and rides to appointments. The gratitude I felt for these acts of _______ was beyond words. It was also because of their thoughtfulness that I could focus all my energy on healing (治愈) my body and mind. Soon afterwards, in trying to find a meaningful purpose, I _______ the idea of offering help to other caregivers. I was ________ with both sides of the experience, and this ________ me to pay it forward for the incredible amount of support I had received.

A(n) ________ came when a caregiver I knew for years was unable to travel to her winter home in Florida. While recovering from surgery, she was ________ to drive. When she asked me to be the driver, I didn`t ________ , so we headed south on an adventure together.

Now, due to the pandemic (流行病), I have to put off the program, but I look forward to ________ my journey of caring for caregivers soon. I welcome the chance to lift the burden off their shoulders, even if it’s for just a minute.

3 . Grandma is ninety this Christmas. I remember once visiting her, crying when my big sister told me “There is no Santa Claus!”, because I knew she always told the ________.

“No Santa Claus?” she snorted (哼着说). “Ridiculous! Don’t ________ it. That rumor has been going around for years. Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”

“Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked.

“Where” ________ to be Kerby’s General Store. As we walked in, Grandma handed me twenty dollars. “Take the money,” she said, “and buy something for someone who needs it. I’ll wait for you outdoors.”

I was only eight years old, and had never ________ for anything alone. For a few moments I just stood there, ________, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

Suddenly I ________ Bobbie, a kid sitting behind me in the classroom. He didn’t have a coat; he never ________ during the winter. I held the bill excitedly. I would buy Bobbie a coat. I saw a red one with a hat to it. It looked really ________. He would like that.

That ________, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and write, “To Bobbie, From Santa Claus” on it. Then she drove me to Bobbie’s house. Grandma ________ down the street, and we hid in the bushes by his front walkway. Then Grandma pushed me ________. “All right, Santa Claus, get going!” she whispered.

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, ________ the present down, rang his doorbell and flew back. Together we waited ________ in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie.

Forty years haven’t ________ the excitement of those moments. That night, I realized those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said: they were ________. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

4 . It was about the third week in June last year. My 15-year-old son had already settled into his summer routine: Go to _______ at 2 am and wake up at 1 pm only to get back on his computer to play computer games until dinner.

It was the middle of the _______ when the sound of his computer games woke me up again. I couldn’t _______ that any more and decided it was time for him to get a summer job. I got on the computer and found a lifeguard certification (证书，执照) class that _______ the next day, and a company that _______ teenagers to guard their pools.

From that day I woke him up at 8 am every day for him to _______ the class. At first, he continued to complain that I was _______ his summer. But by the end of the week, he was actually looking forward to going. He learned something about first aid, figured he really could save someone from drowning, and got some ideas on how to actually work for a living.

Two weeks later, he had a _______ as a lifeguard. He took his responsibility very _______ and never went to work late. He said a lot of his ________ didn’t have jobs. And I told him that was because their mothers didn’t try ________ enough!

Even if your kid is ________ with finals and after school activities and doesn’t have time, you can ________ job information for him. Whether it is an ice cream store, a movie theatre, or a summer camp, you can ask if they hire ________ for the summer. After your kid gets a job, pay attention to the ________ to make sure he is never late.

6 . Sumiel, a 71-year-old, was no stranger to the struggles of kidney (肾) disease. He was on the transplant list (移植名单), but no matches had yet _________. So he continued with his treatments at a medical center 30 miles from home.

One day, he took a taxi home after his _________ with the doctor. As they set out on the 40 minute _________ to Sumiel’s home in Salem, he and the driver, Letts, got to _________. Sumiel mentioned that he’d enjoyed _________ and helped others in his community before. But he was doing less these days because the treatments left him_________ tired. Then Sumiel revealed that he was _________ a kidney giver. Letts said, “I’d like to see if I could be a _________ to give you a kidney.” Sumiel agreed, though he didn’t _________ much of it as they kept driving.

Letts was __________ to his word. He got in touch with Sumiel just a few hours later, and by the next week, Letts had__________ the kidney transplant program. After a month’s long screening __________ — including an interview, sharing medical records, and testing the __________ were: Letts was an ideal donor, and he and Sumiel were a perfect match.

Fourteen months after they ended up in the same taxi by __________, Sumiel and Letts had their surgeries. It was a __________. They kept in touch and looked forward to the day they could reunite.

8 . The most powerful hurricane (飓风) in the year was crashing into coastlines in Virginia. Lucky Dog Animal Rescue planned to take the 21 dogs, affected by the disaster, to a ___________ in South Carolina, which became crowded as people near the coast were evacuating.

Mirah Horowitz is the head of Lucky Dog in Arlington, Virginia. “It’s a double ___________,” she said. Her group found it hard to help the dogs as well as drive them from Virginia to South Carolina ___________ a seven-hour trip. Then they have to put dogs in wooden boxes and bring them to the Washington, D.C., area. Finally, they had to make sure there were enough families to ___________ the dogs.

The group attempted to ___________ more dogs from South Carolina over the weekend. They were going to hold an adoption (领养) event on September 8 at the shelter in the Washington, D.C., area. Horowitz and her colleagues decided to take some dogs and emailed ___________ that night looking for families to adopt the dogs. “We had to find people to take those animals between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” Horowitz said. ___________, they were getting many replies until 2 a.m. from people who were willing to help, after hours of ___________ waiting.

Lucky Dog was also talking to an animal shelter on the island of Grand Bahama in the Bahamas. That was where the hurricane had caused the most ___________ so far. The workers there did not know the dogs’ situations. ____________, they heard reports of heavy flooding that had ____________ the shelter. Horowitz’s group also has a helicopter which is ready to offer flights to ____________ some emergency supplies.

Horowitz said, “I really ____________ the help from those families. It feels nice to save animals from areas ____________ by severe weather and it is ____________ to make all the efforts.”