1 . In October, I said to my students, “Why not do some _________ to make some money? Then we’ll buy food for someone in need.”

Then early in that week, they came with their hard-earned money at their homes, _________ to go shopping. We soon picked what we needed. As we headed toward the checkout, someone shouted, “Flowers!” The group rushed to the flowers. However, considering practicality, I said, “You can’t send flowers.” “But please, Mrs. Sherlock,” someone begged, “we want flowers.” Defeated (被打败了), I _________ them to buy some carnations (康乃馨).

An organization had given us the information of a _________ grandmother living alone for many years. After a long drive, we _________ arrived at a small, shabby (破旧的) house. An old lady came out to _________ us. Each box was _________ quickly. But when the woman noticed the carnations, she seemed _________. “She’s wishing it were a bag of rice,” I thought. “Do you like living here?” Michael asked. Hearing this, the woman _________,“ Of course. I’m quite fond of living here.” She told the children about the birds flying to the bread she __________. “Maybe that’s why I could get the food from you,” she said.

4 . Table Talk

As we got out of the car, our son announced, “Phones stay in the car.”

“Why do you always have to tell us that?” complained our fifteen-year-old grandson.

Our son’s wife winked at us and then explained, “We have a family _______ that no one may bring anything electronic to the table.”

We _______ our phones in the car. Even though the restaurant was filled with families, there was little noise. All I heard were a few quiet conversations and the ding of forks on plates. The _______ unnerved me. I looked around. Everyone, even the young kids, was _______ at some kind of screen.

The silence was broken when the six of us sat down, and started talking. The waitress stood patiently and waited for our orders. When our food came, we continued to chat.

An elderly couple at the next table were finishing their dinners and conversing quietly. I noticed that they shot us a few glances, and wondered if our constant chatter was annoying them.

After the dessert, my son signaled the waitress for the check. She hesitated when she brought the black folder to our table. My son opened the black folder — it was _______ . “You forgot the check,” he told her.

“There isn’t one. Someone else _______ your bill — and the tip too.” she said with a giggle (咯咯笑).

“Why?” asked our son, his wife and myself at once.

“They loved it that no one was connected.” she continued. “They loved watching you guys _______ . The old lady went on and on about how nice it was to see a family eating and talking instead of looking at ‘electric games’.”

For a moment, everyone at our table was at a loss for _______ . Then we all started talking at once. My son's voice rose above the others. “Where are they? We want to thank them.”

“They left after you ordered dessert,” the waitress replied.

We spent the next fifteen minutes discussing this goodness and camp up with a _______ . Next time we see a family eating at a restaurant ________ looking at anything electronic, we'll pay it forward, just like what happened to us.

5 . There once was an ordinary street in the suburbs where no one cared much for their gardens. The lawns were overgrown, the weeds were taking over and the hedges(树篱)_________ needed to be cut back. It looked very terrible. _________ when the neighbors saw their gardens, they just looked at each other and laughed.

It seemed too hard to clear all the gardens and no one could be _________ to make them better because everyone’s garden was equally _________. No one felt it was urgent to change anything. Then a gardener named Bill _________ in the small town. Bill was a _________, hard-working and patient man who started working in the garden as soon as he moved in the street. He took his lawn mower(割草机) out to cut back the grass and pulled out all of the _________. Finally, he took up his gardening and started _________ his hedges, making them look like flowers, plants, stones, balls, etc. It was a huge project but his hard work _________ and his garden looked inviting.

__________ by the beautiful scenery, the neighbors walked by and admired the __________ manicured(修整的) garden. Before long, something __________ happened. One by one, the neighbors started to put in more effort in their own gardens and the sounds of lawn mowers could be heard again. After a few months, the street was transformed from a dirty, __________ collection of houses to a beautiful street that wouldn’t be out of place in a stylish magazine.

One person’s action showed everyone what could be achieved with a little hard work. It’s easy for us to __________ the environment around us because no one else cares about it. Remember what you positively do not only benefits yourself, but also __________ a change to the whole world.

8 . There are many kinds of friends. Some are always ______ you, but don’t understand you. Some say only a few words to you, but understand you. Many people will step in your life, but only ______ friends leave footprints.

I shall always recall (回忆) the autumn and the girl with the ______. She will always bring back the friendship between us. I know she will always be my best friend.

It was the golden season. I could see the ______ leaves floating (漂浮) with the cool wind. In such a season, I liked walking alone in the leaves, ______ to the sound of them.

Autumn is a harvest season and life is uninteresting. The boring days always get me ______. But one day, the sound of a violin flowed into my ears like a stream (小溪) flowing in the mountains. I was so surprised that I jumped to see what it was. A young girl, standing in the wind, was ______ in playing her violin.

I had ______ seen her before. The music was so nice that I listened quietly. Absorbed in the music, I didn’t know that I had been ______ there for so long but my existence (存在) did not seem to disturb her.

Leaves were still falling. Every day ______ she played the violin in the comer of the building, I went downstairs to watch her performance. I was the only listener. The autumn seemed no longer lonely and life became ______. Though we didn’t know each other, I thought we were already good friends.

Autumn was nearly over. One day, when I was listening carefully, the sound suddenly ______. To my surprise, the girl came over to me.

“You definitely like violin.” she said.

“Yes. And you play very well. Why did you stop?” I asked.

Suddenly, a ______ expression appeared on her face and I could feel something unusual. “I came here to see my grandmother, but now I must leave. I once played very badly. It was your listening every day that encouraged me.” she said.

“______ it was your playing that gave me a meaningful autumn,” I answered, “Let’s be friends.”

The girl smiled, and so did I.

I never heard her play again in my life. Only thick leaves were left behind. But I will always remember the fine ______ of the girl. She is like a dream—so short, so bright, like a shooting star giving off so much light that it makes the autumn beautiful.

9 . One summer night, my friends and I stole into the Jordans’ backyard and started harvesting their sweet, juicy raspberries (树莓). We were enjoying every bite of the tasty berries _________ Mr Jordan came charging outside all of a sudden.

“What are you boys doing out here?” he yelled as my friends ran off _________ all directions. He attempted to catch one or two as they rushed past him, but they were too _________ for the older gentleman to catch. Within seconds, the boys _________ into the dark of the summer night, all except me. Speed was never my _________. I took the tongue-lashing (痛骂) that Mr. Jordan gave me as he marched me down the block to my house, where my mother took over and scolded me _________. My friends said they could hear every colorful word she spoke from the darkness of our backyard, where they had gathered to _________ their escape and to observe my capture.

They _________ me about it for days afterwards, while all I could do was complain about how _________ it was that I was the only one who had to pay the price. After about a week of this, I complained to my father about the inequality of the situation. Dad said, “You took raspberries without __________, and you get exactly the punishment you deserved.”

“But what about the other guys?” I asked. “They didn’t get punished at all!”

“That’s not my concern nor should it be yours,” Dad said. “You can’t __________ what happens to others. You can only __________ what happens to you. You made a bad choice that night, and you were punished for it.”

For the duration of the following years, I come to realize there is no __________ that life will treat us fairly. That’s why we can’t __________ comparing our lives with the lives of others. Like Dad said, that isn’t our __________.