1 . Steven took his 7-year-old son Alex and 4-year-old daughter Mia out on his boat for fishing and fun. But in the blink of an eye, things took a terrifying _______ when a strong current suddenly swept through, causing Mia to _______ her hold on the boat.

While Mia wore a life jacket, Alex did not. But as the current pulled his sister away, Alex wasn’t going to leave her alone. He, too, let go of the _______ and swam toward his sister.

Realizing the danger, Steven _______ jumped into the water and tried to help his kids. But the strong current made it difficult even for him. So he told Alex to swim to shore while he tried to rescue Mia.

“I told them both I loved them because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Steven recalled. “I tried to _______ Mia as long as I could. But finally I wore myself out, and she drifted away (漂走) from me.”

Alex followed his dad’s _______ and headed for the shore. But it was no easy task. “The current was going the opposite way,” he explained.

This little boy spent an hour _______ his way back to land. He swam more than a mile. Once he finally made it to the shore, the boy ran to the first house he could find and begged for _______. From there, Jacksonville authorities _______ and rescued Steven and his daughter.

Alex, the brave and __________ little boy saved his sister and dad. If not for him, it would have been a different story.

2 . You may have heard of the famous workplace communication software, Slack. Many companies use Slack to virtually communicate across teams. What most people don’t know is that Slack, despite its _________, was never meant to exist. In fact, the company who developed Slack actually had been hoping to create the next popular video game. But after raising millions of dollars to fund the game development, the company ultimately _________ the project because the game failed to attract enough users.

The _________ goal of the company wasn’t achieved. However, during the process of creating their game, something else happened. The team realized that the _________ system they created to accompany the game was worth investing more time in. And they _________ to invent the communication system idea for one of the fastest-growing startups (初创公司) in history, and Slack was born.

An outcome-focused company might have just moved on from the failed video game or, worse, continued investing resources, risking further negative outcomes. But _________, this company didn’t do that. _________, they had been paying attention to the process. Focusing on the process allowed this company to _________ and redefine their desired outcome.

You’ve probably heard a quote or two in your life about the _________ of “the journey”—how often the journey is more significant and impactful than the __________. The company that developed Slack understood this principle, and by focusing on the process rather than the outcome, they were able to achieve greater success than they first had hoped for.

4 . The bell rang to signal the beginning of lunch. Juanita rushed out of the classroom and headed _______ for the library. There was no way she was going to eat in the cafeteria today. Not after she did _______ when she was asked to represent her class to give a speech in the school. She was afraid that this would make her classmates and teacher sad and disappointed.

Juanita couldn’t believe her luck. No one _______ she had gone missing. Even the teachers, in their _______ to have their own thirty-minute break, weren’t aware that she had slipped away from the rest of the class. If her luck would only hold, she could slip (滑) past the eyes of Mrs. McGuire, the librarian, and _______ out in the corner where there’s a nice, minute cubbyhole just large enough for her to sit and go unseen.

It didn’t take long for Juanita to solve her next dilemma. When she rounded the comer, she was _______ to see her entire class, including her teacher, standing in her way. They must have entered through the other set of double doors while Juanita was trying to sneak (溜) past the front desk.

“I can explain,” Juanita’s voice sounded worried even to her own ears. “You don’t need to,” her teacher _______. “We are like a family, Juanita. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we get embarrassed. Sometimes we get upset. Sometimes, we even do things we wish we hadn’t done. But, what we don’t do, what we never do, is not be there for each other. And we don’t give way to the _______.” She smiled at Juanita, and all the other students began to _______.

Juanita knew she would never forget today. No matter what happened from this point forward, she would always remember how kind everyone had __________ her, and she hoped she could pay the kindness forward.

5 . It was my first day of high school, and it was my first day of school in a new city. There was only one thing on my mind: what to wear. A good image is everything, so it was important for me to _______ the people who I would spend the next four years with.

For the first time in my life, I thought about how convenient it would be to wear the school uniform. After carefully selecting, I emerged proudly in a patterned dress. An hour later, I felt _________ as I stepped off the bus and headed toward room 1136. But as I turned the corner into my first class, my jaw dropped to the floor.

Sitting at her desk was Mrs. Hutfilz, my English teacher, _______ the exact same dress as I. I kept my head down and tiptoed to my seat, but the first day meant introductions in front of the whole class, and soon enough it was my _______. I made it through my minute speech, until Mrs. Hutfilz stood up, jokingly adding that she liked my _______. Although this was the moment I had been worrying from the moment I walked in, all the _______ that had increased surprisingly melted away; the students who had previously been staring at their phones _______ their heads as I shared my story. My smile grew as I laughed with my peers, ending my speech with “And I am very stylish, much like my first period _______.” After class, I stayed behind and talked to Mrs. Hutfilz, sharing my previous worry about coming into a new school and city. I was _______ to make a humorous and genuine connection with my first teacher, one that would continue for the rest of the year.

While my first period of high school may not have gone exactly the way I thought it would, it certainly made the day __________ in the best way, and taught me that Mrs. Hutfilz has an awesome sense of style!

8 . It was rush hour in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. White, 38, was driving home. He noticed a gray Nissan four-door pickup on the opposite side of the two-lane street. It was hard to _______ , since it was turning sharply and careening into the curb (路缘) .

As the pickup drew closer, White got a good look at the _______ : the driver appeared to be asleep. Pretty soon, this guy's going to crash into a house, White thought. While many people would have _______ driving, that's not how White because of his permanent instinct to help out. He had to stop that vehicle.

White busted a U-turn and was now facing in the same direction as the pickup, but there were four cars _______ them. Trapped, White pulled his car over, jumped out and ran around to the driver's side. The window was down on this _______ autumn day. White grabbed the frame of the window—his legs moving in step with the pickup—and with a mighty heave, leaped in.

White was now inside the cab of the truck, waist deep, his legs dangling out the window. The man behind the wheel, 64-year-old Todd DeAngelis, was just _______ enough to be shocked by the sight of a stranger sprawled across his stomach, and he let out a yelp.

White worked quickly. They were coming up to a busy intersection, he recalls, “so I was trying to stop anything before it happened.” He _______ the pickup into park, causing it to jolt to a stop. He _______ himself from the truck window the same way he came in.

From outside the truck, White asked DeAngelis if he was OK. “No,” he replied, in a haze. DeAngelis, a diabetic, was _______ facing dangerously low blood sugar.

“I'm always trying to help, where I can, when I can, ” White says.

But jumping into a moving vehicle to prevent a crash? White admits this was new ________ .