1 . Dad had been a lumberjack (伐木工). As the years passed on, he became angry whenever he couldn’t do something he had done as a(n) _________ man. Four days after his sixty-seventh birthday, Dad had a heart attack and was_________ into an operating room. He survived. But his passion for life was_______.

My husband, Dick, and I invited Dad to live with us on our small farm. We hoped the fresh _________air would help him adjust. Within a week after he moved in, I_________. He complained at everything I did. I called a mental health center that recommended an article describing a group of patients under treatment for_________. Yet their health had improved greatly when given_________ for a dog.

I drove to the animal shelter that afternoon and back home with a dog.

When I reached the house, I helped my_________ out of the car and said “Dad! Look what I got for you!” Dad looked, then pulled a face. “If I had wanted a dog, I would have picked a better one. Keep it to yourself!” Anger rose _________ me. “You’d better get used to him, Dad. He’s staying!”

Dad just ignored me, when suddenly the dog__________ my dad and sat down. Then slowly, he raised his paw...Dad remained silent. The dog waited __________. Then Dad was on his knees __________the animal.

It was the__________of a warm and loving friendship. Dad and the pet were__________throughout the next three years. Dad’s bitterness__________ , and they made many friends.

2 . One day, hundreds of people were stuck in traffic on the highway in below-freezing temperatures due to a snowstorm. With the conditions making it _________ for rescue workers to help, many were trapped overnight with no access to _________.

But one stuck driver found a _________ spot in the despair. As she was sitting in her car fearing the _________, Casey Holihan and her husband, John Noe, _________ a bread truck just ahead of them in the jam. Willing to try just about anything, they called the customer service number listed on the back of the truck and left a _________ begging for the driver to open the back and _________ bread to the hungry passengers around them. It was a last-ditch effort, and the couple wasn’t very _________ about getting a response. But to their _________ they soon received a phone call from the company’s owner, Chuck Paterakis, with the news that he was __________ the truck’s driver to open up and pass out loaves of bread from his cargo. Overjoyed by the news, Holihan and Noe __________ the truck’s driver to bring much-needed things to the cars around them.

The simple loaves of bread were surely a ray of __________ in an impossibly disturbing situation. Holihan herself calls it “one of the __________ moments” she’s ever witnessed. This company could have made a(n) __________ from the bread but instead chose to help the people around them. That is just so incredible that someone chose __________ over profit, especially in a situation where people were so desperate.

3 . An unfortunate French driver got into trouble at high speed when his car malfunctioned and refused to slow down for nearly an hour.

Frank Lecerf was on his way to the supermarket when he ________ that the brakes in his Renault Laguna were no longer ________. Worse still, ________ them would cause the vehicle to move faster. And, minutes later, Lecerf found himself running down the ________ at 125 mph, with no way to slow down or stop.

The 36-year-old man ________ phoned emergency services to explain the ________, and a police car came to ________ that other drivers got out of the ________. Three tollbooths were also informed in advance so they could lift their ________ and let Lecerf run through. A Renault ________ spoke to Lecerf on the phone and attempted to ________ the problem, but his efforts were ________.

By the time he ________ fuel, Lecerf had travelled 111 ________ in the car and crossed the border into Belgium. It was near the Belgian town of Alveringem that he was finally able to make ________ stop in a ditch. Lecerf had no ________ injuries, but was sent to a hospital after suffering two epileptic seizures.

In addition to having a standard keyless ignition, Lecerf’s Renault Laguna had been adapted for his ________. Lecerf said the speed dial had failed before, but Renault ________ the car and gave it a ________ grade.

An investigation into the exact ________ of the malfunction is going on, but Lecerf is already planning to sue the company for “endangerment of a person’s life.”

4 . I started ice skating when I was four years old. _________, I was just tagging (跟在后面) along with my sister, but soon enough the _________ became my entire life. I was told that I had what it took to become a(n) _________ and even take part in the Olympics. I didn’t go to school, because I had to train for up to six hours a day.

When I was 12, adolescence _________ and my body changed rapidly. Average teenager as I was, I knew right away that there would be a _________ that my body would prevent me from being the best skater I could be, and that with a _________ body, I would no longer be able to do some of the _________ jumps. Competing at the highest level doesn’t seem possible, so I _________ ice skating altogether.

Losing everything I had _________ caused me to sink into a deep ____________. It also meant that I had to go to school for the first time. I was ____________ a lot and people called me fat all the time. Eventually, I realized that I could get out of my depression only by ____________ who I was and no longer focusing on my ____________. I decided to start ____________ myself; I learned Spanish and went to law school.

Now I’m a(n) ____________ myself. I only teach children who skate to improve their ____________. Also, ice skating is an expensive sport. But the kids who need these ____________ for their health usually don’t have a lot of money, so my lessons are very ____________.

I am ____________ that this happened to me, and that I was young enough to turn my focus to something other than sport, so I could become the best ____________ of myself.