1 . One day, we had a family dinner. While the adults were busy with their serious talk outside, I was left alone in the ________ to help my grandmother wash dishes. ________ my grandmother would tell me stories about her childhood.

Born just before WWII, my grandmother ________ an entirely different childhood lifestyle from mine. She did not have a chance to go to ________. Like in typical families, where boys were ________ much more than girls, my grandma had to stay at home to do ________. The only opportunity (机会) she could seize to ________ was when her brother was having Chinese ________ with the family tutor. She would sit quietly at the far end of the long dinner table, listening ________. This training taught her to read and write her Chinese upside down — a skill that has turned out to be quite ________, especially whenever we share the newspaper. On most weekends, my grandmother, a young girl then, and her brother would go to the ________. There, they would walk through deep water, sit down cross-legged underwater and hold their ________ while they watched all action going on around them. This is something I ________ — her ability to open her ________ underwater and still sit comfortably on the seabed.

My childhood is quite ________ compared with hers. I am ________ that I did not need to ________ the hardships like she did. I've never faced the problem of ________. I guess our different childhood background is what makes my grandmother such an amazing person to ________ to: her stories always make my history textbooks ________.

2 . When I decided to buy a house in Europe ten years ago, I didn't think too long. I liked traveling in France, but when it came to picking my favorite spot to _______, Italy was the clear winner.

During my first visit to Italy, I _______ to ask for directions or order in a restaurant. But every time I tried to _______ a sentence of   Italian together, the locals smiled at me and _______ my language skills. That encouragement helped me to get through the language _______. After I made Italy my permanent home, I discovered how _______ Italians are. Neighbors will bring me freshly made cheese and will come to my door to _______ me to close the window in my car when rain is coming. It's these small _______ of kindness that make a new country feel like home.

As a foodie, the way to my heart is through my stomach, and nowhere fuels my _______ quite like Italy. Each town has its own traditional ________, and every family keeps a recipe passed from one generation to another. Families ________ for big meals on Sundays, birthdays, and whatever other excuses they can ________. These meals are always ________ by laughter and joy. Whatever ________ life in Italy might have, the problems are ________ once you sit down to a big meal with friends and family.

3 . I’ve been motivated — and demotivated — by other folks’ achievements all my life.

When I was a teenager, a neighborhood friend ________ a marathon race. Feeling motivated, I started running ________, but then two things happened. First, a girl I met one day told me she was ________ for a “super,” referring to a 52.4-mile double marathon. Then, the next day I went on my longest run — 15 miles. To be honest, I ________ it! Between the girl making my ________ seem small and the pure boredom of jogging, I decided that the only ________ I’d ever run again is if a big dog was running after me!

So I ________ cycling. I got a good bike and rode a lot. I ________ of entering cycle races until I flew to San Diego to visit my sister. While she was at work one day, I ________ her bike and went for a ride. The ________: the roads there went through large valleys where I’d be riding uphill for miles at a time. I’d never faced such ________. That day, I got ________ by about 100 “local” bikers who were used to such roads. When I got back home, suddenly riding my bike didn’t seem quite as ________.

I’ve ________ a lot since then. I’ve come to accept that whatever ________ I set for myself, they just have to be my own.

6 . Many years ago, I bought a house in the Garfagnana, where we still go every summer. The first time we ______ there, we heard the chug chug-chug of a motorbike ______ its way down the hill toward us. It was ______ called Mario, coming to ______ us a box containing some tomatoes and a bottle of wine. It was a very nice ______ for him to make. But when we looked at the tomatoes, we were ______ because they were so misshapen: not at all like the nice, round, ______ things you get in a supermarket. And the wine was cloudy, in a funny old bottle with no label (标签) on it. These can’t be any ______, we thought. But we were ______ his kindness, so we ______ them.

What we discovered is that it’s ______ to judge what you eat only by its ______. Those tomatoes had ______ that reminded me of the ones my uncle used to grow when I was a child. Nowadays supermarket tomatoes ______ perfect but taste of water. Nobody’s going to have a ______ memory of those. It’s a surprise they haven’t managed to grow square ones so that they can ______ them easily. Mario’s wine may have been cloudy and come out of an old bottle, but it was ______.

It’s good to eat things at the correct time, when they’re ______, and as close as possible to where they were ______. What Mario had ______ us was the taste of the Garfagnana.

7 . On Oct. 11, hundreds of runners competed in a cross-country race in Minnesota. Melanie Bailey should have _________ the course earlier than she did. Her _________ came because she was carrying a _________ across the finish line.

As reported by a local newspaper, Bailey was more than two-thirds of the way through her _________ when a runner in front of her began crying in pain. She _________ to help her fellow runner, Danielle Lenoue. Bailey took her arm to see if she could walk forward with _________. She couldn’t. Bailey then _________ to let Lenoue climb onto her back and carried her all the way to the finish line, then another 300 feet to where Lenoue could get _________ attention.

Once there, Lenoue was _________ and later taken to a hospital, where she learned that she had serious injuries in one of her knees. She would have struggled with extreme __________ to make it to that aid checkpoint without Bailey’s help.

As for Bailey, she is more __________ about why her act is considered a big __________. “She was just crying. I couldn’t __________ her,” Bailey told the reporter. “I feel like I was just doing the right thing.”

Although the two young women were strangers before the __________, they’ve since become friends. Neither won the race, but the __________ of human kindness won the day.

8 . To become the Olympic champion in the individual (个人) all-around event, Gabby Douglas had to leave everything she _________ best. She had to _______   her bedroom in Virginia. She had to say _________ to her two dogs and to the beach, where she loved to _________ waves on her board. But it was _________ to take the leap (飞跃), however _________ it would be. Even at 14, Douglas knew that. So she _________ about 1,200 miles away from home, to _________ with a coach from China. She lived with a family she had never _________ and everything was new to her.

As it turned out, Douglas did __________ what she needed to do to become Olympic champion when she __________two Russians. The Chinese coach __________ Douglas into one of the best gymnasts in the __________, helping her skyrocket from an __________ member of the national team to the top of the sport. By __________ the Olympic all-around title, she became the first black woman to do so. She __________ the competition from beginning to end. She said she had felt __________ all along that she would win.

Not so long ago, Martha Karolyl the coordinator (联络人) of the women’s national team, did not think Douglas had what it __________ to be an Olympian. As time went by, she thought __________ that she could make the London Games — and win.

“I’m going to inspire so many people,” she said. “I’m ready to __________.” And shine she did.

9 . In April last year, I saw a post on the PNP (Pilots N Paws) website from a family in Topeka. They had to move to Virginia but they were on a very tight _______. They could not afford to pay for _______ for their dog, Tiffy, and _______ wanted to take her with them.

It just _______ that I was planning another PNP flight with another pilot, Karen, who _______ to take Tiffy from Kansas City to Virginia. What I was to do was fly to Topeka to _______ Tiffy.

When I met Tiffy’s owners, they seemed very _______. George, the husband, was trying to be calm, but I could tell this was _______ for him, having to leave his dog to a _______ and trust that everything would __________.

After some goodbyes, I asked George and his wife to help me __________ Tiffy into the plane. I promised to take care of Tiffy and __________ them as soon as we got to Kansas City.

The flight was __________, and Tiffy was a great passenger. The next day, she __________ with Karen and made it back to George in Virginia within a few days. He was so __________ and sent me a nice e-mail with pictures. It felt great to know that I had helped bring this family together again.