1 . An elderly woman is crediting (归功于) her neighbor’s 4-year-old dog with saving her life during last week’s dangerously cold temperatures.

Tim Curfman was _______ his garbage with his dog Midnight when he felt its _______ was unusual. It had its ears held up looking at him. It didn’t _______ do that. Curfman got the feeling that something’s _______. So he observed how his dog was acting and _______ it to a spot on the other side of his house. There, he saw his 87-year-old neighbor, Noreen, _______ in the snow. She was trying to fill her bird feeder when she fell. Curfman _______ she was out there at least half an hour. She could not get up because she didn’t have enough _______ to push herself up, and there was nothing around the corner to get a _______ of, either. The temperature was one degree below zero, but Curfman and Midnight were able to __________ her quickly.

Noreen, who didn’t have serious injuries, was lucky to __________ frostbite (冻伤) even though her clothes were wet. Curfman called his wife and they together helped his neighbor up from the snow and into her __________, where his wife helped the elderly woman get into __________ clothes.

Noreen was __________ to Midnight for saving her life. “A dog like this __________ to be proud of because it’s not every dog that pays attention to things like this,” Noreen said in an interview.

3 . When I was a child, I began learning to play the piano, which was my favourite musical _____, but I was forced to give up when I started my middle school so that I could concentrate more on my studies.

It’s one of my biggest _____ to stop practising the piano when I recall sadly today. During the following years, I kept telling my piano teacher that I would _____. However, I didn’t keep my promise because I was occupied with my study. _____ I lost touch with my teacher. Some years later, my teacher died. I was very sad because I lost such a good teacher. She was a very warm and gentle person. It hurts me to think she may have been _____ that I never returned. I haven’t taken lessons since then but to be honest, I _____ to. Sitting at the piano, I couldn’t help recalling many memories — times of my practising at home and playing before my teacher and one time my teacher _____ me after I played entire pieces of music wrong in front of her colleagues. I was so _____ that I could hardly say anything. But her _____ helped ease my shame. These memories, ______, good or bad, never caused my courage for playing the piano again.

This thought then led me to think that ______ is like music, and that we all try to play different ______ in the instrument of our life. Sometimes the pitch (音准) ______ when we play it well, but sometimes we are out of tune. However, we all continue to create our own ______ style of music. No matter what style our music is, it is important that we sing the songs of joy, quietness and love. Though I may never make it back to piano lessons, it doesn’t ______ that I’ve stopped making music.

4 . Leslie Morissette’s son, Graham, was 6 years old when he was diagnosed with leukemia (白血病). Throughout Graham’s _______ in the hospital, Graham connected with everyone he met, from _______ patients to younger children. “He would lend other sick children his toys or act silly to make them laugh. ” Morissette said. “Graham’s special spirit is what kept me going. He gave me the energy and the _______ to fight with him.” In 1997, when he was 8 years old, Graham passed away.

_______ by how Graham lived his life caring about others, Morissette _______ the nonprofit Grahamtastic Connection in his honor. The organization provides free technology—including computers, iPads, and robots—to children _______ cancer and other serious illnesses.

One of the major goal of Morissette’s work is to _______ kids to their classrooms, which really helps them continue their education despite hospitalizations and days _______ from school.

The robots “transport” children right into the classroom in real time. They can _______ the robots right from their hospital bed or home. If a child is unable to attend school, they can ________ log on to their tablet or laptop and call in to the robot. They can ________ up and down the school paths. They can go to lunch with their ________. The real magic happens between classes, when they’re walking down the hallway with their friends, by robot, ________ their weekend and their favorite foods and other things.

Morissette said, “I believe that Graham’s ________ lives on in the work that I do. And I’m ________ and privileged to be able to do it in his honor.”

5 . Trinidad State Beach, Northern California. About 50 feet from shore, two brothers were fighting for their ______. They had been swept out to sea in a rapid current, their mouths ______ able to stay above the water.

______, four surfers in wet suits were nearby. Weibel, Stratton, and York, all 16, along with Ortiz-Beck, 15, were on their surfboards when they heard the ______. “We looked at each other and knew these guys were about to ______,” Weibel told The Washington Post. York headed to the ______ to find someone to call 911 while the others paddled their boards toward the ______ swimmers.

As the surfers drew close, the brothers were struggling. “It was pretty ______, but there wasn’t any time to think about it,” Ortiz-Beck says. He ______ alongside the younger brother. Grabbing him under his arms, he ______ him up onto his board. Stratton and Weibel, ______, were trying hard to help the older brother. He was large, 250 to 300 pounds, and he was ______. “We told him, ‘Calm down — we got you!’” says Weibel. “He feared he was going to die.” However, York arrived ______ to help get the older brother on the second board.

“When we come across a(n) ______ like this one, it’s usually too late by the time we get there,” says Dillon Cleavenger, a rescue worker. “The four boys were willing and prepared to ______ their lives. I can’t say enough about what they did. ”

8 . When is that magical day going to come when everything is perfect and we can finally be happy? Well, we may sometimes _______ a day like that. But for most of the time there is always something that upsets us. And that is _______. Life is a mixture of happy, neutral, and not-so-happy _______.

The _______ is in what you concentrate on, which determines your mood. I love the saying “Seize the day.” To me it means that we should not just look forward, _______ the happiness to come from the future. Happiness is right here and right now. It is in the little moments, and you’ll _______ have to understand that good things are _______ around you. The other day I did have a try. That day I paid attention to everything I _______ in my day. I liked the sunshine, birdsong, and morning coffee. I liked the purr of a cat, and my _______ jeans. I liked the roads that were in good ________ I liked the leaves of spring. I liked the chat with my coworkers... You can do this with your phone too. Take a picture of everything that you like during the day. At the end of it, ________ your pictures, and maybe write a page about these good things into your diary. If you use a computer, paste the ________ into your electronic diary.

Another thing I did is see the good things even in a bad situation. Here’s how it works: You suffer a terrible thing, but you tell yourself the good aspects of it. You really ________ the day when you are able to concentrate on it. One day it was raining. People were not ________ about it—it was dark, gloomy and wet. But you tell yourself that the climate here is not ________, which explains the attitude.

9 . As she approached 97, Gwen Erickson from Minnesota began raising one of America’s most popular, yet endangered, butterflies — the Monarch. Last year the grandmother _________ to raise 27 butterflies and this year the _________ has gone up to 61.

While some might say that nature should be left to _________ itself, the butterflies’ population is _________ rapidly and is in need of a little extra help. _________, that love and devotion is exactly what the 97-year-old is able to _________ for her little winged friends.

The whole process is a little _________, beginning with collecting eggs from the milkweed leaves that grow in her backyard. Four days after Erickson placed the eggs in jars on her living-room table, the caterpillar (毛毛虫) appeared, and then, within several weeks, formed a chrysalis (蛹). A fortnight later the beautiful butterfly _________. Erickson then released the butterflies into the wild, but a couple seemed a little _________ to leave their loving home and __________ the senior by flying around the house.

When __________ her first attempt to raise the butterflies, Erickson said she hoped it could enable her grandchildren to __________ an interest in these beautiful insects. __________, it’s her who has found the pleasure in raising butterflies in the end.

Normally Erickson doesn’t like to talk about herself and what she does, but she does this time as she wants to __________ others to care for this endangered species. Happily a friend and her son have joined her in her newfound __________ and hopefully we will see a(n) __________ in those decreasing numbers.

This new __________, started so late in life, is a fine example of people __________ the smaller things in life. And it __________ us that it’s never too late to be __________ in life.

10 . I was said to be the worst student in my class, and my family thought I was hopeless. I had to_______grade six. At that time a new teacher, Miss Sadia, came to our school. 

One day after class, she_______that I was staying alone during the lunch break. She came to me and began to talk to me. It was just a_______conversation. After that day, she gave me particular_______and it made me feel special. I started to work hard because she gave me the feeling that someone believed me, and my_______started to improve in her subject. 

Months later, she moved into a house near my home. We would walk home together after school. Her constant (不断的 ) support helped me,_______in my studies, as I knew she would_______my grades both in her subject and other subjects. I finally _______second in my class. 

Then, after grade six, she started to drift away(渐渐疏远)_______still kept a constant check on me. By the time I was in grade seven, we hardly spoke, but by then I had become the best in my class. When I left my school, I was ________with her, as she never answered the ________when I called her. 

Then I graduated and went to a good university. One fine day, our paths(路)________again. I met her at a wedding. I could not________asking her, “Why did you stop talking to me?” 

“You are a clever boy. I wanted you to be a tree standing on your own roots, not depending on (依靠)others. Now here you are and I feel________of you. You are your inspiration and do not need to________a shoulder,” she said. I could not say anything, but I smiled. I’ll always thank her.