1 . Gabe and I were taking a road trip from Hamilton to Nelson. At around 5:30 p. m. , we were ________ on a mountain road. I was texting my family. We weren’t ________ there’d recently been flooding in the area.

When I ________ from my phone, I saw a wave of mud (一波泥浆) racing down the mountain. Gabe tried to brake (刹车), but it was too late. The mudslide sent our car ________ down the cliff. It ________ on its side among some trees.

I don’t know how long we were unconscious, but I woke up to the ________ of Gabe moaning (呻吟). We had no phone signal, so all we could do was ________ for help. But my chest hurt too much to even ________. So Gabe started shouting as loud as he could.

Luckily, four men spotted us and went to our ________. On our way up, Gabe was in ________, slipping in and out of consciousness, and I ________ didn’t think he was going to make it.

When the medical team finally reached us, they ________ us into separate ambulances. I was swearing a lot as they took us away — I didn’t think I’d ever see my boyfriend again.

We spent weeks in hospital. Even after ________, I’ll walk with a limp for the rest of my life, and Gabe lost the vision in his left eye.

Before this all happened, we were happy-go-lucky people. We’re even more ________ now. Despite the ________ we suffered, we’re grateful that we’re still living a pretty good life.

2 . In America, it is not polite to telephone someone very early in the morning. The time of the call shows that the matter is very ______ and requires quick reply. It is the same to ______ telephone calls after 11 p. m. If someone receives a call during sleeping hours, he thinks its a matter of life and ______. The time chosen for the call communicates its importance.

In social life, time ______ a very important part. In America, guests may ______ that they are not highly respected (尊重) if they get the invitation to a dinner party only three or four days before the party date. But it is not the ______ in a countries. In other parts of the world, it maybe ______ foolish to make an appointment too early because it is easy to be forgotten.

The ______ of time is different in different parts of the world. So misunderstandings happen between people from cultures that treat time differently. To be on time is valued ______ in American life. For example, if people are not on time, others may think they are impolite. In the United States, no one would keep a business partner ______ an hour because it would be too impolite. A person who is five minutes late will say a few words of explanation to show his apology.

3 . A boy walked into a candy store with his father and since he was just 6 years old, he was surprised by so many candies on offer. “It’s amazing. What should I ________?” he asked himself.

“Come on, son, we don’t have much ________. I have to attend an important meeting,” his dad said.

“These are all my ________ and I don’t know what to choose.” He picked up some bags and then put them back . He couldn’t make up his mind. “ Hurry up, son, we have no time. I’m very ________,” his dad said. So the boy ran around the store _______ again. His eyes moved from one bag to another, ________   all of the sweets looked so good and he couldn’t make up his mind. ________, the dad had enough. He caught his son by the hand and they walked out the store empty-handed (两手空空). The boy_________. He wanted them all, but ended up with __________ because he couldn’t choose just one.

Some of us are that boy. The __________ is that candy store. We have a great number of choices available to us, but if we don’t make a(n) _________ about our jobs, education, relationships, marriage or other __________ things, we will end up empty-handed. Sometimes we worry about making the __________choice. What if we _________ the direction that we take and it’s too late to go back? We don’t have to worry about this. How do we know whether it is good or not if we don’t make a choice? The bigger __________ is that we make no decision at all and end up going nowhere and doing nothing.

5 . I was driving home after attending my uncle’s funeral. I took a canyon (峡谷) drive with beautiful scenery to process my ________.

Suddenly I heard a pop. I knew what had happened — a big flat tire! I ________ to the side, but this was a canyon drive with not much shoulder (路肩) ________, and it happened to be around a turning that people couldn’t see. That made it ________.

Cars were passing me fast. I couldn’t get out. Within minutes, I saw a van stopped behind me. A gentleman walked out, ________ a hand, and I dared to walk out very ________. He moved my car out of the ________ way while I was talking to the police. Since they couldn’t send ________ in 20-30 minutes, the gentleman took out my spare tire and started ________ the tire for me.

After the job was ________, I thanked him and he left. As we said goodbye, I ________ him to pay it forward. I saw in my mirror that the van just ________ me, making sure I was OK. At the light, I got a chance to see the ________ family in the van. A beautiful young wife with attractive children in the back. They all gave me a big smile and ________ at me!

I thought the gentleman had set a successful example for those young children to learn about ________ and passion.

6 . Draper was the owner of a secondhand bookstore. One day, when he was sorting through a pile of old books, an envelope _______ from one. Inside was an undated letter and a faded photo of a woman holding a little girl on her lap. The letter said if Bethany was _______ it, it meant the author had died.

Tears were welling up in Draper’s eyes. These were a _______ woman’s last words to her child. He had to _______ Bethany. “Whoever it is will keep this.” he thought. “You wouldn’t throw away a letter like that.”

He supposed if the book ended up in his shop then Bethany was likely from around Bishop Auckland. And he thought he would _______ the little girl’s face. Even if she’d since left the area, there might be someone in the town who would recognize the picture.

He started with the local newspaper. The Northern Echo ran the story of the _______ letter.

Meanwhile, Bethany Gash, now 21 and a(n) _______ herself, was on Facebook about 10 miles away when a close friend messaged her to check out the _______. As she read her mother’s _______ which she thought had been lost forever, she said she thought she must be ________.

Bethany was only 4 when her mother ________. Five years later, her family moved to a new home and the letter, put away in the pages of a book for safe keeping, was unintentionally ________.

She remembered unpacking and looking for the letter, and then ________ searching through everything in the hope that it was there. “That’s when I realized it was gone and I’d never see it again,” she said.

Draper ________ the letter in person. He also brought her a children’s book for her son. Bethany was greatly moved to have the letter back, and also touched by the stranger’s ________.

7 . For many young Canadians, planting trees is more than just a job. It's a way of _________— and it could be catching on, thanks to a popular _________ by Leslie. While working for a logging company, the 29-year-old filmed herself using the _________ method that allowed her to plant 4,545 trees in a single day. She said that the work is truly _________.

Planting trees is not easy work, according to Leslie. Not only is it _________ tiring, but it also exposes laborers to the bad weather. "It could start the day off _________ and then minutes later, it will just be raining or snowing. You never know what to _________," she described. "There were some days that we were planting through a heat _________, so we had like 37-to-40-degree weather for several days straight and that was really _________."

So far, Leslie has planted a total of 372,290 trees in the past few years.__________, she's still nowhere near beating the Guinness World record. That honor __________ Kenny Chaplin, who once planted 15,170 trees in 19 hours. After 35 years on the job, he says he'd __________ it to anyone.

"I think every parent in Canada should __________ their kid out tree planting because it will turn them into a worker," he __________. "They'll learn how to work, they'll have __________ and they'll have money in their pockets."

8 . When Susan was a high school student, her English teacher, Fred DiMeo, asked her to carry out a task: Recite (背诵) a poem in front of the whole class.

“I had a mild stutter (口吃), which tried the _________ of my classmates,” Susan said. The thought of _________ in front of the class and stuttering through the _________ was too much to bear. When the day of the recitation came, Susan, painfully shy and _________, recited the poem. Once she was done, DiMeo said something she’d never _________ before: that he liked listening to her voice. For the first time, she _________ that public speaking didn’t have to be a source of _________. “I think in his mind he just wanted me to _________ I have nothing to be afraid of,” Susan said.

Susan went on to graduate from high school and go to college. She never got to _________ thank DiMeo. Sometime after college, she managed to __________ a job as a trainer. The work made her know how big an __________ DiMeo had had on her confidence. “It’s so __________ to stand up in front of people and speak with them. And I do it all the time,” she said.

Susan recently found a way to __________ her teacher, and sent him a letter expressing her __________. “ You played a big role in my life,” she wrote. “I don't know where I would’ve gone if I felt like I had to keep my voice __________ because I was afraid of embarrassing (使尴尬) myself. ”

9 . With spring approaching, a foot of snow that had fallen rapidly melt (融化). The runoff from the hills had filled the rivers and formed little ______ of water in the road. Broken tree branches were everywhere. I was ______ home and suddenly saw one of these branches ______ across the rad. It was big enough to damage my car if I didn’t ______ in time so I stepped on the brakes and ______ my emergency flashers. ______ there were no other cars there yet. But I knew that it would only be a matter of ______ before one crashed into that branch, causing a (n) ______ and even death.

I ______ my car and tried to pull the branch to the roadside. It was a lot ______ than I thought but I started to ______ it. Inch by inch I pulled it off the road. When it was finally moved to the side I stood up and felt ______. Just as I did, though, a little red car passed by ______, hit a pool of water in the road and made my pants wet. I wasn’t ______ but laughed at the absurdity (荒谬) of it all.

Sometimes we all do good things in this life only to get dirty water. When this happens just remember that the real reason you do good is because of the ______ inside of you.