1 . Just weeks after being named the Hero of the Year, Nelly Cheboi traveled more than 7,000 miles to bring her award home. Far from the lights, cameras, and celebrities who surrounded her at the gala (晚会) event in New York City, Cheboi was _________ by her own heroes: the students she serves in rural Mogotio, Kenya.

“I felt a lot of _________ just bringing the award to the kids,” Cheboi said. “For me, and for the community here, it really means a lot to be celebrated.”

Like many of her students, Cheboi lived in poverty (贫穷) from childhood, without _________ to education. Cheboi watched her mother work _________ so Cheboi and her sisters could _________ school. She saw education as an effective _________ to end her own poverty. In 2012, Cheboi _________ a full scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois and began her _________ in computer science. “The only tool I had at the time was education,” Cheboi said.

After graduation, she taught her students computer skills and helped them have Zoom calls with NASA. She’s found job opportunities abroad for them. She has brought professional, and _________ support to her community in Africa. “Digital skills provide __________ opportunities,” Cheboi said.

She owes her success to her mother, Christina. “I’m constantly __________ occasions to show people this is Christina Cheboi and she happened to have four daughters. She’s worked really hard to raise them.” When Cheboi’s name was __________ as the Hero of the Year, the first face she saw from the stage was that __________ one. “I looked at the audience, and saw my mom __________ at me,” Cheboi said. “This was someone who had no idea that all her hard work is going to __________ something.”

3 . My daughter, Beth, bought me two beautifully carved wooden butterflies for my 56th birthday. I hung them in _________ places on my walls so that I can see them often. Each time I do, they give me a (n) _________ reminder of love.

Our love of _________ goes back many years. After a long battle against cancer, my mom passed away when I was only 25 years old. Beth was only a baby without _________ of her grandma. I tried to _________ it by telling her some stories, but each time I did, I could see a little sadness in Beth’s eyes.

One day when she was seven, we were outside at the playground. Beth _________ said without her grandma around, how much she _________ her. I said she might ride a butterfly to watch over her. At that very moment, a butterfly _________, flying around Beth’s face, and then flew away. We both _________ with our hearts full of love and joy.

Since that moment. Beth and I have seemed to __________ butterflies like flowers. Whenever we are outside, they __________ around us, and then we think of my mom. The only time this doesn’t happen is during __________. However, now I can take a look at the two __________ wooden butterflies anytime and still be reminded of that __________. I think we all need __________ that tell us we were loved by those who passed away.

4 . Steve, a twelve-year-old boy with alcoholic parents, was failing. Surprisingly, he could read, yet, _________ his reading skills, Steve had been failing since the first grade. Steve was a big boy, yet, he went unnoticed _________ Miss White.

Miss White was a smiling, beautiful, young lady. For the first time in his _________ life, Steve couldn’t take his eyes off his teacher;  yet,_________he failed. In the middle of the first term, the entire seventh grade was _________for basic skills. Steve hurried through his tests, and _________to dream of other things, as the day passed slowly. One day, Miss White’s_________voice broke into his daydreams. “Steve!” Startled (吓了一跳), he _________to look at her. “Pay attention!” She began to _________the test results. “You all did pretty well,” she told the class, “__________one boy, and it breaks my__________to tell you this, but…” She hesitated, pinning Steve to his seat with a sharp __________ “the smartest boy in the seventh grade is failing my class!”

After that, Steve still__________do his homework. “Just try it,” Miss White said one day. “Steve! Please! I care about you!” Wow! Suddenly, Steve got it! Someone cared about him? Someone, so beautiful and perfect, cared about him! Steve went home from school, __________ that afternoon and decided to work hard.

The following Monday he arrived at school on time, and waited for Miss White to enter the classroom. She walked in, all sparkle and smiles! Immediately, she gave a __________on the weekend homework. Steve was the first to  __________his paper. With a look of __________, Miss White took his paper. Steve walked back to his desk, his heart beating strongly within his chest.

Miss White’s face was in total __________! Suddenly, her face broke into a bright smile. The smartest boy in the seventh grade had just__________his first test! From that moment __________was the same for Steve.

6 . I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. I was a college freshman and had stayed up most of the ______ before laughing and talking with friends. Now just before my first ______ of the day my eyelids were feeling ______ and my head was drifting down to my desk to make my textbook a pillow. It wouldn’t ______ to spend a few minutes napping (小睡，打盹) before class, I thought.

BOOM! I lifted my head suddenly and my eyes opened wider than saucers. I looked around with my ______ beating wildly trying to find the cause of the ______. My young professor was looking back at me with a boyish smile on his face. He had ______ dropped the textbooks he was carrying onto his desk. “Good morning!” he said still ______. “I am glad to see everyone is ______. Now let’s get started.”

For the next hour I wasn’t sleepy at all. It wasn’t from the ______ of my professor’s textbook alarm clock, either. It was instead from the ______ discussion he led. With knowledge and ______ he made the material come ______. His insights (洞察力，见解) were full of both wisdom and loving-kindness. And the enthusiasm and joy that he ______ with were contagious (有感染力的). I ______ the classroom not only wide awake, but a little ______ and a little better as well.

I learned something far more important than not ______ in class that day too. I learned that if you are going to do something in this life, do it well, and do it with ______. What a wonderful place this would be if all of us did our work joyously and well. Let your love fill your work. Don’t sleepwalk your way through ______. Wake up! Life is too _____ not to live it well.

7 . One summer weekend, my wife, son and I entered a running race on mountain trails (小径). When the race started, our son took off _______, but my wife and I stayed back and ran together, enjoying the scenery. After some time, while running down a narrow, _______ trail, I walked on a big stone and was _______, and in the process, I jammed my toe pretty hard. I realized I’d got my toe _______, but I didn’t take off my shoe and sock to check my _______. Instead, my wife and I kept running.

_______, after going about half the course, I realized my watch on my wrist was _______. Slightly discouraged, I told my wife to go on _______, and I would return to see if I could find it. After running back for some time, I _______ my broken watch off the trail. I picked it up, and quickly put it into my pocket. Then I ________ down the trail. Once I was near the end, I saw my son, who had finished 30 minutes earlier, had run back up the trail to ________ me. He ran with me to the end.

________ it turned out, both my wife and son had won first place in their age groups, but I had no chance of placing. As I sat down to ________ after the race, I decided to take off my shoe and check my toe, and I found that my sock was in blood. Pain and it hurt, but there was a bright side. I ________ to receive any award in my age group, but the race ________ had a special award which was given for the most injured runner in the race.

So, how does this ________ relate to you and me in everyday life? Although everyone wants to live a life of comfort, the ________ is that we often face pain and ________. However, the key to real happiness is ________ pain into something positive. In other words, ________ can make us stronger if we let them.

8 . Last Friday was very cold. When I watched   the ________falling onto my car, I really began to wonder if I was going to ________ it on time. Of course I must, because I have no ________.

About three weeks ago, what my ________ Ellen had talked about was her Christmas concert to be held in her school and some rumors about it. “Mom, Rachel was ________ to sing alone, but she’s not! Linda will replace her to do it.” “Mom, you won’t believe it, ________Lexie’s whole family is coming to the concert, even from another ________!” Making a long way out of state to see third graders sing Christmas carol seemed to be a pretty big deal(待遇) for her.

When I sat in traffic, I thought about all the school ________ I had attended alone. Ellen never mentioned it, but I wonder ________ she felt about me being the only one who ever came to her events. My own family lived out of town, and her father and his family ________ quite succeeded in filling those things into their schedules. I ________ if it bothered her.

At eight o’clock the ________ was scheduled to begin. With only a few minute to ________, I found myself running: first, though the snow-drifted parking lot, then through the school passage. I entered the ________ hall and found a vacant seat near the front. From her place on stage, Ellen saw me ________ for the chair, and she smiled. I was ________ enough to hear the loud conversation of the children on stage.

“Look, Ellen, there is my uncle mad my cousin. They came all the way from West Virginia. I can’t believe my whole family is her!” Ellen ________ at Lexie and said, “My whole family is here, too! Look, there she is!” Ellen gave me a big smile. I smiled back at her, never once ________ the melting snow dripping off my head. It ________occurred to me that while we tried to teach our children all about ________, they actually taught us what life was all about.

10 . One day, a professor (教授) entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the ________ to begin.

The professor ________ the exam papers with the text facing down as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to ________ the papers.

To everyone’s ________, there were no questions — just a black ________ in the centre of the paper. The professor, seeing the ________ on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, got started on the very task.

At the ________ of the class, the professor took all the exams, ________ each one of them loud in front of all the students.

All of them, ________ exception, described the black dot (小圆点), trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet. After all had been read, the classroom ________, the professor started to explain:

“I’m not going to ________ you on this; I just want to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the ________part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot—and the same thing ________ in our lives. However, we insist on ________ only on the black dot — the health issues that trouble us, the ________ of money, the complicated (复杂的) friendship with a family member, the ________ with a friend. The dark spots are very ________ when compared to everything we have in our lives, ________ they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes ________ from the black dots in your lives. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be ________ and live a life filled with love!”