1 . A wealthy man and his son loved to collect great works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. But a few years later, the son went to war and died in battle while _________ another soldier.

One day, a _________ visited the father. He said, “Sir, you don’t know me. I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life.” The young man held out a

_________. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great _________ , but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”

The father opened it and found a picture of his son, beautifully painted by the young man. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no, Sir. I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a(n)_________.”

The father died a few months later. There was to be a great auction (拍卖) of his_________. On the day of the auction, on the platform sat the painting of The Son. The auctioneer banged his gavel (小木槌). “We will _________ the bidding (出价) with this picture of The Son. Who will bid for this picture?”

Nobody spoke or raised their hand. There was _________ .

Then a voice from the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. _________ this one.”

Another voice shouted angrily. “We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. __________ the real bids!”

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room.

It was the gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could __________ .

“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?”

The auctioneer banged his gavel. “Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!”

A man sitting in the second row shouted, “Now let’s move on to the next!”

The auctioneer __________ his gavel. “I’m sorry. The auction is over.”

“What about the paintings?”

“I am sorry. When I was called to __________ this auction, I was told of a(n) __________ requirement in the will. Only the painting of The Son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would get the __________ estate (财产), including all the paintings.”

2 . In 2016, Linda Durrence and her husband suffered the loss of their oldest daughter. Then they _________ to Glennville, Georgia, and attended church every Sunday.

One Sunday, they met three sisters adopted by a family nearby. The couple became good friends with them _________ , so when the girls were going to be put in _________ homes a few years later, they turned to Linda Durrence for help.

The oldest sister had turned 18 and left the care system, and Linda didn’t _________ to welcome the younger two girls into her home with open arms. “The first thing that broke my heart was that they came with a _________ bag that wasn’t even halfway full of clothes that didn’t _________ them,” Linda recalled. What Linda and her husband did first was to take the girls to go _________. “We watched them coming from a place of _________ brokenness and they blossomed,” said Linda.

The idea of blossoming _________ in her mind, as did the image of the children ____________ with just a garbage bag full of too-small clothes. “I couldn’t forget that,” she said.

Last December, Linda opened Blossom, a shop giving out free ____________ to anyone in need. At Blossom, families can choose seven full sets of clothes and shoes free of charge. They can come back every ____________ for size and season changes. She’s relying on ____________ from kind-hearted people to keep the shop going.

Linda hopes that getting new clothing will ____________ adopted children’s confidence. She wants them all to have the same____________ to blossom as her own children.

3 . I stood in line waiting to cash out at a grocery store. I ________ the customer in front of me. She was young, but she already had a(n) ________ look as if life had beaten her down too many times. The items (物品) in her cart included the cheapest cuts of meat, powdered milk, day­old bread, and ________ soap.

“Next!” The cashier ________， and she moved forward to check out. When the cashier finally told her the ________， her face paled. She opened her handbag and began ________ small bills and change. It was obvious that she didn’t have enough ________. So she ________ some much­needed goods, setting them aside. The child’s items ________ in the cart, however. The woman finally paid, and moved down to ________ them. When my turn came, I put into my cart the items that the woman had ________ out, whispering (低语) “Separate bags, same bill please” to the cashier.

Then I secretly put the extra bag into the woman’s cart without being ________. Just as I put the bag in the woman’s cart, I ________ a twenty­dollar bill that I had not placed in there. “You put that money in there, didn’t you?” I asked the cashier with a laugh ________ the woman pushed her cart out of the door. ________, he shook his head. “No, it was the woman who stood behind you. I stuck my twenty at the bottom,” he added. “That was so nice of both of you!” I smiled.

4 . Caitlin took her daughter, Lacey, to a toy store to pick something out. Lacey had been _______ £10 from her grandmother.

Lacey was trying to pick _______ that were more than £10, but the mother kept telling her she couldn’t, which _______ was a hard choice for the little girl. When they were in the aisle (过道), one _______ came over. And he asked if he could give Caitlin a gift card. The truth _______ that someone who had bought it asked the store workers to find a child of pre-school age to give it to.

And that gift card had been left by a woman in _______ of her daughter, who would have _______ four years old that day. After hearing that, Caitlin was heartbroken and just started to _______, and then the workers were crying too. It was very _______.

What a ________ way for that mother to ________ her daughter! In the store everyone’s heart went out to her for her ________ loss. Caitlin shared this ________ on social media and just wanted to say a huge thank you.

“She made my girl so happy and I am thinking about her and her family. It is very kind what she has done, and it has ________ other people to do the same,” Caitlin wrote. Hopefully, the mother is blessed as she continues to remember her little girl by spreading ________ to others.

5 . As Gwen Erickson approached 97, she began raising one of America’s most popular, yet endangered butterflies—the monarch butterfly (帝王蝶). She managed to _________ 27 butterflies last year and this year the _________ has gone up to 61.

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). Two weeks later the beautiful butterflies _________. 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.

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

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

This new ____________ is a fine example of people caring for the smaller things in life. It ____________ us that it’s never too late to be ____________ in life.

6 . When Marion Sheppard was unable to see in her 40s, she cried. Wasn’t it ______ that she’d been partly deaf since childhood? That struggle and the ______ that usually came with it didn’t defeat her, but made her ______.

Sheppard had always been an enthusiastic dancer since childhood, but now she was so scared that she ______ left her apartment. She worried about the way she would ______ to the world. Hard as it was, Sheppard later ______ herself to go out.

At 61, Sheppard attended a camp organized by Visions for blind people, where she taught her first dancing class. She ______ to teach her class there after that. But she was ______. She soon convinced Visions to let her teach on a ______ basis. About four years later, her classes won so much ______ that Visions hired her to be on staff. Sheppard’s students were mostly seniors whose eyesight had ______ as adults. With confidence-building praise, Sheppard also______ dignity and independence into them. As a way to combine movements with her faith, Sheppard ______ a group called The Blind Sisterhood. What is her ______ for maintaining both physical and mental health despite ______ life throws at her? “Keep it moving!”

7 . My daughter and her husband rented a house without furniture and just decided to “wing it” (临场发挥) for lack of money. Soon after that, they saw a sofa ________ for free that was about 45 minutes from where they live. The ad said whoever ________ arrived there would get it. They were the first but it was too ________ to fit in all in one go. They were ________ for a while.

Then an old man from across the road ________ with a tape measure (卷尺) and a couple of oranges from his ________ to give them. The tape measure showed them there was no ________ to load it in the truck. And they would have to make two ________. The old man said he would ________ it with a sheet and make sure no one took the other part. When they returned, he said someone else had tried to get it but he had ________ them.

Then this man told them his story. He came from a poor country and grew up with a dirt floor, 6 siblings (兄弟姐妹) and no ________. He said people often forgot how ________ it was for young people starting out, but he ________ them for seizing the available opportunities. Besides the oranges from his yard, this old man also ________ them $50 and suggested spending it in doing something nice for themselves and others. The ________ of this old man had my daughter in tears when she told the story to me.

8 . When I moved from South Korea to Australia at the age of eight, I learned the worst part of crossing language lines was adjusting to live ________—to its rapid rhythms and many about-faces. Once spun out, the best I could do was wait for a topic change or long pause to ________ a foothold (立足点). Tripping over loose words and ________ sentences, I never got far.

This was a problem because there were many things I did not ________ about my new home—why strangers were called “mates”, why none of the food was spiced etc. Unable to ask questions, let alone to raise ________, I began to wear a ________ smile and to withdraw into the private corners of my mind. I struggled to ________, but the differences between my peers and me seemed to pose a distance too great to ________.

Things ________ for me when I joined my primary school debate team. I had been attracted to the activity by the promise of ________—a few minutes in which I could speak uninterrupted. But I also ________ a trove of wisdom (智慧宝库), including a new way of thinking about empathy.

I chased these ________ for 15 years, winning two world championships and ________ the Harvard and Australian national debate teams along the way. The ________ led me to become a newspaper reporter and now a law student. It left me convinced that ________ can help us improve our lives in these hard times.

9 . One of my clients (客户) recently revealed that his wife was of the opinion that he shouldn’t hire a coach to help him create a more _________ life; he should be able to do it by himself.

Has anyone ever said something _________ to you? Or perhaps you have said it to yourself? When I talk to people about making changes in their life, they would _________ say something like “but shouldn’t I do this _________ ?

However, the opposite is _________ . The most successful people get as much help as they need to _________ their goal. Take Ellen MacArthur for example, the fastest female and youngest sailor to race around the world solo, non-stop. While she _________ around the world by herself, she also had advisors, trainers, sponsors, and a support team to help her. She once said, “It’s always been about a _________ , so I have to thank my partners, friends, and supporters. _________ them, I would be nowhere.”

Many people __________ that “if you have help to achieve something then it __________that achievement”. It is a common __________, however, and one that I would __________you to stay away from. So next time you hear a phrase like “you should do it on your own”, either from someone else or in your head, __________ yourself immediately that it is not helpful and focus on __________ the help you need to get to where you want to go.

10 . I was walking through the bush when, suddenly, a baby koala rushed to me through the sky. Through quick thinking, I managed to catch it in my _______. “Oh Doodah, are you —_______ to see me today?” I asked the koala. Doodah, a baby koala, was just one of the many koalas that had come into my _______. And while I might be his favourite person, I loved all of these animals _______.

Ever since I was a girl, I’d loved animals and at 18 had started work at the Curmmbin Wildlife Sanctuary as a _______ collector. Selecting leaves for the koalas brought me so much joy as the koalas _______ them for food. Through hard work and _______ I eventually became a koala specialist, which saw me working in China, where I _______ in koala-breeding programs.

My son, Jett, always been with koalas and comes out _______ them with me. But we’ve both become concerned over the __________ of our beloved koalas. I knew the best way to stop them from dying out was to __________ the young like my son because the future really is theirs. So I wrote a children’s book, Have You Seen a Tree for Me?, which I hope will help them understand we’ve got to __________ our beloved wildlife.

There are lots of __________ things kids can do to start helping now; Keep dogs and cats locked away from wildlife, plant a tree that will encourage native animals to visit and __________your family to drive slowly in wildlife habitats and areas. That might only sound __________, but if we all do this, it can make a big difference.