1 . Cessna planes flew me and my climbing team onto the Kahiltna Glacier, the base camp of Mt. McKinley. When we worked to __ a camp out of the thick snow and ice of the glacier, we heard one of Spanish climbers had died while climbing.

Sam, one of my partners, __ , and worried that this disaster might be a bad __.

He asked whether we were putting our __ at unnecessary risk by attempting this. I thought back to my training more than a year ago in the __ , by running with my guide dog because I am blind. One day I had __ a cactus(仙人掌), landing on my hand. One of my friends asked me, “If you fell down in the desert, how do you __ to climb that big mountain?”

I didn’t yet have an __ , but I knew within a year, I would have to!

For the next year, we trained hard. Now I said __ , “Sam, we’ve come a long way in a year. We’ve made mistakes, we’ve learned from them. We’ve solved problems __ prepared for all the things that could go __ on the mountain. ”

Now, I had enough __ . We began to take each step slowly and carefully, knowing that the mountain would not allow any __ movement. Risk is like the next __on a rock face: you reach for it expecting that it’s __ , but ready to find the next hold if it’s not!

It took 15 days for us to get to the top of North America.

2 . I was born in a poor village in Uganda. I spent the ________ days of my childhood there. My mother died when I was born. My father never cared about me, which ________ me to leave when I was ten. For the next three years, I helped people do something and they provided me with shelter and food ________. Luckily, a ________ family paid for me to go to school. For the first time after leaving home, I felt ________. Then, I attended school and got a job. I always ________ to help children in need. Yet I ________ felt I could do something more.

In 2016, I got passed to be a foster (收养) parent. By the end of 2019, ten kids had filled my house. In 2020, I got a call from a center for ________ children. When asked if I could take Anthony, I ________ it because ten kids were all I could do with. ________, I was talked into taking Anthony just for the weekend. I didn’t ask about his situation ________.

Anthony arrived that night, “Can I call you Dad?” he asked.

“No.” I needed to keep my ________.

Monday morning a worker in the center came to ________ Anthony. From their talk, I learned he had been ________ three times, but nobody would take him in.

Looking at Anthony, I saw something that made me think of the ________ boy I had once been. “I’ll take him in,” I said.

3 . When I was a boy, I knew nothing about the nation’s popular sport—baseball. During P.E., I used to pray (祈祷), “Please, please don’t let the ball come to me.” It seemed _________ for me to catch it.

And yet I _________ to become the father of Will, who, unlike me, was quite interested in the sport. One Saturday morning, when I played catch with him, thanks to my weak arm, the ball would drop at his feet before he could _________ it. This happened again and again. After too many _________, he sank to the ground and said, “How am I ever going to _________ the major leagues (联盟)?”

I had _________ knowledge and skills about the sport, but I wanted to find some way of giving Will _________ that I had never had. There was an official Little League in our area, but it was competitive and _________ older boys. What if we had something less competitive that welcomed both _________ boys and girls?

I __________ the idea with some neighbors on the playground. “Great!” they said, their eyes __________. I started calling the city’s parks, making a __________ for fields to start a league. No response. __________ I had to speak to the official. He asked me to call him back in a few days. The most __________ phone call I ever made was calling him back. What if he said no?

“Yes, we’ve got something good for you,” he said. So Hudson Cliffs was launched.

After several years of play, Will aged out of Hudson Cliffs. __________ enough, the league still goes on.

4 . Age is truly just a number if our hearts are young. Lee Minor, an 85-year-old retired psychologist, has________this by finishing his 600th marathon race with 32 members of his family by his side. “Runners don’t have a________line. We just keep going,” he toldGood Morning America. “I felt________running with my family.” Minor has been running three days a week since 1969, and his heart is filled with enthusiasm for running.

“I like to run in all kinds of________. It is so childish as the rain touches your face. And I love to come here after snow and you watch your________as you go along.” he concluded.

Minor’s enthusiasm for running is________. “It is my joy. And I want to live as long as I can. And I mean live, not________.” His words ring true for Ron Robert, a man diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who decided to ________ a three-year bachelor of artsprogram at King’s University College in London, Ontario. “I was always taught early in life that the brain is like the most ________instrument we have in our body,” said Robert.

Last fall, Robert graduated from the university, despite the challenges of his illness. “When I went across the stage, and as I’m getting my________, the kids all stood up andyelled and clapped,” he________. “I had to hold back the tears. It was something else, just wonderful.” He hopes that his story will give hope to others facing________difficulties. “There will come a time when I won’t be able to, and I fully________that. Butin the meantime, I’m living a full life.”

The stories of Minor and Robert are reminders that age and illness need not________us. We can choose to pursue our________and live life to the fullest, no matter whatchallenges we may face.

5 . Whenever I arrive home late from work, my dog Poppins saves her dinner. She always waits for me ________ I sit down for mine.

For someone who recovered from a(n) ________ disorder (紊乱), the importance of my caring dog’s ________ surprised me. In the years of treatment, my family and friends were very ________, but nothing quite touched me like the ________ of my dog.

My eating disorder started when I was in university. Then I was an early bird, sporty and ________ to outdoors. But a few comments about weight proved (证明是) enough for me to begin ________ my looks. I stopped eating enough. I forced myself to exercise and lost sight of why I loved to move. All that ________ was that I ticked (勾) off the boxes in the checklist.

When Poppins came to live with me, my life took a turn. I’d ________ wake early. But on the road I had sped through, we walked slowly in ________. We enjoyed streetcars, Don Valley, Humber River and many animals.

I ________ for many years working out how to live an active life. Poppins feels like the missing ________. This sweet dog has ________ me to the life I’ve dreamed about — one still filled with exploration and ________ but not driven by force to move. I know that the life I used to only ________ has come now. I feel content and able to contribute to society in a meaningful way.

6 . At the age of fifteen, I was expert at tying my father’s shoelaces (鞋带). I bent over and _________ the tried-and-true bunny-ear method. When I _________, his lips twitched (抽搐) in disappointment before falling into a hard line. He opened his mouth once again, trying to say something. _________, they refused to come. Eventually, he turned to _________: little pats on his _________ followed by a wave in my direction. I _________ a smile, and whispered “I love you, too, Dad,” trying to hide the cry caught in my throat.

Before this, my father had been a sales trainer. “Life is good,” he would say. _________, everything changed when a disease left my dad with a loss of _________. It does not affect brainpower, so my father was like being _________ in his own body, unable to say what he wanted. I despaired and felt overcome by fear and uncertainty—was life really worth living?

I finally found my __________. On a weekend trip, my dad saw a group of people parasailing (滑帆伞) on the lake. “You and me!” he __________ to say. We floated high above the water, eyes fixed on the setting sun. Just after the sky __________ its last flash of pink, my dad looked at me with a __________ expression. “Life… good.” In that __________ moment, I understood exactly what he meant. “Yes,” I whispered back. “It really is.” How beautiful it is to know that we need __________ to see the stars!

7 . I love the idea of a marathon race with just simply having a beginning point and an end goal. But what I love more about it is all about the_________to my marathon.

Before I found my appreciation of running, _________ speaking, I was never a fan of it. As I got older, I had the _________to do things that I had never thought of doing-that was when I _________ myself.

It was during late summer that I_________ to join a run. In every training session, I got the _________to learn something new about myself and everything else that surrounded me. I found my connection to nature _________ and it made me much more _________of everything-the wind, the rays of the sun and every step I take. During training, I passed by _________people-some eventually ran faster than I, and some others I __________them. This reminded me everyone has different battles.

If I hadn’t decided to get ready and just go for it, I would have never known what running __________for me. But of course with all these amazing feelings, there came __________days when I felt terrible with aching muscles and hurting laps. Every aspect of life always comes__________ those two, doesn’t it? Good and bad, right and wrong. It all__________ perspective-which side will you let shine even more?

I hope you find your own marathon and__________ it!

8 . Laurie Rabyor and Jeanette Rivera each left their workplace at the same time and were driving in streets next to each other. Jeanette noticed Laurie’s car swerving (迂回) dangerously and _________ toward a busy crossing and oncoming traffic. Jeanette immediately _________ her car and bravely ran after Laurie’s out-of-control car to try to stop it. She quickly realized that she needed help. She_________waved her arms, attempting to attract nearby drivers to the _________. Within seconds, several other motorists, including a nurse and a U.S. Marine, sprang into action to _________ in the daring rescue. The five _________banded together and used their body weight to bring the car to a complete _________.

Once they stopped the car, they realized the doors and windows were _________. One woman cleverly ran back to her car to get a dumbbell(哑铃)and _________it to a man who used it to break window. Another man then __________ into the car through the window to unlock the door. The group then moved Laurie’s car out of __________ and into a convenience store parking lot. A nurse provided __________ attention to Laurie until first rescuer arrived on scene.

Laurie has been out of the hospital and is doing well. The local police department praised the kind for their __________and quick-thinking action. The department later arranged a special event to __________the kind people. Laurie was __________ for the opportunity to personally thank her heroes.

9 . 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.

10 . 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.