1 . Every day, there are 25,000 flights in America. Accidents are so rare that flying is much ________ than car travel. But that doesn’t stop many people from feeling ________ when they are moving at 500 miles per hour, 33,000 feet above the ground.

That’s what ________ recently to a woman flying on a commercial airline. Floyd Dean-Shannon ________ the woman’s distress. As a flight attendant, he has plenty to do during a flight. But he paused and spoke ________ to the woman. Floyd calmly explained what the ________ was and all the other perfectly routine sounds you hear as a plane flies.

________ the woman began to calm down a bit, Floyd sat down in the aisle beside her and held her hand. He sat with her through the ________ flight. When Floyd learned it was another passenger’s birthday, he led the plane in a song to ________ — another way of making the woman feel safe by ________ her from her fears. He stayed by the woman’s side until it was time to land.

In a world where most focus on what’s happening on a screen, we can ________ occasionally and check on those ________ us. Like Floyd, we can be ________ enough to see to be there. We don’t have to be professional counselors; we just need to be ________. Having a friend when you most need it not only gets you through the ________ parts in your life — it also gives you the confidence to be a friend to others.

2 . My mother was always knitting (编织). She recently agreed that knitting helped her ________stresses of raising four children. My mother taught me to knit when I was about 6, but I soon ________ the project, as it was boring.

My next knitting adventure was ________ when I was in graduate school and feeling the pressure of the program. One day, as I passed the knitting ________, the gloves in the display area caught my fancy, and I determined that I would ________to knit such sweet gloves. Too big a project for a ________, but the shop assistants were kind and ________ with my daily visits for instruction. The project ________to a gift of gloves for each of my dear friends, and ________, the gloves saved my soul in that________ semester of studies.

Knitting during the pandemic eased my________ at not being able to participate in my usual volunteer activities. I knitted dozens of scarves to ________, which helped me feel ________ to the community.

My mother’s estate is vast, but the major life lesson she taught me through knitting is that there is a step-by-step ________ of building, tearing down and rebuilding. It requires patience and a ________that stitches (针脚) that are cast off can always find their way back on.

3 . Dr. Karen Sciascia has delivered thousands of babies. But this week, she helped deliver another life from danger, as she and her friend Seth McLean ________ a baby moose (驼鹿) that was separated from its mother when crossing a ________ .

Sciascia and McLean were fishing when they ________ a cow moose and her baby. The two moose were having trouble ________ a spot on the river where a violent ________ is created by two channels. After ________ back and forth in the water, the cow moose made it to the far river bank. When her baby tried to ________, it was swept downstream. With its nose ________ above the water, the baby was too ________ to ever fight the current. Realising the baby was in ________, Sciascia and McLean set off after it in their boat. After Scioscia ________ the little creature from the river, McLean rowed them upriver a bit, to the ________ where the cow moose had landed. Quickly after pulling to shore they ________ the baby and Momma was soon there checking her baby over. Once ________and satisfied, Momma led her baby into the woods.

“Having delivered so many babies, it was like every other day to me, though it was a ________ modality (形态),” Sciascia tells The Missoulian, “It was cool to be in the right place at the right time.”

4 . Something interesting happened at my home recently. In a hillside suburb, I am lucky to be _________ by a lot of trees, and even luckier that those trees are home to a _________ of birds.

One of those birds is called the laughing kookaburra, a big kingfisher, which certainly does like to _________ snakes and lizards in its strong and powerful beak (喙).

The kookaburra’s head and chest are white _________ its wings and back are brown. What I love most is that the kookaburras laugh at sunset. My bird book _________ their call as a “loud chuckling laugh.” Often they laugh in _________ with each other so that their laugh _________ around the trees a bit like the “wave”. How wonderful it would be.

I was inside my home when there was a loud _________ against a window one day. I _________   out the door and around the veranda (走廊) to see what had happened. A kookaburra was __________ on the wooden floorboards of the veranda, looking extremely scared. As I __________ back a little distance, wondering what to do, the __________ kookaburra shook its head, raised its beak in the air, opened its mouth, and __________ into a loud, hearty laugh. I thought what a __________ thing it would be to learn how to __________ your head up and laugh after such a frightening surprise.

5 . Little Oliver was Mason and Rebecca’s miracle child. Rebecca suffered three miscarriages (流产) before Oliver was born. When they were still in extreme _________, Rebecca accidentally found the little boy never reacted to any sound. After examination it was confirmed that Oliver was born _________.

Facing such a blow, Mason and Rebecca never felt _________. A few weeks later, Oliver got his first hearing aid. Despite several _________, Oliver could at last hear! Rebecca and Mason were delighted.

Three years passed, and it was time to send Oliver to _________. But the first day Oliver returned home _________. “I don-don’t want to go to school... I have no friends...”

One day, Rebecca and Mason were called to the school, where Oliver’s teacher, Sophia told them Oliver never _________ with his classmates. He was afraid that his classmates would _________ him over his deafness. Though Sophia talked to him again, he was _________ to communicate.

Rebecca and Mason told her their son was __________ for friendship inside’ Sophia decided they had to do something to help Oliver out of his __________. They made a plan and put it into action on his sixth birthday. Oliver __________ his classroom and found it decorated with balloons. He was surprised and sat in his chair,__________ what was happening. Suddenly, all his classmates marched inside. They all wore colorful birthday caps and smiled at him. Oliver’s eyes rose with tears as he watched them sing a happy birthday song in __________. They had learned sign language to surprise the birthday boy and make him feel __________. Oliver was touched. It felt like heaven to be surrounded by friends.

6 . Outside my office building, there would be a homeless man, standing by the road and waving at passers-by happily.

I would remember to _________ any spare change for him. Every time I saw him, I’d _________ roll down my window and give him the _________. Occasionally the red light would be on for a/an _________, long enough for us to _________ each other. His answer would always be “I am so happy and fine!” It _________ me that even in his situation he was so _________, and his answer would remind me of how _________ I was. A mother of four amazing kids, with a place to call _________ and with a decent job.

Then one day my boss told me that I was being __________ due to the economy. A feeling of worry __________ me, so I didn’t remember to keep my spare change like I usually did. __________ there he was as always. I’d hoped to catch the __________ light, but I missed it. Aware of my black mood, he walked over with a smile and said, “Today I will give you a dollar”. He then reached into his pocket and __________ out a dollar bill. I burst into tears.

He taught me a valuable lesson: No matter what __________ things are taken from you, no one can take away your choice to be joyful.

7 . For Sara’s family, decorating the yard was always a celebration for the New Year. This year Sara’s father _________ colorful lights all round their roof. On New Year’s Eve, light _________ the whole house. Everything seemed to be going fine until _________ struck: Sara’s father passed away suddenly. Sara was _________ by great sadness. However, seeing the hanging lights, she was in a state of feeling happy, gaining a tiny thread of _________.

The lights were the last _________ of her beloved father. Taking them down meant the _________ connection with her father would disappear, which she wasn’t ready to accept. So she _________ them. One day in March, Sara received an _________ note in the mail: “Take your New Year’s lights down!” She couldn’t __________ her anger, and shared it with her story online. Messages of support __________ into Sara’s inbox quickly. Besides, one day, Sara found that New Year’s decorations __________ on houses in her neighborhood—her neighbors hung their lights back up in __________ of her father!

She never learned the sender’s identity. But for her, that hurtful deed was far less __________ than so many acts of kindness. A few weeks later, Sara took down the decorations. “It was hard. But __________ all that support and love, it was not as hard as I thought.”

8 . Many years ago, I was living with my best friend and we had many happy moments together. But there was one night that ________ our lives forever.

On the night of November 25, 2011, I got into a fistfight with my best friend in our kitchen. It all started because I was trying to help him. He was drinking a lot, arguing with everyone and ________ himself from others by keeping silent most of the time. This had been going on for weeks and finally I decided it was time for a(an) ________ I told him that he needed to stop drinking so much and tried to ________ his alcohol and he got angry and started ________ with me. It was scary, but by the end of the night, we were able to calm down and talk to each other.

I thought alcohol ________ was his main problem. But he was just using alcohol to ________ himself through. He was lonely, heartbroken and struggling to connect with people. So during the Christmas season a few weeks later, I gave him a ________ that I didn’t even know I had.

That Christmas my friend didn’t have any place to go, so I invited him home to my parents’ house in Lancaster. They ________ cleaned up our guest room for him and even bought him some Christmas gifts. I’ll never forget the night we arrived at my home. My parents were already ________, but my mom had prepared dinner for us, baked some cookies and left us a note. My parents are known for their ________, so I wasn’t surprised by this warm welcome. But when my friend read my mom’s note and saw all that she had prepared, he broke down and cried. That’s when I ________ how much I took my loving family for granted.

That year my friend and I both received gifts that we would ________ forever. I gave him the gift of a warm, loving, safe place to spend Christmas. And he gave me the gift of a new ________ on life. If I hadn’t shared my home with him, I wouldn’t have understood how ________ I am.

9 . I was born two months premature with underdeveloped lungs and a heart condition. The doctors said I wouldn’t live long enough to ________ it out of the hospital. As the days went by, doctors couldn’t ________ I was still alive. They told my mom I was defying (克服) the odds. With each new day came new struggles and challenges, but also more ________. Everybody began to see I was a ________. I exceeded (超越) everyone’s expectations and was ________ from the hospital one month later.

Years went by and I was pretty much just like every other kid, though I went to the doctor once a month for ________ and that became part of my normal ________. However, things started to ________ when I was in twelfth grade. I had a constant ________ in my chest and I’d have to start a treatment program right away. The program was very ________ to the chemotherapy cancer patients go through. Should I do the treatment and ________ not graduating with class for missing too many days of school or should I put it off till the summer and possibly cause irreversible (不可逆转的) damage? I thought back what my grandpa always told me, “There’s always an exception, and you’re usually it”, then I had my ________.

I finished all the work brought to me while I was ________ in bed. Once again I defied the odds; I was the ________ to the rule. Just like that baby in the hospital all those years ago, I ________— even to this day — to have that same fight in me…that will to not only survive, but to succeed in everything I set my mind to as well.

10 . Joao Carlos Martins is a famous pianist and conductor. However, his career has been ________ and his life has taken him in many different ________.

As a teenager Martins began to perform in concerts. But in his late twenties, he had to ________ after badly breaking his arm. It was really a terrible time. He couldn’t look at a piano or ________ listen to music. ________, he decided to become the manager of a boxer, who won the world championship later. This ________ Martins to take up the piano and practise much harder. Six years later, he gave his first concert at the Carnegie Hall, which was the most ________ moment of his life. He performed in concerts for years before he had to quit because of the unbearable ________ in his hands caused by too much ________.

Martins, in his forties, became a politician. However, he couldn’t stand this ________, so once again, he went back to the piano. All was going well until something unexpected ________ while leaving a concert. He ________ a serious brain injury and lost all the movement in his right hand. Again, with great ________ he played just with his left hand. Years later he lost the use of the left hand and ________ himself a conductor. Now, in his late seventies, Martins is still taking ________ to work and has conducted over a thousand concerts.