1 . When I was 10 years old, my aunt and uncle lived far away from my parents.

Suffering from a severe disease _______ my uncle to walk with a stick. Back in the 1950s, he was _______ unable to work, so my aunt worked full-time to support the family. _______, she was responsible for her elderly mother who lived with them, too. As an innocent kid, I didn’t know that their _______ situation was not stable.

One day, my father and I went to see them, and my aunt asked me to get a _______, so she could pour me some milk. When I _______ the cupboard for a glass, I found that one of the drinking glasses on the shelf held a $10 bill. I felt so _______. At the time, $10 was a respectable _______ of money. Later, I asked my father why they kept money in a glass. It wasn’t until then that I _______ it was my father who’d __________ the money there. My father wanted to help his brother secretly, but didn’t want to make him __________ by handing him cash, which his brother surely would have __________. Dad knew the money would be discovered after our __________, thus avoiding any rejection and face-to-face __________ to keep the cash.

I learned a lot from my father about __________, pride, and how people help one another out while leaving their dignity unhurt.

3 . I was sitting at my desk when my phone buzzed. It was a _______ from Angus Menzies, my best friend since childhood. We had planned to go canoeing (独木舟). Whenever we'd hang out, we would hold some sort of adventure, maybe to prove that we hadn't yet become old men _______ of handling difficulties.

Then came the day when Angus and I _______ at a steady pace on the massive river which had reached a record high of around 200 feet. It started smoothly but all of a sudden, we heard a deep rumbling (轰鸣声). It was the sound of the rapids. I trembled with _______ , but we _______ . The river curved ahead. We _______ over a 3-foot wave and came down with a strike as a bigger one sped towards us. We hit it high and at an angle. As the canoe tipped over, I leaped clear, hitting the cold rushing water. I _______ surfaced, trying to get my direction. The canoe, upside down, _______ across the rushing current to my right. Angus couldn't reach it and ended up behind me. The current was impossible to _______ . Later, I heard Angus's voice, "Hold on to the canoe." I grabbed it, put my cheek to the canoe's ________ belly and the current moved us steadily along.

By pure ________ , a few minutes later, a small boat came into ________ . We whistled and the boat, ________ by a father and his two sons, came over and dragged us up. The boys stared at us as we sat on the deck, soaked and ________ . As we pulled up to a shore, we saw a line of firefighters. They wrapped an emergency ________ around Angus and me. We were rescued from our crisis.

4 . Seven years after a terrible fall left me paralyzed, here I was, with my two teammates, on the way to becoming the first all-disabled team to cross Europe's largest ice cap, the Vatnajökull glacier, unsupported and unassisted.

A year before, when McCann first suggested making the 100-mile trip, I was excited by the _______ of reaching this lost world of mountains and ice, yet _______ about whether I’d struggle. But I was eager for

From our start point, we would need to _______ through storm-force winds and overcome the _______ of our injuries. This was going to be the toughest challenge of my life. Roped together, we started toward the frozen horizon, _______ two sledges (雪橇) loaded with equipment behind us. Just 10 minutes into our journey, I was already beginning to feel the _______ on my shoulders and arms. The weight of our equipment was a constant _______ as it dragged stubbornly through the snow behind us. And yet, with each drive of my poles into the snow, I pushed myself further from civilization — and _______ to the man I'd once been.

After 11 tough days, and countless ________ and slips, we approached the eastern edge of the Vatnajökull glacier. We had beaten the odds, ________ our physical limitations and emerged victorious.

That moment at the ________ affected every aspect of my life and the way I ________ my disability. No longer did I consider myself ________ , because, if I could reach the summit of a remote ice cap, I could overcome the frustrations and setbacks of day-to-day life with flexibility and ________ .

5 . Juleus Ghunta is a published children’s author and award-winning poet. But when young, he could ________ read.

He grew up with his three sisters in rural Western Jamaica, raised by their single mother. Life was tough, and proper schooling was out of the question due to ________ resources.

When Ghunta finally went to school, he couldn’t ________ on reading. Not only had he been kept home from school as a child, but he had not been ________ to books.

By sixth grade, he could spell his name, but still couldn’t make out words or read with ________. He struggled in school with a deep sense of ________ and worthlessness.

At age 12, a young teacher-in-training ________ a special reading program for ________ students. Ghunta was the first to join. That teacher, whose name he does not ________ now, became Ghunta’s unsung hero — the person who changed his life.

The teacher was incredibly kind to him. Under her guidance, Ghunta’s reading skills saw marked improvement, and his sense of inadequacy began to ________.

“She had left me with the gift of literacy,” he said. “And a deeper ________ of my talent.”

After Ghunta’s experience with the teacher, his life course ________. He graduated with academic ________ and is now the author of two children’s books, including “Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows.”

Years later, Ghunta returned to his old school and asked the principal and teachers if they knew her ________, but none did. Carrying this memory, however, he still hopes to find and thank her for seeing his ________ and being a source of light and hope in his life.

7 . David, my cyber friend, now 25, is still searching for something to do with his life. His father, who has ________ their lives, wants to take him into his successful business. After a lifetime of ________ and want, David’s father holds out to him a small sign of hope for a ________ future. “He seems to be sincere in his ________ to make things right with us,” David says. “To have a job, to have a father — it is ________.”

But perhaps not to David’s ________. He hasn’t said much about how she feels about the ________ re-appearance of her ex-husband. But it’s pretty clear that she’s at least ________, if not made extremely angry. David feels that he has to make a ________ between loyalty to his mother, who has been there for him all his life, and forgiveness for his father, who may ________ his hope for the future.

“I ask you for advice,” he writes to me. “I do not wish to ________ my mother, especially not after all she has done for me. But my religion teaches me to ________ all men — including my father.”

Loyalty or forgiveness — which is the greater value?

It seems to me that life’s most ________ choices are not between right and wrong. ________, those choices are pretty easy to make. But choosing between cherished virtues puts our souls on ________.

8 . If you could save someone’s life, would you? That question was ______ in the hearts of Julia Harlin’s children. Their mother was at risk of dying without a liver transplant. Julia did not want her children to become living ______ , but the kids had other ideas. Eileen Harlin and two of her siblings (兄弟姐妹) made the ______ to have testing as possible ______ without telling their mom.

After securing a good test result, Eileen phoned her mother, “Hey, don’t get ______ , but I’ve been tested to see if I’m a match. And I am, and I want to do it. How can you be mad when your daughter is going to save her mom’s life?” The news went around and was ______ tears all around.

The transplant surgery went ______ on August 16, 2022, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Unfortunately, Julia received bad news shortly after getting her new ______ of life. She was experiencing kidney ______ due to her liver disease, so even though the liver was mending, the kidneys had too much damage to ______ .

Without a second thought, Eileen ______ and another transplant was ______ on December 19, 2023, at the same facility.

Daniel G. Maluf, M. D. , the surgeon for both of Julia’s procedures, said, “The mom’s kidney function recovered ______. And both of them were home two or three days after the transplant. Julia is a wonderful patient, very ______ of her kids’ efforts. And obviously, the hero of the story is Eileen, who ______ twice to save her mother.”