1 . As a young boy my family was very poor. I would often help do something for the neighbors to ________ a little pocket money.

One day I ________ on the door of an elderly woman and asked ________ she needed me to clean the yard. She asked why I was not in ________ and I showed her my worn ________, which no longer kept me warm. She ________ me to work in the yard. When I finished, she looked at me and said, “I suppose you want to be ________ now.” She then ________ a jar filled with dollar bills and said, “I’m glad you’ve done a ________ job today but that is not something you should be doing again. I want you to ________ new clothes and get back to school. I also want you to come back to ________ me with your report card and I will ________ you when I see you have worked hard and have some good ________. Now reach our your little hands and take out as much ________ as you can.”

I put my hands in the jar and ________ so much money that it was ________ for me to buy what I badly needed. Later, I returned several times to see the woman and she did just as she ________. She looked at my report card and gave me a handful of dollars and some delicious food every time I ________ her that I had an “A”.

I was twelve years old when I moved from that neighbourhood. I will never forget the huge ________ this wonderful lady made over my life with her ________. This is something I hope to do myself in this lifetime over and over again.

2 . I was said to be the worst student in my class, and my family thought I was hopeless. I had to ________sixth grade. At that time a new teacher, Miss Sadia, came to our school.

One day after class, she ________ that I was staying alone during the lunch break. She came to me and began to talk to me. It was just a ________ conversation. After that day, she gave me particular ________ and it made me feel special. I started to work hard because she gave me the feeling that ________ believed me, and my ________ started to improve in her subject.

Months later, she moved into a house near my ________. We would walk home together after school. Her constant support helped me, ________ in my studies, as I knew she would ________ my grades both in her subject and the other subjects. I finally ________ second in my class.

Then, after sixth grade, she started to drift apart(逐步疏远) ________ still kept a constant check on me. By the time I was in seventh grade, we ________ spoke, but by then I had become the ________ in my class. When I left school, I was ________ with her, as she never answered the ________ when I called her.

Then I graduated and went to a good university. One fine day, our paths ________ again. I met her at a wedding. I could not ________ asking her, “why did you stop talking to me?”

“You are a clever boy. I wanted you to be a tree ________ on your own roots, not depending on others. Now here you are and I feel ________ of you. You are your inspiration(鼓舞) and do not need to ________a shoulder, ” she said. I could not say anything, but I smiled. I’ll always thank her.

3 . Mrs. Jones was over eighty, but she still drove her old car like a woman half her age. She loved driving very fast, and was ________ of the fact that she had never, in her thirty-five years of driving, been ________ for a driving offence.

Then one day she nearly ________ her record. A police car ________ her, and the policemen in it saw her ________ a red light without stopping. Of course, she was stopped. It seemed ________ that she would be punished. When Mrs. Jones ________ to the judge, he looked at her seriously and said that she was ________ old to drive a car, and that the ________ why she had not stopped at the red ________ was most probably that her eyes had become ________ with old age, so that she had simply not seen it.

When the judge ________ what he was saying, Mrs. Jones opened the big handbag she was ________ and took out her sewing. Without saying a word, she ________ a needle with a very small eye, and threaded it at her first attempt.

When she had ________ done this, she took the thread out of the needle again and handed ________ the needle and the thread to the judge, saying, "Now it is your ________ . I suppose you drive a car, and that you are quite sure about your own eyesight. "

The judge took the ________ and tried to thread it. After half a dozen tries, he still didn't succeed. The case against Mrs. Jones was ________ , and her record ________ unbroken.

4 . A stray dog who was determined to land his dream job at a Hyundai car dealership has seen his persistency pay off after he was given a job-and a home.

Earlier this year , _______ at a Hyundai Prime branch in Brazil _______the dog waiting around outside the showroom and _______ he would eventually move on.

But as time passed by the stray continued to _______ and on one particularly rainy night the manager, Emerson Mariano, took _______ on the pup and invited him into the _______ for some food and water.

The _______ dog seemed determined to stay and it didn't take him long to win the hearts of the staff , who _______him as the dealership's mascot.

They _______ him Tucson Prime and hired him as a "pawfessional __________", giving him a staff ID badge and training him on the phones.

Although the __________plan was simply to provide the dog a warm place to stay, Tucson ' s natural __________to greet and interact with customers earned him a__________to front of house.

Customers who had bought a car have even returned to __________Tucson and give him gifts as thank you.

Mariano said he became instantly__________ to the dog after offering him shelter from the rain and suggested to the board that he was adopted as an __________mascot.

He said: "__________, the company has always been pet friendly, so now we decided to __________this idea in practice too, having our own pet precisely at a more complicated time like this with so many __________animals.

Tucson was taken to the vets to get all the necessary vaccinations __________his rise up the employment ladder means he is expected to star in an advertising campaign for the car manufacturer.

5 . The disease had slowed me down. Then my granddaughter sent a cat to me. Honestly speaking, I fell in love with the cute little thing_________when I first saw her.

“I’ll_________you Rainbow,” I said with a smile.

The next day I_________some cat food and two toy mice in a pet shop. Rainbow went crazy over those_________: she got them stuck under the desk or the sofa. Then she wouldn’t stop meowing (喵喵叫)_________I got them back for her. She’d bring the mice to me and demand that I throw them for her over and over again — she never felt_________. She couldn’t feel the pain in my_________.

Rainbow always got into troubles. She kept knocking over my plants or_________my cues. I had to deal with the “_________”. My back__________with all the ups and downs of trying to keep up with Rainbow. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t bear the__________of sending her away.

One day, I felt there was something__________on my check. Rainbow, licking (舔) me, wanted breakfast. “OK, I get the__________,” I said. I tried to lower my body to put her__________in the bowl on the floor,__________pain to spread from my back through my body. But it didn’t. I felt __________.

After she finished eating, I bent down and__________her bowl without having to hold on to the desk. She looked up at me and meowed, as if to say, “See? I’m doing__________what the doctor ordered!”

Three years later, Rainbow still kept me moving and I began to__________her play. I didn’t want a cat, but someone knew I__________one.

6 . The Story of A Wandering Wallet

A few years ago, I was given a wallet. It was small, with only a single pocket for______, cards and coins. A zipper kept everything inside from______out. The wallet came to me all the way from Tanzania,_____to me by a close friend. I fell in love with it immediately, which was the perfect size and came from a place I hoped to someday visit. I______it everywhere; it was always uncertainly hanging out of one pocket or______.

I seem to have a habit of______things-jackets, water bottles, text books, even my favorite wallet; I lost it almost weekly. Fortunately the most common______for me to lose it was in my own house, so of course I would______find it.

One day, however, as I was______a football stadium at a school, the wallet once again leaped from my pocket. I______the loss when I got home that evening. I______the house and prayed as usual. Nothing.

Around a week later, my parents______a message on their business voicemail. A______stranger was calling with______of my wallet. I couldn't believe it. This man, in an attempt to find who the wallet______, looked inside of it, and found a______which my parents had written to me. It happened to have their______phone number on it.

I don't know if I believe in luck, but I do know I believe in the___acts of kindness, which filled my life. Every day my hope for the world is renewed______I remember people who go out of their way to______whomever they can.

7 . On a chilly day in February 2012, two Russian hunters discovered a limp bundle of fur lying in the snow. It was an orphaned cub! The cub hadn't eaten in days, and was________enough for the hunters just to pick her up. Dr. Dale Miquelle, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Russia Program, said, "A healthy tiger cub, even a three-month-old one, would give you reason to________before you stuck your hand too close to its teeth and claws. But this cut) had no________left in her.

The hunters wrapped the cub in a coat and________her to a local wildlife inspector, Andrey Oryol. Over the following weeks, Oryol________the orphaned cub back to health. But now he had a new problem: What could he do with an________three-month-old tiger?

The cub was an Amur tiger________a small number of Amur tigers remained in the wild, so scientists wanted to return________cubs to their natural habitat. The orphaned cut) was taken to a new wildlife center. The center was designed for raising wild animals without________them to people. It uses hidden cameras and covered fences to keep workers out of________. That way, the animals don't become________on humans.

The cub, now named Cinderella, became the center's first tiger. Over the next year, she grew into a big, healthy tigress. In the center, she learned to hunt. By the spring of 2013, experts agreed she was________to return to the wild.

They chose the perfect new________for their tiger princess: the Bastak Nature Reserve. During the next two years, researchers watched Cinderella's________. They set up cameras to snap photos. When Cinderella passed in front of one of these camera________, it took her picture. Cinderella not only________, but grew healthy and strong.

Then, in December 2015, the cameras________exciting news: Cinderella had become a mother! For the first time ever, a tiger that humans had________and returned to the wild had given birth to two cubs of her own.

Tigers are some of the most admired animals on our planet, but they are also________. Thanks to the work of conservationists like Dr. Miquelle, there is new________for these magnificent cats.

8 . The morning was dark and cold. Stars twinkled down from the sky and a half _______was still hanging there. “Varrow, wake up,” Gramps whispered,_______me gently, “It’s sea turtle time.” I rubbed my eyes and_______my way in the dark, dizzy and woozy. Then, the repeated “sea turtle time”_______me completely.

Gramps and I_______our heavy waterproof boots over our pajamas and threw rain jackets on our shoulders_______. I pushed the front door open and ran out onto the_______, Gramps not far behind. There, I held my_______. Thousands of baby sea turtles were_______out on the endless stretch of sand and racing to the ocean. We took in the amazing scene________. But Gramps and I weren’t there just to watch. We had a________.

________, we made our way through the mess of broken shells and the little lovely sea turtles to________those that needed help. Soon enough, I________one. A baby turtle was flipped (翻转) on its back,________to roll over no matter how hard it kicked its legs. Reaching my hand down, I gently picked the fragile baby up and flipped it over and got it right back to its________to the ocean. “Nice job, Varrow.” Gramps patted me on the shoulder, his eyes twinkling and his mouth stretching into a smile. I felt a rush of pride and became even more________because of Gramps’ compliment for the next few hours. By 7:00, the last sea turtles had crawled into the water and we finally sat down on the soft sand,________. We couldn't be more satisfied with our hard work.

As the sun rose from the horizon, golden beams of sunlight stretching ever outwards onto the deep________. The colourful world woke up. What a________for those in their deep sleep! They missed the amazing natural gifts right under their nose.

9 . My mom used to say “Life is full of challenges. But a willingness to learn something new gives people the right attitude to overcoming difficulties.” This is now my attitude towards _______.

One life experience that helped me develop this _______ to try new things was learning to _______. You may have heard the expression, “You can’t teach an old _______ new tricks.” Now I’m not calling myself an “old dog” quite yet! But I certainly had my _______ about trying diving for the _______ time as a 30-year-old man. I thought, “_______ can I swim wearing all of the diving equipment? What if something goes _______ and I can’t breathe? How can I _______ to other divers if there’s a problem?” Worries like these caused me to ________.

To my surprise, the three-day training period proved to be anything but a disaster. Our lessons ________ three parts. First, an instructor ________ us to all of the equipment as well as the hand signals for communicating underwater. This part ended with a test to make sure we understood what we had just ________.

Next, we headed to a swimming pool where we practiced breathing techniques. We began at the pool’s surface. Each new technique we practiced allowed us to go ________ in the water. Eventually we ________ to the bottom of the pool.

On the third day, we took all of our ________ knowledge to the ocean! We made sure to follow each step of the process ________. Before I knew it, I was really diving.

I dived above the ocean floor as all kinds of fish swam by. I felt ________ for the opportunity to discover new depths. With my mom’s words still ________ in my ears, I knew the experience gave me a new ________ to life.

10 . I was about to explain the meaning of the word “gossamer” (小蜘蛛网) to my five-year-old students. We were learning a poem. I ________ because one of them was waving his hand at me.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Once I got caught in a spider web ________ I didn’t see it,” the boy said.

“That’s gossamer!” I shouted, nearly jumping up. “Gossamer things are hard to see.” Gossamer is also how I might describe the voices of ________ young children. I can only hear them when I am close enough. They are not the children speaking with ease. They are the children whose faces ________ if I call on them, or whisper (低语) “I don’t know” even when they do ________. I don’t want them to ________. I want them to be comfortable being ________.

Shy children usually have less practice in speaking, especially when there are other more children ________ to talk. It’s a loud world. Though shy children may appear ________ to be in the background, they are losing opportunities to participate. Without practice, fear of speaking ________.

It takes about three weeks, a small bit of ________ each day, for each of my 17 students to learn a poem. So far, they have memorized more than five. And now, an obvious ________ has happened. The “shyest” children are as eager to read aloud as the ________ ones.

Practice is an excellent way to increase ________ of shy children while learning a poem. And it is practice that makes them enjoy the ________ of the language.