2 . Jimmy is an automotive mechanic, but he lost his job a few months ago. He has good _________, but always feared applying for a new job.

One day, he gathered up all his _________ and decided to attend a job interview. His _________ was at 10 am and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an _________ man wildly kicking the tire of his car. _________ there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished _________ the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the _________. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him; he just helped someone _________, and he had to _________ for an interview. Then the old man said, “Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It’s the __________ I could do. Please. I insist.” Jimmy __________.

Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of __________ waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease (油垢) on him after the car __________, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer’s office with __________ look on their faces. Finally, his name was called. The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. __________ the chair back and forth, he asked, “Do you really need to be interviewed?” Jimmy’s heart __________. “With the way I look now, how could I __________ pass this interview?” he thought to himself.

Then the interviewer __________ the chair and to Jimmy’s surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out he was the General Manager of the company.

“Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce __________ you even stepped into the office. I just know you’d be a trustworthy worker. __________!” Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.

3 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of ________. Very often when we have flowers, Denise or I would plant some between the rocks, just to add some ________ to the area.

Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.

We decided to let it ________ growing until we could find out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the ________ plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to ________ the weeds (杂草) around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________.The sunflower had not ________ where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the ________.

That’s when I ________ that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. If we ________ ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we ________ to go and get what we need for growth.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the ________ to achieve our goals. Like the sunflower, it knew it had the ability to get over the rocks because it had ________ in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be ________ of who and what we are, and then the environment will begin to ________ us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.

4 . It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s came to the hospital. I heard him saying to the nurse that he was in a hurry for all appointment(约会)at 9:30. The nurse had him take a _______ in the waiting area,_______ him it would be at least 40 minutes_________someone would be able to see him. I saw him_______his watch and decided, since I was_______busy—my patient didn’t_______ at the appointed hour, I would examine his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment. The gentleman said no and told me that he_______to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his_________. He told me that she had been_________for a while and that she had a special disease. I asked if she would be____________if he was a bit late. He replied that she __________ knew who he was, that she had not been able to __________ him for five years now. I was____________, and asked him, “And you__________go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?” He smiled and said. “She doesn’t know me but I know who she is”. I had to hold back __________ as he left.            

Now I __________ that in marriages, true love is____________of all that is. The happiest people don’t__________have the best of everything, they just__________the best of everything they have. ____________isn’t about how to live through the storm, but how to dance in the rain.

5 . I was visiting Costa Rica when I found myself in a bad situation: all my bank cards weren’t _______ abroad, and I only had $5 and a return ticket in two weeks. Back then, there were no cellphones or Internet. It was _______ who came to my rescue to get me home.

I thought the city dangerous and decided to find kind people in the _______. With my remaining coins, I _______ to the bus station and found a countryside that I could _______. Five hours later, I arrived at Santa Rosa. I went knocking door to door, _______ my situation with my very poor Spanish, but everyone pointed me to another _______.

Finally, I _______ a Chinese restaurant. The owner was extremely _______. She heard my story and felt ________ for me. She said her son had a similar ________. At that time, some other people were very kind to him, and she remembered how ________ that made her feel. She invited me in, gave me food, and called the Red Cross to ________ me. I spent my remaining days in Costa Rica with the head of Red Cross.

I realized that being able to receive kindness is a ________ for other people as well. And kindness ________ more kindness in small ripples(波纹).

6 . I was born legally blind. Of all the stories of my early childhood, the one about a ________ is my mother’s favorite. I was only two when the ________ occurred.We had just arrived home from a trip. Mom lifted me out of the car and ________to speak to the driver. I took advantage of my brief ________to dash across the lawn (草坪) and hit a large maple tree! I was running so fast that I bounced off the trunk and landed on my backside. Mom ________me to start crying, but I just sat there for a minute. Then I ________myself up and kept right on going.

Mom loves to use this story as an ________. It reminds her that children don’t enter life ________to take risks or unwilling to ________ again when they fall down. She never wanted me to lose that toughness as I grew older. When I ________ my major life decisions, I was still that little girl tearing full-speed across the lawn. I studied abroad and later moved away from my parents’ home to look for a ________. Through years of ________, I have become a respected teacher in a school serving high-need students.

We are almost certain to get ________ at some point during the process of achieving our goal. When that happens, don’t sit in the grass and ________. Just get up and keep on going. It will all be worth it ________.

7 . Exercise and I had never had a good relationship due to my fear of sports. From a young age, my dad _______ me into a dozen sports. I didn’t like any of them, _______.

When I entered the University of Regina, my dad _______ telling me “You have to find a way to stay _______.” or “You don’t want to get the Freshman 15, do you?” So I _______ to give swimming a shot, but I _______ managed to go to the pool twice during the fall semester (学期). Worse still, I was _______ to convince myself that’s OK.

The spring semester came. A friend of mine _______ me if I wanted to try Zumba (尊巴) with her. All I knew about Zumba was that it was basically a kind of exercise: dancing to Latin pop songs. It didn’t sound too bad, but I couldn’t be _______.

I went, and that was it. Zumba became my ________ of tea. The instructor would always say, “Don’t worry about the steps. Have fun. Do your own thing.” That removed my ________ of sports. I didn’t have to be ________. I didn’t even have to be good. I just needed to ________ the music and move. Zumba did ________ me from the Freshman 15, and it also did so much more. It let me make ________ with my unpleasant past about physical exercise, and enjoy staying healthy.

8 . A little boy told his mother that there was a teacher-parent meeting in his school. To the little boy’s_________, she said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teacher met his mother and he felt _________of her appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar (伤疤) that_________nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to_________why or how she got the scar.

At the meeting, the people were _________by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother_________the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed (尴尬的) and_________himself from everyone. He, however,_________ a conversation between his mother and his teacher.

The teacher asked_________, “How did you get the scar on your face?”

The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of__________, so I went in. As I was running toward his bed, I saw a piece of wood coming down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked __________but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us.” She __________the burned side of her face. “This scar will be permanent, but until this day, I have never__________what I did.”

At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He held her in his arms and appreciated her great __________of sacrifice (牺牲), He held her hand __________ for the rest of the day.

14.

A．honour

B．spirit

C．happiness

D．pride

9 . Lily was a French Canadian girl who grew up in the farming community. When she was sixteen, her father_________her to drop out of school to contribute to the family income. With English as her second language and_________education, the_________didn’t look bright for Lily.

Lily’s father was a stubborn man who_________took “no” for an answer. He_________Lily to find a job. With small hope of gaining_________,each day she would just ride to the city, walk_________around and return home at dusk. On one of her_________,Lily saw a sign at a big company._________she knocked on the very first door. In her__________English, Lily told the office manager she was interested in this position. The manager____________to give the girl a chance. He directed her to type a letter, and then____________. Lily looked at the clock and saw it was 11:40 am. She thought everyone would be leaving for____________at noon, when she could____________away in the crowd. But she knew she should____________the letter.

On her first try, Lily____________one line of five words and made four mistakes. When she attempted the letter on her second try, she completed a full paragraph, but still made many mistakes. She looked at the clock:11:55—five minutes to____________. Just then, the manager walked in. He came directly to Lily, read the letter and said, “Lily you’re doing____________work!”

With those simple words of encouragement, her desire to escape disappeared and her____________began to grow.

Lily thought, “Well, if he thinks it’s good, then it must be good. I think I’ll stay!” Lily did stay—all because someone had given the____________and uncertain girl the gift of self-confidence when she knocked on the door.

10 . A lady wanted a birthday gift from her husband. For many months she had liked a beautiful_________, and knowing her husband could _________it, she told him that was all she wanted. On the morning of the_________ , her husband told her how_________he was to have such a good wife, and how much he loved her. He_________her a beautiful gift package(纸盒). She opened it and_________ a Bible. _________, she raised her voice and said to her husband, “With all your money, you give me a Bible?” She was so_________that she left him.

Many years passed and the lady was very_________in business. She owned two large companies. She__________her husband was very old, and thought perhaps she should go to__________ him. But before she could, she__________a letter telling her that he had died, and gave all of his possessions(财产)to her. She needed to come back and__________ things.

When she arrived at his house, sadness__________her heart. She saw the still new__________, just as she had left it years before, With__________, she opened it and began to turn the pages. A ring__________from the Bible to the floor and a __________could be seen. She picked it up and found it was the ring she wanted in those days. And on the card was the date of her birth, and the words “LUV U ALWAYS”.

__________your gift is not packaged the way you want it, it’s because it is better packaged the way it is! Always appreciate little things; they usually lead you to bigger things! The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched for they must be felt with the__________.