1 . 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.

2 . 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.

3 . Steve was a seventh grader, a big boy, looking more like a teenager than a 12-year-old. Yet, he went unnoticed — he had been________ every examination since first grade — until Miss Wilma.

In the middle of the first semester of school, the entire seventh grade was________ for basic skills.

“You all did pretty well,” Miss Wilma told the class after going over the________ except for one boy. And it________ my heart to tell you this, but…” she________ , “the smartest boy in the seventh grade is failing my class.” Steve________ his eyes and carefully examined his fingertips.

After that, Steve still wouldn’t do his homework. Even if Miss Wilma________ punished him, he remained________ .     

“Steve, please! I care about you!”________ , Steve got it! “Someone CARES ABOUT ME?!”

One Monday a couple of weeks later, Miss Wilma gave a________ on the weekend homework. Steve________ through the test and was the first to hand in his paper. With a look of________ , Miss Wilma took his paper and began to look it over.

Miss Wilma’s face was in________ shock! She glanced up at Steve, then________ , then up. The smartest boy in the seventh grade had just passed his first test!

From that moment, nothing was the same for Steve. He discovered that not only could he remember and understand________ , but he could translate what he learned into his life. He became________ . After high school, Steve enlisted in the Navy, and he had a(n)________military career. During his naval years, he inspired many young people who might not have________ themselves without him. A________ took place within the heart of a boy all because of one teacher, who________ .

4 . Owura Kwadwo Hottish teaches computer science in a school. It is a normal school except for the fact that it didn’t have______

Owura became famous after he posted photos of him on the Internet. In the picture. people could see he was teaching his students by______ an entire computer on the blackboard.The photos showed the______level of education for children in Ghana. People were______ that Owura made sure each button was drawn correctly. He would come to school half an hour ahead of______every day. He drew the computer on the blackboard, but at the end of his class, it was______off to start the next class, so he had to______it the next day! Owura’s efforts______when Microsoft took______of his act. They first took him to an international educators’ meeting in Singapore. He made a______about his teaching methods at the meeting and ______a standing ovation(欢呼) after the speech.

______,Owura got the thing he always wanted for his students—some companies______computers to the school. Not a single child in the school had seen a real computer in their lives. Thanks to their teacher’s______the world took care and treat them with ______

5 . One day, my father and I were watching a dance reality show. For some reasons, I disliked one of the dancers from the very beginning of the show.

Unknowingly, I kept finding his _________ and criticizing (批评) his dance moves. _________, my father was watching the _________ with a smile all the time. When the performance ended, he looked at me and asked softly, “How much do you _________ about the dance competition, Martha?”

“No, Dad, not at all,” I said.

“Then how do you know that he is a _________ dancer?” he asked still with a smile.

“Just _________ the other dancers! He is not as good as them,” I said.

“But he is among the final 10 competitors who were carefully _________. How can he be bad? Maybe his dance is of no _________ to you, but that doesn’t mean you can _________ or even criticize his creativity.’’

“Why not?” I asked carelessly.

“Because criticizing someone or something __________ nothing but negativity around you. Instead of criticizing something you don’t like, you should spend your time __________ something you like, which will spread __________ thoughts,” my father said.

So choose __________! Never criticize anyone or anything unless you have a good __________ of it. This is the most __________ advice my father has ever given me.

7 . A man was employed to paint a boat. He brought paint and _________ and began to paint the boat as the owner wanted. While painting, he _________ there was a hole in the body of the boat and decided to repair it. When he finished painting, he received his _________ and left.

The next day, the owner of the boat visited the painter and _________ him with a cheque(支票), much higher than what he was paid for the painting work. The painter was _________.

“You’ve already paid me for painting the boat, sir! he said.

“This is not for the paint job. It’s for repairing the _________ in the boat.”

“Ah! But it was such a small service.” the man said. “Certainly it’s not worth paying me such a high amount for something so _________!”

“My dear friend,” the owner said, “You don’t understand. Let me tell you _________ happened. When I asked you to paint the boat, I _________ to mention the bole. When the boat dried, my kids took it and ____________ a fishing trip. They did not know that there was a hole there. I was not at home at the time. So when I ____________ and noticed they had taken the boat, I was hopeless. Imagine my ____________ and joy when I saw them returning safely from fishing.”

“Then, I examined the boat and found that you had repaired the hole! You now see what you did? You ____________ the life of my children!”

Each of us has a moral duty to offer help, wipe tears, listen carefully and repair all the “hole” we ____________ in our life journey, because a small act will make a big ____________ in the future.

8 . While high school does not generally encourage students to explore new aspects of life, college sets the stage for that exploration. I myself went through this _______ process and found something that has changed my _______ at college for the better: I discovered ASL-American Sign Language.

I never felt an urge to _______ any sign language before. My entire family is hearing, and so are all my friends. The _______ language were enough in all my interactions(交往). Little did I know that I would discover my _______ for ASL.

The _______ began during my first week at college. I watched as the ASL Club _______ their translation of a song. Both the hand movements and the very _______ of communicating without speaking _______ me. What I saw was completely unlike anything I had experienced in the ________. This newness just left me ________ more.

After that, feeling the need to ________ further, I decided to drop in on one of ASL club’s meetings. I only learned how to ________ the alphabet that day. Yet instead of being discouraged by my ________ progress, I was excited. I then made it a point to ________ those meetings and learn all I could.

The following term, I ________ an ASL class. The professor was deaf and any talking was ________. I soon realized that the silence was not unpleasant. ________, if there had been any talking, it would have ________ us to learn less. Now, I appreciate the silence and the ________ way of communication it opens.

9 . Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching (伸展) on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania,________ a few runners who were left behind. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a roughly 30-minute jog and a ________. That’s right — during some runs, one of them delivers a talk∶ topics ________ from the brain to Bitcoin (比特币).

But one day last January, it would not be their ________ run. The first evidence that something was off was the man who ________ them very quickly. Cassidy ________ why the man was so fast when another man ran by, yelling, “Help! He ________ my phone and laptop!”

At that, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, ________ the suspect down the streets of Philadelphia until he ________ into a construction site. The runners ________ . Cassidy ran ________ to the far side of the site to cut the thief off ________ the others wandered the neighborhood ________ he had thrown the phone and laptop in a backyard.

No luck. So they decided to ask people in the ________ whether they’d seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one row house, they were in for a ________. They didn’t know the suspect was ________ behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the ________ rushed out from behind the bush … and right into the ________ of the police, who had joined the run shortly behind the runners.

“Running is typically a________sport where you turn fat cells into heat,”Cassidy told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “But sometimes it can be useful, and here was one of those ________. ”

The members of this running group are not hard-core sportsmen. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise.