1 . Do you find yourself pulling away from others, especially if you’ve experienced a deep disappointment? Maybe the most ______ thing most of us can do is to be with people when we don’t feel like being around anybody.

A man who lost his wife to cancer found himself wanting to be ______ . He dropped out of his community and ______ all of the activities he and his wife were used to for year. He ______ socializing at work and returned ______ home to an empty house after work. He turned down ______ from friends and co-workers.

His friends became ______ . One came by to visit and invite him over for supper the next evening. The two old friends sat in comfortable chairs by a ______ . The visitor extended the dinner invitation and ______ him to come, “You may need to ______ others to share your pain.”

The man responded that he felt better ______ staying with other people. “And ______ ,” he said, “it’s just too difficult to get out anymore.”

They sat in ______ for a while, watching the wood burn in the fireplace. Then the visitor did a(n) ______ thing. He took tongs (火钳) by the fireplace, reached into the fire, pulled out a ______ coal and laid down by itself on the earth. “That’s you,” he said.

The man sat in silence, ______ the red-hot ember. Neither man looked ______ as the once hot coal gradually transformed into a black lump. After some moments, the man said, “I get the ______ , my friend. I’ll be over tomorrow evening.”

We cannot ______ in any healthy way by ourselves. The leaf needs the branch. The branch needs the trunk. The trunk needs the roots. And the roots need the rest of the tree. We are ______ . And in that connection life and vitality (活力) are found.

2 . Christmas was around the corner. Sitting at my desk surrounded by the gifts accumulated from the neighbors, I was about to _________ everything when Melissa called. She is the director of Kids Need More, a charitable organization which my family _________ for. The organization offers many _________ to critically ill and socially _________ children.

“Hi, can you add one more family to your _________? It’s near the other stops.” Melissa asked.

The organization always fills sacks with _________ gifts for the families on the Cheer Bus routes, visiting children in need. Each bus is _________ by a team of volunteers dressed as Santa and his elves. _________, it was our turn to do that this year.

“Of course. Can I have some _________?”

“There’s a young mother and her two children. The only thing she requested was a call to   __________ the Cheer Bus is coming to visit her family.”

So I __________ the young mom. When I told her I was calling from Kids Need More to assure her that a holiday Cheer Bus would be __________ her family, she began to cry on the phone. “Are you sure? Are you really, really going to come?”

I guaranteed that again and was __________ about the reason why she expected our arrival so much.

“Because my kids look forward to the bus and I don’t want to __________ them of the hope.” She replied, “It’s Christmas and Christmas should be __________, whatever happens.”

3 . Many years ago, I bought a house in the Garfagnana, where we still go every summer. The first time we ______ there, we heard the chug chug-chug of a motorbike ______ its way down the hill toward us. It was ______ called Mario, coming to ______ us a box containing some tomatoes and a bottle of wine. It was a very nice ______ for him to make. But when we looked at the tomatoes, we were ______ because they were so misshapen: not at all like the nice, round, ______ things you get in a supermarket. And the wine was cloudy, in a funny old bottle with no label (标签) on it. These can’t be any ______, we thought. But we were ______ his kindness, so we ______ them.

What we discovered is that it’s ______ to judge what you eat only by its ______. Those tomatoes had ______ that reminded me of the ones my uncle used to grow when I was a child. Nowadays supermarket tomatoes ______ perfect but taste of water. Nobody’s going to have a ______ memory of those. It’s a surprise they haven’t managed to grow square ones so that they can ______ them easily. Mario’s wine may have been cloudy and come out of an old bottle, but it was ______.

It’s good to eat things at the correct time, when they’re ______, and as close as possible to where they were ______. What Mario had ______ us was the taste of the Garfagnana.

4 . On Oct. 11, hundreds of runners competed in a cross-country race in Minnesota. Melanie Bailey should have _________ the course earlier than she did. Her _________ came because she was carrying a _________ across the finish line.

As reported by a local newspaper, Bailey was more than two-thirds of the way through her _________ when a runner in front of her began crying in pain. She _________ to help her fellow runner, Danielle Lenoue. Bailey took her arm to see if she could walk forward with _________. She couldn’t. Bailey then _________ to let Lenoue climb onto her back and carried her all the way to the finish line, then another 300 feet to where Lenoue could get _________ attention.

Once there, Lenoue was _________ and later taken to a hospital, where she learned that she had serious injuries in one of her knees. She would have struggled with extreme __________ to make it to that aid checkpoint without Bailey’s help.

As for Bailey, she is more __________ about why her act is considered a big __________. “She was just crying. I couldn’t __________ her,” Bailey told the reporter. “I feel like I was just doing the right thing.”

Although the two young women were strangers before the __________, they’ve since become friends. Neither won the race, but the __________ of human kindness won the day.

5 . To become the Olympic champion in the individual (个人) all-around event, Gabby Douglas had to leave everything she _________ best. She had to _______   her bedroom in Virginia. She had to say _________ to her two dogs and to the beach, where she loved to _________ waves on her board. But it was _________ to take the leap (飞跃), however _________ it would be. Even at 14, Douglas knew that. So she _________ about 1,200 miles away from home, to _________ with a coach from China. She lived with a family she had never _________ and everything was new to her.

As it turned out, Douglas did __________ what she needed to do to become Olympic champion when she __________two Russians. The Chinese coach __________ Douglas into one of the best gymnasts in the __________, helping her skyrocket from an __________ member of the national team to the top of the sport. By __________ the Olympic all-around title, she became the first black woman to do so. She __________ the competition from beginning to end. She said she had felt __________ all along that she would win.

Not so long ago, Martha Karolyl the coordinator (联络人) of the women’s national team, did not think Douglas had what it __________ to be an Olympian. As time went by, she thought __________ that she could make the London Games — and win.

“I’m going to inspire so many people,” she said. “I’m ready to __________.” And shine she did.

6 . In April last year, I saw a post on the PNP (Pilots N Paws) website from a family in Topeka. They had to move to Virginia but they were on a very tight _______. They could not afford to pay for _______ for their dog, Tiffy, and _______ wanted to take her with them.

It just _______ that I was planning another PNP flight with another pilot, Karen, who _______ to take Tiffy from Kansas City to Virginia. What I was to do was fly to Topeka to _______ Tiffy.

When I met Tiffy’s owners, they seemed very _______. George, the husband, was trying to be calm, but I could tell this was _______ for him, having to leave his dog to a _______ and trust that everything would __________.

After some goodbyes, I asked George and his wife to help me __________ Tiffy into the plane. I promised to take care of Tiffy and __________ them as soon as we got to Kansas City.

The flight was __________, and Tiffy was a great passenger. The next day, she __________ with Karen and made it back to George in Virginia within a few days. He was so __________ and sent me a nice e-mail with pictures. It felt great to know that I had helped bring this family together again.

7 . As usual, Lily bought expensive gifts for her children Alice and Peter before Christmas. Her job kept her busy, and she _________ got to see her children during weekdays. Being a mother, she always wanted to be _________ her children, but she placed her _________ first, thinking earning money was more important.

Lily _________ the gifts in secret and decided to give them a day before Christmas since she had to attend a business meeting the next day. _________, a day later, the meeting got canceled. Lily was _________ she could spend Christmas with her family. Therefore, she decided to _________ a party. Lily sent _________ to all her friends and her father-in-law, Michael. Lily was worried her friends would not feel _________ in the presence of aged people. Later that day, her children noticed the gifts she had bought. Unexpectedly, neither of them seemed __________ to open the gifts.

On Christmas Eve, Lily __________ her friends into her house. However, she felt __________ when she saw Michael walking in. On arrival, Michael gave Alice and Peter presents—some cookie molds (模具)! The two kids ran happily to their grandfather and showed great __________ for his gifts, asking him to bake cookies with them.

All the guests present were moved by the scene. Lily __________ all they want is their parents’ time and __________ not what their parents buy them.

8 . A serious car crash leads one woman to rediscover her faith in human kindness.

In March last year, the car I was driving was_______in a serious crash with another car on a country road.   I soon _______ myself at the centre of a disorder of activity, surrounded by doctors, police, rescuers and members of the local community. An huge can opener was used to _______ me out of my broken car and _______ an ambulance.

Over the next eight hours, I was transported to hospital, dragged up, X-rayed and diagnosed with a broken neck. Knowing that I’d _______ death by a fraction of a second sustained me throughout the long wait in the emergency ward and _______ me to deal with the visible distress of my hospital visitors.

Only after I’d convinced the last friend to _______ could I direct my energies inwards. Flitting (掠过) in and out of my line of vision during my hospital stay was the Red Cross lady, a _______ presence in white who, from time to time, placed her head in to _______ cups of tea. After the visitors had gone, she ventured further into my room to ________ that I was all right.

I found myself telling her everything: about the shock of the ________, my fears for my family as a result of my injuries and about my whole life. While I waited for an ambulance to transport me to another hospital, she stood by my trolley and held my hand as I off-loaded all the emotion I’d stoically withheld (强忍着地) from my family. She ________, quiet and non-judgmental.

Even now, the ________ that I have her contact details provides me with great comfort. I look forward to a day in the not-too-distant future when my guardian angel and I can meet again, in ________ circumstances.

In times of crisis, faith can sustain us: for me, my faith in human nature, reawakened by the ________ of a stranger, has helped ease my journey back to recovery.

9 . I checked my equipment one final time. It was my first ________ to climb the highest volcano in the world, Ojos del Salado, in South America.

I’d ________ to climb with a local guide. I left camp just after midnight. “You go first and I’ll be behind you,” he said. As the hours passed and the terrain (地形) became more dangerous, I wondered if I’d made a huge ________. Looking into the ________ behind me, I listened out for the sound of my guide’s steps but I was all ________. Finding my way by ________, I knew the icy conditions were merciless. Breathing heavily, I realised I’d run out of ________ soon.

Back home, 11,000 km away in Melbourne, my dad was following my ________ with my GPS tracker. ________, now alone on the side of a volcano, all I could do was to ________ my energy as I climbed higher and higher.

Reaching the top was the ultimate goal, but really it was only half the ________. As my breathing became more laboured, ________ set in. Had I gone too far this time? I knew all too well how frightening it was to be ________, for I’d suffered from chronic asthma (慢性哮喘) as a child.

Pushing on, I ________ made it to the top, where I ________ the breathtaking views. But I only spent a few minutes taking photos before I went down the mountain. I was ________ to see my guide on the way down and it turned out that he had ________ a climber in danger and had to ________ our exploration to save him.

Through blood, ________ and frozen tears, the last 10 years had taken me all over the globe. And with every high and painful low, I learnt more about myself. I’d pushed my ________, both in body and mind.

10 . Plenty of couples have been forced to change wedding plans this year because of the ongoing pandemic. That’s not something that Tyler and Melanie Tapajna were going to let get them _______though. They managed to still tie the knot while also doing some good in the world — feeding the _______ at the reception.

The couple was initially _______ to have 150 _______ at their wedding. However, such a big ceremony simply was _______ with everything going on in the world. So, they changed their plans and organized something _______ for just their friends and family. _______canceling 150 people’s worth of _______, they chose to do something special with it. So, they spoke with the nonprofit organization Laura’s Home about _______. Their request was ________, and plans were swiftly put in place for everything to ________ .

After tying the knot in their private and friendly ceremony, the Tapajnas then went straight to Laura’s Home, put on a hairnet and gloves, and joined the work of serving the homeless. They didn’t even change their ________. It wasn’t the reception that the couple had ________, but in a way, it was better. They got to do some good in the world on what was the ________day of their lives.

This pandemic may have forced the Tapanjas to change their wedding plans, but in doing so, it ended up ________ more people than they could have ever imagined.