1 . Recently we took a trip to the South of France. As my parents are both ________, they decided to take me along on their artist residency program, ________ in the charming city of Arles in the Provence region, which is famous as the town where Vincent van Gogh ________ some of his most famous works.

We ________ from Switzerland on a French train. It ran well and was ________, and we easily found taxis ________ outside the Arles train station. Our apartment was located on Rue de la Calade, a ________ street in the center of the city. It was ________—with stone floors, well-kept rooms, and friendly neighbors. Our first day in Arles was ________ walking around and just getting a feel of the area. We had ________ our apartment for three weeks!

The first day’s ________ we took outside of Arles was to St. Rémy, where van Gogh once ________ in a mental hospital while still painting some of his most beloved ________. Today you can visit all the places that he painted at although they aren’t as completely ________ as they used to be. St. Rémy is a beautiful little town, though—lots of places to ________.

My family and I took a day tour to the Camargue, a nearby nature ________, which is France’s wild west, our last week in Arles. We got the ________ we had booked through the Arles tourist office, which can sometimes be ________. The tour was, although a little long, beautiful in every way. If in the South of France, I ________ recommend visiting the Camargue.

So overall, Arles and the South of France is excellent. ________ stopping for some days!

2 . I went to a New York Mets fantasy camp in 1991, and I was fortunate to be on a team for a week whose pitching(投球) coach was famous Mel Stottlemyre.Mel was wonderful to all of us______ ballplayers throughout the week.He was warm and ______，treating us as if we were major leaguers.

At last，Mel______ the job at the Mets and became the coach for the Yankees.I followed his______and knew about his diagnosis(诊断)of a blood cancer in 2000.Luckily，a suitable ______appeared during a championship run，so he took ______ from the Yankees to   undergo a stem cell transplant(干细胞移植)．

In 2002, I was ______ by desperation because I was diagnosed with the same disease and needed a stem cell transplant too.I was in a very ______ need to speak to Mel，but I had lost ______ with him.One day，my phone rang.It was Mel.He explained ______ his experience of having the transplant to me—for all of an hour.I ______ every word.“I feel great，so I’m not ______，” he told me.At last，he ended the ______ by giving me his home phone number！This unbelievable experience ______ my spirits.Every time I saw Mel during games on TV as I ______ for my transplant，I repeated to myself，“Look at Mel.I’ll ______.”

The great news is that my doctors told me my ______ went into remission(缓解) thanks to the successful transplant—and it has been ______ for 15 years.Since then，I have spoken to many ______ with the same problem.I have been glad to ______ Mel to share what he did for me.

3 . Entering the emergency room, I saw Mum lay there still under a white sheet. The doctor turned around and said, “ We ______ your mother had a stroke(中风) affecting her entire right side.” My biggest ______ was that she would have brain ______ and not know who I was. I said, “It’s Lisa” and held her left hand. That night, feeling scared and ______, I cried for hours until I ______ fell asleep.

The next day my mother ______ exercising her left hand, arm and leg in the bed. ______ her stroke, she had taken an exercise class; so she knew that it was important to keep ______. Later on, with rehabilitation(康复治疗), she learned how to feed herself and talk ______. She regained a lot of her ______ with only slight difficulty in finding the correct word or pronunciation.

My mother didn’t allow the physical(身体上的) ______ to stop her. ______ her body was disabled, her will was not. One day, before I was about to ______ the nursing home, she wanted to ________ me how she could get to the dining hall. I said, “I’ll get you someone.” She said ______, “I’ll do it myself.” I stepped back and gave her some ______. She used her left arm and hand to move the wheel of her chair and her left foot to push herself forward. And I ______ proudly as she reached her intended destination(目的地). More fortunately, four months later, her right thumb could move.

With her positive thinking, my mother ______ me to live in the moment. Her positive ________ helped me keep going and have faith. ______ loved my mother. Who wouldn’t? she was the one sitting in the wheelchair at the nursing home with a big smile on her face.

4 . There is an old suitcase in my house which represents the dreams and hopes of my family.

I’m always taking photos of the little _______ I find in the world around me. A few weeks ago, I visited my parents. My father was an _______ when he was young. I took a photo of something that I would _______ as a pretty big wonder. At first _______, it might not look like much. It was just a _______ brown suitcase with two silver locks up on the top. But to me, it’s _______ what a miracle (奇迹) looks like.

That suitcase is the very one my dad brought with him when he _______ to the US from Turkey in 1965. He was just a 19-year old boy at the time who didn’t know a _______ of English. He _______ all his friends and family, ________ that he would become an excellent engineer one day. That suitcase carried my dad’s most valuable ________ — many black-and-white photos from home and his science and math textbooks, etc.

As a kid, I was ________ about the suitcase. It lived on the top of my bookcase. I never ________ much about it, though. It wasn’t until I got ________ that I actually asked my dad about it. Looking inside, I found tons of photos and the ________ my parents wrote to each other, back and forth between the US and Turkey.

That’s when I ________ how beautiful that dirty old suitcase actually was. It’s a ________ of not only the hardships my parents ________, but also all the wonderful things they ________. How they found love, how their dreams ________ and how they got through them all.

5 . Last summer, we went to Hawaii for holiday. During my week-long trip with my husband, we spent most of our time _______during the day in the sea, and then enjoying walks along the beach in the evenings.

We didn’t take any _______because we had enough. We had visited the island many times _______. On our way to the _______we joked that other than our sun-burnt skin, we had no way to show that we had _______there!

As we stood in line at the check-in, we noticed the _______who had been on our plane the week before. _______, they all had tear-filled eyes this day. On the plane, we sat directly behind them: a mother and her four children without Dad’s attendance. We learned that the father had been _______in a jet-skiing accident that week, and his wife and children had to _______make their way home without him.

We watched the children become unworried while they were playing cards. But the mother stared at her knees, ________to believe her husband’s death. We could ________feel her pain as we realized that this could have happened to any of us. While we were laughing and playing in the water, this poor family had been ________the sufferings. The vacation they had dreamed about had ________the terrible dream they would never forget.

I suddenly ________that we had no pictures for this vacation together. I closed my eyes, hoping that my mind had recorded all the wonderful moments that I had ________with my husband that week. What a trip!

6 . I often read of incidents of misunderstanding or conflict. I'm left puzzled. Why do these people create mistrust and problems, especially with those from other _______?

I was growing up in Kuala Lumpur(吉隆坡) in the early 1960s, _______children from different races and religions played and studied together in harmony. At that time my family lived a stone's _______ from Ismail’s. And no one was bothered that Ismail was a Malay Muslim(穆斯林) and I was an Indian Hindu(印度教徒)—we just accept our differences. Perhaps, our elders had not filled our heads with _______ advice.

Ismail and I were nine when we became friends. During the school holidays, we'd _______ the countryside on our bicycles, hoping to _______ the unexpected. At times Ismail would accompany my family as we made a rare shopping trip to town. We would be glad of his _______ .

When I was twelve, my family moved to Johor. Ismail’s family later returned to their village, and I     _______ touch with him.

One spring afternoon in 1983, I stopped a taxi in Kuala Lumpur. I _______ my destination. The driver acknowledged my________ but did not move off. Instead, he looked   ________ at me. “Raddar?” he said, using my childhood nickname(绰号). I was astonished at being so ________ addressed (称呼). Unexpectedly! It was Ismail! Even after two ________ we still recognized each other. Grasping his shoulder, I felt a true affection, something hard to describe.

If we can allow our children to be ________ without prejudice, they'll build friendships with people, regardless of race or religion, ________ will be by their side through thick and thin. On such friendships are societies built and then we can truly be, as William Shakespeare once wrote, “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers”.

7 . Dad is a liar(说谎者), definitely. He never tells the truth about anything_______, or anything that he thinks is bad to me, even though I_______that I don’t mind hearing these things.

He is the kindest man I have ever met, who never_______others, as well as the_______man, for he’s always hard on himself. Every time I_______home from college and asked Dad how his_______was getting on, he would always reply, “Oh, couldn’t be_______!” When I asked my mum the same question on the phone,_______, she honestly told me every_______with Dad’s business. I didn’t blame Dad for his________. I felt a deep sympathy for him.

Dad is a miser (吝啬鬼), undoubtedly. I hardly see Dad wear________clothes. In fact, his closet is half empty. Even in this half, two-thirds is occupied by Mum’s clothes and the other________belongs to him. I urged him to buy some new clothes,________he simply shook his head, “The old clothes are still good enough.” Were they? I saw________in them.

It________my heart up when I saw Dad________terribly with his hand covering his mouth. When the pains became unbearable, he________took some pills.

So it surprised________when the day came that Dad got sick. He was lying in bed. And all the family gathered around him. I knelt(跪) by his bedside, tears filling my eyes.

Dear Dad, you’ve been________yourself too hard, which you should not have. I know I might as well________a river to flow backward as hope to talk you out of working so hard. But I still want to say, “Dad, take better care of yourself!”

8 . For a period of a month some time ago, I became a vegetarian. Some people won’t eat meat because they think it is cruel to animals, or because of health _____. My reason is a little ____: it is love.

I simply wanted to honor my grandmother by not eating meat. My grandmother spent a large part of her life as a vegetarian, and some of my happiest childhood ____ in Vietnam were of sharing a meal with her.

In fact, as a child, I learned how to ___ food not from dishes my mother often cooked, but from the simple meals my grandmother ____. Often, dinner with   Grandma would come with interesting stories she had known from her childhood.

Grandma ____ more than a decade ago. Now I am an adult living in San Francisco, and Grandma’s vegetarian suppers and stories have become a ____ past. But one morning it occurred to me that I could no longer hear the sound of my grandmother’s voice, because she had left me forever. So I ___ to become a vegetarian for a month. It is something Grandma would do as a way to ____ those who had died before her. And I could do no less.

In a city famous for its dining experience, this was ____. I turned down several dinner parties for fear of offending(冒犯) the hosts. I ___ walking by restaurants where the ____ of good cooking wafted(漂浮) in the air. My best friend wondered ___ I was going through a mid-life crisis.

In truth, I wanted to change my ___ many times. What got me through that month-long diet was this particular memory of my grandmother. Now, I followed her ____. I invited friends who wanted to taste vegetarian food. And as we ate, I told them stories I had known as a child.

9 . I played a badminton game against my cousin Charlie last week. It was one of the most ____     and tiring games I’ve ever had. When Charlie first phoned and ______ we play, I laughed quietly, figuring on an easy victory. After all, Charlie’s idea of ______ has always been nothing more ____ than lifting a fork to his mouth. As long as I can remember, Charlie’s been the least physically fit member in the family, and ______ proud of himself. His big stomach has always ballooned out between his T-shirt and trousers. Although the family often ______ about that, Charlie refused to buy a larger T-shirt or to lose weight. So when Charlie ______ for our game not only with the bottom of his shirt gathered inside his trousers but also with a stomach you could hardly ______, I was so surprised that I was ______. My cousin must have made an effort to get himself into shape. As a result, at the point in our game when I predicted the score to be about 21 to 5 in my favor, it was ______ 7 to 9 —and Charlie was ______. Suddenly, Charlie slipped and fell. I thought he would lose his temper as he used to, but he ______ his tears and kept playing! To make matters worse, it seemed that he could ______ my mind and predict what I would do next. Little by little, my patience ______.

I was about to give up when suddenly there was a ______ failure, which gave me time to calm down. When everything was back to normal, we ______ to play like two mad men. When the score was 18-18, I finally ______ my confidence. In the end, I survived in the game, but it was only a ________victory. After the game, both of us were lying flat on our backs, too tired to     ______. In a way, I think we both won: I the game, but cousin Charlie my ______.

10 . It’s fortunate for children to have siblings(兄弟姐妹) accompanying them. And the kids would be luckier to have a brother as___________as Christian Hamerter. The 1l-year-old boy, attended a father-daughter dance with his 7-year-old sister Skylar after finding Skylar was___________by their dad.

In the days leading up to the___________in March, it was all Skylar was___________for, talking about it all day. On the other hand, her mom Trelysia felt more and more___________. At this time of year, their father is always fully___________in official duties. He didn’t attend last year’s dance due to a conference, ___________having made a promise. Then, she was right to be worried. On the big day, ___________, his father was sent abroad on business. “It was___________that he failed to go there for a second year. Skylar____________because she had her heart set on going.” Trelysia wrote in a____________. “I felt so bad and also cried uncontrollably.”

That’s when Christian____________! The big brother wanted his sister to feel loved and special. And he picked out a suit and gold tie, a perfect____________for Skylar’s gold dress. “The action filled me with____________,” the mother wrote, “for 1 just know that I’m____________a kind man──and an amazing father one day. He has____________that he can be.” Skylar had a great time with Christian there without her dad’s____________. Even better, now she knows her brother would always come to her____________.

The post warmed hearts of the people it ____________and picked up more than 110,000 reactions____________the sweet gesture.