1 . I was eleven years old standing outside in just my underwear (内衣) while I saw our house burnt to the ground. A few minutes earlier I had been sound asleep in my bed when a _______ woke me up. My nana’s _______ was just next to my brother’s and mine. A fire had broken out there and awakened her. Hearing her shouting, my older brother _______quickly. While I was walking difficultly in the _______ and darkness, he ran from room to room _______ everyone in the house. The house, however, was over 50 years old and made of wood. Before we could _______ anything, the fire destroyed it.

I stood there _______ when the fire destroyed my books, clothes, and toys. I watched _______ while my mom cried and my dad sighed (叹息). I _______ what was going to happen to us since we had ________ all of our things. As I looked around, though, I ________ something for the first time: The things that ________ aren’t things. I saw my older brother running to get ________. I saw my nana and dad sitting together and my mom ________ our little dog. I realized at that moment that we were all ________. Everything that was essential (必要的) had survived the fire.

3 . My mom is the most positive person I know. She has a/an ______ spirit, sees the good in all people, and always sees ______ in any situation. I grew up in a ______, positive home environment, where there were always family ______ and lots of laughter.

I have fond memories of my mom taking us to ______ every Saturday morning. While my brother and I would have rather stayed home on our day off from school, she had us ______ her to help people in Roanoke, Virginia who needed groceries (食品杂货) to feed their families. While she did her service role, we helped to prepare bags of food. ______, this got to be something we looked forward to and we always left feeling ______ about what we did.

My sweet mom ______ made doing housework enjoyable. The best ______ I learned from her that sticks with me today is “O­H­I­O”. Growing up, my mom would ______ me a pile of clean clothes and I would ______ set them on the floor, ______ to put them away later. My mom would say, “Kids, you’ve got to ______: OHIO! That means Only Handle It Once. When I give you clothes, put them away in your ______ as soon as I give them to you so they are only in your hands only.”

7 . Eugenie George was a financial writer and educator from Philadelphia. When she first heard that her friend Jean passed a financial counseling exam, her heart _______ . She’d failed the same test weeks earlier, and she _______ the certificate to advance her career.

But then, instead of being _______ , she called Jean. “I told her I failed and _______ I was envious,” she said. George hoped that being honest would reduce her _______ and she was surprised that when she shifted her _______ she could share her friend’s happiness and experience her own, in turn. “I congratulated her and told her she _______ me,” she said. Jean was impressed by George’s honesty and _______ that George would share her joy. Jean expressed her gratitude and shared with George her _______ in preparing for the exam and offered some practical methods. “You can ________ me whenever in need. And I am ________ sure that you can do it next time,” Jean told George. Although the two were in different states talking on the phone, they felt they had never been so ________

Finding pleasure in another person’s good ________ will make the relationship more close and enjoyable. ________ someone else’s joy can also develop resilience(适应力), improve life ________ and help people cooperate during a conflict.

There are many respectable people around us

It was the closing time of the mall. But there was still an hour’s work to get everything cleaned up. It would be 11:00 pm after I finally got home.

I hadn’t even had time to have dinner. I was starving. My feet ached. My whole body, from head to foot, was filled with tiredness. I couldn’t wait to crawl into bed. I had to get up at 5:00 am the next day.

Things had been tight for over a year. My husband Paul’s business had taken a huge hit. Without me taking my second job, there wouldn’t be enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills, let alone buy any Christmas presents for our 15­year­old daughter, Marie. No one wanted to wake up on Christmas morning with a bare tree.

Even so, I wondered how I could possibly handle everything — I worked full­time at a day care, then I worked nights at the mall, and somehow I did my homework for my college class, too. Not to mention what it was doing to my family.

I barely even saw Paul and my daughter anymore. Marie was growing up, but a teenage girl still needed her mom. I worried about her, about us. Was she eating enough? Keeping up with her school work?

I wasn’t afraid of hard work or sacrifice (牺牲). Everyone had to dig deeper these days and put in extra hours. I knew I was blessed to have two jobs when millions of people couldn’t find one. How I hoped to quit my job at the day care and complete a degree full­time. I’d dropped one class for a semester (学期). If I quit that, there was no way I’d find the willpower to try again.

Besides, wasn’t I always telling Marie to keep hoping, keep working and never give up? What kind of example was I setting for my daughter? Suddenly, someone was banging hard at the back door of the mall. Then I went to the door and cautiously cracked it open...It was Marie. She had just finished babysitting.