1 . Every year, Dale Marks puts up a massive Christmas lights display at his home in Des Moines. It’s part of a neighborhood ______. For decades, people have come by the carload every December to the Beaverdale community to ______ the Markses’ house Christmas lights display. The holiday display _________ good cheer. The Markses put boxes at the end of their driveway and ask visitors to ______ money and food to the Food Bank of Iowa as they drive past.

But this year, after ______ a heart attack, Marks was too _______ to hang lights while his wife was too busy with his care to _______the job. Bob Coffey, a stranger who owns a local construction company, heard the couple’s ______ and offered to help. So Coffey brought a group of ____ to their home to put up thousands of lights. Coffey and four of his workers spent ______ putting up lights and decorations throughout the yard. He _____ that there were at least 10,000 lights. Everyone ______, when at the end of the day, he plugged two cords (电线) together and ______ the display.

“The _____ of that afternoon will last a lifetime,” Coffey said, explaining that seeing Dale and Julie Marks watching from the porch made it all ______.

2 . It was my tenth birthday. The _________ list began with a few close friends, but it quickly grew to a total of seventeen. Nearly every girl in my fifth grade class had been invited to my house for a big_________. I was especially happy when they excitedly accepted the_________. It would be a night of scary stories, pizza and lots of presents. But as I later realized, I would truly_________ only one gift I received that night.

That night, we were playing games when the doorbell rang. “Judy, come here for a minute,” Mom called from the front door.

I_________ my eyes and shrugged to my friends as if to say, “Now who would dare_________ me at a time like this?” I walked toward the front door reluctantly, and then stopped. There on the front porch stood Sarah Westly— the quiet girl who sat next to me in music class—and she was holding a gift.

How had I forgotten to invite Sarah? I remembered that I only_________ a name to the list when someone had shown an interest in me. But Sarah had never done that. Never once did she squeeze (挤) into the_________ of kids surrounding me at lunch time.

I guess I had forgotten to invite her simply because she wasn’t_________ to be invited.

“I can’t__________,” she said, looking down. “My dad’s waiting in the car.” “Can you come in for a little while?” I nearly__________.

“Thanks, but I have to go,” she said, turning toward the door.

Inside the box was a small__________ about three inches tall with its tail wagging (摇 摆) in the air. It was the best gift I had received, __________ I was never really into dogs. I later found out that the figurine looked exactly like Sarah’s dog, Seymour.

I didn’t know it then, but now I__________ that Sarah was my one true childhood friend. She was an__________ friend who stood by me, always encouraging and understanding me.