4 . I’ve been farming sheep on a hillside for 54 years. I use a small tractor to get about. My dog Don always sits beside me in the passenger seat.

One morning I _______ a lost lamb when I was in the top field，near where a motorway cuts through my land. The lamb had become separated from its _______ , so I jumped out of the tractor to _______ it while Don stayed in his seat.

Lamb and mother _______ , I turned back to the tractor only to see it move suddenly away from me. This was so _______ because I had put the handbrake on when I jumped out. _______ Don had somehow made the _______move.

My heart froze in my chest as I _______ the tractor heading towards the _______ .I ran desperately but failed to __________. It crashed through a wooden fence and disappeared. The __________ thing I saw was Don’s face, looking calmly back at me.

Heart in mouth, I __________ the fence and looked over. The tractor was __________against the crash barrier in the central reservation, having miraculously(奇迹般地) crossed the __________ road with fast-flowing traffic. I couldn’t see Don, but as I __________ the tractor he jumped out onto the road, apparently __________ , and dashed back to me.

The police __________ and the motorway ran normally again. I couldn't quite believe my __________. It turned out no one got badly hurt, but the outcome could have been __________ . Don was given a special __________ that night—I didn’t want him thinking I was angry with him.

5 . My First Marathon（马拉松）

A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.

I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do either well. He later informed me that I was ＂not athletic＂.

The idea that I was ＂not athletic＂ stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.

Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces(鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

At mile 3, I passed a sign: ＂GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!＂

By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

By mile 21, I was starving!

As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a ＂marathon winner＂.

6 . Regardless of the weather or the distance, Paul Wilson will make sure low-income students in his neighbourhood arrive at their college classes on time.

A retired engineer, 76-year-old Wilson has been _______ free rides to college students for the past eight years. Since he first started _______ his car to the young people. Wilson has _______ an astonishing 64, 000 miles, and has had countless pleasant and often humorous _______ with the students he transports to and from school. The students who he’s _______ have gone on to become physicians, teachers and engineers, but what they’ve also got out of their time in school is finding a role model and a friend in Wilson. Some students _______ call him “Grandpa”.

Tina Stern _______ rides from Wilson for all her four years in college, and the trips meant much more to her than just free _______. “It’s not just a ride; you’re not just sitting there in _______ silence or with your headphones on.” Stern said. “He asks you questions and actually ________ the answers, so the next time you ride with him, he’ll ________ those things.”

Wilson first worked as a driver through a student-support programme of the non-profit organisation. On Point for College. Although the ________ asks the members only to drive students to and from their classes, Wilson often goes ________ to ensure the welfare and safety of the students. If they have problems with registration, Wilson is there to ________ them. If they run out of certain daily necessities, Wilson will drive to the nearest store and purchase what’s needed. If a student gets hungry on the long drives to and from school, Wilson never ________ to buy them a meal.

For many students, Wilson’s help is not only appreciated, it’s also entirely ________ for them to be able to complete their college education. Some students don’t have a reliable car, while others have to ________ vehicles with parents who work six days a week. For them, riding with Wilson has ________ them to complete their education — but according to Wilson, he benefits just as much from the ________. “I just love driving and I love these kids, ” Wilson said. “It’s such a(n) ________ to be a part of these kids’ lives, even just for a few hours, getting to know them and hearing their stories.”

7 . Alice Moore is a teenager entrepreneur(创业者), who in May 2015 set up her business AilieCandy. By the time she was 13, her company was worth millions of dollars with the invention of a super-sweet treat that could save kids’ teeth, instead of destroying them.

It all began when Moore visited a bank with her dad. On the outing, she was offered a candy bar. However, her dad reminded her that sugary treats were bad for her teeth. But Moore was sick of missing out on candies. So she desired to get round the warning, “Why can’t I make a healthy candy that’s good for my teeth so that my parents can’t say no to it?” With that in mind, Moore asked her dad if she could start her own candy company. He recommended that she do some research and talk to dentists about what a healthier candy would contain.

With her dad’s permission, she spent the next two years researching online and conducting trials to get a recipe that was both tasty and tooth-friendly. She also approached dentists to learn more about teeth cleaning. Consequently, she succeeded in making a kind of candy only using natural sweeteners, which can reduce oral bacteria.

Moore then used her savings to get her business off the ground. Afterwards, she and her father secured their first business meeting with a supermarket owner, who finally agreed to sell Moore’s product—CanCandy.

As CanCandy’s success grows, so does Moore’s credibility as a young entrepreneur. Moore is enthusiastic about the candy she created, and she’s also positive about what the future might bring. She hopes that every kid can have a clean mouth and a broad smile.

Meanwhile, with her parents’ help, Moore is generally able to live a normal teenage life. Although she founded her company early on in life, she wasn’t driven primarily by profit. Moore wants to use her unique talent to help others find their smiles. She donates 10% of AilicCandy’s profits to Big Smiles. With her talent and determination, it appears that the sky could be the limit for Alice Moore.

8 . My faith in human nature has never been so great as it was last weekend after our family get-together in the town of Vail.

On Saturday, we all went to the market right in the middle of the town. Near the end, we all_________at the fountain near the bridge, and the kids waded（蹚水）around in the fountain until we_________. This is one of the busiest walking streets.

After we returned to the hotel late in the afternoon, my 7-year-old son Ponder_________that nowhere could he find his backpack, which_________his Gameboy and his watch. After a thorough_________we determined that he must have left it at the fountain.

Ponder has never_________anything. So we just take for granted that he needs no supervision（指导）for managing his_________.

He was upset, not about the Gameboy, but about the watch. "But Dad," he said, through massive_________, "they don't make that kind of watch anymore." We were all very_________.

Our dinner reservation was at a restaurant just on the other side of the bridge, so I__________him that we would not only search the area around the fountain when we went back for dinner, but we would also find the police and ask them if the backpack had been__________.

As we exited from the parking garage, we could see the fountain as we walked down the long staircase. I saw something black__________there, but it was right next to a woman standing by the fountain, so I could not__________what it was or if it was hers.

"See it, Dad?" Ponder shouted. "Don't get too__________because that may not be it," I said. But that was it. It had been five or six hours since we left the fountain, and it was__________there. There was no ID in it, and it looked like someone had looked through it and then set it right out where all could__________it.

I literally__________when we reached it and it was his！Everyone in our party was blown away by this "miracle（奇迹）". In my wildest__________, I would never have imagined that this could happen nowadays.

What a charmed life, eh? I believe this was a perfect__________for a child in losing something important…to lose it and feel the full__________of that loss, and then to miraculously get it back.

9 . Before Jenny passed away from cancer, she made her husband, Steve, and their daughter, Brittany, promise her one thing: he would _______ Brittany, a high school senior, to the homecoming (返校节) game, where she was _______ for homecoming queen. It was important to her that her daughter should go. Brittany and Steve _______.

Days later, on the morning of Friday, September 24, Jenny died. Keeping their _______, that very afternoon, an emotional Brittany walked arm in arm with her father across the football field with the other nominees (被提名者) to await the _______ of the voting.

Brittany wasn’t named homecoming queen that day; Nyla was. But, like many in the close-knit community, Nyli had heard about Jenny and her noble deeds for the community. In a(n) _______ gesture, moments after receiving the crown, Nyla walked over to Brittany, removed the crown from her head, and placed it atop her friend’s. The two embraced, _______ holding each other tightly for support.

“She’d rather have her mom than a crown,” Nyla said. By handing it to Brittany, “I was telling her that she was her mom’s queen, and that she was loved by many, especially me.”

“I fell so much love from her, and I just felt s much love for her,” said Brittany, who paid Nyla the ultimate praise. “I can see my mom through Nyla. They have the same caring, _______ spirit.”

“Nyla is no less queen for lack of a crown.” said a teacher. There’s a saying that real queens _______ each other’s crowns. But the truth is, real queens give up their crowns to let other queens ________.

10 . The student arrived early, sat front and center, and stood out in my classroom in more ways than one. I’d say that he was about 40 years older than his classmates in my undergraduate communications class. He eagerly jumped into class discussions, with his humor and wisdom of experience. And he was always respectful of the other students’ perspectives, as if each of them were a teacher. Jerry Valencia walked in with a smile—and he left with one too.

“These students gave me the confidence that I didn’t need to feel bad about my age,” Valencia says.

One day, I spotted Valencia on campus. He said he would have to stop taking classes that semester and reapply for next year. By then, he hoped to have earned enough money and have his student-loan papers in order. He asked seriously whether he could still sit in on my communications class.

Sure, I said. But he wouldn’t get any credit.

No problem, he said.

Soon there he was again, back at his old desk, jumping into our discussions on how to find and tell stories in Los Angeles—a 63-year-old man with as much energy and curiosity as any of the youngsters in class.

A lot of Valencia’s classmates apparently knew he couldn’t afford that semester’s tuition but was still doing the homework. “Here he is, willingly taking a class for the delight of it and benefit of learning,”says Jessica Espinosa, a 25-year-old junior. Afterward, I overheard Valencia wanted to stay in school until he earned a master’s degree, but it had taken him 12 years to finish community college, so he had a long way to go.

There is something splendidly unreasonable about Valencia’s determination to get a four-year degree and then a master’s. At his current pace, he’ll be 90 when he finally hangs all that paper on the wall. But that doesn’t seem especially relevant. He’s found all the youthful energy and academic opportunity stimulating. Valencia’s grade in my class this semester will not show up on his transcripts(成绩单). But I’m giving him an A—and in the most important ways, it counts.