It was the day of the big cross-country run. Students from seven different primary schools in and around the small town were warming up and walking the route(路线)through thick evergreen forest.

I looked around and finally spotted David, who was standing by himself off to the side by a fence. He was small for ten years old. His usual big toothy smile was absent today. I walked over and asked him why he wasn’t with the other children. He hesitated and then said he had decided not to run.

What was wrong? He had worked so hard for this event!

I quickly searched the crowd for the school’s coach and asked him what had happened. “I was afraid that kids from other schools would laugh at him,” he explained uncomfortably. “I gave him the choice to run or not, and let him decide.”

I bit back my frustration(懊恼). I knew the coach meant well—he thought he was doing the right thing. After making sure that David could run if he wanted, I turned to find him coming towards me, his small body rocking from side to side as he swung his feet forward.

David had a brain disease which prevented him from walking or running like other children, but at school his classmates thought of him as a regular kid. He always participated to the best of his ability in whatever they were doing. That was why none of the children thought it unusual that David had decided to join the cross-country team. It just took him longer—that’s all. David had not missed a single practice, and although he always finished his run long after the other children, he did always finish. As a special education teacher at the school, I was familiar with the challenges David faced and was proud of his strong determination.

The Meredith family lived in a small community. As the economy was in decline, some people in the town had lost their jobs. Many of their families were struggling to make ends meet. People were trying to help each other meet the challenges.

Mrs. Meredith was a most kind and thoughtful woman. She spent a great deal of time visiting the poor. She knew they had problems, and they needed all kinds of help. When she had time, she would bring food and medicine to them.

One morning she told her children about a family she had visited the day before. There was a man sick in bed, his wife, who took care of him and could not go out to work, and their little boy. The little boy -his name was Bernard-had interested her very much.

“I wish you could see him,” she said to her own children, John, Harry, and Clara. “He is such a help to his mother. He wants very much to earn some money, but I don't see what he can do.”

After their mother left the room, the children sat thinking about Bernard. “I wish we could help him to earn money,” said Clara. “His family is suffering so much.”

“So do I,” said Harry. “We really should do something to assist them.”

For some moments, John said nothing, but, suddenly, he sprang to his feet and cried, “I have a great idea! I have a solution that we can all help accomplish(完成).”

The other children also jumped up all attention. When John had an idea, it was sure to be a good one. “I tell you what we can do,” said John. “You know that big box of corn Uncle John sent us? Well, we can make popcorn(爆米花), and put it into paper bags, and Bernard can take it around to the houses and sell it.”

4 . Molai grew up in a tiny village in India. The village lay near some wetlands which became his second___________. He learned the value and beauty of _________ there from a very young age.

When he was 16, Molai began to notice something _________ happening around his home. A flood had hit the area earlier that year and the _________ it caused had driven away a number of birds. _________, the number of snakes had declined as well. He _________ that it was because there weren’t enough trees to protect them from the _________. The solution, of course, was to plant trees so the animals could seek _________ during the daytime. He turned to the _________ department for help but was told that nothing would grow there. However, Molai went looking on his own and __________a nearby island where he began to plant trees.

________ young plants in the dry season was ____________for a lone boy. Molai built at the __________ of each sapling(幼树)a bamboo platform, where he placed earthen pots with small holes to____________ rainwater. The water would then drip(滴落)on the plants below.

Molai __________ to plant trees for the next 37 years. His efforts have resulted in 1,360 acres of naturally-grown land that has become home to many plants and animals.

5 . It’s about 250 miles from the hills of west-central Iowa to Ehlers’ home in Minnesota. During the long trip home, following a weekend of hunting. Ehlers _______about the small dog he had seen _______ alongside the road. He had _______ to coax(哄) the dog to him but, frightened, it had _______.

Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that _______ dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove _______. After a long and careful _______, Greg saw, across a field, the dog moving _______ away. Ehlers eventually succeeded in coaxing the animal to him. Nervousness and fear were replaced with _______. It just started licking(舔) Ehlers’ face.

A local farmer told them the dog sounded like one ________ as lost in the local paper. The ad had a ________ number for a town in southern Michigan. Ehlers ________ the number of Jeff and Lisa to tell them he had ________ their dog.

Jeff had ________ in Iowa before Thanksgiving with his dog, Rosie, but the gun shots had scared the dog off. Jeff searched ________ for Rosie in the next four days.

Ehlers returned to Minnesota, and then drove 100 miles to Minneapolis to put Rosie on a flight to Michigan. “It’s good to know there’s still someone out there who ________ enough to go to that kind of ________,”says Lisa of Ehlers’ rescue ________.

“I figured whoever lost the dog was probably just as ________ to it as I am to my dogs,” says Ehlers. “If it had been my dog, I’d hope that somebody would be ________ to go that extra mile.”

7 . I was born legally blind. Of all the stories of my early childhood, the one about a______is my mother's favorite.

I was only two when the______occurred. We had just arrived home from a trip. Mom lifted me out of the car and _____to speak to the driver. I took advantage of my brief______to dash across the lawn (草坪) — and hit a large maple tree! I was running so fast that I bounced off the trunk and______on my backside. Mom______me to start crying, but I just sat there for a minute. Then I______myself up and kept right on going. Mom always______here that, as many times as I______across the lawn after that, I never again______into that tree.

Mom loves to use this story as an______. It reminds her that children don't enter life______to take risks or unwilling to______again when they fall down. She never wanted me to lose that______as I grew older. When I______my major life decisions，I was still that little girl tearing full-speed across the lawn. I studied abroad and later moved away from my parents' home to look for a______, Through years of______, I have become a respected teacher in a school serving high-need students.

We are almost certain to get______at some point during the process of achieving our goal. When that happens, don't sit in the grass and______. Just get up and keep on going. It will all be worth it______.

8 . When most of us get a text message on our cell phone from an unknown person, we usually say ＂sorry, ________ number!＂ and move on. But when Dennis Williams __________ a text that clearly wasn’t intended for him, he did something __________.

On March 19, Dennis got a group text __________ him that a couple he didn’t know were at the hospital, waiting for the __________ of a baby.

＂Congratulations! But I think someone was mistaken,＂ Dennis __________. The baby was born and update texts were __________ quickly from the overjoyed grandmother, Teresa. In her __________, she didn’t seem to realize that she was __________ the baby’s photos with a complete stranger. ＂Well, I don’t __________ you all but I will get there to take pictures with the baby,＂ replied Dennis before asking which room the new __________ were in.

Much to the family’s surprise, Dennis stuck to his __________! He turned up at the hospital __________ gifts for the new mother Lindsey and her baby boy. Lindsey’s husband was totally __________ by the unexpected visit. ＂I don’t think we would have randomly invited him over but we __________ it and the gifts.＂

Teresa __________ a photo of the chance meeting on a social networking website __________ by the touching words: ＂What a __________ this young man was to our family! He was so __________ and kind to do this.＂ The post has since gained the __________ of social media users all over the world, receiving more than 184,000 shares and 61,500 likes in just three days.

9 . 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＂.

During this past year, I’ve had three instances of car trouble. Each time these things happened, I was sick of the way most people hadn’t bothered to help. One of those times, I was on the side of the road for close to three hours with my big Jeep. I put signs in the windows, big signs that said NEED A JACK (千斤顶), and offered money. Nothing. Right as I was about to give up, a Mexican family in a small truck pulled over, and the father bounded out.

He sized up the situation and called for his daughter, who spoke English. He conveyed through her that he had a jack but that it was too small for the Jeep, so we would need something to support it. Then he got a saw (锯子) from the truck and cut a section out of a big log on the side of the road. We rolled it over and put his jack on top, and we were in business.

I started taking the wheel off, and then, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. No worries: He handed it to his wife, and she was gone in a flash down the road to buy a new tire iron. She was back in 15 minutes. We finished the job, and I was a very happy man.

The two of us were dirty and sweaty. His wife prepared a pot of water for us to wash our hands. I tried to put a $20 bill in the man’s hand, but he wouldn’t take it, so instead I went up to the truck and gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I asked the little girl where they lived. Mexico, she said. They were in Oregon so Mommy and Daddy could work on a fruit farm for the next few weeks. Then they would go home.

When I was about to say goodbye, the girl asked if I’d had lunch.

After they left, I got into my Jeep and opened the paper bag.