1 . It was Christmas Eve when my elder sister and I decided to open our presents before our mom got home from work. She usually came home about an hour after we got home from school, which we thought was plenty of time to sneak a look (偷看) at the gifts under the tree.

My elder sister opened present after present while I was ordered to stand guard at the big window in our front room. Finally, when my sister’s curiosity was satisfied, we changed places.

After opening a few presents, I found it faster to open one end of a present and look inside. “Cool! Mom and Dad got me headphones!” I pulled the headphones out of the box and was about to put them on when my sister shouted, “Quick! Wrap (包裹) it back up! Mom’s coming!”

I put the headphones back in the box but my hands were shaking. My heart beat faster as I tried to get the tape to stick. I had just finished burying the package with my headphones in it when my mother came into the front room. I jumped up and said, “Hi, Mom!” She smiled at me and said “Hi” back, but didn’t appear to suspect (怀疑) anything. My heart began to slow as I took a deep breath.

On Christmas morning, my sister and I smiled, and gave award-winning performances when we opened our presents—again. “Headphones!” I shouted. “Thanks, it’s just what I wanted.” After everything had been opened, my sister and I looked at each other, and our eyes met. Our secret was safe, but somehow Christmas morning didn’t feel the same.

My sister and I never opened our Christmas presents early again. I don’t know if it was that opening our gifts for the second time just wasn’t as much fun as the first time, or if we came too close to getting caught and didn’t want to think about what our mother would have done to us.

2 . Age has never been a problem for 16­year­old Thessalonika Arzu­Embry. After all, she’s already got her master’s degree.

The North Chicago­area teen started homeschooling at the age of 4. She began having an influence on others soon. When she was 6 years old, she was an inspirational (鼓舞人心的) speaker at an organization called Tabitha House Community Service, a shelter for people who were forced to leave their homes due to the situations such as earthquakes, flood and other natural disasters.

At the age of 11, she graduated from high school and then earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2013. She completed those classes online as she was traveling for leadership meetings.

She doesn’t stop there, though. The teen plans to focus on aviation psychology (航空心理学) for her further study, a decision inspired by her father who is a pilot. She grew up around airplanes and took flights all the time. Her goal is to use it to determine whether pilots are dealing with problems that could have deadly results once the plane takes off—a topic that has been in the news lately. For her, it’s a mix of two of her interests.

In her free time, Thessalonika enjoys playing tennis, swimming and being active in her youth group. She also has three self­published books, which are on her site. Jump the Education Barrier is written to help students finish college, and In the Future aims to help business owners deal with trends. Her third book The Genius Race has a wider appeal. It is designed to help people to be geniuses in various areas of life.

I read this story the other day and I liked it very much. Now I’d like to share it     1    you.

A man     2     (sudden) felt very terrible one day and was taken to hospital. After he received some examinations, he     3     (tell) he was badly ill and wouldn’t live longer than one year.     4     (hear) that, the man became depressed. He was so worried about himself that he wanted to do nothing. It lasted for about a month. Then one day, he decided to make     5     change and do something that he had dreamed of     6     (do)—to travel around the world. The doctors were     7     (shock) when they learned about it. They told the man that he might die on the way, but the man insisted on doing it. So he began his journey around the world.

He made friends with the people     8     he met on ships or planes. He enjoyed good food and visited beautiful     9     (place). He was in a happy mood every day and even totally forgot his illness. He was still alive one year later. When he returned to his home country, he was happy and healthy.

We shouldn’t be worried about it when something bad     10     (happen) to us. Instead, we should overcome our anxiety. Things will not be as bad as we expect them to be.

This morning, I was jogging in the park while I caught sight of a wallet on a bench. Clear, someone had left it there in accident. I picked up and checked the contents. Inside it, I found some money or a card with a phone number. Believing that the owner would be worried, I immediately try the number. A man answered it in an anxious voice. Hearing that I had his wallet, he sighed with relief and told me he would come right away. Ten minutes late, the man arrived. After confirm he was the owner, I returned the wallet back to him. With his thumb up, he expressed his thanks to me repeatedly. Seen the smile on his face, I felt happy that I was able to help.

7 . I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch (养马场). He introduced himself to me by saying, “I want to tell you a story. It all ______ back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant (流动的) horse trainer. When he was a senior, he was______to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do ______he grew up.

“That night he wrote a seven-page paper______ his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a ______of a 200-acre ranch, showing the _______of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house.

“He put a great deal of his______ into the project and the next day he______ it in to his teacher. Two days later he______his paper back. On the front page was a large red “F” with a note that read, ‘See me after class.’”

“The boy______the dream went to see the teacher after class. The teacher said, ‘This is a(n) ______dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You ______ an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch ______a lot of money. There’s no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher ______, ‘If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will______ your grade.’”

“The boy went home and thought about it______and hard. However, he thought it was a very important ______for him. Finally, after a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all.”

“The boy is me. Now, my dream has come______. That teacher said to me, ‘Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was______of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams.______, you had enough determination not to give up on yours.’”

9 . I moved to Chicago ten years ago. As I was new to the area, I had few _______ and seldom went out to parties. But a month later, I was invited to a party and there I _______ an elderly couple.

The wife and I talked for a long time. She told me how _______ she was about her husband who was _______ a heart operation (手术). At that time I was working as a researcher in the same _______ where the husband would be going for his operation, so I told her to take down my phone number and must _______ me to let me know when he was there.

She phoned a few weeks later as she _______ and told me that her husband was admitted to the hospital and still waiting. I told her that I would go and check on him every day while I was at _______. I thought that if it was my dad, I would do the same, so I decided to give them some company.

Weeks turned into months and it just became my _______ to see them and keep track of how things were going before, during and after the heart operation. Sometimes I’d bring a ________ for him to read, or some food that we would enjoy together. As time went by, it seemed like I became part of the ________. Even after the husband returned from the hospital, we still often ________ each other on holidays.

Now, ten years later, I ________ my own family. Since our parents don’t ________ close by, this couple has become my son’s “local” grandparents. My wife and I often feel truly ________ to have this couple as our “local” parents! Sometimes family comes out of the most unexpected place.