2 . It’s 1:30 am in Kenya’s populated north, and 50 people are lying on their backs on the shore of a dried-up river, staring up at the night sky. These stargazers have travelled 250 miles to Samburu to _________ the Perseid meteor shower(英仙座流星雨). They are not _________: Every few minutes, arrows of light shoot _________ the sky like silent fireworks.

The Star Safari is organized by a Kenyan astronomer(天文学家), Susan Murabana, who has brought a 50 kg, 170 cm-long _________to allow the group to view Mars and deep-sky objects. But here in Samburu, where _________ pollution is minimal, the Perseid meteors — visible with the naked eye (裸眼) — _________ all the right boxes.

Every two months, Murabana and her husband put their equipment on to the _________ of their truck and _________ to rural communities, where they help up to 300 children to view the planets and learn about constellations(星座) and the _________ of astronomy. Her primary mission is to give __________ an opportunity that she wishes had been available to her.

“There is a common misconception in Kenya that astronomy in general is hard, boring, and only for boys,” she adds. “I’d like to __________ young ladies that it’s not right and that they, too, can become astronomers,” says Murabana.

“When I started this work, I was a lone ranger and I wanted to change that.” She says. __________by a similar outreach activity, which lighted her __________ for astronomy in her early 20s, Murabana set up her own outreach program after her online master’s degree in astronomy in 2011.

She __________ Dr Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, as a role model. “I hope that one day, those small actions can make a butterfly effect that __________ the first African woman in space.”

Fortune Cookie Friends

Jenny frowned (皱眉) as she helped her mother and father set out the cooking supplies in the shiny steel kitchen. Her family had just moved here from San Francisco, having bought a small restaurant, which was set to open in the next few days.

“Moving here was a stupid idea,” Jenny complained mostly to herself.

“What’s that?” her mother asked, opening a box and lifting out several pots.

“Nothing,” Jenny mumbled (咕哝). The girl had been angry about the move, but her parents had made the decision and were now too busy getting ready for the grand opening to listen to her complaints.

The first few days at her new school hadn’t been easy, either. She found it hard to talk to people she didn’t know, and it seemed like the students hadn’t even noticed her. Jenny sighed and got back to washing dishes.

On the day of the grand opening, Jenny’s parents were all smiles, welcoming customers into the restaurant, brightly decorated in gold and red. Even Jenny was happy as she rushed around, seating guests, handing out menus, and pouring tall glasses of water. This was a big day for her family.

At one of the tables sat a family with two daughters who were about Jenny’s age. As she filled their glasses, Jenny realized the twins were in her class. Jenny lowered her head down so her long hair covered her face, and she turned away from the table.

Jenny’s mother found her soon after, in the kitchen loading the dishwasher.

“Honey, what are you doing back here? We need you out front with the customers.”

“Mom, I don’t want to be out there. There are kids from school!”

“So?” her mother asked. “That’s good! Go to take them some fortune cookies and say hello!” she said to Jenny, pointing at the fortune cookies paper which read, “Many friends are found with a single smile.”

Fortune Cookie Friends

7 . We come by business naturally in our family. Each of the seven children in our family worked in our father‟s store. _________ we worked and watched, we learned that work was about more than _________ and making a sale.

One lesson stands out in my mind. It was shortly before Christmas. I was working evenings, cleaning up the toy section. A little boy, five or six years old, came in. He was wearing a brown worn coat with dirty sleeves. His shoes were scuffed(磨损)and his one shoelace was worn. The little boy looked poor to me — too poor to _________ to buy anything. He looked around the toy section, picked up this item and _________, and carefully put them back in their place.

Dad came down the stairs and walked over to the boy. His steel blue eyes _________ and the dimple(酒窝) in his cheek stood out as he asked the boy what he could do for him. The boy said he was looking for a Christmas present for his brother. I was impressed that Dad treated him with the same respect as any adult. Dad told him to take his _________ and look around. He did.

After about 20 minutes, the little boy carefully picked up a toy, walked up to my dad and said, “How much for this, Mister?”

“How much you got?” Dad asked.

The little boy held out his hand and _________ it. His hand was creased (起皱) with _________ lines of dirt from holding his money too tightly. In his hand _________ only two pennies and 27 cents. The price on the toy plane he’d __________ was $3.98.

“That’ll just __________ it,” Dad said as he __________ the sale. Dad‟s reply still __________ in my ears. When the little boy walked out of the store, I didn’t notice the dirty, worn coat or the __________ torn shoelace. What I saw was a happy child with a __________.

8 . It was the first time I had noticed him properly. Before this, Jack had just been a friendly young man provided by the hotel to accompany me on trips to the wildlife park nearby. But then he caught my attention by asking me to shut up.

“It’s just a garden spider. Don’t cry!” he said, looking at the creature with more love than I could gather for most humans. I had indeed cried-I was in the front seat of a jeep and the spider was on my leg.

“I don’t care what it is. Make it go away!” I said. I wanted him to pick the thing up and throw it out of the jeep right at that moment. He did something quite else.

He pushed his leg towards mine and held out the cloth of his trousers to gently let the spider go onto his own leg. He then drove on, as if nothing had happened. The spider climbed a little bit and then just stopped on his knee. I sat there staring at the spider for any sudden movement.

I was frightened that the man was completely at ease with a spider dangerously quiet on his knee. About 15 minutes later, he pushed his knee forward to the dashboard and the spider immediately climbed off his knee and on to the jeep. “The poor thing had been trying to get off me,” he said. “I only noticed now that it was trying to reach the dashboard, so I helped it along.”

I wondered then about this man, who thought about the spider with such kindness... Where and when did I lose my empathy towards the unfamiliar? Now, when faced with a row of ants on the staircase, my first reaction is no longer to attack them. The ants were already wise, but thanks to Jack, I learnt to live with the not so beautiful bits of nature.

10 . I had a busy to-do list today and was about to get started when my sister called.

I talked with her for a short time and could _________ my seven-year-old niece in the background, full of energy as always, and getting blamed for something. I _________ to speak with her, both because I love talking to her and because I was _________ that I could help redirecting some of her energy in a more _________ direction and give my sister a break.

I listened and talked with her on the phone, giving her as much _________ as she needed to share her thoughts and _________ herself.

The conversation went for quite a while. _________ my time, she gifted me her funny stories and sense of _________. She said the cutest things that always _________ me and caused me to laugh out loud! She told me about her friend’s birthday party, which __________ a cake, chocolate ice cream, and sand art! Then there were __________ about her new little brother, cute animals she saw recently and of course, the weather!

Forty minutes later she __________, saying, “Well, I should __________ have let you get going.”

At one point in the conversation my __________ had turned back to my “to-do” list, but then I consciously turned it back to her. I chose to be __________ with her and give my full attention to her so that she __________ important and special. Actually, she is __________ important and special. Children are so precious and __________ so fast! And we can learn so much from them, including the __________ they see the world. When choosing between my niece and my to-do list, I __________ that chores and errands（差事）could wait - every time!