In ancient China lived an artist    1     paintings were almost lifelike. The artist’s reputation had made him proud. One day the emperor wanted to get his portrait (画像) done so he called all great artists to come and present their     2     (fine) work, so that he could choose the best. The artist was sure he would    3    (choose), but when he presented his masterpiece to the emperor’s chief minister, the old man laughed. The wise old man told him to travel to the Li River～perhaps he could learn a little from the greatest artist in the world.

Filled with     4     (curious), the artist packed his bags and left.     5     he asked the villagers on the banks of the river where he could find the legendary (传奇的) artist, they smiled and     6     (point) down the river. The next morning he hired a boat and set out     7     (find) the well-known painter. As the small boat moved,     8     (gentle) along the river he was left speechless by the mountains being silently reflected in the water. He passed milky white waterfalls and mountains in many shades of blue. And when he saw the mists rising from the river and the soft clouds    9     (surround) the mountain tops, he was reduced to tears. The artist was finally humbled (谦卑) by the greatest artist     10     earth, Mother Nature.

2 . 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.

4 . 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.”

5 . It was just after sunrise on a June morning. “Nicolo,” whose real name cannot be _______ to the public because of Italy’s privacy laws, _______ working the whole night at a factory in Turin. As he often did, he stopped by the “after work auction(拍卖)” _______ by the Italian police where things _______ on the trains were sold to the highest bidder. There, among many other things, Nicolo spotted two paintings he thought would look _______above his dining room table. Nicolo and another bidder _______ until Nicolo finally won the paintings for $32.

When Nicolo retired and went to live in Sicily, he _______ the paintings with him. He hung them above the same table he had _______ from Turin. His son, age 15, who had _______ an art appreciation class, thought that there was something ________ about the one with a young girl sitting on a garden chair. It was signed(签名) “Bonnato” or so he thought, but when he ________ it, he only found “Bonnard,” a French ________ he had never heard of. He bought a book and was ________ to find a picture of the artist Pierre Bonnard sitting on the same chair in the same ________ as his father’s painting.

“That’s the garden in our picture,”Nicolo’s son told his father. They ________ learned that the painting they ________was called “The Girl with Two Chairs.” They ________ the other painting and learned that it was ________ Paul Gauguin’s “Still Life of Fruit on a Table with a Small Dog.” The ________ called the Italian Culture Ministry; the official confirmed that the paintings were ________ and worth as much as $50 million.

6 . The small town of Rjukan in Norway is situated between several mountains and does not get direct sunlight from late September to mid-March- _______ six months out of the year.

“Of course, we _______ it when the sun is shining,” says Karin Ro, who works for the town’s tourism office. “We see the sky is _______, but down in the valley it’s darker — it’s like on a _______ day.”

But that _______ when a system of high-tech _______ was introduced to reflect sunlight from neighboring peaks(山峰) into the valley below. Wednesday, residents(居民) of Rjukan _______ their very first ray of winter sunshine: A row of reflective boards on a nearby mountainside were put to _______. The mirrors are controlled by a computer that _______ them to turn along with the sun throughout the ________ and to close during windy weather. They reflect a concentrated beam(束) of light onto the town’s central ________, creating an area of sunlight roughly 600 square meters. When the light ________, Rjukan residents gathered together.

“People have been ________ there and standing there and taking ________ of each other,” Ro says. “The town square was totally ________. I think almost all the people in the town were there.” The 3,500 residents cannot all ________ the sunshine at the same time. ________, the new light feels like more than enough for the town’s ________ residents.

“It’s not very ________,” she says, “but it is enough when we are ________.”

7 . 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.

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＂.

10 . 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.”