1 . In 1975, a San Diego homemaker named Marjorie Rice came across a column in Scientific American about tiling (瓷砖). There is a problem which has interested mathematicians since ancient Greek times. After Rice’s chance encounter with tiling, family members often saw her in the kitchen constantly drawing shapes. “I thought she was just drawing casually (随意),” her daughter Kathy said. But Rice who took only one year of math in high school, was actually discovering never-before-seen patterns.

Born in Florida, she loved learning and particularly her brief exposure to math, but tight budget and social culture prevented her family from even considering that she might attend college. “For Rice, math was a pleasure,” her son David once said.

Rice gave one of her sons a subscription to Scientific American partly because she could read it carefully while the children were at school. When she read Gardner’s column about tiling as she later recalled in an interview: “I thought it must be wonderful that someone could discover these beautiful patterns which no one had seen before.” She also wrote in an essay, “My interest was engaged by the subject and I wanted to understand every detail of it. Lacking a mathematical background, I developed my own symbol system and in a few months discovered a new type.”

Astonished and delighted, she sent her work to Gardner, who sent it to Doris, a tiling expert at Moravian College. Doris confirmed that Rice’s finding was correct.

Later, Rice declined to lecture on her discoveries, citing shyness, but at Doris’s invitation, she attended a university mathematics meeting, where she was introduced to the audience. Rice still said nothing of her achievements to her children, but they eventually found out as the awards mounted.

3 . The Homeless Hero

For many, finding an unattended wallet filled with £400 in cash would be a source（来源）of temptation（诱惑）. But the ________ would no doubt be greater if you were living on the streets with little food and money. All of this makes the actions of the homeless Tom Smith __________ more remarkable.

After spotting a ________ on the front seat inside a parked car with its window down, he stood guard in the rain for about two hours waiting for the __________ to return.

After hours in the cold and wet, he __________   inside and pulled the wallet out hoping to find some ID so he could contact（联系）the driver, only to __________ it contained £400 in notes, with another £50 in spare change beside it.

He then took the wallet to a nearby police station after __________ a note behind to let the owner know it was safe. When the car’s owner John Anderson and his colleague Carol Lawrence returned to the car—which was itself worth £35, 000—in Glasgow city centre, they were __________ to find two policemen standing next to it. The policemen told them what Mr. Smith did and that the wallet was __________.

The pair were later able to thank Mr. Smith for his __________.

Mr. Anderson said：＂I couldn’t believe that the guy never took a penny. To think he is sleeping on the streets tonight __________ he could have stolen the money and paid for a place to stay in. This guy has nothing and

__________ he didn’t take the wallet for himself；he thought about others __________. It’s unbelievable. It just proves there are ________ guys out there.＂

Mr. Smith’s act __________ much of the public’s attention. He also won praise from social media users after Mr. Anderson __________ about the act of kindness on Facebook.

Now Mr. Anderson has set up an online campaign to __________ money for Mr. Smith and other homeless people in the area, which by yesterday had received ￡8,000. ＂I think the faith that everyone has shown __________ him has touched him. People have been approaching him in the street; he’s had job __________ and all sorts,＂ Mr. Anderson commented.

For Mr. Smith, this is a possible life-changing __________. The story once again tells us that one good turn deserves another.

4 . Those in the food industry understand the difficulty that comes from working with people. No matter how much you try, some customers are never _______. If you make one mistake, some people are likely to lose _______. This situation took place at a McDonald’s in suburban Atlanta.

A customer approached the drive-through window _______. He threw a drink back at the pregnant fast food worker who _______ it to him. Most would find that unthinkable. However, he himself felt _______ because the drink was not what he _______.

Bryanna was the _______ in this incident. It was so _______ to her that she couldn’t even _______ what was happening. She was ________ and covered in ice and soda.

The ________ next in line who witnessed what happened was Feroza Syed. She ________ the incident via Facebook after things took place. “I’ve never seen anyone ________ that way, especially to do that to a pregnant worker, which was just ________.”

When Feroza approached the drive-through window, she ________ the fast food worker a cash tip to comfort her. She had yet another ________-set up an online registry for Bryanna’s baby. Feroza ________ maybe she could raise $300 or $400 for Bryanna to buy something nice. But by 24 hours later people had ________ $1,700. Feroza is just obviously going crazy with ________.

Through this, Feroza and Bryanna have become friends. It’s just ________ to see such love and happiness.

5 . Having worked for more than a decade in finance in the oil industry in Canada, Tori Fahey found herself wanting more from life. But it wasn't through desperation that her circumstances changed: “I didn't get fed up and storm off, nothing like that; it was curiosity about other interests and wanting to experience something new.”

Fahey left her job and completed an MBA before setting up a move to New York to begin a degree. However, the opportunity of an open year between the MBA and the degree came up, and as a keen touring cyclist, Fahey realised that a much dreamed-about adventure was now becoming a possibility: "The ride in Africa had been on my fantasy list. It was a moment when I realised that I could do anything, so I should."

Fahey rode across Africa, a 7,500-mile trip that took four months. The whole experience had a life-changing impact. Fahey said: “Bicycles provide a literal freedom. You don't allow yourself to feel like that in everyday life because there are so many distractions. But when you' re out on the bike and there's nothing else, you' re really free to experience what life is.”

Post-degree, Fahey worked on projects with the UNDP(United Nations Development Project) in Montenegro with the aim of bringing investment to rural communities.

It was while working on these projects that the seeds were sown for the next new investment. “It was through my trip across Africa that I discovered pannier and rack systems inconvenient and I was never going to use them again.” Little did she know this would lead her to start up her own company.

In 2013, Apidura was born, producing storage solutions for people looking to travel the world by bike, race across continents and carry all they need to do so. It's now a successful global brand, but Fahey remains reflective about what else the company can do for people.

6 . I must admit I am not a very good listener. But what really ________ me to become a good listener was helping my wife as she ________ from her trachea surgery.

She couldn’t talk for almost a month because of the ________. She had a pad and would write down her thoughts and ________. Of course that was very slow and ________ and I could see the growing ________ each day. I found myself trying to ________ what she was thinking since I knew she didn’t have the ________ to write everything down, so I ________ found myself trying to ________ the world from her eyes.

My wife couldn’t ________, which needed paying closer attention and made me a good listener. Because she couldn’t write out every word she wanted to speak，she had to be more ________ about the words she chose. Because of this，our communication became more ________ and we paid closer attention to what the other ________ had to say.

After this ________ I couldn’t help thinking about how this might help people who are haying relationship problems. I think that if one or two persons ________ the only way they could ________ was writing their thoughts and comments down, I believe it would be incredibly good therapy and help people ________ a lot of problems. Why not give it a shot if you are having any ________ with someone. They don’t have to agree to the no talking ________ because this experiment can be carried out by just one person.

8 . Washington is home to lots of trees, fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. But what if you couldn’t chop _______ or couldn’t afford to pay someone to do it? _______,Shane McDaniel and his twin sons are happy to chop truckloads of wood—then donate it to those in need．

The _______ started as a father-son bonding project. “I had to cut wood with my dad. He just _______ doing it. ” says Shane. He wanted to _______ that feeling, so he and the twins spent the summer of 2018 chopping wood. The _______ was a great wall of wood piled up．

_______ , it was too much for the McDaniels to use themselves, and when the weather turned cold that November, Shane started thinking of others. He _______ a photo of them and “Please help us help someone who ARE IN NEED OF FIREWOOD AND CANNOT AFFORD IT.” on Facebook. The _______ was immediate. One man ________to donate a wood-burning stove. One woman, noticing the photo of the McDaniel men in the Facebook post, felt ________ “Please post more pictures. I don’t need the wood. ________ truly I appreciate the eye candy!”

Single mom Katelyn Ticer and her four-year-old daughter ________ a wood-burning stove as their sole source of heat, so it was a ________ to receive a truckload of firewood from the McDaniels. She told msn. com, “So much stress and anxiety is ________ my shoulders. I couldn’t be more thankful.”

Not every receiver is as ________. “Some aren’t even friendly. It’s just not in them. ” Shane says. “They are angry with the world and ________ that they had to ask for help. They just have no other option than ________.” But Shane is OK with that. “Giving is the ________,” he says. It has nothing to do with how well it’s received; it’s about how much it’s ________.

9 . People may misunderstand what they used to be familiar with. I remember a _________ professor, invited to our school, taught stress management principles in a school hall _________ with students.

As she _________ a glass of water, each of us expected we’d be asked the _________ “glass half-empty or glass half-full” question. _________,with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How _________ is this glass of water I’m holding?”

All of us shouted out answers ranging from 8 ounces to a couple of pounds.

She then replied, “From my point if view, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It all _________ how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s rather light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm _________ a bit. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel _________ numb and paralyzed, ____________ me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case mentioned above, the ____________ of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

As the whole class ____________ our heads in agreement, she continued, “Your ____________ and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a little while and ____________ happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to suffer a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel specially numb and paralyzed-____________of doing anything else ____________ you drop them.”

It’s important to remember to ____________ your stresses and worries. Whatever happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t ____________ them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of ____________ stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the ____________ down.