2 . When Kirk Alexander went missing for 11 days, an unlikely savior came to his rescue: his neighborhood pizza store.

Almost every night for more than ten years. Kirk Alexander, 48, of Salem, Oregon ordered a late dinner from his local Domino’s pizza store. He had no signature order. Sometimes he would call for a salad, sometimes a pie, sometimes chicken wings. The only sure thing for the staff of the Silverton Road Domino’s was that they would see Alexander’s name show up on their online ordering site sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight several times a week.

Until suddenly, for nearly two weeks at the end of April 2016, they didn’t.

It was a slow Saturday night on May 7th when Domino’s general manager Sarah Fuller felt she could no longer ignore Alexander’s recent absence.

“I went and looked up to see how long it had been since he last ordered,” Fuller told KATU.com. It was 11 days, which was not like him at all.

Fuller knew Alexander worked from home, and neighbors said he rarely left. She also knew that he had suffered some health issues in the past. Something, Fuller worried, was wrong.

Around 1 a.m. on Sunday, May 8, Fuller sent longtime delivery driver Tracey Hamblen to stop in at Alexander’s home. Hamblen approached Alexander’s door as he had countless times before and knocked. He could plainly see that Alexander’s TV set was on, as were his lights; but after several minutes, Alexander still didn’t answer the door.

Hamblen rushed back to the store to relay the upsetting developments to Fuller. She encouraged Hamblen to dial 911. Soon, officers were on their way.

When deputies from the Marion County Sheriff’s office arrived at Alexander’s house, they heard a man calling for help from inside the residence, deputies said. They broke the door down, and found Alexander on the floor in need of immediate medical attention. One day later, and they might have been too late.

Alexander was rushed to Salem Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition shortly after the dramatic rescue. In the following weeks, Fuller, Hamblen, and other store employees went to visit him with flowers and cards, noting that Alexander greeted them with knowing smiles.

3 . Every day when Glen Oliver orders his morning coffee at the drive-through window of a local cafe, he insists on paying for the order of the person behind him. He also asks the restaurant workers to tell the customer to have a great day, in case they’re not already having one.

Oliver has never made a big deal out of his own generous actions until a letter was published by a news website in November. He found out that he had not just bought someone his breakfast —he had saved a life.

According to the website, someone had written a letter stating that on July 18th, he was planning on committing suicide. The writer said that while he was at the drive-through window, he was planning on going home, writing a note and ending his life. When he went to pay for his coffee and muffin, however, the cashier told him that the man in the SUV in front of him had picked up the tab and told him to have a great day.

“I wondered why someone would buy coffee for a stranger for no reason,” said the writer. “Why me? Why today? If I were a religious man, I would take this as a sign. This random act of kindness was directed at me on this day for a purpose.”

When the writer arrived home, he couldn’t hold back his tears and started to think about the simple good deed that had affected him so deeply. “I decided at that moment to change my plans for the day and do something nice for someone. I ended up helping a neighbor take groceries out of her car and into the house.”

The writer says that in the months following that fateful event, he does at least one kind thing for others every day. “To the nice man in the SUV, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please know your kind gesture has truly saved a life,” he said. “On July 18, 2017, I had the greatest day.”

4 . At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started________out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling ________, she started jumping with both her hands ________ trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was so strong that everyone in her group also got ________. The lady finally________to push the cockroach away but it ________ on another lady in the group.

Now it was the turn of the other lady in the group to become ________. The waiter ________ forward to their rescue. In the relay of ________ , the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, calmed himself down and________the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was ________ enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Drinking my coffee and ________ the amusement, my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering if the cockroach had the ________ for their acting behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not ________? He handled it near to perfection in a calm state.

It is not the cockroach, but the ________ of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.

6 . The sun was setting and the farm would be closing soon. I dressed our three daughters quickly as my husband started the van. Cutting down our own Christmas-tree had been a family tradition. As our family grew, so did our excitement for going out to find the perfect tree.

As we walked through the rows of trees, my youngest daughter Kimberly shouted excitedly, “There it is, the perfect tree!” The other two agreed. My husband and I looked at each other, puzzled. Its branches were misshapen and the trunk was visible through the spots where there were no pine needles.

We tried to persuade our daughters into changing their minds, but in vain. We had to tie the tree to the roof of our van and headed home. As we reached our house, Heather jumped out first. Suddenly she shouted, “The tree isn’t there!” We thought she was kidding. However, it wasn’t there.

The girls were so disappointed. “We’ll get another tree tomorrow”, I said, secretly hoping the new tree would be prettier. But the girls gave us the look that no parent could resist. We had no choice but to go back and find that tree.

After driving for about five minutes, we saw our tree on the side of the road. As we got closer, it was apparent that it had been run over by a truck. As we lifted the tree, we saw that a big part of the tree was ripped off, but we took our little broken tree home anyway.

That night, as we decorated our tree, something magical happened. We didn’t realize it at that time that we were making a very special family memory. By the time we were done, I had to admit, it didn’t look sad at all. This is the best tree we have ever had. “It’s perfect!” my second daughter Samantha said excitedly. My husband and I couldn’t have agreed more!

Now we always recall that little broken tree! Year by year, we tell the story of that very special Christmas almost twenty-five years ago.

8 . On September 2nd, BUAA (北京航空航天大学) welcomed its first 2021 student. His name is Xing Yifan, coming together with his parents ahead of time.

"Yifan is 18 years old, but he weighs only 18 kilograms. When 6 months old, he suffered from LAMA2 (渐冻症), a type of disease that no more than a hundred people have got in the country. However, with his strong will, he made one amazing achievement after another in learning. In this year's college entrance exam, he entered BUAA with a score of 645.

Because of the illness, Yifan can only sit alone for a while, unable to stand and walk like other children. In class, he could only put his head on the table and his eyes can only scan half the pages of the book. He couldn't turn over the book with one hand. And he could only sit and listen to a class for up to 30 minutes, with the remaining 15 minutes to lie down to listen to his teacher.

But these did not scare Yifan, with only a little muscle strength left in his hands, he finished one test paper after another, more than 20 a day, often till one or two o'clock in the morning. Finally, he successfully completed the 2021 college entrance examination.

To live is much more difficult than others. Why does he have to learn? The family said because of the serious disease, he was deprived (剥夺) of the right to walk, run, jump, but he can no longer be deprived of the right to education. Xing Yifan decided to let himself be Hawking of China, and change his life with knowledge.

He came to BUAA and stayed in the love dormitory on the first floor. Xing Yifan said he was feeling particularly warm with all the help. He was expecting new college life and hoped to know more students, and take part in lots of activities. Life kisses him with pain, but he sings.

9 . A friend of mine was sitting in the living room one day when his cat dragged in a little “gift” in its mouth — a dead animal of some sort. Taking a closer look, he was surprised to _______ it as the bunny that _______ Mary, the young daughter of the family next door. My friend felt _______, believing his cat had killed Mary’s bunny.

My quick-thinking friend came up with a plan. _______   from the cat’s mouth the dead animal, which by now was a _______   mess, he put it in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to _______ the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer and blow-dried the bunny _______ it looked pretty good.

Finally, under the cover of darkness, he crept into the next-door garden and placed it _______   in the cage. He managed to make the bunny look very _______   there in his little box.

The next morning, my friend looked out of the window and noticed a crowd of people ________ around the rabbit hutch. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. My friend ________ to go over and act like any normal ________ neighbor and find out what was going on.

When he got there, Mary’s mother said to my friend, “You won’t believe this! It’s a(n) ________ thing! Mary’s bunny ________   a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there...”

Have you ever tried to cover up one wrongdoing with another? Covering up only makes matters ________ .

When we get caught doing something ________ , for example, we may ________ to cover it up with a lie. But just like Mary’s bunny, the result is ________ what we expected. We ________ looking foolish. We would have been better off admitting we were wrong and accepting the ________ . What do you think of it?

10 . This afternoon after seeing my mom, I was driving home. I took the________that was more like a canyon (峡谷)drive with beautiful scenery. Suddenly I heard a sound and I knew a big________tire! I pulled to the side, but this was a canyon drive with not much shoulder________, and it happened to be around a curve (弯曲处)where people couldn't________me. That made it very________. Thus, cars       passed me________so that I couldn't get out. Within minutes I saw a car________at a distance behind me. The gentleman walked out,________help, and I walked out of the car very________, for the road was so narrow. He moved my car a bit out of the way while I was still talking to AAA(美国汽车协会).They said with all the________they gave me since I was in a dangerous place, they could send ________in 20minutes. The gentleman offered to look at my spare tire to________ it was OK before I ________AAA.

Before I knew it, he took it out and________to change the tire. By the time I finished talking with AAA, he had changed my tire!

I________him and he left. I saw in my________that the car just followed me, making sure I was OK. At the traffic lights, I got a chance to see the________family in the car—a beautiful young wife with lovely children in the back. They all gave me a big smile and________at me. I thought about what a role________for those young children to learn about service and sympathy. I thought how ________I was to be the receiver of such generosity.