1 . In 1949, I just returned home from the war. On every American highway you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking (搭便车) home to their families, as was the ___at that time in America.

___, the excitement of this reunion with my family soon disappeared. My mother became very ill and had to be in hospital. The doctors told me she ___a blood transfusion (输血)   ___or she wouldn’t live through the night. The problem was that Mother’s blood type was AB-, a very ___type even today, but even harder to get then because there were no blood ___ or air flights to ship blood. All the family members had their ___tested, but none was a   ___. So the doctors gave the family no hope. My mother was ___.

I left the hospital ___to gather up all the family members, ___everyone would get a chance to tell Mother good-bye. ___down the highway, I passed a soldier in uniform hitch-hiking home to his family. Deep in sadness, I had no willingness at that moment to do a good deed. Yet it was almost as if something outside myself pulled me to a ___, and I waited as the stranger climbed into the car.

I was too upset to ___ask the soldier his name, but he noticed my tears right away and asked why. I told this total stranger ___.

It got very ___in the car. Then this soldier reached his hand out to me, in which rested the dog tags (身份识别证) from around his neck. The blood type on the tags was AB-. The soldier   ___me to turn the car ___and get him to the hospital.

My mother ___until 1996, and to this day no one in our family knows the soldier’s name. But I have often wondered, was he a soldier or a(n) ___in uniform?