3 . I woke up with a painful back this moming.This was not______,since my back has given me problems for years,but today no stretching or moving would loosen it up.Still,I had five dogs waiting patiently by the door to go out for their mormning walk as usual,so I slowly bent down and started to pull my______ on.When I did,though,I saw that my shoes,like my body,were showing______ of wear.

From the split in one shoe,I knew that it wouldn’t be too long ______ I had to replace this pair,I only wished I could replace my back along with them.

Later,after walking the dogs,watching the sunrise and eating breakfast,I was feeling a lot ______        inside.My backpain had faded too,and my smile had returned.It was then that I remembered a letter a friend had sent me recently.Inside,she had pasted a ______picture of an old,wom-out pair of work boots,sitting on the ground.Their leather was cracked and their laces were worn,but they still looked ______ ,because inside,someone had planted a beautiful bunch of flowers.The flowers had grown tall and strong, ______their curious container.This picture reminded me again that ______ my body might have felt like a worn-out pair of shoes at times,inside it was a ______that continued to grow every day in love,peace and happiness.

At some point in your life you need to ______ who you really are.Are you the body that ______older every day,or are you the soul within it that remains forever ______ ?One day the loving spirit within you will have to ______out of its worn-out pair of shoes and walk on______them. May it bless everyone it meets along the way,heading for its Heavenly Home.

5 . Kwane Stewart, a vet at an animal shelter, stepped outside a convenience store and _________ a homeless man, with a small dog ________on his laps. Stewart noticed the dog’s scratched-off fur and chewed-up skin ________ of an allergic reaction to fleas (跳蚤). He ________ the man and offered to bring medication for the dog’s skin.

________ a week and a half later, Stewart found that the dog recovered,and that the homeless man could not thank him more.

Stewart, now 50, has his own practice in town, ________he finds time for street pets. He’s helped roughly 400 animals since 2011.

There’s a desperate need for his help. About 25 percent of the town’s homeless population owns a pet, but there are few healthcare________ available to them to ________ that blank, Stewart can often be found wandering dark alleyways and underpasses, ________ he thinks the homeless might be. He pays for almost all the ________ out of his own pocket. ________ he comes upon a medical problem that requires more attention than he can provide on the street,for which he ________ a GoFundMe account to help cover treatment costs.

He knows there are some people who question whether the homeless should even have pets. “I think that ________ anybody else, they need a pet, and they deserve a pet. They love their pet probably more than the_________ person. Because, you know, the owner is the pet’s   ________”.

Catherine had stayed at home all her life to look after her three children, but now, she, who lost her husband in a car accident, had to step out and earn money to make ends meet. With zero work experience and no professional degree, her chances of getting hired for a well-paid job were next to zero.

One day, after dropping her children at school, Catherine spotted a construction site. “I think I can work here,” she thought and approached the manager.

“Hi, are you hiring?” she asked. “Yes, we are,” the manager looked at Catherine from head to toe. “Are you sure you can work here? This job requires a lot of hard work.” “I’m ready for it,” she told the manager and signed a contract to work a 12-hour shift.

However, Catherine kept her new job a secret from her children. She thought they would feel embarrassed after learning their mother worked at a construction site.

Every morning, after dropping her children to school, she would go to the construction site and work until her shift ended. She would pick up heavy bricks on her shoulder to transport them from one part of the site to the other. One evening, Catherine’s son, Peter, told her about an upcoming contest in school that required mothers to participate. In the competition, students will wear blindfolds and have to recognize their mothers without looking at them. “That sounds like such a cool event, Peter!” Catherine said excitedly. “I can’t wait for it!” “I won’t go therewith you, mom,” Peter replied. “But why?” What her son said next was something Catherine wasn’t prepared to hear.

“Mom, I would have to touch your hands to recognize you, and everyone would look at them,” Peter explained. “Your hands are so ugly. They’re so hard and rough,” he added. “I will feel so embarrassed when my classmates look at your hands,” the boy said. “I won’t attend the event.” Catherine felt terrible but couldn’t say anything in her defense.

A few weeks later, Peter was walking home when something unexpected caught his attention.

On his way back home, he kept thinking about how he would apologize to his mother:

9 . A young man was about to go to the office when he received a phone call from a nurse who told him his father was injured and in hospital. So he _________ to the hospital by taxi. He had gone into the hospital when he found he _________ his cell phone in the taxi. What’s _________, he had forgotten to ask the nurse which ward his father was in. He had to run hurriedly around in the hospital _________ his father. Seeing a nurse, he asked her with _________, “My father is in hospital. He...”

The nurse _________, “Oh, my God. It’s you. Come with me!” She _________ the young man to the bed side of an elderly man. “Your son is here,” she _________ to the elderly patient several times. The old man was too weak to stay awake, only to look _________ at the young man standing beside him.

Throughout the night the young man __________ after the old man, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength. The dying old man said nothing. The nurse__________ the young rest for a while but he __________ her advice.

Sunrise __________, the old man peacefully died. The young man placed the lifeless hand on the bed and informed the nurse. After the nurse did what was __________, she just found the young man had left, leaving a letter __________ “Thank you, lady! My father is fine. I knew right away the old man was not my father. But I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. So, I stayed.”

10 . In this age of Internet chat, videogames and reality television, there is no shortage of mindless activities to keep a child occupied. Yet, despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest; a competition she won last year.

As a writer I know about winning contests, and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection slip from the publisher. I also know the pressures of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the con test again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and dashed hopes can surface.

An enlightenment came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”

I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into mine without even realizing it.

Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting (借用) my daughter’s experience.

While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.