2 . As an only child, Renae often felt _________. But that all changed when she turned ten. For her birthday, Renae’s grandmother _________ her with a lovely puppy named Chloe. From then on, the two were _________. Every bit of love Renae gave, the little dog returned more. “She was such a sweet dog,” Renae says. “She’d lick your face forever if you didn’t stop her.”

When Renae was 14, her father got a new job and the house needed to be free of noise. “Chloe liked barking,” Renae says. “I didn’t want to lose my dog but I didn’t have any _________ as a kid.” With no easier _________, the family sent Chloe to a humane society(动物保护协会). Though they were _________ that the dog would find a new home with people who loved her, they couldn’t know for sure. “I called the humane society to try to _________ what happened to her, but they couldn’t tell me anything. So, I never knew,” Renae says _________.

Later, Renae grew up, got married, and had a child. But her family didn’t feel quite _________. Remembering the joy that having a dog had brought her as a kid, Renae wanted her daughter to __________ the same. She had it in her mind that she would __________ a puppy. One day she saw a post on Facebook about a senior dog that needed a new home. The dog in the photograph looked like Chloe-she was even named Chloe. In an __________ it was decided: she would adopt it. “When we met, she ran up to me and started __________ my face. I was crying,” Renae says. “I just knew in my heart that it was her.” After years of thinking she’d never see her dog again, Renae is __________ to have her back. “I get so excited to come home and see her,” she says. “__________ Chloe, she’s made herself right at home,” Renae says. “And why shouldn’t she? She knows that she’ll be with me forever.”

3 . I have been one of those men who set the same goals every year but rarely ______ any of them. I started hot and ready for a ______ year each year but that energy ______ by the end of February. I came to the end of each year feeling ______.

At the end of 2016, I reached my ______ point. I was tired of being overweight and broke, ______ to pay my bills, in ______ relationships, and feeling like a(n)______ to those in my life.

I said “enough”, and started at the beginning of 2017 in a place that ______ me — Maui, Hawaii. I spent mornings on the beach reflecting quietly and ______ my mentality to process trauma (创伤). I spent days ______ how to promote myself in the areas I wanted to, and I got to work. I left Maui a changed man, and the ______ to becoming the best version of myself hasn’t stopped since.

One of my biggest realizations was the ______ of putting myself first and creating goals connected with where I wanted to go in life.

Self-prioritization (自我优先) has helped me create goals I can go hard on all year. Self-prioritized goals have led to a better me for everyone else in my life. Life is more ______ since making the shift to self-prioritization in goal setting. Understanding and carrying out self-prioritization in your goal-setting can greatly ______ how you reach your goals and work on becoming the best version of yourself.

5 . One morning, Bill McDonald read in the paper that a local man, Joe Day, was sick with lung cancer. That meant it would be Christmas without Joe’s _________. So he decided to do _________.

33 Christmases ago, when Day came home in the afternoon, he found his five-year-old grandson, Nicholas, _________. “What do you want to do today?” Day asked. “Let’s _________ a reindeer (驯鹿),” Nicholas said. They made one using wood from a fallen tree, then set it out on the lawn and lit up its cherry-red nose for the _________. Each year, Day added to his _________, placing the reindeer on a track above his roof and _________ lights as if they were electric vines (藤蔓) around his _________.

However, Day’s cancer had spread to his liver now. He was too _________ to celebrate Christmas. Until McDonald called.

“I want to __________ you get your lights up,” McDonald said. He gathered local firefighters, friends, and strangers to __________ Day’s displays. For two days, over 100 volunteers climbed in and around Day’s house, following his hand-drawn diagrams that __________ where everything should go.

On the evening of December 12, with crowds of volunteers cheering him on, Day __________ the switch and lit up the spectacle (奇观).

Day is __________ that his brilliant displays will continue to light up the darkness for many years to come __________ Bill McDonald has promised that he’ll get the job done.

Cynthia was a primary school student. She was curious about everything. She made efforts to get a good grade in every subject. She was a kind-hearted and outgoing girl. At school, she was always ready to help her classmates. At home, she helped her mum do some housework. She was never a concern to her mum, Mrs. Anderson.

However, Mrs. Anderson noticed a change in Cynthia these days. There were more quiet moments. Mrs. Anderson saw Cynthia looking out of the window, lost in thought. She also learned from her teacher that Cynthia wasn’t as focused on school as before. A sense of worry rose in Mrs. Anderson’s heart and she wondered about what was behind Cynthia’s unusual behavior.

Before going to bed, she started talking with Cynthia, asking about her day. However, Cynthia just said that nothing in particular happened. Mrs. Anderson’s concern grew. She decided to keep a closer eye, hoping to uncover the challenges her daughter might be facing.

One day, while cleaning up Cynthia’s bedroom, Mrs. Anderson discovered something unexpected — on her desk lay some books on how to treat injured birds. It was quite surprising. Cynthia had never told her about this. It also amazed Mrs. Anderson. She had a deep love for nature and birds and she could always find inspiration in their freedom and the beauty of their songs. She couldn’t help but wonder what had inspired her daughter’s newfound interest in birds.

The next morning, Mrs. Anderson saw Cynthia walking quietly into the backyard with a first aid kit in hand.

Mrs. Anderson couldn’t help but walk out.

My dad was a cleaner in my school. When I was 12, I decided to study hard to have a life different from his.

One day when Dad asked me to play basketball with him, I just replied, “I’m busy. I want to study well so that I can become a rich man. I don’t want to be a cleaner like you, Dad!” He was shocked (震惊的), but I didn’t care and continued studying hard. Finally, I graduated from high school with honors, and decided it was time to break free from my dad and follow my dreams.

“Dad, I got a scholarship to a law school in California,” I told him. “I’ll leave in 3 days.” My dad was surprised but proud of me. As I left for the airport 3 days later, he said, “Son, wherever you go, welcome back home.” I ignored his words and flew to California.

After I graduated, I found a great job there. Later, I was made manager and earned much money. I no longer remembered my father was a cleaner. I had forgotten my dad, who was still cleaning my school. I seldom answered his calls or wrote back to him. I was busy; I still had a lot more to achieve.

With time, the more success I tasted, somehow, the lonelier I became. I felt especially lonely on my 31st birthday. I kept checking my phone, hoping someone wished me a happy birthday. But there wasn’t a single call or message. Later that evening when I returned home from my office, something in my mailbox drew my attention.

“A letter?” I whispered and saw it was from my father. He never forgot to mail me a letter on my each birthday. However, I never took the trouble to read it. “How did I ignore him?” I thought. I brought the letter home and took out his earlier letters. And I opened one. It read, “Wherever you are, I love you to the last drop of my blood. I wish you a happy life.”

I picked up another letter and read it.

Finally, I arrived at my dad’s house and saw him sitting alone in the yard.

9 . Working for a big company in London on a salary (薪水)of over £100,000, you might expect Grayden Reece-Smith to have a luxurious (奢侈)lifestyle, going on expensive holidays or driving a sports car around south London, where he lives. In fact, the 28-year-old lives a very different existence from his colleagues. He gives away everything he earns over £42,000–a figure that he thought he could comfortably live on.

Over the past five years, Reece-Smith has handed over more than £250,000 to organizations such as International Care Ministries, which helps poor families in the Philippines, and the Against Malaria Foundation. He is part of a growing number of young professionals described as “effective altruists”. Effective altruists typically donate regularly to a charity which they think will have a great impact (影响). Some change careers to make more money, which can then be given away.

Reece-Smith considered working in the charity sector after graduating from university, but thought that he could make a bigger difference by donating a large part of his salary. He had volunteered as a teacher at a school in Tanzania, but then realized that earning and giving would be more effective. “The cost of my flights there could have paid the salaries of two teachers for an entire year,” he says. Instead, he could “stay at home, living a nice life and still make a huge difference in the world”.

He is not mean with money-last year he went to Cuba on holiday, and spent several thousand pounds on a new sofa. But his lifestyle isn’t as luxurious as some of the people he works with. “I usually don’t buy supermarket-branded food products, but I don’t own a car. Other people on my salary might have a bigger house. Some of my colleagues have four-bedroom houses, but we only bought what we needed-a two-bedroom flat.£42,000 is more than enough to live on and still save,” he says.