2 . When I was young, our family cat broke out in a rash (皮疹). But an examination at the vet’s revealed no answers. When asked, “Has anything ________ in your home?” my mom explained my leave for college, and the vet responded “That’s it!” He gave my cat medicine that she took in my ________, and curiously didn’t need when I was home.

Years later after marriage, I adopted a well behaved cat. Suddenly he decided to ________ all our house plants. As it could be a ________ of his not feeling well, I took him to the vet. When tests all came back ________, the familiar question was asked again, “Has anything changed in your home?” We thought hard but couldn’t get it until one day we ________ our cat unsuccessfully trying to get in the window. Ah-ha! We had replaced the old ________ with new wooden blinds. They clearly ________ him from sitting in his favorite spot. Then I ________ the blinds every morning. The digging stopped.

I had forgotten those two incidents. Until recently our dog started ________ not herself and became an absolute________ on our daily runs. It was right when I was taking her to the vet that I thought of the question I would most ________ be asked. After years of being at home, I had recently gone back to work. It was a difficult ________ for our family, but I never considered the ________ it would have on one particular member of the family. Suddenly, she was ________ all day long in a quiet house. Why hadn’t I realized it before?

About a month ago, my husband and I found kindness in an unlikely place: standing in line at a Subway sandwich shop to pick up a quick dinner.

It was extremely busy on this particular night, and I noticed a dad behind us with his little girl, who looked to be around four. The man seemed as tired as my husband, but the little girl was cheerful and excited as she waited for her sandwich and cookie.

I watched as the man behind us got closer to the front of the line. He started to look worried. Right before we checked out, I heard the man say to the woman who had made his sandwiches that he was sorry to just leave his out because he didn’t have enough money to pay for them all. He looked very embarrassed. His little girl continued jumping around excitedly.

I quietly asked the cashier to add the man’s whole order to ours. I paid the $ 87.73, and we got out of there before the man behind us knew what had happened.

Like many others since COVID-19 hit, our family of five was living on one income. I was holding our debit card (借记卡) and knew that we only had $ 90.16 in our account. That was all we would have until payday three days later. But still, it felt great to be able to help that family, even though we would be out of money for a few days.

What happened next was amazing. My husband went back to that Subway the next week to pick up five sandwiches that I thought would cost $ 44.58. There was $ 47 in our account.

But it turned out that the dinner cost more than we had on the card. My husband told them to put his sandwich back because he couldn’t afford it. Then he paid for the four sandwiches and headed to our car.

As he opened the door, one of the female workers ran to him.

The two men nodded at one another and went on their way.

As a senior editor in a famous press, I always think of days twenty years before when I was 18, I lived with my grandparents, and my parents earned their living in another city, struggling to support our family. I had taken to delivering newspapers to support myself and my education.

I would be up every morning by 5 am and walk five kilometres from where I lived to the newspaper office. By 6 am, I would collect 50 copies which must have weighed over five kilograms. My delivery range spanned (横跨) three kilometres. After distributing the copies, I would rush home—another three kilometres away—cook my breakfast, and be off to my school.

One Friday morning, I got home after my deliveries, finding Afzal, a boy from the neighbourhood, at my doorstep. Afzal said his mother wanted to see me. When I asked him why, Afzal said, “She will tell you.” Tired after walking around for over 11 kilometres, I was looking forward to breakfast and some rest. I assumed his mother wished to subscribe (定期订购) to the newspaper, so I followed him to his home nearby.

A woman in her 40s opened the door. I later learned she was Afzal’s mother, Mrs Kader. She asked me to sit, pulled up her chair next to mine and gently asked, “Tell me about your routine, right from the time you wake up in the morning.” I wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to know, but I told her about my morning job in a few words. She asked me, “How many miles do you walk every day?” I replied, “A little more than 11 kilometres.” My reply shocked her.

Then she patted my back and went inside, reappearing carrying a large plate full of food for breakfast for me. It was a heart y breakfast, one that brought back memories of happy days spent with my parents. Later, as I was about to leave after thanking them, Mrs Kader asked me to wait and she went inside again.

Then Mrs Kader appeared again, with a new bicycle.

I bowed to Mrs Kader gratefully and left for school.

One day, a baby girl called Helen felt uncomfortable and she nearly died. Luckily her life     1    (save), but she could no longer see or hear. Because of that, she also found it very difficult to speak.

Before her     2    (eight) birthday, the family found her a private teacher-Anne Sullivan. Anne was always     3    (patient) teaching Helen, especially those     4     she was interested in. As a result, Helen soon learned to read and write in Braille which is a special language for the blind. She also learned to read people’s mouths by     5    (put) her fingers on them. This is a skill that very few people can have. She has the     6    (able) to express herself     7    (exact) and communicate with others well.

Helen became     8     successful scholar (学者) . While she was still at college, she wrote The Story of My Life. It soon became such a success that she got enough money to buy her own house.

After she     9    (die) in 1968, an organization was set up in her name to help the blind in the developing world. Today, Helen Keller International organization has become one of the     10    (big) organizations working with blind people overseas.

9 . No one expected Jamie MoCrazy to live after her fall. The chances of _________ were slim when her brain started bleeding in eight spots. Family and friends _________, hoping for a miracle (奇迹) but fearing the worst. .

She had been _________ in freestyle skiing’s World Tour Finals in Canada when disaster struck. Having successfully completed her _________ run, ranking fourth in the standings, she increased the difficulty for her second and final run. However, her _________ landed first, lying there unconscious (无意识的).

Ten days after the _________, at the age of 22, she opened her eyes. Although she only _________ them for a few seconds, they were enough to add a little _________ to the darkest days. Six weeks later, she could recognize her parents.

The _________ was slow, often painful. There were physical and mental problems to overcome. The __________ challenges she faced were the easiest while her emotions were greatly affected. It took her five years to __________ recover from the accident.

“That does not mean my __________ has to be worse. I viewed it as climbing a mountain. The views on the top might be even more __________,” MoCrazy said.

Her life goal now is to __________ others who have suffered traumatic (创伤性的) brain injuries, __________ a non-profit organization MoCrazy Strong with her mother for the purpose of giving back.

My father was the kind of person who could never pass by someone who needed help. He was a firm believer in the mantra (箴言)： What goes around comes around. He believed that someday he might need help, and someone would return the favor. But I didn’t quite buy it.

One weekend, my father and I took a trip to Flaming Gorge Reservoir (水库). We loved to fish at Flaming Gorge. We owned a cabin boat that was about fifteen feet in length. We put our boat in at Sheep Creek Marina (游艇停泊港). Our goal was to go as far north as possible, spend the weekend in our boat, and fish until we had our limit.

Heading toward the Wyoming side of the reservoir, we traveled some distance before we began to fish. Frankly, the fishing wasn’t very good, but we loved being out on the boat together in such a beautiful place.

Suddenly, we saw a man on the far shore waving at us. Immediately, my father fired up the motor and went toward the other side of the reservoir, where the man was still waving at us. When we arrived, I was amazed to see a beautiful big yacht (游艇) pulled onto the shore.

The man introduced himself as Mat and then thanked us warmly for coming to his assistance. His battery was dead, and he wondered if we could help him. We did, and soon his big motor roared back to life. Mat and his family were very grateful. We lost an hour of fishing. Being an impatient teenager, I was a bit annoyed at the one-hour loss, but we were soon back out on the reservoir.

The next day the fishing didn’t improve. As a matter of fact, it was terrible, so we decided to call it quits and go back to the marina. We were about two miles from the marina when we found ourselves fighting a strong headwind that slowed our progress. The waves were kicking up, and suddenly our engine decided to quit.

We tried to get it running, but it simply wouldn’t start.

On our way home, I saw an old lady waving at our car by the roadside.