1 . A week before Christmas, my grandmother passed away. My boss ________ gave me several days off to go home for the funeral (葬礼) in Nova Scotia. I planned to leave on the 20th so that I could get home ________ to help my mother with the preparations for both the funeral and a very ________ and busy Christmas.

Here, my string of bad luck began: my plan was ________ by a big storm, and I had to ________ a ferry ticket for the 22nd, the last day that the ferry would run. I left as the roads were still ________, and I was two-thirds of the way through the long drive when my car ________. I was so anxious that I almost ________. Just then a car stopped nearby. A lady came out and asked whether I was asking for ________. After hearing what I said, the lady took out her ________ and quickly helped me put on my tire at no charge! I was filled with ________. Thanks to her ________, I was able to catch the very last ferry.

The woman is a stranger, ________ she tried her best to help me get home. I’ll never ________ the kind stranger, who made a hard Christmas a lot easier, for both me and my family. I ________ the world is beautiful because there are lots of kind people in it.

A few years ago, the company I worked for sent my wife and me to live in New York for a year. I’ve always loved running, so I was really happy when I found out I lived next to Central Park. This meant that every morning I could go for a run before I went to work.

Because a lot of people had told me to be careful of robbers in the park, so usually I didn’t take anything with me. How could they rob me if I didn’t have anything? But one morning, my wife gave me a S 10 bill and asked me to buy some bread on the way.

It was a beautiful morning and the park was quiet with very few people walking or jogging (慢跑) around. While I was running through the park, another jogger knocked into me. He apologized and continued running. For a while, I didn’t think too much of it. However, when I noticed the wide path where I was running, I thought was kind of strange. The warning of robbers in the park occurred to me. ”It could have been a robber!” I suddenly became alarmed, so I checked my pocket and found that the money was missing. Without thinking twice, I ran after that jogger. I finally caught up and held him by the arm. I shouted, “Give me the $10 bill! Now!” I am not usually a hot-headed (性急的) person, but I got really angry this time. I couldn’t believe the robbery was actually happening to me. Filled with anger, I shook my fist at him. This seemed to frighten him. He quickly put his hand in his pocket and gave me the money. Then he ran away as fast as he could.

I bought the bread and went home. As soon as I got home, I couldn’t wait to tell my wife my story. “You won’t believe what happened to me,” I started with pride. She immediately stopped me, “I know, you left the money for the bread on the kitchen table.”

Looking at the money on the table, I stood there, shocked.

4 . 81-year-old Harry Smith of Port St. Lucie, Florida takes his 9-year-old dog Sarah Jane for a walk around the lake across the street from his house twice a day, every day. Smith, who uses an electric wheelchair to get around, was on one of his regular walks earlier this month when something out of the ordinary happened. The left wheel of his wheelchair got stuck in some loose mud (泥土), and as he tried to reverse (倒车)out of it, his wheelchair lost balance. He ended up turning over his wheelchair and rolling down the bank into the lake.

Sensing her owner was in trouble, Sarah Jane began barking (吠叫)loudly as Smith struggled to keep his head above the water. Her continuous barking caught the attention of two neighbors working in their driveway across the street, who rushed over to see what was wrong.

One of those men was Edward Shuling, who said in the beginning he thought the dog might have gotten into a fight with a crocodile (鳄鱼), before he saw Smith's head sticking out of the water.“Immediately I just jumped in,”Shuling told TCPalm.“It's just a natural reaction.”A second neighbor, Aby“Jacob”Chacko, was following closely behind and happened to spot Officer Adam Doty on his way down to the water. Together, the three men pulled Smith out of the water and back to safety, much to his—and Sarah Jane's—relief.

With no serious injuries, Smith was cleared to go home but his electric wheelchair was no longer working due to water damage. And in a post showing the sweet moment by the Port St. Lucie Police Department, Officer Doty and Sarah Jane, of course, helped Smith get back to his house.“We are thankful to Mr. Smith's dog and the two passers-by that helped save his life!”the post reads.

Last summer, a Romanian family moves into our neighborhood and a friend introduced me to them. They were a young couple with an 8-year-old daughter. Both parents worked and the girl were going to be on her own a lot of. She truly wanted to improve poor English. Therefore, I offered to look after her but teach her English during a summer holiday. To my delighted, she got on well with my daughter. What was surprised was that they became best friend. To be honest, I am really grateful for that I made up my mind to do for the girl during that summer.

9 . Years ago when Sam was nine, a television advertisement caught his attention. Procter & Gamble started an advertisement campaign with “the Cheer Man”, a character who visited_________around the country. If he rang your doorbell and you had a box of Cheer or something like “Cheer” written on a piece of paper, you’d_________ten dollars.

Sam was_________that the Cheer Man would come to his home. Many parents considered his idea_________, but his mother helped him prepare for that_________.

Young Sam made a sign with the Cheer logo(标志) and_________it in his bedroom. When he was_________, he told his classmates his dream. They_________him, but his mother kept_________him to dream.

Time went by and the ad was not on____________.Sam stored the sign in his closet(壁橱)-but he____________believed the Cheer Man was coming.

The next summer when Sam was ten, he____________a neighborhood birthday party. While they were playing outside, they____________what sounded like someone shouting. As the noise got____________, they saw a car with a loudspeaker-and a man was yelling, “Cheer! Cheer! Cheer is here!”

Sam watched____________. The car was several blocks away, but he knew it was going to his house. Sam ran home, grabbed(抓住)his sign and____________outside holding it over his head. And just as he’d____________, the Cheer Man stopped in front of his house and said, “You get the ten dollars.”Sam’s joy was beyond____________.

Young Sam learned a valuable____________about believing in a dream He discovered that anything is possible. That knowledge paved the way for Sam Haskell’s____________as a television executive and producer in Hollywood.