2 . When I was 13 my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant________Miller King, who was the best player at our school.

Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for________.

Just before September, Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him after he came back from hospital. He looked very pale, but he didn’t cry.

That season, I________all of Miller’s records while he watched the home games from the bench. We went 10-1 and I was named the most valuable player, but I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame for Miller’s accident.

One afternoon, I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller________going over a fence — which wasn’t hard to climb if you had both arms. I’m sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept________from. But even that challenge he accepted. I helped him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally________on the other side, he said to me, “You know, I didn’t tell you this during the season, but you did________. Thank you for filling in for me.”

His words freed me from my bad________. I thought to myself, how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated, he was still ahead of me. I was right to have________him. From that day on, I grew________and a little more real.

3 . A man who knows how to write a personal letter has a very powerful tool. A letter can be enjoyed, read and ________. It can set up a warm conversation between two people far apart; it can keep a friendship with very little effort.

I will give ________. A few years ago my older brother and I were not getting along. We had been close as _______ but had grown apart. Our meetings were not pleasant; our conversation was filled with arguments and quarrels; and every effort to clear the air seemed to only ________ our misunderstanding. Then he moved to a small island in the Caribbean and we ________ touch. One day he wrote me a letter. He described his island and its people, told me what he was doing, said how he felt, and encouraged me to write. Rereading the letter, I was ________ by its humor and clever expressions. These were all qualities for which I had once respected my older brother but ________ he no longer had them. I had never known he could write so well. And with that one letter we became friends ________.

It might never have occurred to my brother to write me if he had not been in a place where there were no ________. For him, writing was a necessity. It also turned out to be the best way for us to get back in touch. Because we live in an age of easy communication, people often ________ that they don’t always have to phone or email. They have a choice. And that is to write.

6 . Years ago, in a small fishing village in Holland, a young boy taught the world about the rewards of unselfish service.

Because the entire village lived on fishing, a volunteer rescue team was needed in case of emergency. One night, the winds _______, the clouds burst and a strong storm overturned a fishing boat at sea. The crew in trouble sent out the SOS. The captain of the rescue rowboat team _______ the alarm and the villagers gathered in the town square overlooking the sea. When the team started their rowboat and _______ their way through the wild waves, the villagers waited _______ on the beach, holding lamps to light the way back.

An hour later, the rescue boat reappeared through the fog and the cheering villagers ran to greet them. Falling _______ on the sand, the volunteers reported that the rescue boat could not hold any more passengers and they had to leave one man behind. Even one more passenger would have surely _______ the rescue boat and all would have been lost.

Anxiously, the captain called for another volunteer team to look for the survivor. Sixteen-year-old Hans stepped forward. His mother grabbed his arm, crying, “Please don’t go. Your father died in a shipwreck (船只失事) 10 years ago and your elder brother, Paul, has been lost _______ for three weeks. Hans, you are all I have left.”

Hans replied, “Mother, I have to go. What if everyone said I can’t go, let someone else do it? Mother, this time I have to do my duty. When the call for _______ comes, we all need to take our turn and do our part.” Hans kissed his mother, joined the team and _______ into the night.

Another hour passed, which seemed to Hans’ mother like a century. Finally, the rescue boat dashed through the fog with Hans standing up in the bow. ________ his hands, the captain called, “Did you find the lost man?” Hardly able to control himself, Hans excitedly cried back, “Yes, we found him. Tell my mother it’s my elder brother, Paul!”

8 . A few weeks ago, I received a package containing seeds from my friend. When I asked her what they would _______ into, a smile crossed her face. “Just plant them and be patient. You’ll see for yourself _______!” she said.

I sowed the seeds in a flowerpot. In the first few days, I was very excited to search for the slightest signs, but _______ happened. With heavy loads of homework, I began to feel sad and _______. How much I longed for the color in my fast-paced life.

I watered the plants in dry periods. On the eighth day, to my great _______, a few light green sprouts (新芽) appeared. Bending down and studying the plants, I could almost hear them growing. More days passed, and the flowerpot soon became _______ with coriander (香菜) plants. Now they are taller than the edge of the pot, constantly shaking their leaves in the gentle wind, as if they were merrily singing a song of _______.

I am certain that after a few more days, my plants will be ready for_______. These plants have played an important part in _______ up my everyday life. They may not be a main dish on our table, but using some will surely make our dishes delicious.

Let us all slow our pace down and be patient. So long as we take steps to set our hearts free, time and patience will ________ us with the pure pleasure of being alive in this lovely world.

9 . I was a boy of nine in 1960. I used to mow the lawn for Mrs. Long. She paid me little for the job, but promised to give me a Christmas present.

I spent much time _________ what it would be. Many boys had baseball gloves or ice skates and I was eager to have any of these. “It would _________ be a baseball glove,” I _________ with myself. “She wouldn’t know much about baseball.” So I was convinced that she would give me ice skates. I even imagined myself upon the skates.

As Christmas approached, it was with _________ that I stopped myself from reporting to Mrs. Long and demanding my present. On December 22, I presented myself at the door of the house. Mrs. Long handed me a small box which under no circumstances could _________ a pair of skates. I was disappointed. When lifting it from her, I was curious about the _________ of the present. It weighed almost nothing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“A kind of magic,” she said. Her words were enough to set my mind _________ with new possibilities.

On Christmas morning, I had this box on my knees. With great _________ I opened the box to find inside ten sheets of black paper, each labeled in colorful letters, Carbon Paper Regal Premium. “What is it?” I asked. Mum took two pieces of white paper, placed between them one of the black paper, and wrote my name on the upper sheet. Then she handed me the second sheet, which her pencil had in no way touched. There was my name!

It was a miracle to my _________ mind. In that one moment, I remembered the ideas about the duplication(复制) of words and the printing and the mystery of spreading ideas. Thank Mrs. Long for her wisdom to guess that a boy might profit from a present totally outside the realm of his ordinary experience.

The __________ present merely satisfies a temporary desire; the great one lights up all the years of life that remain.