1 . This is a talk by a London taxi driver.

“I’ve been a taxi driver for nearly ten years. Most London taxi drivers have their own taxis.” “It’s a nice job most of time. you meet a lot of people. I always work at night, because there is too much traffic during the day. I live twenty miles outside London and I go to work at 5:30 in the afternoon.”

“I usually go home between 2 and 3 in the morning.”

“Some very strange things happened late at night. The other day I was taking a woman home from a party. She had her little dog with her. When we got to her house, she found that she had lost her key. So I waited in the car with the dog while she climbed in through the windows.” “I waited and waited. After half an hour of ringing the bell I decided to find out what was going on. I tied the dog to a tree and started to climb in through the window. The next thing I knew was that the police came.” They thought I was a thief.

“Luckily, the woman came downstairs. She must have gone to sleep and forgotten about me and the dog!”

2 . A man came home from work late, ________, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door.

“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”

“That’s ________ of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said ________.

“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”

“If you ________ know, I make $20 an hour.”

“Oh”, the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I please borrow $10?” The father got angry immediately and flatly ________. After about an hour or so, the man had ________ and started to think: maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he didn’t ask for money very often anyway.

The man stepped into the little boy’s room ________. “I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier.” said the man. “It’s been a long day and I was just in a bad _________. Here’s the $10 you ________.” The little boy sat ________, smiling. “Oh, thank you, Daddy!” he ________. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled (皱巴巴的) bills.

The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to ________ about his purpose. As the little boy slowly ________ his money, the father asked ________, “Since you already have the money, why do you want more money?” “Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied. “Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I ________ an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

3 . My father brought home a sailboat when I was ten, and almost each Sunday in summers we would go sailing. Dad was quite skilled in sailing, but not good at ________. As for me, I ________ both before twelve because of living close to Lake Ontario.

The last time Dad and I set sail together was really unforgettable. It was a perfect weekend after I graduated from university. I came home and ________ Dad to go sailing. Out we set soon on the ________ lake. Dad hadn’t sailed for years, but everything went well with the tiller（舵柄）in his hands. When we were in the middle of the lake, a strong wind came all of a sudden. The boat was hit ________. Dad was always at his best in any ________, but at this moment he ________.

“John! ________!” he shouted in a trembling voice, with the tiller still in his hands.

In my memory he could fix any ________. He was the one I always ________ for strength and security.

Before I could respond, a wave of water got into the boat. I rushed to the tiller ________ it was too late. Another huge wall of water ________ the boat in a minute. We were thrown into the water, and Dad was struggling aimlessly. At that moment, I felt fiercely ________ of him.

I swam to Dad quickly and assisted him in climbing onto the hull（船壳）of the boat. Upon sitting on the hull, Dad was a little awkward about his flash of ________. “It’s all right, Dad. We are safe now,” I comforted him.

That was the first time Dad had counted on me in a moment of emergency. More importantly, I found it was my turn to start ________ for my father.

4 . Margaret Thompson and her husband, Kenneth, stretched their legs together on walking holidays in Switzerland. In Interlaken, they would head up the mountain and watch the paragliders (滑翔伞运动员) ______ themselves into the sky. Back in town, in a large park, they watched them return to the ______ . “Some day I’d love to do that,” Thompson told Kenneth.

But there was always so much to do in Interlaken. _______, Thompson didn’t know if Kenneth would have ______ it. “He was not so keen on heights as I was,” she said. So she ______ to watch the gliders take flight and land.

Kenneth died in 2005. Eleven years later, Thompson ______ took to the skies herself, in a paraglider at the age of 80. Although some people get scared while flying, she said she just feels ______ . Thompson did her second paraglide when she turned 85.

Thompson asked the organizers about the age ______ for paragliding. They said: “Any age, as long as you’re ______.” Thompson, now 86, plans her third flight for when she is 90.

Thompson______ living above her parents’ shop in Belfast. At 18, she helped in the shop while ______ for her music diplomas (文凭) in Stranmillis, south Belfast. She started to ______ piano to local children, and at the height of her teaching she gave 70 ______ a week. She still has 15 pupils on her books.

Is she scared of getting older? “Fear? No. People say: ‘Isn’t getting old ______ ?’ I say: ‘No. You are free to do more things that you want to do,’” Thompson said.

“People might worry about falling, it being the end of them. But that doesn’t ______ me at all. When it’s your time, it’s your time. No matter where you are,” Thompson added.

5 . Five years ago, I was a trail ride leader at a holiday farm in Victoria. My favourite horse was a warmblood, called Holly. Aged seven, she was _________ , sweet-nature d and well-trained; the only _________ with Holly was her vivid imagination. I was constantly surprised by Holly’s ability to be _________ by rabbits, the wind or even shadows — sometimes her own shadow!

One day, as we headed back from a ride on the beach, Holly and I were _________ the way over the hilly area. When we got to one particularly long, steep hill, Holly began to twitch (抽动) her ears and step in place. So, when she _________ to sniff (嗅) and give all the _________ that she believed the ‘horse-eating monsters’ were close, I became a little worried.

At the bottom of the hill as we rounded a corner, Holly _________ with caution, and so I followed her gaze to the path ahead. There, sunny itself in the middle of the track, was a brown _________. This time it was my _________ to get scared; I was on a nervous horse, leading a group of eight inexperienced pre-teen riders. Unexpectedly, Holly was firmly__________, ears forward. With the snake in her sight, she was no longer frightened.

I have heard that horses have a better sense of __________ than dogs. I hadn’t seen it __________ before that moment. __________ , while we waited in reality for just a second or two but for what felt like a century—the snake awoke and moved calmly off into the bush.

Holly then __________ , leading the horses with caution and care. She had been alert (警觉的) to danger and had been __________ for the safety of us all. Following in the footstep of their lead horse, not one of the other horses showed any fear.

6 . He really did look like a tourist, with a camera around his neck and a bottle of sunscreen cream sticking out of his bag. The fat man sat on the terrace (平台), sipping lemonade and pretending to look at a tourism brochure. His sunglasses masked his eyes, but I knew he wasn’t looking at the brochure: he hadn’t turned a page for the last ten minutes. As I brought him his dishes, he coughed up a “thank you” and looked at me briefly. I tried not to stare at the tiny scar across his left eyebrow.

I walked back inside with my empty tray (托盘), shaking my head. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him. Then it hit me. The car accident. The mysterious stranger who helped me out of my crashed car, just before it exploded. I rushed back to his table. He was gone.

I moved his saucer and found his tip, along with a card: I am deeply grateful to you. The night of your car accident, I was on my way to rob a jewelry store. Saving your life brought things back in a right way. I now live an honest life, thanks to you. God bless you! Mr. D.

I shivered (颤抖). The night of my car accident, I was heading for an interview in an illegal dance club. Seeing human kindness through his heroic gesture turned my life around and brought faith back into my life. I unfolded the tip he left. Among the singles was a grand (一千块) with a pen mark underlining “In God We Trust.” I said a silent prayer for him and got back to work, smiling.