As I was packing up, I noticed my colleague had left his laptop bag in my office. Since he was already home, I decided to bring it to him. It was 4:30 p. m. The snow wasn’t supposed to start until later according to the previous warning, but just to be safe, I decided to use the country roads near his home instead of the highway, which could fast become a skating rink (滑冰场).

After I dropped off the laptop case and got right back on the road, the snow started. Within minutes I was in a whiteout. I rolled down my window, thinking I could follow the edge of the road and keep to a straight line. But really, I hadn’t a clue where I was or even which side of the road I was on. I had to stop because I was afraid of driving into a farmer’s field, or worse. I called 911, only to be told that nobody was coming to get me until morning at the earliest.

Those seconds after the call were the worst of my life. Getting out to walk in a whiteout and high winds when it was -10°C wasn’t an option. So I texted my colleague whose laptop bag I had just returned. I joked about my good deed ending in disaster. But he had an idea. “Pin your location on Google Maps and send it to me,” he said.

I did, and soon he texted me back a screenshot of the satellite view of where I was. We figured out that I was on a road in between two farms. I posted this new information to my Facebook community group, pleading (恳求) for anyone who knew someone living here to help me get rescued.

Soon enough, people started responding on my post. I got a message from someone who was going to put me in touch with the family living there. At 8 p. m., my mobile phone rang. It was the son of the farmer who owned the land beside the road I was stranded (使滞留) on. He told me that his dad was coming to get me!

Then, about 45 minutes later, I saw a tall figure walking toward me in the dark, carrying a flashlight.

As his wife treated me to hot drinks, André went into the storm again and brought back another two families stranded on the road.

2 . Christian Bowers, now 24, has Down Syndrome (唐氏综合征) and it’s been hard for him to find good friends. His mom, Donna Herter, said his lack of friends was making him feel ________.

Herter didn’t know who to turn to. So, she posted it on Facebook. “I just basically said that I was looking for a young ________,” she said. “I told them that I’d pay them $80 for two hours to just ________ and play video games with him. All he ________ wants is just a guy friend to do guy stuff with.”

Herter said Christian attends events for people with special ________, but he “desires a friendship with somebody who is ________”.

Herter sent the post at I am and when she woke up, it had about 5,000 comments. She saw parents ________ suggestions, others volunteering to help. “My hands were ________. I was sweating,” she said.

After ________ a few local guys in Wentzville, Minnesota, Donna ________ it down to seven who now visit Christian once a week.

James Hasting was one of the men she ________. Hasting said he works with people with disabilities and it’s something he has a(n) ________ for. He said he had visited Christian three times so far and they had a wonderful time together.

“Though on the ________ we may look different, deep down we have ________ and getting along should be easy,” Hasting said. He hopes to ________ others to form friendships-because you never know how much it means to someone.

4 . Elmer Whitaker sighed as he looked over his muddy crops. A terrible ________ had swept through his farm the night before, and his crops were now covered in ________ and destroyed. His neighbor, a kind young man named Thomas, ________ to offer his help.

"What a disaster, “Whitaker said.” My whole family has always survived on the harvests of this field. I feel ________ and don't know what to do now.

Thomas calmed him down and thought for a moment. “I see this not as a disaster but as an ________ ,” he said. Whitaker looked at him ________. “How can it be?” he asked. Thomas smiled ________, “Now you have a chance to try something new. You’ve always grown beans and cabbages. Why not try planting ________ crops that will also fit in this soil? You can diversify and therefore ________ your farm once again.”

Elmer Whitaker considered this. Thomas was right-he had become set in his ways. This disaster could push him to make his farm ________ and sustainable in a new way. “You have ________ me,” Whitaker said. He clapped Thomas on the back. “Thank you for showing me the opportunity in this difficulty. ”

And so Whitaker ________ new crops and soon, the farm was full of life again. Farmers from neighboring towns were ________ with the wonder of Whitaker’s fields, and they began to ________ their crops as well. Elmer Whitaker’s farm has become a ________ of adaptability and hope, telling everyone that in every storm, there is a chance for new growth.

5 . I was annoyed that my mom had even scheduled the appointment with a doctor for me. As doctors so often do, when he arrived he went straight into the basic small talk about my _______ history.

But then he _______ a question that took me off guard. “So Robin, what are you going to do after high school?” He wrote something at his notes, with not even a glance in my _______. “I don’t know,” I mumbled(嘟哝). I was seventeen. I had no _______ what I was going to do after high school. My high school guidance counselor told me that I wasn’t “college material” and I believed her. Education wasn’t exactly _______ in my family.

“You don’t know? Well, why don’t you go to college to become a _______ like me?” He smiled as he glanced at his watch. I thought he was _______ for even suggesting it. No one in my family had even graduated from college, let alone become a doctor. “I’m not smart enough to be a doctor.”

He looked me straight in the eyes when he _______ said, “Let me tell you something; you don’t have to be smart to be a doctor. You just have to be persistent(坚持不懈的).” Then the doctor hurriedly gathered his things and _______ to his next appointment.

I ________ to think about it when I was at school. What would I do after high-school? Even though I wasn’t college material, that doctor made a(n) ________ on me. I applied to a college and soon found myself walking in the ________ as a new student. I often questioned what I was doing there. Maybe I wasn’t smart enough for college, but I could be persistent.

I was ________ to find that with each individual achievement came newfound ________ in myself. I graduated with a master’s degree in September 2014, two decades after that ________ with my doctor.

An old and fragile woman approached a very busy road intersection. She stepped slowly forwards. She paused at the sidewalk’s edge, grasping a heavy bucket filled with fresh red apples. She aimed to cross the street.

The way to the intersection before her seemed like a tough journey. The traffic lights changed regularly, and the flow of cars seemed to be non-stop for the old woman. She knew she had to cross the street to reach her destination, a small grocery store on the other side, where she sold her apples to make ends meet.

As she slowly made her way to the crosswalk, she held the handle of the bucket. A kind-hearted driver in the first car, recognizing her struggle, stopped well before the sidewalk, allowing her to cross safely. Grateful for this act of kindness, the old woman nodded and offered the driver a slight smile as she inched forward.

A second car, in the next road, also came to a stop. Its driver also witnessed the old woman’s slow progress. The kindness of strangers warmed her heart, and with their help, she moved another step closer to her destination.

However, the third road was a different story. As the old woman moved carefully further into the road, a speeding car approached, its engine making loud sound like a beast. Panic flowed through the old lady as she realized the approaching danger. The driver of the third car had not noticed her until the very last moment.

With a jolt (颠簸) of terror, the old woman’s holding on the bucket weakened, and the bucket slipped from her weak grasp. The bucket fell to the ground, releasing its goods of apples, which scattered (散开) in all directions. The sound of the crashing bucket and rolling apples echoed through the busy city traffic.

In the emergent time, the driver of the speeding car stepped on the brake to a stop just inches from the old woman. The drivers’ heart pounded in their chest as they realized how close it had come to a tragedy.

Shaken but unharmed, the old woman stood frozen, her eyes wide open with fear.

Eventually, with all the apples collected, the three drivers helped the old lady cross the road.

In 1989, I was away from my home in Malaysia attending the University of Kansas in the USA. I found an advertisement for a summer job as a programmer at Ulm in what was then West Germany. I submitted my application and got an interview. What made me pleased was that I was offered the job after the interview. I thought it was a good opportunity to see part of a new continent.

Both Malaysia and the USA emerged from Britain, so we have common standards for the way many things are done. Naturally, I expected things at Ulm would be different—big things, like language and culture—but I never expected small cultural differences would affect me. For example, I was surprised that little things like how doors fit into doorframes were different. The bread was also very different. While it was fun at first to eat the various kinds of food, after some time I longed for the white, square and soft bread I was used to. And the big things were not that bad: the folks in the city of Ulm mostly didn’t speak English well but were very friendly and helpful.

One of these small differences, however, tripped me up early in my stay. The first few days, my employer put me up in a bed-and-breakfast hotel. Then I found a small studio apartment to rent. It was evening by the time I got settled in. Since there were all-night grocery stores in the US and grocery stores in Malaysia were open late at night, I made a habit of going out to buy some food and other necessities like soap for the shower. But to my surprise and horror, every single shop was closed! I was alone with no food or any other kind of necessary items. I wandered around hopelessly in the street for a while.

Then I saw a university student with whom I talked about my experience.

At his home, I found that he did not possess much.

8 . Living in the beauty, scenery and peacefulness of Italy, Thomas Hartke and Irene Horbrand, both in their 60s, run A Teira, the only pizzeria open year-round in an Italian village. What started off as a vacation nearly 50 years ago turned into a new life full of unexpected cooking achievements.

“We fell in love with this place in 1975 when we first visited it,” says Hartke. “We came back many times. Then 23 years ago we moved here for good, settling down in a rented house. The locals are friendly and welcoming, there’s a comfortable village atmosphere, and we left nothing behind in Germany: why would we ever go back?”

The couple has always been active. For years they ran the village’s main bar, and then took over the pizzeria in 2016. But running the pizzeria also gave them headaches as permit renewals and day- to-day bureaucracy (官僚主义) can be a trouble. The greatest challenge, however, was making a good-or acceptable—pizza and hoping that locals didn’t find it revolting. Italians tend to get quite upset if someone messes with traditional dishes, especially pasta and pizza, but somehow the locals attracted by the German couple’s mixtures.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to serve pizza to Italians—it’s such an untouchable, blessed food, but we were never scared of trying, and our courage was rewarded,” says Hartke. “Customers really do appreciate our pizzas, they become regulars and there’re not just foreigners. Even locals come here.”

Irene, a former fur designer, had never made a pizza before deciding that was what she and her husband were going to do. Practically overnight she learned how to make a pizza on a TV course in Germany. Each evening, alone in the small kitchen where not even her husband is allowed, she bakes 60 pizzas, from 6 p. m. to 10 p. m.

9 . Travel during the holidays is both fun and challenging. One of the biggest difficulties is the ________ about your baggage (行李) — maybe losing it. However, this past holiday season, some travelers got a little help from a kind soul who happened to ________ their struggle.

A teacher named Brittany Loubier-Vervisch from Tampa, Florida was ________ her lost baggage in what seemed like a never-ending cycle when she had a(n) ________— Why not do more than ________ caring about her own baggage?

While her husband was at the Southwest Airlines’ customer-service counter, Brittany ________ her search, but she also decided to help others who had been ________ from their baggage, too.

“I was circling through the baggage claim as stuff was coming off the line and being piled up (堆积) and if there was a tag (标签) on it with a(n) ________ I sent a text,” Brittany said. In fact, Brittany was so helpful that people thought she was a(n) ________ at the airport! She sent between 70 and 80 texts to people, letting them know where to ________ their baggage.

Taira Meadow, one traveler who received a text from Brittany, ________ Brittany’s behavior. “Thank you to the ________ person who texted me that my suitcase was in fact in Tampa,” Taira wrote on his social media. “You are a life saver! Especially since there was no way the Southwest Airlines could ever ________ me. ”

________, after the impressive search, Brittany and her husband did find their own baggage! A simple text might seem like a small gesture, but it certainly made a ________. Some have even given her the nickname of the “Baggage Angel”.

A dog who is thought to have died in a snow slide is home safe after spending days in the     1    (freeze) cold mountains.

A skier and a snowboarder both survived a snow slide in Chaffee County, Colorado, last week. “The second skier down caused a snow slide,     2     then washed over the snowboarder,” said Brian Lazar, the second-in-command director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

The skier opened his airbag and     3    (injure) badly. The snowboarder who     4    (be) below was unable to open her airbag, and she was buried     5     (complete) without a possible airway. The skier was able to save her from the snow. “This could have gone     6    a much different direction very easily.” Lazar said.

The couple also had their dog with them. After searching everywhere for the dog following     7    snow slide, they left without being able to find it.

“We did have some search and rescue     8     (member) visit yesterday, but they didn’t see any signs of tracks,” Lazar said.

It was supposed that the dog died in the snow slide     9    the dog was found on a road late Saturday night.

“Extraordinarily, the dog managed     10    (survive) and made it back to Monarch Pass after spending many nights in cold weather,” Lazar said.