3 . Age is truly just a number if our hearts are young. Lee Minor, an 85-year-old retired psychologist, has________this by finishing his 600th marathon race with 32 members of his family by his side. “Runners don’t have a________line. We just keep going,” he toldGood Morning America. “I felt________running with my family.” Minor has been running three days a week since 1969, and his heart is filled with enthusiasm for running.

“I like to run in all kinds of________. It is so childish as the rain touches your face. And I love to come here after snow and you watch your________as you go along.” he concluded.

Minor’s enthusiasm for running is________. “It is my joy. And I want to live as long as I can. And I mean live, not________.” His words ring true for Ron Robert, a man diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who decided to ________ a three-year bachelor of artsprogram at King’s University College in London, Ontario. “I was always taught early in life that the brain is like the most ________instrument we have in our body,” said Robert.

Last fall, Robert graduated from the university, despite the challenges of his illness. “When I went across the stage, and as I’m getting my________, the kids all stood up andyelled and clapped,” he________. “I had to hold back the tears. It was something else, just wonderful.” He hopes that his story will give hope to others facing________difficulties. “There will come a time when I won’t be able to, and I fully________that. Butin the meantime, I’m living a full life.”

The stories of Minor and Robert are reminders that age and illness need not________us. We can choose to pursue our________and live life to the fullest, no matter whatchallenges we may face.

4 . Smith brought his three-month-old son out for breakfast one day. He was playing with his son and tending to him while eating, and just doing his _________ thing.

But then he noticed a _________ staring at him. He was _________. “What is going on?” “They kept _________ at me,” he wrote in a post.

As it _________, the strangers were just happy to see a dad spending time with his son, and they felt inspired while watching the _________. Smith had no way of knowing that until he paid for his meal. He was given by the waiter a _________ from the couple, saying what a great father he was and that they would like to leave some _________ for his meal.

“Today your meal is on my wife and me,” it read. “_________ that baby as long as possible. The Masons.”

For Smith, it was a happy moment of reassurance (认可) and feeling __________. He was touched by the generosity and noted that he didn’t have a father figure growing up, so spending this time with his son is super __________ to him.

He wrote that he’ll share this __________ with his son when he’s older and that he wants to teach him kindness and about the __________ of giving back.

“I make sure I’m __________,” Smith wrapped. “I get blessed — I want to __________ someone else.”

On a Sunday afternoon, Kiana French was having fun fishing with her father and younger sister, not knowing the next minute, they would struggle not to sink in the freezing water. Their 12-foot boat was taking in water little by little, and the wind was picking up. Her father, Gary French, hurried to operate the engine, while Kiana,16, was in the middle with Cierrah, her sister, frightened but still able to keep calm.

Kiana asked Cierrah to take off one of her cowboy boots, with which she got some of the water out. Hard as she tried, that little effort would not help stop the boat sinking. Moments later, the unthinkable happened. The boat was full of water and then it flipped over. Kiana and her sister were dumped in the water. Their father, who had had a surgery six months ago, managed not to be thrown into the water but seemed to have great pain in the chest due to the sudden change.

Kiana quickly put on her life jacket and saw Cierrah’s and her father’s life jackets floating away. She reacted quickly to get them back and held her sister onto the boat. They were so far out in the middle of the lake that they could not see the shore clearly. What’s worse.it was getting harder to stay above the waves. Their father swam over and hugged his two girls. Cierrah crying silently. Kiana heard her beloved sister murmur, “I can’t feel my feet.”

Kiana knew the only thing to do was to get to shore herself and find help. She looked up at her father, exchanging a concerned glance, turned round and swam as hard as she could towards the shore

Fighting against the strong currents and cold wind, she screamed for help at the top of her lungs every three minutes or so. A strong wind blew, and she looked back only to see her sister’s and father’s heads bobbing(浮动)in the water. She burst into tears, thinking her sister and dad were dead, because she was taking too long.

With desperate tears, she suddenly spotted a boat with a figure walking on it

Once rescued, they were rushed to shore, where a concerned group waited for their arrival.

Rivaldo was playing football from the age of 4. When he was 7, he joined a local football club. He attended the training regularly but never got a chance to play in matches. But the coach had faith in him. He told Rivaldo that he should focus on his training, and one day he would get the chance. Rivaldo had no other option but to continue training in the club. He was training very hard and focused on improving himself.

Even after two years in the club, he never played in a match. He was not even allowed to travel along with the team. One day their club had a charity match, where a famous footballer was a chief guest. While the team was planning to travel, one of the support staff who used to take care of kits got ill. So, they needed someone for this.

The coach thought this should be an opportunity for Rivaldo. So, he told him to travel with the team and take care of the kits. Other support staff objected to it, but he convinced them.

The team reached the stadium. There were a lot of crowds to witness the celebrity footballer. For Rivaldo, this is his first-time experience in the stadium. He was helping the other players with the kits for the pre-match training. The coach came for a chat with Rivaldo. He told Rivaldo, “You are playing today.”

Rivaldo, for a moment, got frozen and asked him why. He said, “One of the players from the team got injured while training. So, we are short of players. We need someone to be in the field to make it 11. But I know you are more than that. So, go and prove yourself”. There was resistance from the support staff. Luckily for Rivaldo, the coach, through the organizing committee, convinced Rivaldo’s team management to allow him to play.

When the match started, Rivaldo was running like a deer.

After the match, the celebrity footballer walked to Rivaldo.

9 . Ben was bothered every time he went through the kitchen. It was that little metal contain on the shelf above his wife Martha’s cook stove, which he had been repeatedly _________ never to touch. The reason, she said, was that it contained a “secret _________” from her late mother, and since she had no way of ever _________ the container, she was _________ that if Ben picked it up and looked inside, he might accidentally drop it and spill its _________ contents.

Ben never saw Martha cook a dish without taking the container of the shelf and sprinkling (洒) _________ a little of the contents over the ingredients. Whatever was in that container, it surely _________ Anyone who ever ate at their house felt Martha was the best _________ in the world. Looking into that container became increasingly _________ for Ben, but he never allowed himself to do so.

Then one day Martha became ill and was kept overnight in the hospital. Feeling lonely and bored in the house after returning home, Ben __________ the kitchen, and then the container on the shelf immediately came into view. It __________ his eyes like a magnet, and he quickly looked away, yet his curiosity brought him back again. He carefully took the container off the shelf, and opened it. Ben became __________ when what was inside came to I his sight. The container was empty, except for a little folded slip of paper at the bottom. He carefully picked it up and slowly __________ it under the kitchen light. Ben immediately __________ the handwriting as that of Martha’s mother. Very __________ it said: “Martha to everything you make, add a dash of love.”

10 . Close to a century ago, New York’s Coney Island was famed for its sideshows (杂耍). Eye-catching signs crowded the island’s attractions, showing off circus shows, sword swallowers—and even an exhibition of tiny babies.

The babies were premature ones kept alive in incubators (婴儿保育箱) pioneered by Dr. Martin Couney. The medical establishment had rejected his incubators, but Dr. Couney didn’t give up on his aims. Starting in 1896, he funded his work by displaying the babies and charging 25 cents to see the show. In return, parents didn’t have to pay for Dr. Couney’s incubators, and many children survived who would never have had a chance otherwise.

Born in 12, Lucille Horn ended up in an incubator on Coney Island. She’d been born a twin, but her twin died at birth. And the hospital staff told her father that there wasn’t a chance she’d live. “It was just: You die because you didn’t belong in the world,” Horn says. But her father refused to accept that answer. He grabbed a blanket to wrap her in, called a taxi, and took her to Coney Island—and to Dr. Couney’s infant (婴幼儿) exhibit.

Years later, Horn decided to return to see the babies—this time as a visitor. When she took the opportunity to introduce herself, Dr. Couney went over to a man who was uneasily looking at his small infant. “Look at this young lady,” Dr. Couney told the man. “She’s one of our babies. And that’s how your baby’s gonna grow up.”

Horn was just one of thousands of premature infants that Dr. Couney cared for and displayed at amusement parks until the 194s. He died in 1950, shortly after incubators like his were introduced in most hospitals. At the time, Dr. Couney’s efforts were largely unknown—but at least one person will never forget him. “Ninety-six years later, here I am, all in one piece. And I’m thankful to be here,” Horn says.