1 . Today I am known for my voice. Perhaps the greatest honor came when I was asked to read The New Testament《新约全书》 on tape.

But it _________ a long time to believe such god things could happen to me. When I was a child. I stuttered(结巴) so badly that I was completely _________ to speak in public.

_________, when I was 14. Professor Donald Crouch came to my school. He was a retired college professor. English was his favorite subject and _________ was his deepest love. He held a book of poems as if it were a crystal(水晶), _________ pages as if uncovering treasures. When he heard that our school was teaching Shakespeare and other classics, he felt _________ for not being a part of our school sooner.

When be _________ that I not only loved poetry but was _________ it, we became closer. There was, however, one _________ between us—Professor Crouch could not stand the __________ that I refused to read my poems to the class.

"Jim, poetry is __________ to be read aloud," he said. "You should be able to speak those beautiful words." I shook my head and __________.

One day he __________ me.

After handing in a poem. I waited for his __________. It didn't come.Instead, one day as the students had gathered together, he __________ me, "."

I stared at him in disbelief. "Why," I started to cry, __________ flooding me, "of course I did!” "Well then,” he said, "you've got to prove it by getting up and reciting it from __________."

By then the other students had settled at their desks. With knees shaking, I walked up to the front. For a moment I stood there, __________. Then I began, and kept going. I recited my poem all the way __________.

Afterwards, Professor Crouch encouraged me to read other writers' poetry before the public. I discovered I did have a(n) __________ and found my classmates actually looked forward to hearing me recite.

2 . Mr. Jackson was blind from birth. He owned a fruit _______ on a very busy street. _______ he was visually disabled, he ran his business pretty handsomely. He could see nothing and he could only _______ the things within his reach. _______, he was able to handle it and was content with everything he had.

One day his son came to him. He told Mr. Jackson in _______ that he read in the newspaper of a _______ who could operate on his eyes and allow him to see. The father and the son traveled to the doctor and paid for the _______.

After the operation, the doctor asked Mr. Jackson, “What is the first thing you are _______ to see when I take the bandages off?” He replied, “I really want to see my beautiful _______ on my stand!”

The doctor and the son __________ Mr. Jackson down to the busy street where his fruit stand had been located for so many years. The doctor __________ unwrapped the bandages __________ he could lay his eyes on the beautiful fruit! Mr. Jackson was so full of __________ that he could finally see his life’s work — taking care of his fruit! After a few hours of __________ his beautiful fruit stand, he looked down the street both ways and saw there were quite a few fruit stands in both directions. He looked __________ the street and saw many other fruit stands. He spent so much time looking at other people’s fruit stands and __________ the competition that soon his own business __________.

From Mr. Jackson’s failure, we should know that everyone is a __________ individual with different fingerprints, DNA and thinking. What we need to do is just be ourselves and __________ everyone else to be who they are. Mind our own business and we should never be afraid of __________.

4 . This afternoon after seeing my mom, I was driving home. I took the________that was more like a canyon (峡谷)drive with beautiful scenery. Suddenly I heard a sound and I knew a big________tire! I pulled to the side, but this was a canyon drive with not much shoulder________, and it happened to be around a curve (弯曲处)where people couldn't________me. That made it very________. Thus, cars       passed me________so that I couldn't get out. Within minutes I saw a car________at a distance behind me. The gentleman walked out,________help, and I walked out of the car very________, for the road was so narrow. He moved my car a bit out of the way while I was still talking to AAA(美国汽车协会).They said with all the________they gave me since I was in a dangerous place, they could send ________in 20minutes. The gentleman offered to look at my spare tire to________ it was OK before I ________AAA.

Before I knew it, he took it out and________to change the tire. By the time I finished talking with AAA, he had changed my tire!

I________him and he left. I saw in my________that the car just followed me, making sure I was OK. At the traffic lights, I got a chance to see the________family in the car—a beautiful young wife with lovely children in the back. They all gave me a big smile and________at me. I thought about what a role________for those young children to learn about service and sympathy. I thought how ________I was to be the receiver of such generosity.

5 . On our way home from school my kid and I shared each other our high and low part of the day. My 12-year-old, Karington, told me her _________ for a classmate with special need. This _________ action brought my tears flowing.

Her story started with, “Mommy, I made a teacher _________ today.” I didn’t know why my first thought was a _________ one. I definitely shouldn’t have _________ her. The rest of her story went like this...

“There’s a boy in my class with hyperactivity (多动症). Everyone _________ him because he does strange things. Today he fell to the _________ I looked around and all these kids were laughing, so I walked up to him and _________ with him. The class stopped laughing. A _________ was walking by the open door and saw my __________. She walked into the room towards me, bursting into __________. She held me up and gave me the tightest __________ ever and kept saying what a __________ girl I was.”

My voice was __________ by a lump (梗) in my throat. Tears flooded my eyes; I __________ them so I could see the road. I couldn’t __________. How could I find the right words to __________ just how proud I was? She looked at me, saw the tears flowing and knew. I didn’t need __________.

There is not a thing my child could do that would make me much __________! Nothing is better than standing up for what is __________ and showing compassion towards others.

6 . One day, a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. The professor ________ the question papers, with the text facing down as usual. ________ he handed them all out, he asked his students to ________ the page and begin. To everyone’s surprise, there were no ________, just a black dot (点) in the center of the page. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s face, told them the following:

“I want you to write what you________ there.”

The students, ________, got started on the inexplicable (令人费解的) task.

At the end of the class, the professor ________ all the answer papers and started reading each one of them aloud in front of all the students. All of them, with no ________, described the black dot, trying to explain its position in the middle of the sheet, etc. After all had been ________ , the classroom was silent, the professor began to explain:

“I’m not going to grade this. I ________ wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the ________ part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot, and the same happens in our ________ . We have a white paper to observe and ________, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a ________ given to us with love and care and we always have________to celebrate: nature renewing itself every day, our friends around us, the job that ________ our livelihood and the miracles we see every day.

________, we insist on focusing only on the dark spots: the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the________ relationship with colleagues, the ________ with a friend, and etc.

The dark spots are very ________ compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds.”

9 . My 14-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat at the same time at a second-hand clothing store. It had a black velvet (丝绒) collar, delightful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an) _________ price of merely $28. We looked at each other, saying nothing, but John’s eyes _________. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular just then with teenagers, but could cost several hundred dollars now. John put the coat on and _________ it. He turned from side to side, _________ himself in the mirror with a serious, studied _________ that soon changed into a smile. It’s a perfect _________.

John wore the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile. “How did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They love it.” He said, carefully _________ it on the chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, the _________came over John. Quiet, reasoned discussion _________ argument. He became more thoughtful and eager to ____________. “Good dinner, Mum,” he would say every evening. One day when I ____________ that he start on homework before dinner, John said, “You are right, and I guess I will.”

When I asked one of his teachers ____________ caused the changes, she said with laughter, “It must be his coat!”

John and I both know we should never ____________ a person’s clothes for the real person within them. But it is meaningful to ____________ a standard of excellence for the world to see, to practice a standard of excellence in thought, speech and behavior, and to ____________ what is on the inside with what is on the outside.

10 . When I was a little girl, there was the magic of Mercurochrome(红药水). It was good for cuts, scratches(抓痕), or other_______. My brother and I tested and_______the powers of Mercurochrome many years ago.

It was summer and hot. Mama was not feeling well and had become_______tired. She told us that she was going to_______on her bed. Only a few minutes had passed when Ronnie_______a scratch on his knee that needed immediate_______.We tiptoed(踮脚走) into Mama’s room and asked her if we could put Mercurochrome on Ronnie’s scratch._______on her back, Mama had fallen into a deep sleep and made no answer.

We stole into the bathroom and took the Mercurochrome and_______Ronnie’s knee. Undoubtedly, he immediately began to feel better._______, we tiptoed into Mama’s room to show her that we had taken care of our scratches without__________her. But she was in sound sleep. Then we whispered that__________Mama didn’t feel well, perhaps Mercurochrome would make her feel__________.

Twenty minutes__________, we painted every scratch and every freckle(雀斑)of Mama’s skin. She had Mercurochrome__________her legs, arms and face. At Ronnie’s encouraging, we__________tried to paint her fingernails and toenails.

When Mama screamed in__________, we knew that she was awake. With all the__________, it didn’t seem at first that she was feeling better,__________she burst into laughter as she stared at her image in the mirror.

We laughed a lot the next few days. If anyone had asked us, we would have__________that Mama had been cured by the__________of Mercurochrome.