4 . A plane was flying somewhere to cut an abandoned oil pipeline. The pilot Downs ________ eight employees of the oil company and a man named Eliot on board.

Halfway, the plane was ________ by a sandstorm. It was ________ to successfully land. While the ten men were ________ for the survival, they found themselves in the depth of the desert. The plane was badly damaged and all the communication equipment didn’t ________. There were quarrels among the eight ________ for different escape plans. Soon, they ________ to fight against each other. Natural disasters had not killed them yet, but ________ disasters were about to destroy them ________.

At the moment, Eliot ________ shouted, “I’m an airplane designer. The main parts of the plane are not ________. As long as everyone works together, we can mend the plane.” People immediately stopped fighting and were ________ in their hearts. Under Eliot’s command, they began to be ________. Food and ________ could only last for ten days so they only ate two meals a day and ________ drinking water as planned. The repair work_________ in an orderly manner. Eight days later, the plane had not been ________ yet, but a camel team of businessmen passed by and ________ them.

Later, Downs knew that Eliot wasn’t an airplane designer at all and asked Eliot why he cheated them. Eliot said calmly, “If I hadn’t ________ then, could everyone live to this day?” Downs suddenly realized: being trapped in the ________ is terrible, but what is more terrible is that there is no hope for survival!

5 . The mountains where I live are full of twisting and narrow roads. I was ________ down one of those roads last spring. Days of on and off rain had made the ground ________ and hillsides rough. As I made a turn, I noticed that the ________ soil had released a tree on the hill by the road. It was ________ my way. I hit the brakes and ________ drove around it. Then I stopped. I knew it was only a matter of time ________ someone driving faster than I was would ________ that tree.

I got out of my car and ________ to pull the tree into the nearby ditch (沟渠) but it was much too ________ and heavy. I didn’t know what to do. About ten minutes later, a white truck ________ and pulled over. Out stepped a bearded young man. “You need a saw (锯子)?”he asked. I said “Yes” and he ________ one out of the back of his truck. For the next few minutes, he cut the tree into smaller parts while I ________ them across the road and threw them into the ditch.

“You never know when you will need a saw, ” I joked. My new ________ smiled, “We do know, however, when we will need a kind and loving ________. ” Then he put his saw back in the ________. I waved ________ and watched him drive off before ________ back to my own car. As I drove away, I felt ________ to know that I was able to help prevent potential ________. I felt more delighted as the rain finally ________ and the sun broke through the clouds.

7 . Once upon a time, there was a man who worked very hard just to keep food on the table for his family. A few days before Christmas, he _________ his five year-old daughter after _________ that she had used up the family’s only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper.

As money was tight, he became even angrier when on Christmas Eve he saw that she had used all of the gold paper to _________ one shoebox. He was also concerned about where she had gotten _________ to buy what was in the shoebox.

The next morning the little girl, _________ excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, “This is for you, Daddy!” Holding the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier behavior, _________ what he had done to her.

But when he _________ the shoebox, he found there was nothing. “Don’t you know, young lady,” he said _________, “when you give someone a _________, there’s supposed to be something inside the package!”

The little girl __________ him with sad tears rolling from her eyes and whispered, “Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was __________.” He fell on his knees and put his arms around the girl and begged her to __________ him for his unnecessary anger.

An accident took the girl’s life only a short time later. It is said that the father __________ this little gold box by his bed for all his life. Whenever he was __________ or faced difficult problems, he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and __________ his daughter’s love.

8 . My 9-year-old daughter cornered me in the kitchen. "Daddy, I want a pet rat." Barbara held on with reasonable ________ about how she would take care of the ________ herself and how she would ________ responsibility by doing so.

I didn’t want a rat, yet that didn’t seem to be the right ________ for this situation, given the way Barbara had so maturely made her strong ________ . So I gave her the classic parent ________ . "Let me talk to your ________ about it." My wife didn’t let me down. She came up with the idea that Barbara could prove her ________ and responsibility by researching some basic ________ we had about rats: How much do they cost? What care do they need? The task might ________ her and we could move on to ________ pets, such as goldfish.

________ , she searched out the answers and even took detailed notes. My wife _______ . I drove Barbara and her 6-year-old brother, Edvin to the pet store and Barbara ________ picked out a baby rat. "I can’t believe I have a rat of my own after a year of ________   !" She said.

"It wasn’t your begging," I told her. "You made a ________ case for getting a rat. We wanted to ________ that."

"Dad?" Edvin immediately ________ . "Can I get a pet lion?" He quickly ________ five reasons why a lion would make a good pet.

I may have learned something about flexibility with the rats, but I had not ________ my ability to reason. "No."

10 . Overcome the Fear for Your Dream

I stood nervously behind the red curtain and glanced out across the stage. A girl about my age sat at a piano; I could see her fingertips moving over the black and white keys in front of her. The beautiful melody (旋律) was so relaxing,_________my body tensed with anxiety.

My body_________when the girl stood up from the bench. It was finally my turn. A part of me wanted to run home and_________under my bed, but I knew I had chosen to_________. When the girl onstage walked toward me, I could hear my heart beating_________.The girl had a proud smile on her face and when she passed me, I heard her say “Good_________”!

“Well, here goes nothing.” I said to myself

I stepped onto the_________and walked slowly toward the piano. The bright lights nearly_________me, making it difficult to see the audience. When I reached the_________, I automatically slid onto the bench into position. The sounds of whispering and people walking around gave way to complete silence. I stared at my__________fingers and for a moment my mind went__________. Closing my eyes, I imagined the music sitting in front of me and tried to recall every tiny detail.

Finally, I took a deep breath and began to play Beethoven's Moonlight sonata(协奏曲). The rich tones of the piano rang out. One by one, each muscle in my body loosened and relaxed. I sat on the bench and my__________danced over the row of black and white keys as if they had a mind of their own.

All the practice and__________I put in for six months showed this was what my teacher was pushing for. I tried to__________all the things she reminded me to do.“Keep your wrists up,relax your arms, don't raise your shoulders...I remembered feeling slightly annoyed hearing these things continuously, but I never realized until now how it really__________.

When I reached the end of the piece, the audience started__________.I rose from the bench and gave a deep bow. A proud smile__________up my face. Inside I felt__________that it was over and that I had done so well. As the applause died down, I turned and walked to the other side of the stage. l saw a young boy standing nervously behind the red curtains staring__________out at the stage. When I walked by, I passed to him the two words that were given to me for__________：Good luck!