2 . Hansen and his 10-year-old son Chase search the streets of Salt Lake City every weekend for the homeless to take to lunch. They started Project Empathy(共情)four years ago to ________a meal, listen to their stories and figured out how they could ________ help.

“Just start with a smile, a hello. It really just starts with that. If you do it, you can make a connection. A small gesture can have a ________ impact on others less fortunate,” Hansen ________ in an interview.

Some of these shared meals have turned into stronger ________ .Ward, a homeless, was ________ in a flat. He credited the Hansens with helping him ________the difficult process of moving off the streets. “It is great to have friends who make us feel ________ and I’m impressed with the pair,” Ward said.

Father and son’s ________have developed into a passion project that ________ faith and community, which emphasizes the ________ community members can have in uplifting the homeless. They know they can’t settle the homeless ________ alone. They’re hoping empathy will ________.

“My hope for the future is to ________ more connection across our country. We could and we will succeed ________ we have other people join in and help the homeless,” Chase said.

3 . Chelsie Hill had dreamed of becoming a dancer since the age of three. That ambition ______ ended one night in 2010. Hill, then a 17-year-old high school student, was in a car accident, which left her paralyzed(瘫痪)from the waist down. For most people, that would have ______ any hope of a dancing career. For Hill, her wheelchair ______ her and she wanted to prove that she was still ______ .

Hill did it in her wheelchair right with her non-disabled high school dance team. After graduation, Hill wanted to expand her dance network to ______ women like her. She met people online who had suffered various ______ but shared their determination, and she invited them to dance with her.

Hoping to ______ more people in a larger city, Hill moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and built a team of dancers with ______ , which she called the Rollettes. In disabled dance competitions around the country, the six-member team, they not only ______ themselves, but also brought great fun to the audience and won lots of prizes.

Hill has ______ what many of us never will: her childhood dream. She’s a(n) ______ . But the Rollettes have helped her find something else just as ______ . Every year she holds a dance camp for wheelchair users of all ages and abilities with the purpose of helping them ______ their inner dreams in their life. In 2019, 173 participants from ten countries attended.

Edna Serrano says that being part of the Rollettes team has given her the ______ to live on. “I didn’t know I could do so many things that these girls have taught me,” she says. It’s so ______ to have my teammates in my life, because they’re my teachers. I have more confidence.”

4 . “Oh, no! You’re moving?” Such was my neighbor’s concern when she saw household items appearing on my lawn and _________ my driveway.

“Nope. Just cleaning house!” I called back, smiling.

This yard sale had been the result of six months of _________ . I had searched every _________ and overflowing closet and cupboard—crazy about my seeking to find items to sell.

I met loads of _________ and friendly people. The Mirror Lady was thrilled to buy the antique mirror from my first apartment for her daughter’s first apartment; and the Futon Girl, a college sophomore, said my futon (沙发床) and frame were _________ for her dorm room.

And how can I _________ the Camera Man? Bending absorbedly over the “technology” table, he spotted my husband’s faded camera bag from the early 80s. Zippered compartments (隔包)_________ a broken camera and a few old lenses. “Wow!” he said, as he picked it up and made me a(n)_________ . I asked what he was going to do with it. “It’s just cool—I have a shelf at home for cool fashionable technology.” So _________ he bought it so he could look at it. As he walked down the driveway with the dusty bag __________ over his shoulder, for a second I __________ my journalist husband doing the same, heading out to __________ a story. That made me feel __________.

All yard sales lasted two days. As hard as it can be to let things __________ , the true value of those things is to __________ you of a place you lived in, a special time in your life, or a loved one in your heart.

5 . A kindergarten teacher had decided to let her class play a game. The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag ____ a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a(n) ____ of a person that the child hates.

And the ____ of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will ____ on how many people he/she hates. So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she disliked. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they went, ____ to the toilet for 1 week.

Days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the ____ smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were happy and ____ because the game had finally ended.

The teacher asked: “How did you ____ while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?” The children started complaining of the ____ that they had to carry the ____ and smelly potatoes wherever they went.

Then the teacher told them the ____ meaning behind the game. The teacher said: “This is ____ the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The very unpleasant smell of hatred will ____ your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot ____ the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you ____ what it is like to have the very unpleasant smell of hatred in your heart for your lifetime?”

6 . Within two years of first showing signs of memory loss, Peter Marshall had to give up work as early onset Alzheimer’s began to take hold.

His wife Lisa started a blog called “Oh Hello Alzheimer’s” to help her cope with the progressive _________ of her husband’s fading memory. “I get _________ every day from people saying, ‘Thank you—now I don’t feel so alone’,” she said.

As the disease _________, Peter’s memory _________ faded and he began to refer to Lisa as his “favourite person”. Then, one day last year, they were watching a wedding _________ on television when Peter suddenly looked at his wife and said, “Let’s do it!” “Well, OK, we should get married then,” she told him.

The next day, _________, Peter appeared to have forgotten all about it. Still, with the 20th _________ of their wedding approaching this year, the idea seemed to make sense to Lisa in the face of her husband’s rapid _________. Sarah, Lisa’s daughter from a marriage before she met Peter, helped organize the event. “I knew that my stepdad, who I am very close with, was there through some of the _________ times of my life.”

When Lisa joined her husband to __________ vows for the second time, his delight was clear for all to see. “It was just magical—straight out of a __________,” she said.

The music __________ the theme of the day: a saxophonist played Unforgettable as Lisa walked down the aisle.

“There wasn’t a dry eye, and I was __________.” Lisa said. “I hadn’t seen Peter that happy in a long time.” As they danced while guests __________. Lisa said her husband __________ a few words in her ear. “Thank you for staying,” he said.

8 . On Monday, May 9, James Givens, a police officer in Cincinnati, Ohio, was sitting in his panda car. Just at that moment he heard what sounded like a _________. He turned around only to find a goose pecking at the car door. This was highly _________ given that the birds typically preferred to observe _________ from a distance.

But on this day, the goose appeared to be determined to get his _________ and kept pecking until Givens opened the car door and _________. The police officer says that though the bird then began to _________, it kept turning around to make sure he was _________. When they finally stopped, Givens _________ why the mother goose had been so — she wanted him to _________ her gosling (幼鹅) that had been trapped in some balloon string.

__________ that the mother goose would __________ him if he got close to the baby, Givens called the local SPCA (保护动物协会). __________, they were unable to send anyone to help right away. Therefore he had to call his fellow police officer Cecillia Charron, who was nearby and soon __________ Givens. Concerned that the gosling would not survive the __________, Cecilia decided to take on the task herself.

As it turned out, there was __________ to worry about. The mother goose appeared to understand that Charron was trying to help and watched __________ from a safe distance as the office untied the trapped bird. As soon as the little gosling was __________, it ran as quickly as possible to its __________, and they took off shortly after. Charron, a 24-year soldier of the police force, said this would probably __________ to be the most memorable incident of her __________!

9 . Almost eight years ago, Nixon decided to begin each day from a bench with a good view of the St. Peterburg waterfront. “Watching a sunrise makes me feel centered before starting my day,” said Nixon, who works for the city’s water department.

A year later, a woman changed his perspective on his ________ . “She said, ‘Every morning when I see you ________ here, I know everything will be OK,’” Nixon ________ . “That’s when I knew I needed to make eye contact with the people walking past and let them know we ________ to each other.”

Nixon started smiling at people and striking up conversations. Soon many early risers began joining him on the bench, sometimes ________ themselves, asking him for advice about careers, relationships, and personal problems. Nixon said, “I want them to know they don’t have to feel alone when they ________ .” So, every morning, Nixon will stay there for two hours. His ________ led some to nickname him the Sunshine Mayor (市长).

While most people ________ wave or drop by briefly to make small talk, others are anxious to step into his “________” and spend a few minutes with someone who will ________ . No matter what problem a person wants to ________ , Nixon lends an ear. He is such a calm and ________ appearance. He listens without judgment and without any kind of return. Every person who stops by the bench deserves his undivided ________ .

No topic is off limits, but some people just want to sit next to someone and share the ________ . “A woman stopped once and said, ‘I just want a moment of peace and to know I am not alone.’” he recalled. “And at that moment, in that hour, on that morning, she ________ wasn’t.”