1 . While taking a 20-hour train ride along the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in northwestern China, I had the kind of humbling, educational, and above all else, wonderful ________ with a local that all travelers long for. A young Chinese man ________ me on the train. My ________ friend spoke virtually no English, so I happily took the ________ to practice my Chinese.

Over several hours, he would tell me about how he had ________ a two-year professional school to quickly find a job ________ highways in order to help support his family. Perhaps the most ________, however, was the fact that this man spent hours studying every day after hard physical labor. Without batting an eye, he would ________ a translated Emerson passage before asking about the literary influence of American ________ as a whole. ”And what do you all learn about Russian authors?” I ________ him asking at one point.

It would have been easy to ________ my assumptions about this highway builder who had never been more than a few hundred miles from home. But this highly informed, ________ , and admirable person prevented me doing so. In the course of a couple of hours, he ________ me just how much one can gain from ________ with an open mind, and a willingness to ________ with locals from all walks of life.

2 . There are moments when strangers’ lives collide(碰撞)by accident, and even though they may never see each other again, they’ re changed forever. These can be moments when true character is_______ , often through acts of kindness and generosity of unlikely heroes.   

Not long ago, I was a(n)_______to that kind of moment. On a summer midnight, my parents and I had just_______ a long flight and started to walk through the empty airport when I saw a passenger suddenly fall to the ground. We_______ran toward him. My parents, who are doctors, dropped everything and began trying to_______what had happened. As they asked him questions and searched for a(n)_______information card, other passengers from the flight joined us. My parents_______that the man was hypoglycaemic(低血糖的) and in major need of sugar. _______, the only thing we could find was a protein bar. We were _______it would not be enough to save him.

Just then, a young boy, Mecca, arrived at the ________with the flight attendants(空乘人员). He quietly announced, “I have a Snickers(士力架巧克力)!” Nobody responded to him as they were in the________ of trying to save a stranger's life. Mecca dug deep into his backpack, and________a Snickers. He then handed it to my father, who was trying to manage with the protein bar.

Within seconds of the Snickers replacing the protein bar, the man regained________. Mecca, a fourth grader,   ________this stranger's life!

No one could have guessed that earlier that night, Mecca had just been through a ________time. His father's flight was unexpectedly canceled, ________him to fly alone. He had never flown by himself before and was very nervous. His grandmother filled his backpack with candy to make him a little less________ .

When we told Mecca's parents of his________actions, they smiled from ear to ear. They were surprised that he had saved some candy and was able to think about the candy during the________ .

As time goes on, I remain________by the experience of witnessing a nine-year-old save a stranger's life. Even today Mecca's kindness continues to make me smile.

3 . In my early thirties, I decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa at 5, 895 meters above sea level.

After months of preparation, I started my great _______.At the base of the mountain, I met Mik, a local porter, who warmly _______ me. Mik’s job was to carry my equipment up the mountain, set up the tent (帐篷), and carry everything back down after reaching the _______. Mik stood about 1.6 meters tall. I was _______ with a pack nearly as tall as his whole body. Just imagine this little man with the huge equipment _______ on his head.

The first day of the climb was _______ the rain forest, across a slippery (滑的), muddy ground covered with tree roots and vines (藤蔓). Mik was carrying 30 kilos on his head! By that evening, we made it to 3, 000 meters. The air was _______ and it was colder. When I arrived at the campsite for the night, my tent was already set up and _______ me.

Day two was much steeper (陡峭的) and rockier. I really had to _______ what I was doing. And I felt guilty for the tough.   ________ Mik had to work in Yet when I turned to Mik, he said with the biggest smile, “Polle, polle, ”which means“ __________, take it easy” in his native language. I ________ back, my burden lighter somehow.

Over the next five days, the climb got ________difficult. The temperatures could ________ from 21°C to below freezing in a few hours. At 5, 700 meters, there’s only half the oxygen ____________ in each breath compared to at sea level. That leaves many people with severe headache. Yet Mik remained ____________ . He always had a smile and a positive ________.It had an enormous impact on me, giving me the ________ to keep going.

Even today, when I find myself ________ with anything in life, I just think back to Mik and his smile.

A great attitude can bring joy to those around you, or even ________ stranger to the top of a mountain.

5 . Many years ago, I bought a house in the Garfagnana, where we still go every summer. The first time we ______ there, we heard the chug chug-chug of a motorbike ______ its way down the hill toward us. It was ______ called Mario, coming to ______ us a box containing some tomatoes and a bottle of wine. It was a very nice ______ for him to make. But when we looked at the tomatoes, we were ______ because they were so misshapen: not at all like the nice, round, ______ things you get in a supermarket. And the wine was cloudy, in a funny old bottle with no label (标签) on it. These can’t be any ______, we thought. But we were ______ his kindness, so we ______ them.

What we discovered is that it’s ______ to judge what you eat only by its ______. Those tomatoes had ______ that reminded me of the ones my uncle used to grow when I was a child. Nowadays supermarket tomatoes ______ perfect but taste of water. Nobody’s going to have a ______ memory of those. It’s a surprise they haven’t managed to grow square ones so that they can ______ them easily. Mario’s wine may have been cloudy and come out of an old bottle, but it was ______.

It’s good to eat things at the correct time, when they’re ______, and as close as possible to where they were ______. What Mario had ______ us was the taste of the Garfagnana.

6 . In April last year, I saw a post on the PNP (Pilots N Paws) website from a family in Topeka. They had to move to Virginia but they were on a very tight _______. They could not afford to pay for _______ for their dog, Tiffy, and _______ wanted to take her with them.

It just _______ that I was planning another PNP flight with another pilot, Karen, who _______ to take Tiffy from Kansas City to Virginia. What I was to do was fly to Topeka to _______ Tiffy.

When I met Tiffy’s owners, they seemed very _______. George, the husband, was trying to be calm, but I could tell this was _______ for him, having to leave his dog to a _______ and trust that everything would __________.

After some goodbyes, I asked George and his wife to help me __________ Tiffy into the plane. I promised to take care of Tiffy and __________ them as soon as we got to Kansas City.

The flight was __________, and Tiffy was a great passenger. The next day, she __________ with Karen and made it back to George in Virginia within a few days. He was so __________ and sent me a nice e-mail with pictures. It felt great to know that I had helped bring this family together again.

9 . One Monday morning, while the children were enjoying “free play”, I stepped to the doorway of the classroom to take a break. Suddenly, I _________ a movement of the heavy wooden door. This was the very door I _________ guided the children through to ensure their safety from the bitter cold. I felt a chill (寒意) go through my body.

My legs carried me to that door, and I pushed it open. It was one of my kindergarteners who I thought was _________ that day. He had been dropped off at school late and was _________ to open the door.

He must have been waiting there for quite a while! Without a word, I rushed him to the hospital. He was treated for frostbite on his hands. He’d need time to _________ , and wouldn’t come for class the next day, I thought.

The next morning, one of the first to _________ was my little frostbitten boy. Not only did he run in with energy, but his _________ could be heard as loud as ever! I gave him a warm hug and told him how _________ I was to see him. His words have stayed with me all these years, “I knew you would open the door.”

That cold Monday morning, he waited a long, long while for adults to _________. To a child, every minute feels like forever. He didn’t attempt to walk back home; he waited and trusted. This five-year-old taught me a powerful lesson in __________ .

10 . Like many young people, Jessica wants to travel the globe. Unlike most of them, this 25-year-old is doing it _______ . She and her husband have spent the last two years traveling the world, stopping everywhere from Paris to Singapore. It might sound like one long, expensive _______ , but the couple has an unusual way to make their travel _______ .

They’re part of a new form of the _______ economy: an online group of house sitters. Throughout their no-cost stays in _______ homes, they feed pets and water plants in the homeowner’s _______ .

It’s not all sightseeing. The two travelers carefully _______ their trips, scheduling their days around the pets that are sometimes difficult to _______ . But house sitting also offers a level of _______ they can’t find in a hotel. “It’s like ________ at a friend’s house,” Jessica says.

The couple has a high ________ rate in getting accepted as house sitters and they always go beyond the homeowner’s ________ . For Jessica, that means ________ plenty of pictures of happy pets, keeping the house ________ and leaving a nice small gift before heading to the next house. “You want to make the homeowner feel that they made the right ________ ,” she says.