1 . A Game of Light and Shade

It was a sunny day. I had gone up and down the tower when, outside the door at the foot, a blind man came toward me. In a moment, he disappeared up the stairs. I looked at the sign that said “To the Tower”, and decided to _______ him.

I caught up with him in the ticket office. There I was _______ to see the attendant (工作人员) selling him a ticket as if he were any other visitor. Then, with the ticket in one hand and _______ the wall with the fingers of the other, the blind man reached the stairs _________ to the hallway.

“That man is blind. What would a blind man climb up the tower for?” I said to the attendant, expecting him to show some _______, but he didn’t answer.

“Not the _______ certainly,” I said. “Perhaps he wants to _______.”

I bought a ticket and _______ up the stairs. The man hadn’t gone as far as I _______. A third of the way up the tower, I heard his ________. I slowed down and followed him at a little ________. He stopped from time to time. When he got to the balcony, I was a dozen steps ________. As I reached it, I saw him at the corner of the tower.

At last, after ten minutes, I ________ him. “Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could, “but I am curious to know ________ you came up.”

He smiled. “Coming up the stairs, you will notice how not just light but sun ________ into the tower through the narrow windows here and there, so that you can feel the ________ —the cool stairs suddenly become quite warm—and how up here behind the wall there is ________, but as soon as going opposite a window you can find the sun. There is no ________ so good as this for feeling the difference between light and shade. It is not the first time I’ve come up.”

The blind man seemed quite ________ just like a child who was enjoying his favorite games. He told me the truth that blind men can also find the beauty in life ________ they cannot enjoy the sights of the world.

2 . Hannah Taylor is a schoolgirl from Manitoba, Canada. One day, when she was five years old, she was walking with her mother in downtown Winnipeg. They saw a man_________out of a garbage can. She asked her mother why he did that and her mother said that the man was homeless and hungry. Hannah was very_________.She couldn't understand why some people had to live their lives without shelter or enough food. Hannah started to think about how she could_________,but, of course, there is not a lot one five-year-old can do to solve(解决)the problem of homelessness.

Later, when Hannah attended school, she saw another homeless person. It was a woman,_______ an old shopping trolley（购物车）which was piled with_______. It seemed that everything the woman owned was in them. This made Hannah very sad, and even more_______to do something. She had been talking to her mother about the lives of homeless people_______they first saw the homeless man. Her mother told her that if she did something to change the problem that made her sad, she wouldn’t_______as bad.

Hannah began to speak out about the homelessness in Manitoba and then in other provinces. She hoped to_______her message of hope and awareness. She started the Ladybug Foundation, an organization aiming at getting rid of homelessness. She began to __________ “Big Bosses” lunches, where she would try to persuade local business leaders to ________to the cause. She also organized a fundraising(募捐)drive in “Ladybug Jars” to collect everyone`s spare change during “Make Change” month. More recently, the foundation began another ________ called National Red Scarf Day—a day when people donate $20 and wear red scarves in support of Canada`s ________and homeless.

There is an emergency shelter in Winnipeg called “Hannah`s Place”, something that Hannah is very________of. Hannah`s Place is divided into several areas, providing shelter for people when it is so cold that________outdoors can mean death. In the more than five years since Hannah began her activities, she has received a lot of ________.For example, she received the 2007 BRICK Award recognizing the ________ of young people to change the world. But ________   all this, Hannah still has the ________   life of a Winnipeg schoolgirl, except that she pays regular visits to homeless people.

Hannah is one of many examples of young people who are making a ________ in the world. You can, too!

4 . I Have Two Names

Oyindasola means ''Honey poured into my wealth. '' It's fairly common Nigerian (尼日利亚的) name, mainly used for girls._________, I’m known as Oyindasola but my nickname is Chelsea. Some ask why I don’t use my real _________ and I tell them what my father told me: a story about him _________ Chelsea, South West London a year after I was born. I tell them that this nickname spoke to him so much that it _________ on every birthday cake of mine.

When I was seven, inside the brick walls of our townhouse in New York, we decided to _________ to Nigeria. And my mother needed to know what my family there would call me. The nickname I’d been called for as long as I could _________ or the complex name on my passport? A simple question. But it tore me apart.

A week later we found ourselves at an airport with groups of Nigerians speaking as we _________ for our cab. After a week of getting used to the spicier foods, and sharper scents, I fell into _________. Soon, my memories of Disney in America were _________ with sounds of Nigerian music. My tongue grew heavier with Nigerian __________, and the words shared between my mother and grandmother in their native tongue finally __________. But, I still wasn't Nigerian enough. Their unfriendly looks and __________ were a constant reminder of who I was: an American girl with the westernized name. So I wasn't __________ sad when my mother announced our back to America for her work.

On the first day of middle school in America, __________ coursed through me because I knew my birth name wouldn't __________ the attendance list just as I couldn't fail to draw others' attention. I was __________ when the teacher mispronounced my painfully long name and my classmates laughed.

But with every passing year, came new __________. Every new attendance roll (考勤) call was responded with a braver voice and a __________ smile. That long name, mispronounced or not, is mine. The Nigerian accent slipping through is mine. Who I am is simple: a Nigerian girl with __________ to the American dream, a girl with two __________ and two names.

5 . One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun flying their kites. Multicolored creations, various shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing. As the strong wind blew against the kites, a_________kept them in check.

Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great_________. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upwards and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to be saying, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be_________!” They soared beautifully even as they fought the control of the string. Finally, one of the kites_________in breaking loose from it. Free at last, it seemed to say, “Free to fly with the wind.” Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the _________of the unsympathetic wind. It dropped ungracefully to the ground and landed in a mass of weeds. Free at last, free to_________powerless, and to be blown helpless along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.

_________like kites we sometimes are! Life gives us adversity(逆境),_________and rules to follow from which we can gain strength. Restraint is a necessary opponent to the winds of opposition. We can never rise high enough to achieve our goals if we lose our necessary_________or the rules.

Let each of us rise to great heights,__________that some of the restraints that we may chafe under(因…而感到恼怒) are actually the steady force that helps us ascend and achieve.

6 . Double Trouble

When I was eight, I wanted a toy and needed $10 to buy it. But, as usual, I was broken. I decided to ask my 11-year-old sister, Kathleen, for a loan. I went to her room, _______her for the cash. Laughing, she agreed to_______ me the money, but added, “I will charge you 10 percent compound interest every ______until you pay me back.”

“Compound interest---what’s that?” I asked.

“Well, interest is what you call the_______money borrowers have to pay back on a loan,” she explained. “Compound interest means that the interest payments get bigger and bigger the______you take to pay back the loan. To repay the loan, you will need to give me $11 after one month. If you wait two months to pay me back, your______ will grow from $10 to $11. So I’ll be charging you interest on $11. Then I will add that interest to the $11 you already owe me, for a _____of $12.10. That’s what you’ll owe after two months.”

“Sure. I get it,” I said. Though truthfully, I was getting ______.

Kathleen lent me the money, and I bought the toy. My birthday came a month later, and my mom gave me $10.     _____,that was just the amount I needed to buy another toy I wanted ______. I put off paying my sister for a month. After another month, I_______about the loan.

Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $02 bill in our stockings. I was just putting it into my pocket ______Kathleen tapped me on the shoulder.

“Sorry, kiddo. That’s mine. I’m ______on your debt.”

“Huh?” Then I remembered the loan. “Hey! How can it be that much? I ______borrowed $10.”

“True,” she said, “but interest has been compounding for eight months. Now you _____me $21.43.” She paused, then added. “You can pay me the $1.43.”

I ______to believe that a $10 loan could more than double so quickly. Much to my ______, my sister got her pencil and tablet and showed me exactly how it all added up.

My head _____as I tried to keep track of Kathleen’s ______, but this time, I got the basic idea of compound interest. I ______the hard way that borrowing money can be “double trouble” in no time.

7 . Outside our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a seemingly ancient woman waited beside the door with her hand outstretched (伸出的). Every day I put my hand in hers as our eyes met. She never _________ to return my smile, my grasp, and my greeting.

On the last day of our visit, I found myself _________ on a busy corner across the street from our hotel. Bicycles and motorbikes rushed in front of me. We had been advised to walk straight through the heavy traffic without looking right or left. Let them _________ us. But tonight I was by myself and felt _________ to face the stream of vehicles. As I hesitated on the sidewalk, I felt a hand on my elbow and looked down to see the smile of my small beggar friend looking up at me. She nodded her head toward the street, indicating that she would take me across. Together, we moved slowly into the chaos.

Then we moved on towards the sidewalk, where she pulled my face down to hers, kissed me on both cheeks, and then walked away, still smiling and waving back to me. I had not given her a single coin. We had _________ something vastly more important — a warming of hearts in friendship.

Traveling in poorer nations, I have witnessed a variety of ways to deal with beggars. The most common response of tourists faced with those extremely poor people is to ignore them and focus their eyes elsewhere. I have seen people push away an outstretched hand in _________. A few may hurriedly drop a few coins, and then make a quick getaway in hopes that another 20 ragged beggars won’t immediately appear on the _________.

For many reasons, giving money is not the best response to an outstretched hand. The greatest gift is time and respect. To look beggars in the eye and smile, thus acknowledging their existence, is a small thing. Putting your hand into another’s outstretched hand and grasping it _________ for a moment is also a small thing. But these are important. Everyone needs _________, to be seen as worthy of being __________, to feel appreciated and loved. And I believe that everyone is worthy and worth knowing.

8 . I believe in miracles (奇迹) because I’ve seen so many of them. One day, a patient was referred to me who was one hundred and two years old. “There’s a ___________ in my upper jaw,” she said, “I told my own dentist it’s nothing, but he ___________ I come to see you.”

Her eighty-year-old son accompanied her. He would ___________ to add something, but she stopped him. She wanted to tell everything herself. I found a large cancer that spread over much of the ___________ of her mouth. A careful examination later ___________ that it was a particularly bad sort of cancer.

During her next appointment, I explained to her the ___________ of the problem. She clasped my hand in hers and said, “I know you’re worried about me, but I’m just ___________.”

I thought otherwise. After considerable ___________ on my part, and kindness on her part because she wanted to ___________ me, she agreed to have me refer her to a cancer surgeon. She saw him, but as I expected, ____________ treatment.

About six months later she returned to my office, still energetic and ____________.

“How are you?” I asked.

“I’m just fine, honey,” she responded ____________ high spirits. “When can I get started on fixing my dentures (假牙)?”

Surprised to see her at all, I answered ____________ “Let me take a look in your mouth and we’ll see about it.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. The cancer that had ____________ nearly the entire roof of her mouth was gone—only one small area of redness ____________.

I had read of such things happening, but had ____________ seen them with my own eyes. That was my first miracle. Since then I’ve seen many others, because they keep getting ____________ to see. In fact, miracles are daily events for me now. And people are in miracle, ____________ through them we have a chance to know ourselves and to ____________ the miracles of one another.

Since my first miracle, I’ve come to understand that the time and place for a miracle is ____________ we choose to find it.

9 . “Are you going to the audition (试镜)?” Someone asked Connie, as we came out of ballet class.

“What audition?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing,” said Connie. “It’s for The Ed Sullivan Show. You wouldn’t be _______.”

The Ed Sullivan Show was a famous one-hour show on CBS. They constantly needed performers for their new shows. This time they were looking for six dancers to support the star performer Jimmy Durante.

“Why not? I’d love to go!” I _______.

Connie smiled at me and said, “I don’t think you are _______ yet, Eva.”

Later that night, I couldn’t fall asleep. It _______ me. Who said I shouldn’t go to the audition? Only because I was a young novice (新手)? How would I know if I didn’t try?

The next morning, I _______ I was going to the audition. I packed my dancing shoes, and put on bright red lipstick. As I looked at my _______ in the mirror, I saw one thing missing. I put on a smile.

I took the subway to the Eighth Avenue and walked to the rehearsal studio. I _______ and took my place nervously.

Connie and five of my other friends were there. “What are you doing here?” one asked.

I said simply, “Well, I have nothing to lose by _______.”

The look I got said, “Okay. _______.”

The audition began. All the other dancers had confident but expressions. I had a smile. ________

More and more dancers were knocked out. I was still there with my friends. Then we were asked to do a jeté en l’air ________: stand on one leg, kick the other one up and out as close to a split as possible, and then do a turn in the air. Hopefully, you’d land on both feet.

All the other candidates did the jeté beautifully. It was my turn. I took the preparatory step, and with that never-ending smile, I leaped up into the air, turned in mid-air and ________ flat on my back. But even then, the smile never ________ my face.

When everything settled down, my friends were instructed to go to the right. When I was told to go to the left, their faces told they felt ________ for me.

I picked up my belongings and prepared to leave when the choreographer called out to me, “Where are you going? You’ve got the ________if you want it.”

Did I want it? I certainly did. I thought I had been ________!

There were no jetés in the ________. I made my first appearance on national TV. I never stopped ________, and I always landed on my feet.

Had I not believed I could do it, and had I not tried, I would have ________ out on a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

It proved once again that a smile will get one ________ than a frown ever will.