4 . She was a four-year-old girl with very fine golden hair when I first met her. She was carrying a bowl of soup. I was 29 at that time and _________ from the flu.

Her mom and I had been friends for years. _________ that friendship grew into care from care into _________ and marriage. Marriage brought the three of us together as a _________. At first I was afraid to be a “stepfather”. Therefore, I tried not to come _________ my future daughter and her _________ father. I acted in that way in order to be liked. However, _________ she was growing up, I found it increasingly hard to _________ with her.

Once her school required the parents to individually write an open and _________ letter to our children. I wrote a letter about a little golden-haired girl who had __________ me a bowl of soup when I needed __________.

A week later, all the parents __________ together with our children. The students were allowed to make a few statements. I was __________ to hear what my daughter would say.

Finally my daughter __________ make her way up to the microphone. She said something like others and then __________ “At this very moment I just want to say. I love you, Father.”

Immediately people around me started __________ at me. For a teenage girl to say __________ in front of so many people “I love you,” took a great deal of courage.

Since then I have __________ to understand I didn’t need to have any __________about being a stepfather. I can still __________ honest love with the same little girl I met so many years before carrying a bowl full of what turned out to be kindness. I can also be friends with the girl — my dear daughter.

5 . Retirement hasn’t slowed down 90-year-old great-grandmother Jeanie Shaffer. She has made more than 11, 000 tiny _______ for newborns in her golden years. Every hat is made with special care and she has _______ them all to the local hospital for the last 15 years.

Hospital staff put a hat on a baby soon after _______ to keep warm. A warm hat calms and _______ newborns as they adjust to life _______ the womb (子宫). That is why the hospital staff and new _______ are so appreciative of Jeanie’s handmade hats. Many families _______ the hats because they _______ emotional value to their baby’s first hat.

Jeanie and her husband have a _______ family, with seven children, 15 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Although she has plenty to keep her ________, she still found time to start a fun hobby in her 70s after she ________.

To honor Jeanie’s years of hard work and selfless volunteerism, the staff decided to ________ pictures of her creations to fill an album (相册). The hospital made a special ________ on social media to all the new moms to submit a picture of their newborn wearing the hat they had received, which was responded ________. Thousands of grateful new moms soon shared ________ photos of their newborns wearing their special hats. The staff then selected part of the pictures for the album that they presented to Jeanie.

6 . Andrea works in a donation store. One day, Andrea was checking the quality of the _______ items. As she pulled out two sweaters tied together, she felt something _______ in between them. When pulling the sweaters apart, to her _______, she found several envelopes filled with cash. The cash was in $100 bills and _______ $42,000. The question of what to do with the _______ came easy for the honest employee. Without _______, she handed it over to the manager so he could inform the rightful owner.

Some might have thought that it was Andrea’s _______ day, coming across a small fortune. However, Andrea’s _______ nature urged her to do the right thing.“I do believe that if you do something good, something good will _______ you, ”said Andrea after returning the money.

Fortunately for the ________, there was identifiable paperwork along with the donated items. The store’s manager was then able to   ________ and return the money to the donor who had mistakenly placed the cash in the wrong box.   “________ we have no way of knowing who the money ________, ”said the manager. “Luckily this time we did. ”

It was hard not to think of the many wonderful things she could do with that much money. However, the ________ to keep the cash was just a passing thought. She always tries to be a good ________ to her daughter.

7 . Last year I attended the annual autumn saffron (藏红花) harvest festival on a trip in Italy, known as the sagra. Giovannina Sarra and her family ________ me at their home. Early the next morning, we ________ among the fields and participated in the harvest.

Saffron , taken from the stigmas (柱头) of the saffron flower, is a(n) ________ crop. Also called red gold, it is a(n) ________ from Spain, first introduced into the region around the 13th century. Saffron is ________ in the hours just before ________, while the petals (花瓣) are closed. This helps protect their precious stigmas and makes the flowers easier to ________, especially preferred by the acquirers (收购商). Later, on the same day, the stigmas — three ________ strings per flower — are separated from the petals. It’s a delicate ________ that takes hours with a skilled and ________ hand. In the evening, over an open wood fire, the stringlike stigmas are ________ to make saffron powder to add to the richness of the color and the flavor, which brings considerable income.

Now sitting at a mouth-watering plate of Risotto alla Milanese, a dish cooked with saffron, I ________ the freezing morning with Sarra and her family. There’s no ________ that it is the families like the Sarras that stick to the many ________ that have survived from generation to generation. ________ more people will join them.

9 . Chicago winters are famous for their bitter cold. It is a ________ time to earn a living for the city’s street vendors (商贩). They have been hit hard by the pandemic (疫情) as the population of street shoppers has ________ by as much as half in the city. One Chicago based restaurant owner,Robert Magret,came up with a brilliant and quite ________ idea to help these vendors. He purchases their entire day’s food ________ as a clever way to get them out of the ________. Robert then distributes the food to the ________ for free,turning one good deed into a chain of ________.

Robert has been purchasing truckloads of ________ from Chicago vendors for weeks as the temperature began to fall into the single digits. After he ________ the vendors from the cold weather,he then ________ the delicious bread to the homeless. Robert also uses his purchases to ________ Love Fridges,which are fridges around his city where people can either donate or ________ fresh vegetables and cooked meals.

Robert’s creative idea won great ________ on social media and he immediately began receiving donations from the community. Robert plans to ________ buying out street vendors all winter with the help of donations from kind ________ who have joined him on his merciful mission.

10 . Henry was a high school headmaster. When he learned some of his students were in _______ need, he was determined to help. He decided to get an _______ job at Walmart besides his tiring day job. His entire _______ from the night job is generously donated to his students.

Henry seems almost a _______ to most. Incredibly，Henry works the night shift from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. stocking (上货) shelves three days per week after _______ work from school. He was motivated when he heard how some of his _______ had fallen on hard times. The headmaster was _______ with emotion as he described going to the home of one teenager and saw their difficult situation and heard _______ of other students sleeping under a bridge or in a(an)_______ car.

A high percentage of the students at Henry’s high school live below the ________ line. The community is further ________ by the pandemic (疫情). Henry’s donated funds go straight to his students and their families to purchase basic school supplies，food and ________ bills such as heat and electricity.

“At my age，we don’t ask for ________. We just don’t. You just go ahead and do what you need to do，”Henry said.

Henry hopes to keep his second job a ________. He said the only thing that he wants in return is that his students one day ________ and help others.