1 . My new birthday tradition is a big hit today. I ______ it a couple of years ago. It goes like this: I put the ______ number of one-dollar bills as my new ______ into my pocket and surprise strangers around town.

I know, $25 isn’t much but that’s my attempt (努力) at spreading kindness. I ______ strangers at local shops including McDonald’s, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Blenders, Kyle’s Kitchen, Yogurtland, along with ______ tips (小费) to some of the folks behind the counter.

Reactions (反应) were wonderful as I ______, “It’s my birthday and paying for this is my gift to you.” I would ______ the money and leave. Recipients (接受者) and even people working at the shops were astonished and excited.

I love it when people tell the story of the ______ guy with the Batman mask who paid for their coffee or burgers.

The ______ one of all was the last one at a restaurant. I paid for a young man’s ______. He was shocked and delighted. When I left and got into the car, he ______ me and told me I had made his day. Besides, I got the news that his ______ was in three days and we’re both Capricorn (摩羯座). So I told him that he can fill 25 ______ in his pocket and make people ______ the way he felt right then.

He wished me a happy birthday and a Merry Christmas, and I drove off ______ with my Batman mask on.

What a great birthday!

2 . It was the first night of a tiring seven-day 250km race across the Gobi Desert a year ago. Mr. Leonard___________a little dog going around his camp trying to ___________herself.

“Cute, but I’m not giving you any,” Leonard thought. Like all ___________, he had packed just enough for the whole ___________. He’d been running competitively for three years, and he had a___________ to win.

The next day, at the starting line, the dog ___________ him again. He waved her away, worried that she might be stepped on by the runners. ___________, the dog followed him all the way until the day’s race ___________. That night the dog snuggled (偎依) up to Leonard and even___________ to get a little food from him. By then, he was determined to name her Gobi.

The pair went on to finish the seven-day race, with Gobi____________ a distance of 125km on her own, and winning Leonard over, enough for him to make a____________ — he would take her home to Edinburgh. “Seeing Gobi on the race ____________my attitude to things. It made me think more about stopping and helping her, rather than just focusing on winning, ” said Leonard, who finished second. “It also made my running more enjoyable , giving me a lot of pleasure.”

As Leonard was preparing to get Gobi home, she was missing. With a group of 20 local volunteers coming to his ____________ , he finally found her. After that, Leonard never let Gobi out of his____________. Now Gobi’s favorite activity is still running, and she__________ does at least 8km a day with Leonard up the hills.

5 . A mysterious creature was living under a man’s shed (简易房). Everything in his garden was almost ________, so he decided to set up a ________.

“I’ve been a gardener for over 20 years and I’ve never seen this kind of damage. Everything I ________ was getting eaten to pieces,” said Jeff.

He ________ a squirrel and a mouse grabbing snacks, but something didn’t ________. Then one day, he saw the culprit (肇事者), a groundhog (土拨鼠). The groundhog looked straight into the camera as if he was ________, “Yeah, I’m here. I’m eating your garden. What are you going to do about it?”

At first Jeff was a little upset and built some high ________. He put woods under the fences. But nothing ________. He kept seeing videos of the groundhog eating his vegetables.

Things only got ________. The groundhog, whom Jeff named “Chunk”, got a girlfriend and invited her to enjoy Jeff’s delicious treats, right in front of the camera. No matter what Jeff did, they were ________ a step ahead. “All they do is wake up and eat,” he said.

Well, as the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” So, Jeff ________ to give them their own garden.

After they went into hibernation (冬眠) last November, Jeff had the ________ ready for them when they woke up. And to his ________, there was now a baby groundhog.

Jeff ________ the groundhogs a small picnic table, a water fountain, and put out some nice decorations. “If I can do a job to ________ them and keep them safe, I’m all for it,” Jeff said.

6 . A video about a homeless man went viral. Johal, a video-maker known for his social ________, decided to give a homeless man some money and ________ his reaction.

In the video, approaching a ________ homeless man, Johal carefully places some money on his bag. Minutes later, when the man wakes up, he’s surprised to see the cash and looks excited and grateful. The man walks to a store, steps out with a bag of ________, probably to face the cold nights, and returns to his bench.

Johal sits beside the man, talking on the phone with a friend, asking if he can borrow some money for his daughter. The homeless man ________ listens to Johal. After he hangs up, the man asks if he’s okay. Johal explains he’s getting his daughter some ________ while having a hard time financially.

In a(n) ________ turn of events, the man asks Johal to ________ his bag and leaves with the shopping bag. He returns ________ after returning the items and offers the money to Johal, who is a total ________, comforting he can go by without a blanket but the girl needs the treatment. Touched with the homeless man’s kindness, Johal ________ the experiment, offering $500 to the man, who instantly starts crying in ________.

________ but true, the result proves sometimes, those with less are the ones ________ most. Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, heroes are the ones with a ________.

7 . Last week, Tom and his mother went to a restaurant to celebrate his fifth birthday. When he and his mother were talking there, a waitress _________ curiously from a distance. Eventually, the waitress realized that the mom was talking in sign language to her little boy who also had _________ aids in his ears.

When the waitress _________ that it was Tom’s birthday, she decided to give the boy a special gift. She went to the Internet and _________ how to say “happy birthday” in sign language. She quickly got all the rules down. Then, she went up to Tom’s table and _________   to him, “Happy birthday to you!” Tom and his mother were really _________

Later, Tom’s mom said this was the first time he had _________ in sign language with people other than her and his teacher. It was a simple phrase _________ it was an important gift for Tom.

She added that the _________ from the waitress made her very moved. “Thanks to the __________ waitress, his fifth birthday is one that we will __________ for a lifetime,” the mom said. “My boy was always worried that he would appear very __________when he was talking in sign language. Today, he saw that someone __________ tried to talk to him in his   __________ language. It’s very __________ for him. ”

9 . A mother was criticizing (批评) her daughter because the girl was not good enough to compete at a championship level in the gymnastics camp.

The scene reminded me of my ______ of the day when one of my own gymnastic performances put me to tears.

My mother became seriously injured when she was young, and she has______ a wheelchair ever since. But she never let that ______ her. She raised five children and had a career.

One day I joined a gymnastics program at a nearby park. Before long, I was totally ______in it. By 1972, I was on the National Gymnastics Team for the Olympic Games. I couldn’t think of anything else but ______ a gold medal.

Before the competition, all in my mind was ______ not to disgrace (使……丢脸) my country and myself. But, though I tried my best, I didn’t win a gold medal. I was so ______. When the winners were receiving ______, I joined my parents in the stands, and we all cried. “I’m sorry. I did my best.” I said.

Mother said nothing but ten words I never ______, “Doing your best is more important than being the best. ” Suddenly I understood her______than ever before. She had never let her handicap(残疾) ______ her from doing her best.

Now I approached the crying girl and put a(n) ______ around her. “Honey, ” I said. “I know you have done your best, and doing your best is more important than being the best. I’m ______ you. ”

She ______ me with tears in her eyes. Maybe somewhere, someday, she’ll ______ those words along.

10 . Imagine loving someone so much that you’d swim more than 5, 000 miles to see him or her. Dindim ____ swim that far every year to visit his friend Joao. This is ____ , not only because of the love between the two friends, but because Dindim is ____ a penguin. Joao found Dindim covered in oil, barely alive on a beach near his home. He picked him up, cleaned him off and brought him to his house where he ____ him and got him healthy again. Joao named him Dindim.

After a week, he brought the penguin back to the beach and tried to release him, _____Dindim refused to leave Joao. They lived together for the next eleven months. Then, Dindim disappeared. ____, Joao thought he’d never see his friend again. But just a few months later Dindim was back. He found Joao ____, and followed him home. Each year he ____ four months to live with other penguins. For the other eight months, he lives with Joao. Joao says that each time they meet again, Dindim seems ____ to see him. He says he loves the penguin ____ he were his family. He feels certain that Dindim loves him in the same way. Ecologist Carl Safina says that animals can and do love humans. He writes and speaks a lot about animals and their ____ . According to Carl, it’s clear that animals feel love for humans. What’s less obvious is whether or not humans love animals enough to ____ them. Hundreds of thousands of animals are killed by the same oil that____ Dindim when Joao found him.

Fifty percent of ____ has died out in the last 40 years because of humans’ ____their habitats. Scientists say we’re in a new mass extinction period. In the next two generations, they predict that we’ll lose 75 percent of the remaining species on earth.