1 . A fat man with a camera around his neck and a bottle of sunscreen cream sticking out of his bag, he really did look like a tourist. He sat on the terrace (平台), sipping lemonade and pretending to look at a tourism brochure. His sunglasses masked his eyes, but I knew he wasn't looking at the brochure: he hadn't turned a page for the last ten minutes. As I brought him his dishes, he coughed up a "thank you" and looked at me briefly I tried not to stare at the tiny scar across his left eyebrow.

I walked back inside with my empty tray, shaking my head. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place him. Then it hit me. The car accident. The mysterious stranger who helped me out of my crashed car, just before it exploded. I rushed back to his table. He was gone.

I moved his saucer and found his tip, along with a card: I am deeply grateful to you. The night of your car accident, I was on my way to rob a jewelry store. Saving your life brought things back in a right way. I now live an honest life, thanks to you. God bless you! Mr. D.

I shivered (震颤). The night of my car accident, I was heading for an interview in an illegal dance club. Seeing human kindness through his heroic gesture (英雄姿态) turned my life around and brought faith back into my life. I unfolded the tip he left. Among the singles was a grand (一千块) with a pen mark underlining "In God We Trust. "I said a silent prayer for him and got back to work, smiling.

2 . It took about three weeks for me to become mute. In 2007. I visited a client as a financial adviser and _____ a virus. I had a sore throat. My doctor ________ me it would soon return to normal.

________, it got worse. I could no longer make phone calls and started carrying a little whiteboard to write everything down. I tried to work with people I already knew, who were likely to be more________with me, but explaining financial details to ________ investors with a marker pen was a big challenge. At home my wife and teenage sons ________ the best they could. Soon I was using a computer that read out phrases typed into it.

My situation ________ when I was offered a tuition-assisted place at Iowa State University. I ________myself by accepting a job in the Student Services office. Forced to________ with people face to face, I started to have fun with computer voices.

In 2010, I read a news story about a waitress who’d had her voice ________ with the help of a doctor in Cleveland. It had to be worth a ________. Dr. Milstein ________ me to do some vocal exercises to stretch the muscles in my neck and to my astonishment I started to make ________. It was the first time I’d heard my voice in three and a half years.

Then I did more exercises, my voice becoming more_________ Milstein asked me to go over to the window and   ________ the friends across the street. I was________ at first that I would damage my voice, but he kept ________ me. Friends at university heard my voice for the first time and even when I was alone, I talked to myself.

I don’t regret those years of________. I spent more time with my boys and had time to________where I’d gone wrong as a husband and parent. That time ________ my rough edges. I prefer who I am now.

There once were a goat and a donkey that lived     1     a farm. The donkey worked the hardest so the farmer fed it the most     2    . Sometimes the donkey was given more food     3     it could eat. This made the goat so jealous    4     it began plotting against(谋划对付)the donkey. "Hey, donkey," the goat said one day. "I think you do too much work on this farm. You carry such heavy things from morning to night. Why don't you pretend     5     (get) sick so you can take a day     6    ?'' The donkey thought the goat had a great idea. So the next morning, the donkey lay in the stable(畜栏)on its side with its eyes     7     (close). Right away, the farmer called the doctor.     8    looking at the donkey, the doctor said it needed a special medicine made     9     the heart of a goat. So the farmer killed     10     goat and gave the donkey medicine made from its heart.

4 . During my stay at an orphanage at the age of 9, a gentleman came and taught us how to do woodworking projects.

I remember my first project — a small table. I was so ______ of it that I looked upon it as if I had created a(an) ______. It was absolutely beautiful and it had taken me six weeks to ______ it. I could hardly wait to give it to Mother Winters as a ______. She was the head mistress of our orphanage, who was always kind but ______ with us.

As the tables were not dry from the clear coating, the man told us to wait a few days before taking them to our dormitories. But I was just so ______ and happy that I couldn’t wait. I dashed out like a ______, carrying my table, smiling from ear to ear.

When I reached the dormitory I placed the little table beside my bed. I was ______ it when Mother Winters entered. She walked over to the table. Running her hand ______ it, she noticed that it was still wet.

“Were you ______ to bring this home?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” I ______ with my head down.

She ordered me to throw the table out and so I did. After she left, I immediately opened the door to get it back. There was ______ stuck all over. I brushed and cried, but the dirt would not come off.

I hid the table in my closer and never______ it. However, a year later during a cleaning-up, it was discovered. Painfully, I had to give the table to Mother Henderson, my houseparent, thinking that she would ______ it away.

Thirty years later at a reunion, I ______ that Mother Henderson was living nearby, so I drove up to see her. We talked cheerfully for long. As I was about to leave, she asked me to come down to her ______ to get something important. I followed her ______ into a dark corner. She picked something up. ______ she turned around, I could see that she was holding a little table.

Mother Henderson kept the little table that I had given up for lost so long ago.

Today, I look at that table with bittersweet memories but full of ______ to Mother Henderson, who kept the table for a young orphan who ______ it so much.

5 . At six feet, seven inches tall and weighing 253 pounds, Father was a quiet giant（巨人） who only roared when he was angry. He would work long days, often_________when I was already in bed. My two younger sisters and I both loved and feared him. Hearing the words, “Just wait until your father comes home,” would guarantee the three of us would start_________immediately. I was seven years old the night the “giant” became a person, and my_________. All it took was the_________of a tiny, dirty kitten.

I_________to the sounds of my father coming home from work. I slipped out of bed and moved quietly towards the living room in hopes of spending a few precious minutes_________with my parents without my annoying sisters around.

I heard mum say, “We cannot _________ it.” What was the “it”? The giant saw me and _________ I should sit down near him. I was at a loss, although terrified might be a _________ word, for I had never seen or heard of a giant crying before. Unshed（ 满 眶 ）tears__________ up in his eyes. His cheeks were __________ from the ones he had cried earlier.

The giant reached into a cardboard box and brought out a dirty young cat and __________ it on my lap. I was soon__________, as the giant shared a story with mum. As he spoke, with shaking shoulders caused by__________and at times sorrow, he transformed from a giant to a man who became my hero.

He explained that he was on his __________ home when he heard two men laughing and talking. As he rounded the corner, he heard the most terrible scream of pain. He couldn’t__________what he saw. The men had thrown a kitten into a furnace（火炉）. He yelled and ran up to them but it was too__________. He couldn’t save the kitten. The men had run away and he was about to run after them when he saw another kitten at his feet.

“We have to__________it; we have to keep it!” said the giant. “It needs a__________,” said mum. “I can help, Mommy!”

Reminded of my presence, mum and my hero sent me off to bed. As I fell asleep, I heard mum running some water.

We named the kitten Cinder and it joined our family. I never saw “the giant” again; I only saw my hero and a man whose heart was__________than he was.

8 . Night fell. Loug Falter returned home, teary-eyed and _________. The 33-year-old professional photographer had just run from one end of Hawaii’s Waimea Bay to the other, scanning the water _________ his “baby”, a custom-made (定制的) blue surfboard.

On arriving home, Falter _________ his search online. “Was surfing tonight and _________ my baby,” he wrote on Facebook. He hoped it would wash ashore in the coming days and that whoever _________ it would have also seen his Facebook post. But instead of pushing Falter’s surfboard to _________, the currents of Waimea Bay swept it out to sea, _________ Hawaiian Island.

Weeks passed with no _________ of the surfboard. Then _________, Lyle Carlson, who had made the board for Falter, comforted him with the possible reunion but nobody knew when.

But Falter never completely __________ about the board. It __________ on the remote island of Sarangani in the southern Philippines—six months after and over 5,000 miles away. The local fisherman sold the unusual __________ to Giovanne Branzuela, a 36-year-old elementary school teacher for $ 40. For Branzuela, riding the big waves had been his dream.

The once-blue board had __________ to a pale straw color during its journey, but its __________ markings were still there: two elephants and the words “Lyle Carlson Surfboards, Hawaii.”

On realizing how far the surfboard had traveled, Branzuela __________ Carlson online, who, in turn, contacted Falter. Falter __________ the board was his and was __________ to learn his “baby” had floated across the World’s largest ocean and __________.

He was thrilled, but not only for himself. Knowing someone an ocean away shares the same interest with him __________ a lot to Falter and he couldn’t imagine a better __________ to the story.

10 . My 11-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, does not like swim meets. She gets horribly   ______ because she is afraid that she will let everyone down. She started to talk about ______ swimming, which broke my heart because she loves swimming.                                

Recently, Elizabeth’s team ______ a T-shirt relay, which works like this: one person puts on a T-shirt and a pair of ______ and swims 50 meters. The person takes off the clothes and the other members, ______ put them on and swim another 50 meters until everyone on the team has completed a lap.

I told Elizabeth I really wanted her to go. She ______ back angrily but finally agreed.                                             

When the day arrived, Elizabeth was ______ to swim the anchor leg (最后一棒). By the last leg, Elizabeth’s team had built up a ______ lead. Then it was Elizabeth’s turn.

______ the halfway mark, she was still in the lead. Then somebody noticed that one of Elizabeth’s socks had ______ and was floating in the pool. “She has to get that sock on before the end of the race,” a swimming ______ told Elizabeth’s team, “or you will be ______.”

Everybody on her team started shouting, but she couldn’t hear them. ______, a girl in Lane Two was ______ on Elizabeth. Just then, a girl on my daughter’s team jumped in the pool, ______ the sock, swam after Elizabeth and put the sock on Elizabeth.

The sock finally on, Elizabeth swam with all her ______ for the last 15 meters and won! There followed much ______. And, for a few minutes, Elizabeth was the heroine.

On the ride home, she relieved her moment of glory ______. She told me that if the T-shirt relay were an Olympic event, her team would win the gold medal. I told her that in my ______ opinion, she was ______ right.