1 . It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.

The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries (食品杂货), saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.

I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.

People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity (人性) as a whole. And it has influenced us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting.

Anna lost her arms in a car accident when she was a teenager. What was worse, she lost her parents at the age of 20. Her elder sister,     1     was ten years older than her, wanted to take care of her. However, Anna refused     2     (live) with her sister, saying that she would take care of     3     (her). She managed to enter college and     4     (study) very hard. Four years later, she graduated and     5     (give) a job. Once she wrote     6     her diary, “I am quite lucky. Though I lost my arms, I still have my legs.”

Anna chose to face her misfortune in a positive way. Instead of     7     (feel) sad every day, she decided not to let it hold her back. She has taught us     8     good lesson. When something bad happens to us, we have two     9     (choose). One is to complain, and the other is to face it     10     (brave). If we choose to escape, it will always follow us wherever we go. If we decide to be strong, new hopes will come. So choose wisely.

4 . The word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by hardship. The circular motion (循环运动) between happiness and _________ is the one I’ve been dealing with lately.

A year ago, I developed troubling symptoms(症状) in my left _________. My husband sent me _________ to a specialist who said I had already suffered some everlasting loss of vision and would, without _________, go blind in that eye within months. And I urgently _________ to begin painful eye injections. Almost blind? Painful eye injections? I was _________. What if the _________ medicine didn’t work? What if my right eye developed the same condition? I _________ thought that, amazingly, the medicine was only three years old; before that, patients just went blind.

Over that long week, I _________ myself to casually __________ sadness, to cry and acknowledge my fears about my very fragile body. I __________ to be near anybody but my husband. Fortunately, I __________ pretty quickly, within the week. During this __________ time, I posted my __________ in my blog and receives great care and support from friends online, which filled my heart with __________ and encourages me to receive the eye injections. Besides, the doctor __________ the efficacy(功效) of the medicine. In the end, I bravely received the eye injections and they were very successful. I was lucky enough to see the world again with my healthy eye.

Finally, I gained a __________ insight: being your happiest self isn’t equal to a lifetime of __________ skies, and we are bound to __________ storms of life. Knowing this can help us face difficulties optimistically and __________ the change of life.

5 . It had been a long business trip. We had already had multiple flight delays, so I was pleased when we ________ boarded the plane on schedule. The flight attendants shut the door,     ________the passengers, and soon after, I heard the sound of the engines firing, which seemed quite ________ to me.

It is common in Atlanta that we had to wait a bit on the ________ for our turn. And then finally we started moving slowly. ________, when we did so for about 10 minutes, suddenly the plane stopped. An announcement came that we’d have a delay, and we’d be in a holding pattern (等待航线) for a little while.

That “little while”________90 minutes at last. It was almost 40 degrees and we were________in the small plane with almost no air conditioning. It seemed like a(n)     ________! So when the plane took off in the end, all the passengers couldn’t help cheering.

Waiting is not something that comes easily to me. I’m more like the sports car with the engine ________ waiting at the crossing. The moment the traffic light turns greens, I will rush out urgently.

But now, as I’ve reached my advanced age, I’ve ________ something: When I have to stay in a “holding pattern”, it will be wise to accept that with ________ and a good attitude.

Sometimes those “holding patterns” are for my   ________. They teach me something connect with someone, or make me wait until things are ________. Sometimes those “holding patterns” seem very long and ________ just like the one on the hot airplane but I should trust everything will be OK. I should know what I can do is just have ________ with the difficult time.

6 . A married lady was expecting a birthday gift from her husband. For many months she had admired a beautiful diamond ring. Knowing her husband could ______ it, she told him that it was all she wanted as a birthday gift.

As her birthday approached, this lady awaited ______ that her husband had bought the diamond ring.

Finally, on the morning of her birthday, her husband told her how ______ he was to have such a good wife, and how much he loved her. He ______ her a beautifully wrapped present. As she opened it, ______, she only found a Bible. She ______ her voice to her husband and said,“Only a Bible?” She was so ______ that she left him.

Many years later, the lady ______ in a more beautiful house. Realizing her husband was very old, she thought perhaps she should go to visit him. But before she ______, she received a letter telling her that he had passed away and given all of his ______ to her. She needed to come back and take care of things.

She arrived at his house, filled with great ______. She saw the ______ brand-new Bible, just as she had left it before. With ______, she opened it and began to turn the pages, finding a sentence carefully ______ by her husband,“To me you are cruel, but you know how to give ______ things to your children!”As she read those words, a bag ______ from the Bible. A diamond ring and the words “I LOVE YOU” could be seen.

If your ______ is not packaged the way you want it, it’s because it is better packaged! Please, always ______ little things; they usually lead you to bigger things! The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even ______, for they must be felt with ______.

7 . When my daughter Sara was in the fifth grade, she came to me with a problem. “Marcy hates me!” she cried. “Because Kathy is my friend, too. She wants me to be her friend and nobody else’s. You talk to Marcy. You tell her that I want to be her friend, but I can have other friends, too!”

Oh! I looked at her for a few moments, wondering how I got into this mess (困境), when suddenly an idea came to me.

Picking up two baskets from the living room, I explained, “When everyone is born, he or she has a little basket. This little one here is yours. The big one is mine. As you grow, so does the basket. You can see your little basket is inside mine because when you were born, there were too many things you couldn’t do for yourself. I did everything you couldn’t do on your own.”

She nodded.

“Well, as you grew older and began to do some things on your own, I began placing a few more things in your basket. When you learned to tie your shoes, that went in your basket.”

She said softly, “I can tie my own shoes.”

“Right. As you grow older, there will be more and more things you must do on your own.” As I spoke, I gradually took her basket out of mine and handed it to her. “You will finally carry your own basket with things only you can do.”

She looked up at me and said, “I understand. There are some things that I have to do for myself because they are in my basket.”