5 . Each morning, I hear my phone ring around 8: 00 am. Instead of _________ it, I let it go to voicemail. Anyone who is not familiar with me will think I am _________ the caller and usually say, “Aren’t you going to respond to that?”

I listen to the message when I have time to relax. It is a _________ from my friend Tina. After listening to her talk, I call her cell and _________ a similar message.

The _________ started ten years ago when I came to a crossroads in my life. Tina was my advisor. I told her my confusion and she gave me some helpful _________. We finally came up with a(n) _________ to keep me on track. We decided to call each other daily.

“Let’s set some guidelines to these calls,” she _________. The guidelines for our calls were simple: We’d leave a list of what we are grateful for. We’d discuss three good things we did for ourselves the day before.

Like anything else, it took a while to _________ the calls. It was a new kind of relationship for both of us. But after ten years, it comes as __________ as breathing.

We’re a team, and when one of us __________, the other is always there to pick her up. I will put in that extra call and talk one-on-one when I’m __________ about her. Tina does the same for me. I know I can __________ her.

Anything is possible when you have the right people there to __________ you. I’m one of the __________ people on Earth to have a system like this.

6 . Zafar and Nadeem had been great friends since childhood. They used to go to the same secondary school nearby and _________ there and back together. They didn’t always see eye to eye, but _________ they had arguments about school as they were both _________ and wanted to get the best marks in their class.

One _________ afternoon, Nadeem, who had got the highest mark in a test that day, _________ on talking about it. Zafar couldn’t bear it. Anger _________ him because he thought Nadeem was only doing it to make him feel bad. Finally, he slapped (用手掌打) Nadeem in the face. Nadeem was _________ at first, but then he picked up a stick, and wrote in the sand: “Today my friend Zafar slapped me.”

The pair of friends carried on their way home in _________. As they got closer to the river, a section of the river bank _________ because of the rain and the water carried both boys into the river. Nadeem couldn’t swim but Zafar was there by his side __________ him to safety. After Nadeem had calmed down, he took a __________ stone and wrote on a big __________: “Today my friend Zafar saved my life.”

Zafar asked him why, Nadeem replied, “Writing in the sand __________ quickly. When our friends do something bad to us, we should forget it quickly. But when friends do good things and show us __________, we should always remember it, just as the writing on a rock __________ forever.”

8 . On my first day in America, I was excited, but nervous as well. It was my dear neighbor Susan who helped me   _________ my new life far away from home.

There was a knock at the door. When I _________ it. Susan came in with a homemade apple ple. She hugged me and said, “Wow, you   _________ be the precious (珍贵的) Chinese dull (娃娃)!”

With a big smile, she   _________, “Alice, I am sure you have never tried a home-made apple pie before! You are going to _________ it so much!”

To be honest, I was greatly surprised by this welcome from a _________. And the apple pie made me _________.

Susan was very helpful to me.

When I was thinking about the clothes to wear on Halloween, she suggested I _________like a traditional Chinese girl. “I happen to have a traditional Chinese dress and guess _________, I’m a great make-up artist!” She said. Susan did not hide (隐藏) her excitement, when she pushed me to the __________ to examine our work after an hour of hard work. The clothes fit me perfectly! I am sure that I stood out from the crowd that Halloween, and I am __________ for her help.

My first Thanksgiving was another highlight (亮点). __________ the festival morning, I was surprised to find a gift box in my front yard. There was a note on it: “Hello Alice, I’m the Thanksgiving bunny (兔子)! Enjoy your __________!” I looked around and caught Susan looking at me from her porch (走廊). Seeing that she had been __________, she hurriedly picked up a newspaper and pretended (假装) to __________ it. I couldn’t help __________. When I walked up to her, she said, “ __________ was not me. It was the Thanksgiving bunny!” Susan is such a __________ person; She is the American above all others I need to thank.

I saw that the spirit of the Chinese saying, that “Neighbors carry more__________ than distant relatives”, is alive and well in America. Susan filled my heart with   __________ and joy, just as angels do.

9 . McKinley Erves, 22, suffers from color blindness. His friends ________ him on his birthday with a pair of color-blind glasses which can help him ________ among colors — and it was all caught on camera.

“I hardly ever mentioned my ________ for color-blind glasses and my friends went out of their way to get me a pair for my birthday, which just tells me how much they ________ me,” Erves said. In the video, Erves looks at his red car before he puts on the glasses. After getting ________ from a friend, he slowly puts on them. Erves says seeing his car in a(n) ________ way for the first time is really unforgettable.

As of Thursday, the video has been ________ more than two million times after being posted online. Erves says he is shocked by the attention. “I’m just a(n) ________ guy. But they all tell me how happy they are for me, which makes me feel like I made a(n) ________ in a lot of people’s lives ________ it was just a little bit,” he says. One of Erves’s friends says, “We wanted to ________ his birthday and help him see everyday life ________ through his own eyes.” Erves is ________ to his friends, and hopes people who watched this video are able to find joy in little things. Life ________ us with all of the difficulties we face. But it’s the little things in life that make those ________ worthwhile, like seeing true colors for the first time.

10 . On the April morning I found out about Lucy’s mother, it rained. I didn’t know what kind of cancer Mrs. Hastings had until later, _______ I knew her condition was very serious.

I love Mr. and Mrs. Hastings almost as much as I love my own parents, and Lucy is my best friend. But I didn’t want to go to school that day. And I _______ didn’t want to see Lucy.

What could I possibly say to her? What do people say to their friends at such a time? I tried every trick I knew to get out of going to school.

But Mom _______. “You have a history test this morning, Kristin,” she said, looking at me as if she’d crawled into my mind and knew I was just making _______. Then she smiled. “Be sure to stay close to Lucy, especially today, because that poor girl is going to need your strength.”

Strength? What was Mother talking about? I didn’t even know what to say to my best friend. I hid out in the choir room between classes _______ avoiding Lucy, but she was never out of my thoughts. I kept trying to come up with something _______ to say to her because I really wanted to get it right.

Lucy and I had last-period English in Mrs. Green’s room. I’d avoided meeting her all day, I was going to have to face her last period, and I still didn’t have a(n) _______. However, Mrs. Green said, “Kristin, Lucy Hastings is your best friend, and she is coming here in a few minutes to get her lesson assignments.”

My heart tightened into a hard knot and I _______ inwardly. I still didn’t know what to say to Lucy, and time was running out.

I rushed out of the classroom, racing down the hall and out the front door of school. It had stopped raining, and the air smelt clean and fresh. In the distance I _______ someone coming toward me, stumbling across the campus. I knew it was Lucy ________ I couldn’t see her face. As she was approaching, I noticed how Lucy’s shoulders shook with every step she took. She must be crying. The rain came down ________. Raindrops mingled with my tears. Lucy’s heart was breaking, and I wasn’t doing a thing to help her!

As I drew nearer to her, my throat tightened, making it impossible to ________. I prayed for ________ and forced myself to move forward, ________ outstretched. “Oh. Kristin!” Lucy cried. “I was hoping it was you.” We hugged then. It was then that I learned something that I might never have grasped in any other way. I’d been always focusing on myself: What should I do? How should I act? What would I say to Lucy? But when we finally came face to face, I forgot myself and centered on Lucy and her needs. Only when I did that was I able to share Lucy’s grief and let her know that she was ________ and that I really cared.