1 . Every weekend, my father would go to the park to feed the homeless with other volunteers. I really didn’t understand my father’s _____   into it. But I was glad I didn’t have to _____   him, because I knew how much trouble my father had just getting everything ready.

Then, one Friday night I was   _____ a whole wonderful weekend by myself again when my dad came in.

“I need your help tomorrow. Some _____ won’t make it.”

“Dad, I can’t.” I protested (抗议), but _____.

When we arrived, people were already there _____us. I was _____   that my dad knew most of them by name and even what each one needed. While my father was feeding them, I started handing out some _____. It was at that time that I _____a girl about my age was barefoot (光脚). I looked into her clear eyes for a moment, ______   believing someone of my age could live like this. It was lucky that we took some ______. “Thank you!” she cried happily when I ______her the shoes. I felt very ______inside as I watched her leave.

Now I ______why my father did so much to help the homeless. I could ______   he loved seeing their smiles of happiness. I did too.

2 . When young, my parents often told me that it was time to teach a man everything. I didn’t understand and wondered why time had such a big influence ______ a person. I thought I could grow up quickly to find it out as a (n) ______. But now, ______ I come to knock at the door of adulthood, I feel ______ to express my own ______ on this saying. I know that I’m just a high school student with very ______ experiences. There are still many things ______ me in the future, yet I would like to express myself in a childish voice.

I once read this sentence, “To make this world a happy place to live in, you’d better change yourself and your heart, instead of the whole world.” I was ______. It made me think about life ______. There are so many things around us that ______ our will We can’t force life to ______ our wishes. The earth won’t stop turning no matter whether we accept it or not. What we can do is just to make ourselves ______ the world. I think we learn to accept ______ life gives us, no matter whether it’s the spring sunlight or the winter snowfall, and try to be ______.

Deeply moved by the pop song Grandmother (by Jay Chou), I always try to catch every pleasant thing in my life, but now I see I can’t catch most of the pleasant moments. It is more ______ that they slip by and leave you feeling ______ that I’m not just living ______ myself and that there are the others around me I ______ think of. They all pay attention to my growing up, even if it’s just a little progress.

Everyone has his or her own attitude towards life, positive or ______. It doesn’t matter, I think. There is one ______ that should be obeyed—and that’s to make this world a better place to live in.

3 . A little boy told his mother that there was a teacher-parent meeting in his school. To the little boy’s_________, she said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teacher met his mother and he felt _________of her appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar (伤疤) that_________nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to_________why or how she got the scar.

At the meeting, the people were _________by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother_________the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed (尴尬的) and_________himself from everyone. He, however,_________ a conversation between his mother and his teacher.

The teacher asked_________, “How did you get the scar on your face?”

The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of__________, so I went in. As I was running toward his bed, I saw a piece of wood coming down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked __________but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us.” She __________the burned side of her face. “This scar will be permanent, but until this day, I have never__________what I did.”

At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He held her in his arms and appreciated her great __________of sacrifice (牺牲), He held her hand __________ for the rest of the day.

14.

A．honour

B．spirit

C．happiness

D．pride

4 . December 24 arrived along with a heavy snow. It was my first Christmas Eve without mother and the day’s usual _______ had disappeared.

The telephone rang. I _______ it and went to my bedroom to bury the continuous sadness, knowing it must be my friend Rebecca calling. How could I be _______? I wanted to be left alone .

My heart felt as _______ as the falling snow. How can I stop missing my mother?

I _______ the window. Seeing Rebecca’s car parked out front, I went back to bed and drew the covers over my head.

“Lucy!” she shouted. “I know you’re in there. Answer the door!”

“Leave me alone!” I _________ back. I heard paper rustling(沙沙作响) as she slid _________ under the door.

“Merry Christmas,” she called out.

Not answering the _________ made me feel even worse. It wasn’t fair to my best friend. Her father and sister _______ in a car accident when she was eight years old. __________, her mother had to return to __________, and Rebecca was left to look after herself.

When she left, I carried the small package, sat down and __________ it. Inside was a gold pen and a journal. When I opened the journal’s front cover, out fell a bookmark with a(n) __________ written on it:

My words won’t heal(治愈) the __________. But your own words can.

Love,

Rebecca

As I stared(盯着) at the journal’s blank pages, a single tear fell on the page which quickly absorbed it. That night, I __________ the phone and called her. “It looks like the snow is melting(融化),” I said. “Spring is just around the corner.”

5 . “I hate New Orleans! I wanna go home!” I _______ to my mother as we moved boxes. _______, going home was not easy because my home was 1,100 miles away.

I was born and _______ in Virginia. Virginia was my home, and I never expected that to _______. Last year, my parents decided to move to my mom’s hometown, New Orleans.

Only three months after my parents made the _______ to move, I found myself moving boxes into our new house. My announcement to my mother that I _______ the new environment was mostly due to the fact that I felt like my entire life had been turned upside down. Far away from almost everyone and everything I had ever known, I was _______. To make matters worse, I was starting high school in two weeks. Starting high school is a scary _______ on its own.

I spent my first few months in New Orleans, _______ wanting to go back to Virginia. But after that, I ________ that I had a choice. I could continue missing my old home, or I could start trying to build a new home right here. I ________ the latter.

As soon as I stopped giving all my ________ to how much I missed Virginia, I was able to begin accepting the love that local people were giving me. I joined some clubs at school, which gave me the chance to make friends. My neighbors taught me how to cook some local food, and I found a wonderful ________ of neighbors. Overall, I seized every possible opportunity to ________ myself and to rebuild my life.

Because of my resilience(适应力) in creating a new home for myself and the ________ that local people have shown to me, home is right here.

6 . Vanessa Bryant made her first public comment Wednesday since the helicopter crash that killed her husband Kobe Bryant and one of their daughters.

“We are completely devastated (摧毁) by the _________ loss of my adoring husband, Kobe—the amazing father of our children; and my beautiful, sweet Gianna—a loving, thoughtful and wonderful daughter, and amazing _________ to Natalia, Bianka and Capri,” Vanessa Bryant wrote.

The Bryants would have _________ their 19th wedding anniversary this April. They had four daughters including Natalia, Bianka, Capri and the 13-year-old Gianna who died in the crash.

“There aren’t _________ words to describe our pain right now,” Vanessa Bryant wrote. “I take _________ in knowing that Kobe and Gianna both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so fortunate to have them in our _________. I wish they were here with us _________. They were our beautiful blessings _________ from us too soon.”

“I’m not sure what our lives hold _________ today, and it’s impossible to __________ life without them,” Vanessa Bryant continued. “But we wake up each day, __________ to go ahead because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, are shining on us to __________ the way. Our love for them is __________. I just wish I could hug them, __________ them and have them here with us right now.”

In the meanwhile, Vanessa Bryant asked for continued __________ of her family’s privacy as it is “going through this new reality”.

9 . Tears clouded my eyes as I stood in our washing room, holding Brett’s jeans and shirt full of burn holes.

Tired and defeated, I_______ to the floor. The clothes were just one more thing Brett had _______ . He often got almost everything in the house out of order. Many windows in our house needed repair due to his breaking _______ to steal money when he chose to live on the street. Yet none of this could compare to the emotional _______ Brett had done to our once quiet home.

Brett came to live with us when he was 12 years old. During the next few years I had dealt with Brett as_______as possible, but inside I was shouting, “I don’t want him in my house another day, Lord! I just can’t _______ him!” Having wiped my tears, I continued _______ him as before.

When Brett was nearly 18, he landed again in Juvenile Hall (少管所). After that, my husband and I had to send Brett to a boarding school for helping troublesome teens.

At the graduation ceremony, each graduate held a white rose to give to the person who had _______ the most to him or her.

Brett spoke _______ to his parents and then spoke to me, “You did so much. You were always there, no matter what. My mom and dad, I was their kid. But you, ________ troubled enough by me, always ________ me such love. And I want you to know I love you for it.”

________, I stood as Brett placed the white rose in my hand and hugged me tightly.

At that moment, tears________ in my eyes again, this time not for disappointment but for________. Although I had struggled with silent ________toward my stepson, Brett had seen only my actions. Love is action. We may not always have positive feelings about certain people in our lives, but we can love them.

10 . My parents always made extra Christmas specials for my sisters and me. Of course the _______ event was when my sisters and I would run down the _______ to see our Christmas tree surrounded by mountains of _______. We got the bikes, microscopes, cameras, and many others. They were great, though I didn’t _______ appreciate all that my parents did. In fact it was quite common for me to be trapped in _______ gifts and not be able to remember everything I _______.  

As my husband and I were getting _______ to welcome our first child into the world, we thought how to give Christmas gifts. Finally we _______ the decision to set the three-gift _______ for our holiday celebrations. I had ever ________ about the idea in a few magazine articles. And I really ________ how it made the children decide about the things they truly ________. But mostly, I loved the idea of ________ our holiday. I would see my kids get the same number of gifts. I expected a Christmas day when we could actually enjoy each other’s ________, as well as the gifts and the spirit that they were given.  

________ those ideas Joe and I came up before our ________ were born, such as we never let them eat ________ food, or limit TV to only one hour a day, the three-gift rule is one thing that ________ the test of time. We’ve done it each year since Tom was born 18 years ago. Joe and I are a lot less ________ since we are focusing on getting each child the ________ three things that they desire. And we find the kids do appreciate and enjoy the gifts. 

I hope my kids will be building their own families and their own traditions.