Terry was a middle-aged leather trader whose repeated failure in career made him a depressed man, often __16__ that he had been cheated by others. One day he told his wife he was so __17__ with the city that he had to leave.
So his family moved to another city. It was the evening of a weekend. When Terry and his wife were busily __18__ up their new home, the light suddenly __19__. Terry was regretful to have forgotten to bring along __20__ and had to wait __21__ in a low mood. Just then he heard light, hesitant __22__ on his door that were clearly audible (聽到) in the __23__ night.
“Who’s it?” he wondered, since Terry was a __24__ to this city. And this was the moment he especially hated to be __25__, so he went to the door and opened it __26__. At the door was a little girl, shyly asking, “Sir, do you have candles? I’m your neighbor. ” “No,” answered Terry in anger and shut the door __27__. “What a nuisance!” He complained over it with his wife. “No sooner had we settled down than the neighbor came to __28__ things.”
After a while, the door was knocked again. He opened it and found the same girl outside. __29__ this time she was __30__ two candles, saying, “My grandma told me the new neighbor downstairs might need candles. She __31__ me here to give you these.” Terry was very __32__ by what he saw. At that moment he suddenly realized what caused his __33__ in life. It was his __34__ and harshness (刻薄) with other people. The person who had cheated him in life was __35__ nobody else but himself, for his eyes had been blurred (蒙蔽) by his unsympathetic mind.

Waiting for the airplane to take off, I was happy to have a seat by myself．Just then, an air hostess approached me and asked, “Would you mind  26   your seat? A couple would like to sit together．” The only 27 seat was next to a girl with her arms in casts（石膏），a black-and-blue face, and a sad expression．“ 28  am I going to sit there,” I thought immediately．But a soft voice spoke, “She needs help．” Finally, I  29  to move to that seat．
The girl was named Kathy．She 30  in a car accident and now was on her way for  31 When the snack and juice arrived, it did not take me long to 32  that Kathy would not be able to 33 herself．I considered 34  to feed her but hesitated, as it seemed too 35  to offer a service to a 36  ．But then I realized that Kathy’s need was more 37  than any of my discomfort．I offered to help her eat, and 38 she was uncomfortable to accept, she 39  as I expected．We became closer and closer in a short period of time．By the end of the five-hour trip, my heart  40  , and the 41  was really better spent than if I had just sat by myself．
I was glad I had reached  42  my comfort zone to sit next to Kathy and feed her．Love  43  flows beyond human borders and remove the fears that keep us 44 ．When we  45  to serve another, we grow to live in a larger and more rewarding world．

Last weekend, my kids along with few other kids from the neighborhood volunteered to help me wash my car. My 10-year-old daughter came up with the idea of   36 other people’s cars as well. It was pretty    37   outside and I had no plans to   38   being in the bright sun. She    39   wanted to give lemonade（檸檬汽水）to passers-by for free. I had seen little kids   40   and sell fresh lemonade for a small cost but not free. Although I felt    41  , I decided to help her.
  42   she asked me, “What if we    43   this a smile car wash?” I couldn’t hold back my tears and    44   her and the other kids to go outside the house and come up with    45    ideas. While I kept myself busy in drying the car, the gang walked up to me with a（n）  46  with beautiful images of smiles. They had “Free Car Wash” written on it and the    47    of their exercise was “smile”. It was pretty neat to see a team of kids ranging 5-11 years with the   48 to do something for others.
All that seemed  49  and came right from their heart. Nothing seemed to 50    to them: their playtime, the heat outside—they just wanted to   51 others and do something nice in the community!
I helped them make some fresh lemonade and brought out some additional   52   to help clean cars. Passers-by were    53    and one even shouted back to them saying “God Bless You, my kids…” One of them even tried giving them 5 dollars, which they refused. A pretty heartwarming  54  !
I feel blessed by being    55   by such wonderful and loving souls.

My husband Sid and I were never able to have children. I had always wanted a family and that feeling  36  after his death. He was all I had. When he  37 , I felt like I had lost my entire family. I never  38  I would finally get the family I had always wished for. A few years later I met Tom. When we married, I  39  got four grown children and eight grandchildren.
I was  40  about my first meeting with his children. My worries melted away when I realized that they  41  me and were more than willing to bring me into their family. And when his daughters  42  me if their children could call me “Mimi,” I was excited, Tom was divorced, and  43  I was also concerned about the  44  that the children already had two grandmothers. Would the little ones understand  45  I fit into the family？
At our first extended family gathering, I  46  our six-year-old grandson Jim staring at me with a  47  look. He seemed to be thinking about something serious.  48  sporting a big grin(咧嘴笑)，he jumped and said, “I know who you are! You are our  49  grandma!” At that moment, I know it was time to just relax and enjoy my new  50 .
People say when a door close, God opens a window. Now I know what that  51 . I lost so much joy when Sid died,  52  now I have a new happy life. I am enjoying so many things I  53  got to experience before like reading bedtime stories. My refrigerator is covered with drawings, and my walls are  54  with photos of the kids. I may be an instant “extra” grandma in Jim’s eyes, but I am just as  55  any other “regular” grandma I know.

A high school history teacher once told us, “if you make one close friend in school, you will be most fortunate. A true friend is someone who stays with you for life.” __1___ teaches that he was right. Good friendship is just not easily __2___.
It is possible that we simply do not stay in one place long enough for __3___ friendship to __4__. However, there can be _5__ disagreement on the need for each of us to think carefully about the kind of friendship we want.
To most of us, friendships are considered very important, but we need to have clear in our _6__ the kinds of friendship we want. Are they to be close or __7_ at arm’s length? Do we want to __8_ ourselves or do we want to walk on the surface? For some people, many friendships on the surface are _9__ enough---and that’s right. But at some point we need to _10__ that our expectations are the same as our friends’ expectations. The sharing of _11__ experience _12__ our tears as well as our dark dreams is the surest way to deepen friendships. But it __13_ be undertaken（進行）slowly and carried on only if there are _14__ of interest and action in return.
What are some of the _15__ of friendship? The greatest is the attraction to expect too much too soon. Deep relationships __16_ time. Another “major difficulty” is the selfishness to think one “possesses” the other, including his time and attention, Similarly, friendships __17___actions in return, in __18__ words, you must give as much as you take. Finally there is a question of taking care of . Unless you spend __19__ time together, talking on the phone, writing letters doing things together, friendships will die __20__

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D．Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context．
There once was a happy monkey in the jungle. He was wandering all days, eating delicious fruit when hungry and    36   when tired. One day he came upon a house, where he saw a bowl of the most beautiful   37  . He took one in each hand and ran back into the forest.
The monkey tried to eat them, but hurt his teeth. The apples were made of wood, but they were beautiful, and when the other monkeys said that they  38  them, he held onto them even tighter.
The monkey admired his new possessions proudly as he wandered the jungle. The two apples glistened (閃亮) red in the    39  , and seemed perfect to him. He became so attached to them that he didn’t even notice his    40   at first.
A fruit tree reminded him, but he felt the apples in his hands. He couldn’t bear to set them down to reach for the fruit. In fact, he couldn’t    41  , either, if he was to defend his apples. This proud, but less happy monkey continued to walk along the forest trails (小路).
The apples became    42  , and the poor little monkey thought about leaving them behind. He was tired and hungry; he couldn’t climb trees or collect fruit with his hands    43  . What if he just let go (釋放)?
Letting go of such    44   things seemed crazy, but what else could he do? He was so tired. Seeing the next fruit tree and smelling its fruit, the monkey stopped. He   45   the wooden apples and reached up for his meal. He was happy again.
Like that little monkey, we    46   carry things that seem too valuable. Letting go of them seems crazy. But    47  : only with open hands can we receive something else.

Education from My Father
My memories of my father are slim because he was so sick in the last years of his life. But there are   32  that I am often reminded of and which may have had some bearing on my love of   33 .
When I was small I was somewhat   34  of lightning and thunder. My father explained it. The explanation was in   35  that a child could understand but was basically correct. I gained a better   36  later, but I didn’t have to unlearn anything.
What he said was that there was electricity in the clouds   37  it traveled to the ground like a spark. When it traveled   38  the air it made the air so hot that it   39 . Then there was nothing where the air had been and the air all around rushed in to   40  the space. He clapped his hands together very loud,   41  to be the air rushing in, and said that makes the thunder. When I hear thunder, I can still hear that   42 .
He explained why if it was cloudy in the winter the night was warmer than if it was   43 . It was one of those nights when the sky was full of stars: no moon, no town lights. But there were more stars than you could   44  and they had color too. He said that if there were no clouds, we had no blankets and were   45  to the universe. Our warmth was going to   46  the whole universe. When there were clouds, they were like blankets and we were not exposed to the universe. I   47  feel on the edge of space on a very clear night.
I am sure there were many other lessons that I   48  but no longer remember. What I did 49 , in general, was that there were explanations and that the more I understood them, the more    comfortable the world was to live in. I was not taught that there were   50  but that there was understanding if you looked for it. This may be why I have always been   51  in science.

Time is very important in our lives. It organizes our everyday moments. However, time never had any importance in my life until I  16  a watch from my father, which organized my life and made me more responsible. It’s round in the center with two silver bands(帶) that   17 around my wrist and all of it is made of silver.
I received this   18 on a gray – sky day. I had to go to the airport at 9:00 am to  19  up my Uncle Ali and take him to my father’s house.  20  , I was late because I was   21 out with my friends. Later on that day, around 11:00 am, I   22 my uncle, but I was very late for him. He had   23 the airport and taken a taxi to my father’s house.
I got to my father’s house at 2:00 pm that day and felt ashamed of myself at that moment. After I said hi to my   24 father and tired uncle, my father asked me to sit next to him and handed me this watch as a gift from him. Then he said, “Peter, did you have   25 with your friends today?” I answered, “Yes, father, and   26  apologized for not meeting my Uncle Ali.” He said, “What you   27  was not very nice and you should be sorry for your action.” I was ashamed and said, “Father, I’ll never do it again . I promise.” He said, “I hope today you learned something important, and this watch will be a   28  for you.” He told me to take this watch and use it as an organizer of my  29  .
I learned a very important lesson from my father: to respect time and never to be late to get someone. This watch is   30  to me, not because of its price, but because of the lesson that I learned from it.

One day, when I was in high school, I saw a kid named Kyle from my class walking home from school with all his books, I thought to myself, “__26___ would anyone bring home all his books for the weekend? He must really be    27___.”As I was walking, I saw several kids running toward him. They ran at him,   28  all his books out of his arms and he fell down in the dirt, His glasses went   29   and landed in the grass.
My   30   went out to him. So, I ran over to him.  31  I handed him his glasses, he looked at me and said, “Hey, thanks!”
I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it   32    , he lived near me. We talked all the way home. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.
Kyle was the   33 __student of our class, one of those guys that really found  themselves during high school. Therefore he had the   34  to prepare a  35  speech. On the graduation day, I could see that he was  36   .So, I patted him on the back and said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be   37  !” He looked at me and smiled.
He cleared his throat, and began. “Graduation is a time to   38   those who helped you make it through those   39    years. Your parents, your teachers… but mostly your friends, I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best  40    you can give him.”
I just looked at my friend with   41    as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to  42    himself over the weekend and was carrying his books home. “Thankfully, nothing happened. My friend   43     me from doing the unspeakable.”
Not until that moment did I realize that you should never underestimate(低估) the  44    of your actions. With one small gesture you can   45   a person’s life. For better or for worse.

We all have storms through our lives. But we have no right to make everyone else suffer with our own   31 .
The carpenter I   32  to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a(n)   33  first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his truck   34  to start.
While I drove him home, he sat in stony   35  .
On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused   36   at a small tree,   37  tips of the branches with both hands.
When opening the door, he underwent a(n)   38  transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles, and he   39   his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
The next day my   40  drove me to ask him about what I had seen. “Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t   41  having troubles on the job, but the troubles don’t   42  to the house with my family. So I just   43  them up on the tree. Then in the morning I pick them up again.”
“  44  thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as   45  as I remember the night before.”
Putting   46  around our problems is a really good idea --- it prevents our difficulties from spilling over onto loved people, who can’t do anything about our problems. Why   47  them if they can’t help us?
So, plant yourself a trouble tree outside and use it   48   you come home. Be grateful that you have loved ones to go home to    49  your loved one is simply your beloved dog. And when you picked up your troubles on the way each morning, be   50  that they’re not as heavy as they were the night before.