It seemed that ever since Amanda started her school, kids often made fun of her, which made her feel very helpless and lonely.
One day before her birthday, she was told by her mum that a “Make A Special Birthday       ” contest was being held in a radio program of the city. If she wrote a        to the program, she might win a big prize. The contest sounded       , so she started thinking what she        most for her birthday. After thinking for a short while, Amanda went to write her letter.
Here was Amanda’s letter:
My name is Amanda. I am nine years old. I have a        at school. Can you help me? I have a special      . Due to the way I walk and talk, kids often        me. I just want one        when no one plays jokes on me.
At the radio station in the city, the workers had fun        about all the different presents that kids wanted on their birthdays. When Amanda’s letter arrived, the manager Mr. Tobin read it       . He knew her disease that might        her schoolmates who didn’t understand her       . He thought it was        for people to know the girl and her        wish. It’s necessary for people to        that everyone wants and deserves to be        with respect, dignity and warmth.       , Mr. Tobin quickly called up a local       . The next day, a picture of Amanda and her letter made the front page of the newspaper.
All across the country, the media        the story of Amanda, who        for such a simple yet unusual gift — just one day without being laughed at. Finally her wish came true.

The Johnson family from England believe they are lucky to be alive after surviving an incredible incident off the coast of Australia. The Johnsons had been      that they might see some whales when they were _    a yacht （帆船）— a large expensive boat for a 10-day sailing      around the Whitsunday Islands.     , they had no clue just how      their viewing would be. Two hours into their journey a nine-meter-long humpback whale      out of the ocean and crashed into their boat before returning to the water.
Mark Johnson，the eldest son，was sailing the yacht when he heard an immense bang and a thud(重擊聲).He     thought the yacht had hit a rock. However, when he looked up, he saw the whale      down the deck of the boat. He told the reporters, “ We were staring into its right eye. It was a very     _ moment. The eye was about the      of a dinner plate. It was huge.”
    for the Johnson family, no one was hurt, but the yacht suffered      damage. The whale had ruined the mast and rigging — the pole and ropes which hold the      ——and so the family was left      at sea, 10 miles from the shore. The      equipment was also damaged, but fortunately they had a cell phone and were able to call for help.
Why the whale jumped onto the yacht is a    ，but the family thinks that maybe the boat had not      sailed between the whale and its baby calf. Perhaps the whale was trying to      its calf when it jumped, hit the yacht by chance.
Whatever the reason, people are completely      that this incident happened. There is over 135 million square miles of ocean , so what are the      of a whale jumping onto a 30-foot-long yacht? The chance of something like this happening is miniscale, but it just shows that life is full of surprises.

A friend of mine met with an accident driving in darkness. His legs were so hurt that he couldn’t move. What was the       was he found himself unable to ask for help — his mobile phone went out of        as a result of exhausted battery. Nothing could be done but to       in cold wilderness. It was 8 hours later that day broke, and then the        of the rescue.
It is almost       that he could stand the horror in the darkness for so long. Even more surprising was his       : "First of all I checked up my        conditions and found myself not in mortal （致命的）danger. As there was no way to call for help, I leaned back in my seat trying my best to keep the wound from      . In this way I dozed （打盹）off ."
His story put an end to my regret for the       of an exploration adventure that happened last year. A group of young men       to explore a mountain cave and got lost.        to find a way out in the dark cave they were frightened and ran anxiously without a sense of        .Finally they fell dead in fear and exhaustion. According to the       people that found them, the place where they got lost was only about 10 meters away from the        of the cave. If they stayed on the spot when they lost their way and tried to        themselves, they would probably sense a faint light glimmering （閃爍）not far away .
Don’t you think that you can compare it with        itself? When you meet with obstacles （障礙）in life and work, you are lost in darkness.     you it’s unclear yet and you needn’t put up struggle        . It seems to be a negative attitude,        a person who can afford to do so must have foresight as well as a great       in the first place.

For a few years, I have been wearing a ring on my right hand. It’s not always the ____ ring, but it’s always a ring that has ____ on it so that when I look at it, I’m ____ or reminded of something important. I have made a ____ of buying rings like this whenever I see one in a store. Sometimes I give them away as ____ to someone like Jennie.
I first met Jennie in the ____ waiting room and we had talked several times. One night I sat down beside her and ____ how her son was doing because I knew that he was in very ____ condition. She told me that she didn’t know what to do more because it seemed none of the ____ from the doctors was good. They weren’t at all sure her son was going to ____ the accident that had hurt him so badly. With ____ in her eyes she said, “They’re ____ my hope.”
I knew then that it was ____ just a coincidence(巧合)that I was wearing the ring that I had on that day. As she ____ to talk, I ____ slipped the ring off my finger and placed it in Jennie’s hand. I told her to wear it to remember that God loved her and He would be with her ____ all of this. ____ Jennie looked down at the ring, she got excited and then held it tightly, ____ the word written on the ring was “HOPE”.
The last day I was at the hospital, I saw Jennie in the distance as I got on the lift. She ____ and held up the hand with the ring on it as she called out to me saying, “Look, I ____ have Hope!”

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in the blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
Recently I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. The airline had announced her        and standing near the security gate, they hugged and he said, “I love you. I wish you enough.” She        said, “Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Dad.” They kissed and she left.
He walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to       . I tried not to interrupt him, but he        me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?”
“Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?” “I am        and she lives much too far away. I have        ahead, and the reality is, the next trip back will be for my funeral” he said.
“When you were saying good-bye I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough’. May I ask what that means?”
He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been        for many generations within my family. My parents        say it to everyone.”
He paused for a moment, looking up as if trying to remember it       , and then he smiled and        the following:
　　“I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
　　I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
　　I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
　　I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much       .
　　I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
　　I wish you enough        to appreciate all that you possess.
　　I wish you enough ‘Hellos’ to get you enough the final ‘Good-byes’.”
　　Then he walked away, leaving me lost in thought.

This was my grandmother's first Christmas without grandfather, and before he passed away we had promised grandfather that we would make this her best Christmas ever. When my parents and I             at her house, we found she had waited up all night for us. The house did seem a little           without grandfather.
Grandfather had always said that the Christmas           was the most important decoration of all. So we immediately set to work on the beautiful artificial tree that was stored in grandfather's closet (壁櫥). Through our efforts, we finally stepped back to             our handiwork. It looked beautiful.           something was missing.
"Where' s your star?" I asked.
The star was my grandmother' s favorite part of the tree.
"Why, it           be here somewhere," she said, starting to sort through the boxes again. "Your grandfather always           everything so carefully when he took the tree down."
As we emptied the boxes and          no star, my grandmother's eyes filled with tears. Grandfather had given it to grandmother some fifty years ago on their first Christmas together. It brought them great happiness. Now, on her first Christmas without him, the star was          , too.
"Don' t worry, Grandmother," I           her. "We'll find it for you."
My mother and I formed a search          . "Let' s start in on the closet where the ornaments (裝飾品) were," Mother said. "Maybe the star just fell out of the box. "
That sounded         , so I began to search the closet. I thought I tried every        , but no star. I could see grandmother was          , although she tried not to show it.
"What's in this wrapped box?" Mother suddenly called out. "It was at the bottom of father's closet. "
Grandmother took the box in           and opened it. Her face           when she unfolded the paper and pulled out a golden star. There was a(n)           attached.
Don' t be angry with me, dear. I broke your star while packing the decorations, and I couldn't           to tell you. Thought it was time for a new one. I hope it brings you as much         as the first one. Merry Christmas!
Love,
Bryant
So grandmother's tree had a star after all, a star that expressed their everlasting love for one another. And we were glad we were able to make this Christmas           for her.

Jay Wilson was my English teacher at Lake Forest High School. It was him          realized my potential in writing, and his          made me a writer eventually.
He was kind to me, but I had no          that he took particular notice of me. There were other         kids in the class, and soon I fell back into my usual         and thought that I was just a little over average in most things. Near the end of the term, we began to read the play--Macbeth. Believe me, this is not an easy play for high school students to understand,        I spent a lot of time reading it. After working till the night before it was due, I wrote a paper about the          — the first paper I typed on a typewriter — and turned it          the next day.
I got a good          on it, and below the grade Mr. Wilson wrote, “Sure          you become a writer.” That was it. Those six words were written in his clear and neat handwriting. It was the first time he or anyone had          in any way that writing was a         option for me. We’d never had any writers in our family line, and we didn’t know any writers personally, even         , so writing for a living didn’t seem something          to me. But then, just like that, Jay Wilson tapped my hidden           and let me see a wider world.
Over the next 10 years, I often          about Mr. Wilson’s six words. Whenever I felt discouraged, it was those six words that came back to me and gave me         . When a few instructors in college gently and not-so-gently tried to tell me I had no talent, I held Mr. Wilson’s          before me to protect myself. I didn’t         what anyone else thought. Mr. Wilson, head of the whole English department at Lake Forest High,          I could be a writer. So I put my head down and struggled forward.  396

Once, long ago, there was a man who traveled from Persia to India on foot. He had       been to India before. When he arrived at a village, he happened upon a fruit stand. In that village, fruit was quite       because of the lack of water. The man was looking around at the fruits when he      a big basket of some very red, very long fruit. It was the cheapest fruit in the shop, not expensive at all.
     the man walked up to the counter (柜臺) and asked: “How       per kilo?” And the shopkeeper said: “Two rupees.” Two rupees in India is      . The man thought to himself: “What a       !” So he bought a whole kilogram of the fruit and began to       it. But after he tried a few pieces, he screamed: “Oh, my God!” His eyes watered, his mouth burned, and his face turned        . He coughed and choked and gasped for breath.
But despite his       , he continued to stuff the fruits into his mouth! Onlookers       their heads and laughed. One man yelled: “You’re       , man! Those are chilies! People use them as a condiment (佐料). You don’t just eat them by the handful like that; they’re not fruit!” But the man replied: “No, I can’t       ! I paid money for them, and now I’ll eat them. It’s my money!”
You probably think this man was pretty      , right? Nevertheless, I bet you or someone you know makes the same       on a daily basis. People invest money, time and effort into a relationship, business or job. Even when experience tells them that it’s not      , and they know there’s little hope of improvement, they still        because they don’t want to waste the previous investment. But this is       . It is no different than being the man who continued eating chilies because he didn’t want to waste the money he’d paid for them.
Losing something is difficult, but it is important to        the loss and move on.     you’ll just keep burning your mouth on hot chilies.

Two weeks before Christmas, Mother told me we were going to my grandmother's house for the holiday. Grandma and Uncle Henry lived on a farm some 15 miles out of town They had no electricity or running water and _      what I considered the "good things" in life. They     made no plans for Christmas When Christmas Eve arrived, Mom told me in her best "I-mean-it" voice to _       all the decorations from our tree. She packed those up    all the materials for a _    turkey dinner.
Christmas morning       perfectly with the sun shining brightly across a fresh blanket of snow. _   I was angry silently in the backseat of the car as we made our _   to grandma's. This was going to be the  _    Christmas ever! Grandma was  _    to see us as we walked up to her door. "What on earth are you doing here?" she said." We weren't expecting     . It's Christmas, and I don't even have a turkey to cook for you." "I knew     ." Mom said as we set boxes of goodies(好吃的) on the kitchen table. "That's _    we brought all with us." "We _    have a tree" Mom insisted. "       what will we do with all these decorations?" Uncle Henry quickly caught Mom's spirit. He called me to join him, and we found a perfect Christmas tree in the woods. Soon the house _     fresh and piney as we decorated the pine tree, and the day           a festive air . The turkey dinner was very good, too. I was actually beginning to enjoy this unusual Christmas day!
Dessert was almost forgotten _      Mom came out with the final surprise-a flaming (色彩鮮明的)pudding! "Merry Christmas, mother," Mom said. "Dear me!" Grandma said with her mouth wide open. "I haven't seen a flaming pudding since I left England before I was married." Tears of        filled her eyes. I could not keep the tears .       my eyes, either. I knew then that Mom had also given me the best Christmas present ever.
She had taught me what a beautiful thing it is to give.

When Mr. Smith was walking one evening, he met four of his old friends. To be polite, he invited them to come home with him to      . He hoped that they would say no, but      , they quickly agreed and       home with him.
Mr. Smith was a       man. There was never       in his house. He knew that there       very little for supper that night,       he did not know how to break away from his guests without being impolite, so he let them come with him to       house. But when they came       his front door, he suddenly rushed forward, opened the door, went in, closed in again and then locked it. He found       in the kitchen and quickly told her       had happened.
Mr. Smith’s guests were at first      . Then they thought he had perhaps gone ahead to get ready for the      . When nothing had yet happened for a few minutes, they began to       and to knock heavily at the door. After this had gone for some time, Mr. Smith sent his wife to a window to talk to      . She told them that Mr. Smith      .
“What do you mean, woman?” shouted one of the men. “We came here a few minutes ago       and we saw him go into the house.”
Mr. Smith was now afraid that the noise       his friends were making would bring his neighbours around and that he would be      , so he put his head out of the window and said to his friends, “This house has a       door, too. Perhaps Mr. Smith came in through the front door and went out through the other.”