It was my first year teaching in a special class, and I wasn’t sure what to expect at our yearly Special Olympics sports meeting. My       had some challenges, from learning disabilities to cerebral palsy (腦癱).
Mark was one with the latter. Restricted to a      , he had to fight his spasms (抽搐) just to control his movements.    , he always had a positive attitude and greeted everyone with a huge smile. His classmates       him and always took the time to make sure he was included in group activities, especially Mike, Andy and Lucas, three boys who were good at   ­­    . Obviously, Mark wanted to be like them, unrestricted by the limitation of his      , and watching them moving on the playing field seemed to fill him with      .
When the day came, Mike, Andy and Lucas placed well in their sports events, and gave the calm audience something to cheer about. Mark sat in his wheelchair on the sidelines,       them on. The final event of the day was the 400-meter race.       was invited to either walk or run, according to their ability, around the       length of the track.
When Mike, Andy and Lucas reached the finish line, they       and turned to look behind them. At the       of the crowd on the track, determined not to be left behind, was Mark. All his classmates had      him. He was alone on the track with over half the distance left to       . Mike, Andy and Lucas looked at each other, and a silent       passed between them. Slowly, they jogged       towards their friend, cheering him on       he had done for them moments before.
The progress was      , but in the end the three star runners and Mark       the finish line together to the enthusiastic cries of their teachers and classmates. Seeing the look on Mark’s face and hands upraised, I came to understand what       the Special Olympics.
Years later, I’m still cheering them on.

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s came to the hospital. I heard him saying to the nurse that he was in a hurry for an appointment(約會) at 9:30.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
The nurse had him take a        in the waiting area, __   _him it would be at least 40 minutes      someone would be able to see him. I saw him      his watch and decided, because I was      busy—my patient didn’t appear at the appointed hour, I would examine his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him       he had another doctor’s appointment
The gentleman said no and told me that he      to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his      . He told me that she had been       for a while and that she had a special disease. I asked if she would be        if he was a bit late. He replied that she      knew who he was, and that she had not been able to        him for five years now. I was       , and asked him, “And you       go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?”  
He smiled and said. “She doesn’t know me, but I know who she is.” I had to hold back        as he left.
Now I       that in marriages(婚姻), true love is      of all that is. The happiest people don’t      have the best of everything; they just       everything that they have.       Isn’t about how to live through the storm(暴風(fēng)雨), but how to dance in the rain.

I’m an operating engineer, running crane(起重機(jī)) in New York City. I was in the countryside, playing golf when we got the call that a plane had       the World Trade Centre. We checked out of the hotel immediately and started       our way downtown. When I got home, I called the rescue center and they told me to come       and get on the       list.
The next morning I went down to the       at about 5 A. M., and four hours later I       the call to come down to West Street. I called my wife and told her not to       me, and that I would stay in       with her. I took the subway. It stopped at West Fourth Street, so I had to       the rest of the way.
And somewhere in there I became       when I went into something I      . I once worked there in 1966 for the       of the World Trade Centre. On halfway on September 12, I was frightened to see the World Trade Centre was a huge pile, maybe ten       tall. And it was burning. I started to ask       in which my crane might be       a whistle blew suddenly warning us of some danger. I saw people running away and I really didn’t know what to do. So I did the same, too. It was as if they had       the bulls go in Spain and we were running through the street. People falling down, people       them up as they came by, and carrying them, just to get them out of the way, because something was extremely      . I didn’t even look back. We stopped running when we got to the Battery Tunnel, and I caught my       and said, “Oh, my God, I’m going to die.”
Then I   a little bit, thinking about what we should do next. As we started again we knocked into a fire chief officer and we asked, “What can we do to help you?”

On a trip to California, my family stopped for lunch. As we walked toward the entrance to the restaurant, a man, with a           beard and dirty hair, jumped up from a bench outside the restaurant and opened the door for us．Regardless of his           , he greeted us in a friendly way.
Once inside, my daughters whispered, "Mom, he         . " After we ordered our lunch, I explained, telling the kids to look           the dirt. We then watched other customers approach the restaurant but many            him. Seeing this rudeness truly upset me. The day I became a mother, I had determined to set a good            to my children. Yet sometimes when things didn't go right, being a good example was            . When our meal arrived, I realized I had left the car-sick pills in the truck．With the windiest trip ahead, the kids needed them, so I         myself from the meal and went to get them.
Just then, the "doorman" was opening the door for a couple. They rushed past him without even acknowledging his          . Letting them in first, I said a loud "thank you" to him as I            .
When I returned, we talked a bit. He said he was not allowed inside            he purchased food. I went back and told my family his           .Then I asked our waitress to add one soup and sandwich.
The kids looked            as we had already eaten, but when I said the order was for the "doorman", they smiled. When it was time to          our trip, I found the "doorman" enjoying his meal. Upon seeing me, he stood up and thanked me heartily. He then         out his hand for a handshake and I gratefully accepted. I suddenly          the tears in his eyes—tears of gratitude. What happened next drew great astonishment: I gave the " doorman" a         . He pulled away, with tears          down his face.
Back in truck, I fell into deep thought．While we can't choose many things in life, we can choose when to show gratitude．I said thanks to a man who had          held open a door for me, and also said thanks for that         to teach my children by example.

There is a small shop about 200 meters from where I live that sells groceries, meat and other basic necessities. About 10 years ago, there was a beggar who would go into the shop every day and ask the owner for a      . The owner, although he would love to help, simply didn’t have any jobs available, so he kept        the man’s request.
This situation continued        for a few months, until the owner        to give the homeless man a job which        sweeping outside the shop. Every single day from 5 am, the homeless man was there doing the very best he could for the       , and it did earn him some pennies.       , the owner saw how good a job the man was doing and gave him a job working as a cashier. He was watched closely to make sure that he didn’t       any of the money received from the sales. He was still homeless, after all. The homeless man did a/an        job as a cashier for over 2 years, and did such a good job that he was promoted to       the finance for the whole shop.
To my      , this was the arrangement up until 2 years ago, when the owner      . In his will, he only had one      , to give the whole shop to the now stable, “homeless” man. Now, I could walk into that shop and see him working as hard as ever, with his own business that is still        and active 10 years after getting his job as a sweeper.
From this story, we can probably get the inspiration: work hard and give everything your best effort, even if it isn’t your       situation, it very well may turn out to be some day in the future.

We have so many first days in our lives. First days are milestones(里程碑) in our lives. They     the beginning of a new experience or journey and they are also filled with       feelings. They can be a little frightening as we step into the unknown, but they can also inspire us as they give us fresh      for the future.
I want to share a      that perfectly shows this point. Trisha was told that   is the key to knowledge. She watched her older brother     he read his schoolbooks and could hardly     the day when she would learn to read.
But after Trisha    started school, she found that she was not able to understand words like the other boys and girls. However hard she    , she saw only confusion. Trisha    , the teacher and the other children laughing at her, and she began to believe that she was not      .
By the time Trisha entered the fifth grade, she had lost the   in herself. That was the year when she met Mr. Falker. He was    . He praised Trisha’s talents, and he wouldn’t tolerate the other children laughing at her. After some time, Mr. Falker   that Trisha didn’t know how to read, but he knew she could    some help.
He found an expert, and together they   with Trisha after school. They    her to understand words      one day Mr. Falker handed her a book and she could read it all by herself. She didn’t even notice the tears in his eyes.
This is a true story. The little girl is Patricia Polacco, a famous    , and Thank you Mr. Falker is the twenty-sixth book that she has written. Mr. Falker gave her a fresh new     and made a difference in her life.

My mother has been a true inspiration to me and changed the way I look at life. Since my birth she has made it evident that I would become ______ and that I would be one of the great ones. She has taught me that I can do anything if I put my ______to it.
As a young boy, I struggled to achieve tasks that came ______ to others. I had problems with writing, reading and especially speaking. I didn’t talk the way ______kids did and did not respond to questions or stay alert (警覺的) to my surroundings. My reading was poor ______ with teachers helping me, and my speech was hard to ______. My writing was not at the ______it should have been. Even simple things like knowing my left from my right or being able to snap my fingers (彈手指) were ______.
My mother ______ all my challenges and as a professor with a PH.D., decided to ______ the situation early in my development. She didn’t want me to ______. After a while, we did indeed get over all the problems that had ______ me. She spent hours every day ______ me everything I needed to know, determined to help me learn. ______ her I would not be anywhere close to the level I am now.
In addition, she gave ______ for my life. She told me what to do and what not to do. Her expectations have always been high ______ she knows that I can do it. For that, I thank her. She would not allow her son to be incapable. She never ______ on me, and to this day she tells me education is a must. I will be a ______ person if I continue to follow her lead. She encourages me to study hard for my ______ and attend college.
She used her gifts as a ______ to help a child --- her child --- and now I have the opportunity to become something. 

It was 20 years ago. I was driving home with my 4-year-old son. Traffic was light. I was singing quietly along       the song playing on the radio. I    at the intersection(交叉路口) and looked both ways. The road was      . I slowly started to make a right turn when suddenly a car rounded the curve at high speed and came     at me. I stomped (猛踩) on the brakes of my car killing the engine in the process. The speeder zoomed (疾馳) past my dead car     me by inches without even slowing down.
     I knew it, a stream of rude words was flying from my lips,      after the car and its driver. I then saw my son who was staring up at me     . With a red face and a(an)      smile I started the car, pulled back onto the road, and headed home.
Later that evening I was reading a book when I heard certain     words coming from my son’s bedroom. He was replaying the       over and over in his mind. Too          I realized the       of those words that had flown from my lips in that moment of    . It took a lot of talks about good language and bad language with my son to undo (消除)the      of that incident.
That     , however, did teach me just how strong words      be. It helped me to decide to stop swearing (咒罵) in my own life and to start using words uplifting and    inspire instead. I slowly realized that language is a      from God and should be used to make our world better but not worse. I learned      that a few loving words can help a hurting heart, strengthen a       spirit, and lighten a heavy load. I pray then that all of your words today are full of love, joy, happiness, and light.

My dream is to become an orthodontist, fly to new heights, and impact the world. Ever since the day I got braces(牙箍), I have thought about how    it would be for me to become an orthodontist and make other    like me have more beautiful smiles. The thought of helping other people overcome the fear of their    or self-esteem became so real to me the day that I got my    off two years later. After a long thought, I finally came to a(n)    that I wanted to do my senior exit project on orthodontics. I am in the      of doing my project now and I cannot wait to see the wonderful    that I’m going to achieve. In the long run, I know it will be a great       to me down the road, opening doors to my     path. Another goal in my life is to fly to new    and go where no one else has    to go before. I am a big leader at my school and I try to do new things that are    in order to make things successful. I try to reach to the highest in order to make every event and idea      “with a bang!” I also want to do things to      the world somewhere down the road. After seeing friends go into    , I have thought about being a      missionary(傳教士) in a third world country for a couple of summers after I       from the high school. I think it would be     to impact the lives of powerless and torn people who need     that seems unimaginable to them. I think     more people reached out and conquered their dreams to help other people achieve theirs, this world would be a whole lot better of a place.

The Healing
Jim and his wife, Connie, were shocked by the loss of their four-month-old son—Joshua, whose life was taken by SIDS—sudden infant death syndrome.
Thirty hours ago, Jim drove to the baby-sitter’s home to      Joshua. It was a     trip, like the one he made five days every week. He arrived, and little Joshua could not be        from his nap. The next few hours were a time of life and death: the racing ambulance, swift-moving doctors and nurse. But 12 hours later, at Children’s Hospital,      the doctors had exhausted（用盡） all     , little Joshua was gone. Yes, they wanted       of Joshua’s usable organs to be donated. That was not a      decision for Jim and Connie, a loving and       couple.
The next morning dawned and many things had to be arranged. Telephone calls and funeral plans.       one point Jim realized he needed a     .When Jim settled into the chair      the barber’s, he began to        the past hours, trying to       some sense of it all.      had Joshua, their first-born, the child they had waited so long for, been taken so soon….He had     begun his life. The question kept coming, and the pain in Jim’s heart just       him.
While talking with the barber, Jim mentioned the organ donations, looking at his watch, “They are transplanting one of his heart valves（瓣膜）right now.”
The       stopped and stood motionless. Finally she spoke, but it was only a whisper. “You’re not going to believe this. But about an hour ago the customer sitting in this chair wanted me to hurry       she could get to Children’s Hospital. She       here so full of joy. Her prayers had been answered. Today her baby granddaughter is receiving a     needed transplant—a heart valve.”
Jim’s healing began.