It was already late when we set out for the next town,       according to the map was about fifteen miles away on the other side of the      
There we felt     that we would find a bed     the night. Darkness fell soon after we left the village, but luckily we met       as we drove fast along the narrow winding road that       the hills. As we climbed      , it became colder and rain began to fall,       it difficult at times to see the road. I asked John, my companion, to drive more      .
After we had traveled for about twenty miles, there was still no sign of the town which was    on the map. We were beginning to get     . Then without warning the car stopped. A quick    showed that we had run out of petrol. Although we had little food with us, we decided to      the night in the car.
Our meal was soon over. I tried to go to sleep at once,    John, who was a     sleeper, got out of the car after a few minutes and went for a walk       the hills. Soon he came back. From the top of the hill he had seen, in the valley below, the      of the town we were looking for. We at once unloaded all our luggage and with a great effort,    to push the car to the top of the hill. Then we went back to the luggage, loaded the car again and set off down the hill.   less than a quarter of an hour we were in the town, where we found a         quite easily.

I learned all about taking responsibility from my mother’s tough love. My mom had a wonderful way of helping you        up and realize that your life is going to be what you make it.
She had this circular way of      you took responsibility for your decisions and the person you would      . She would say,“ It' s your      .”      “What you want and what you get are sometimes two       different things.” And then, “No one ever said life was fair.” And she would      these comments together in such a way that you could never      an argument, and yet, the      was that you realized your life is going to be what you make it.
So I might go to my mom and say, “I’d like to      football”. And she would say, “Well, it's your life. If you want to go out there and get      and hurt and break your knees and limp around the rest of your life, that' s fine.” That is      I would say, “Well, you know, that won’t       . I' m really fast.” And she would reply, “Well, we don’t really have the money.” And then I would     , “Yes but that' s not fair.” And she would reply, “ Well, life isn’t      .” Then I would say, “But I’ve been itching to." And she would reply, “Yes, but what you want and what you get are usually two entirely different things.”
It was the combination of these       that allowed my mother to lead me down the right path under her      but let me feel as if I was making the decisions      my own. The sum total of that    was, in the end, you’re      for the life you lead. That' s the best advice I’ve ever gotten.

When I was 17，I read a quote that went something like：“If you live each day as if it were your last，someday you’11 most certainly be right．”It made a deep     on me．a(chǎn)nd since then, for the past 33 years，I have     in the mirror every morning and asked myself：“If today were the last day of my life，    I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a     ，I know I need to change something．
Remembering that I’ll be    soon is the most important tool I’ve ever known to help me make the big    in life because almost everything falls away in the face of death，   only what is truly important
About a year ago I was     with cancer. My doctor even advised me to go home and get my affairs     order，which is a doctor’s way of telling people to prepare to die．I     with that diagnosis all day．    ，at last an advanced test showed that it was a very rare cancer that is     with surgery．I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
    wants to die．Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there And yet death is the destination we all    ．No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be，because death is very likely the single best invention of     ．It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to     for the new．Right now the new is you, but someday not too     from now，you will gradually become the old and be cleared away．Sorry to be so dramatic，but it is quite true．
Your time is     ，so don’t waste it living someone else’s 1ife．Don’t be     by dogma(教條) —which is living with the results of other people’s thinking．Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner    ．And most importantly，have the courage to follow your heart

A doctor entered the hospital in a hurry after being called in for an urgent       ．He answered the call as soon as possible, changed his clothes and went directly to the operation block．He found the boy's father       in the hall waiting for the doctor． On seeing him, the dad        , "Why did you take all this       to come? Don't you know that my son s life is in danger? Don't you have any sense of      ?"
The doctor smiled and said, "I am sorry, I wasn't in the hospital and I        as fast as I could after receiving the call．．．And now, I wish you'd calm down work．"      I can do my work.”
“Calm down? What if your son is in this room right now, would you calm down? If your own son is      now what will you do?” said the father       ．
The doctor smiled again and replied," I will say what Job said in the Bible 'From dust we came and to dust we return, blessed by the name of God'．     cannot extend lives． Go and       for your son．we will do our best by God's grace．"
"Giving advice when we re not       is so easy．" murmured the father．The operation took some hours       which the doctor went out happily．
"Thank goodness!  Your son is saved ! " And without waiting for the father's reply he carried on his       running． “If you have any question, ask the nurse!"
"Why is he so       ? He couldn't wait some minutes so that I could ask about my son's       ?" commented the father when seeing the nurse minutes after the doctor left． The nurse answered,        coming down her face, "His son died yesterday in a road accident．He was in the funeral when we called him for your son's operation．      now that he saved your son's life, he left running to finish his son's funeral．"
Never     anyone．．．because you never know how their life is and what they're      .

How many of us can really ever thank our mothers for what they do for us? I am now 40 years old, so it's been a lot of years that I've had my mom's loving     and direction behind me pushing me gently when I need it.
When I was ill, mom would take care of me    . When I had a terrible dream, she would never    me  for stealing into her bed. When I graduated from college, she took      in me as I walked across that stage. When life would get me down, she would tell me that ,it's always dark     the down ,She's always been my greatest     keeping-me up when life tried to defeat me. She never told me that anything was impossible or that I set my goals too high. With a gentle guiding hand she got me back on the right:,   if I faltered (搖晃) .
A    thank you will never be enough for the kindness and love she has shown to us over the years. My mom     _ more than flowers, candy or other gifts. There isn't a gift in the world that could ever        my thanks for everything she has done for me over the years.

I have been in love with China since 2010.
After one year in Zhejiang University, I got a great       — to work as an assistant manager in a big hotel. The best part of this job was that I was the only      , so I got a good chance to understand Chinese culture and practice my      .
Actually, I have got       I supposed to. I have got valuable experience, devoted friends and the feeling that I am not laowai anymore.
Guests were pleasantly surprised to see me there, because I was an interpreter, trip adviser, and       guide at the same time, which made their life much      . I met people from all over the world, who came to China for the first time,       who knew China better than me.       my Chinese colleagues, who had answers to all the questions about      , I could explain why you should       before you buy, why Chinese don’t let guests       dinner, why it is not common to book a taxi and why it is better to catch       on the street. I also had chances to       the development of China.
The waiters and managers were not only my teachers, but       my friends. If I needed help, they were       to help me. I enjoyed our small conversations       they were kind and educated. I was very proud and happy of the fact that all of them       me and I don’t feel     anymore.
The best part of my job was to see people coming       the hotel. When they recognized me, they       share their adventures, burdens, even thoughts with me. It means the world to me.
I spent there 8 months and it was a period when I was proud to be who I am.

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.”      teaches that he is right. Good friendship is just not easily   .
It is possible that we simply do not stay in one place long enough for a true friendship to    . However, there can be      disagreement in the need for each of us to think carefully about what kind of friendship we want.
To most of us,     are considered very important, but we need to make it clear in our minds what kind of friendship we want. Are they to be close or      at arm’s length? Do we want to     ourselves or do we want to walk on surface(表面)? For some people, many friendships on the surface are      enough and that’s all right. But at some point we need to make sure that our      are the same as our friends’ expectations. The sharing of     experiences including our tears as well as our dark dreams is the surest way to       friendships. But it must be done slowly and     only if there are signs of interest and action     .
What are some of the    of friendship? The greatest is the attraction to expect too much too soon. Deep relationships     time. Another “main difficulty” is the selfishness to think one “      ” the other, including his time and attention.   , friendships require actions in return. In other words, you must give as      as you take. Finally, there is a question of taking care of. Unless you spend      time together, talking on the phone, writing letters, doing things together, friendships will die     .

閱讀下面短文， 從短文后所給的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)（A、B、C、D）中，選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。
Recently I understood the true meaning of love. That would have been, Kane, a boy. Kane was the two-year-old son of Joline, my new neighbor, who moved here from California.
Kane was born with hard sticks for   . And on that morning I        the effect that Kane’s physical        had on his family. But I also witnessed so much        that.
I saw an extraordinary family that embraced this special child, a family that wouldn't allow Kane to know he was       . Joline had constructed a small cart just a few inches        the floor for his son to get around. Using his hands to move about, the cart      Kane to “go to” any place just as        else was able to do. Kane was more than just a member of the family, he was the       .
Much later in my life, I came to        that God had sent this child to help some of us who just weren’t getting what        was all about. Even with my limited capacity for understanding at that time I knew that Kane was a        developed spirit with great wisdom.
Kane demanded attention,        not because of his mobility challenges or other apparent shortcomings. In his mind, he had no        or shortcomings. The truth is that he received        because he was alive and real and had so much to offer.
Kane was and        is lots of warm and powerful energy      to us all so we might learn that       ： Love surpasses all things. If you met this kid, you’d want him for a friend        he was with so much to       .

Starting a new book is a risk, just like falling in love. You have to ____ to it. You open the pages knowing a little bit about it, maybe from the back or from a blurb（宣傳信息）on the front. But who ____, right? Those bits and pieces aren’t always right.
Sometimes people ____ themselves as one thing and then when you get deep into it you realize that they’re something completely different. Either there was some good marketing ____ to a terrible book, or the story was only explained in a(n) ____ way and once you reach the middle of the book, you realize there’s so much more to this book than anyone could ever have told you.
You start off slow. The story is beginning to ____. You’re unsure. It’s a big commitment reading this tome(巨著). Maybe this book won’t be that great but you’ll feel ____ about putting it down. Maybe it’ll be so awful you’ll set it down immediately and never pick it up again. Or maybe you’ll come back to it some night, drunk or lonely—needing something to ____ the time, but it won’t be any better than it was when you first started reading it.
Maybe you’re ____. You’ve read tons of books before. Maybe you’ve taken some time off from reading because the last few books you read just weren’t ____ it. Do they even write new, great works of literature anymore? Maybe it’s a once in a lifetime feeling and you’re never going to find it again.
Or something ____ could happen. Maybe this will become your new favorite book. There’s always a possibility, right? That’s the ____ of risk. You ____ your time and your brain power in the words and what you get back is a new understanding and pure wonder.
How could someone possibly know you like this? Some stranger, some author, some character. It’s like they’re seeing inside your ____. This book existed inside some book store, on a shelf, maybe handled by other people and really it was just ____ for you to pick it up. It was waiting to speak to you. To say, “You are not ____.”
You just want more of the story. You want to keep reading, maybe everything this author has ever ____. You wish it would never end. The closer it gets to the smaller side of the pages, the  ____ you read, wanting to savor(品味) it all. This book is now one of your favorites forever. You will always wish you could go back to ____ having read it and pick it up fresh again, but also you know you’re better for having this close, inside you, ____ your heart and mind.
Reading a book is just like falling in love. Once you get in deep enough, you know you could never put this book down.

I used to be a very self­centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed.I have started to think about other people ____ I think about myself.I am happy that I am becoming a ____ person.
I think my ____ started when I was at Palomar College.At first, I just wanted to get my ____ and be left alone.I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so I hardly ever ____ to anyone in my classes.By the end of my first semester, I was really ____.It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun.So I tried a(n) ___.I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble I ____ to help.That was really a big ____ for me.By the end of the year, I had several new friends, and two of ____ are still my best friends today.
A bigger cause of my new ____， however, came when I took a part­time job at Vista Nursing Home.One old lady there who had Alzheimer's disease became my ____.Every time I came into her room, she was so ____ because she thought I was her daughter.Her real daughter never ____ her, so I took her place.She let me ___ that making others feel good made me feel good too.When she died, I was ____， but I was also very grateful to her.
I think I am a much ____ person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not ____ these experiences.They have ____ me to care about other people more than about myself.I ____ who I am today, and I could not say that a few years ago.