When I walked into the house after school, the first thing I noticed was a box with items I recognized from my dad’s office.
“What are you doing at home?” I asked casually.
“Andrew, I was      today,” he answered quietly.
I was sure he was joking. “No, you weren't. Why are you     at home?”
Then I noticed his     and realized he was telling me the truth. My father has always been a hard worker and prided himself on his career.     our family has been his joy, and I guess I have    his work for granted.
My father’s unemployment     many changes in our lives. For starters, he was at home all the time, which meant my bed had to be    , my room cleaned up, and my     done right after school. I would come home every day to find him at the computer     jobs. I began to notice how    he seemed, and how losing his job affected his self-esteem, though he tried to be    . For the first time, I    my dad as vulnerable (易受傷的). He asked my brother and me to    less. I gave up my pocket money,      it wasn’t much. I felt I was doing the right. I also found a part-time job.
After several difficult months of searching, my dad    to go in a totally different direction. He    that he never wanted to be laid off again, so he was going to start his own business. Day by day, I watched him     it, and I admired how much time and   he expended. I     knew he was a hard worker, but watching him in action really affected me.
Although this was one of the   experiences for our family, it taught me a lot about dealing with adversity (逆境), and will be my foundations for success.

Eighty-year-old retired tailor, James McKay, spent Saturday night in jail after     thirty-year-old Keith Smith over the head       his walking stick. McKay's wife, Laurence told us that while McKay is usually a       person, he had been       to this act of violence by getting wet just once too often.
Smith lives above the McKays and it appears that not only is he a keen gardener, he is also a       collector. Unfortunately for him, the water he sent over his balcony every day ended up on the McKay's, or too often, on the McKays      .
“For the last fortnight, since Smith moved into the flat above us, we have hardly dared to go to our      ,” said Laurence. She added that it wasn't so much the water falling onto their balcony from Smith watering his plant       bothered them, it was more the way he cleaned his fish tanks. “We'd be       there happily reading our newspapers, when       so much water would come from above that we'd be as wet as if we'd       with our clothes on! Neither could we get rid of the       of fish!”
And on Saturday evening it was just too      . “It was James's birthday,” explained Laurence, “and I'd made him a birthday cake. The candles were a great sight as you can imagine, but James didn't get to blow them out.”      , Smith emptied one of his larger tanks over his balcony and both the McKays and the cake were wet      . Rarely had Laurence seen McKay move so fast. “I couldn't       him. He was up there in a flash. It was the fastest I'd seen him move since 1964.”
Smith is not going to take things further with the police. He has also promised to change his       from now on. And what of James McKay?       he left the police station, a large crowd of supporters sang him, “Happy Birthday”. “     the most exciting birthday      !” said the cheerful old man. “The best since my adolescence I'd say!”         

There was a boy who was sent by his parents to a boarding school (寄宿學(xué)校). ____ being sent away, this boy was the ____ student in his class. He was at the top in every ____ always with high marks.
But the boy changed after ____ home and attending the boarding school. His grades started ___. He hated being in a ____. He was lonely all the time. And there were especially dark times when he ____ committing suicide (自殺). All of this was because he felt ____ and no one loved him.
His parents started ___about the boy. But they even did not know what was __50with him. So his dad decided to travel to the boarding school and ____ him.
They sat on the bank of the lake near the school. The father started asking him some casual questions about his classes, teachers and ____. After some time his dad said, “Do you know, son, why I am here today?”
The boy answered back, “To ___- my grades?”
“No, no,” his dad replied. “I am here to tell you that you are the most ___ person for me. I want to see you ____. I don’t care about grades. I care about you. I care about your happiness. YOU ARE MY LIFE.”
These words ____ the boy’s eyes to be filled with tears. He ____ his dad. They didn’t say anything to each other for a long time.
Now the boy had ____ he wanted. He knew there was someone on this earth who cared for him deeply. He ___ the world to someone. And today this young man is in college at the top of his class and no one has ever seen him ____!

Anna lived on the side of a valley．One summer, there was a very big 　    , and a lot of houses down below Anna＇s were washed away．Anna＇s house was 　  enough to escape the flood, so when the water had      and the other houses were 　   there with no roof and no walls and all covered with mud（泥）, her house was just all right．
Her house was quite small, her husband was dead, and she had four children,   　 Anna took in one of the families that had lost 　  in the flood and she 　   her home with them until it was 　 　 for them to rebuild their house．
Anna＇s friends were 　 when they saw Anna do this．They could not understand why Anna wanted to give  so much more work and trouble when she already had quite a few children to 　  ．
“Well,” Anna 　   her friends, “at the end of the First World War, a woman in the town where I then lived found herself very 　  , because her husband had been killed in the 　   　  and she had a lot of children I have now．The day before Christmas, this woman said to her children, ‘We won’t be able to have much for Christmas this year, so I’m going to 　     only one present to all of us．Now I’ll go and get it．’ She came back with a 　   who was even poorer than they, and who had no parents．‘Here’s our 　  ,she said to her children．
The children were 　  and happy to get such a present．They 　  the little girl, and she grew up as their sister．Such was that Christmas present．”

“It is never too late and you are never too old to start something new!” says Englishtown       Ellen Rema. Ellen began to learn English at the age of 50, and in just a few years, she has made      progress!
Ellen chose to study at Englishtown because no evening classes were       in the German countryside where she lives. At Englishtown, she joins       classes online and speaks with live native English-speaking teacher.
In 2010, Ellen began with the first level of Englishtown and quickly    . “I spent hours and hours studying,” she said “Maybe I wanted too much in a short time. I finished all my       after 2 years and studying English isn’t all about hard work. It should also be       ! I really like the online conversation classrooms, in which I can learn so much about other cultures and traditions. I am open for all      .”
Ellen has been able to        her English to use by visiting England five times! “I am very thankful to Englishtown because most of the English I know now was learned here,” Ellen says. “My life has       with Englishtown.”

It was a winter afternoon. Some friends and I were eating at a restaurant and talking. We talked and talked and soon       became the topic. Suddenly I hit upon an idea. “Wouldn’t it be fun to go       ? Others go in winter, but why couldn’t we?      , we could be healthier if we did. ” I told them about this, and they all said it was a good idea      . Early the next morning, we four were standing at the bus stop, with bags in our hands,       for a bus to take us to the       . The sky was clear; the sun was shining. But it was very cold all the same.       our heavy overcoats were not enough to keep us warm. We all felt we should go back, but no one wanted to speak out.
We soon reached the sands. There was       there, but we were not discouraged. Instead we were       that we were the only ones that dared to challenge the weather.       we changed our clothes quickly. But things were not going so       . The freezing sea wind was blowing. We felt very cold and trembled all over. At       we made up our minds to go into the water. We put our feet in first       to take them back very quickly. The water was unbelievably cold. Then I suggested we all jump in       . We all went back ten steps. I gave the       , and we all rushed forward and jumped in. I shall never forget the moment I was in the water. I was up       and rushed again to the shore.       it was with my friends. We put on our clothes as quickly as possible.
On the way back home, we talked about this unforgettable       . The four of us did not       school for the following three days. We all suffered a lot       a very bad cold. But we thought it was all worth it.

When I was in seventh grade, I volunteered at a local hospital during the summer. I spent most of the time there with Mr. Gillespie. He never had any      , and nobody seemed to care about his condition. I spent many days there       his hand and talking to him, helping with anything that needed to be done. He became a close friend of mine,       Mr. Gillespie was in a coma (昏迷).
I left for a week, and when I came back, Mr. Gillespie was      . I didn't have the courage to ask any of the nurses where he was, for       they might tell me he had died.
So with many questions      , I continued to volunteer there.
Several years later, I was at a gas station when I noticed a       face. When I realized who it was, my eyes filled with tears. He was alive? I got up the       to ask him if his name was Mr. Gillespie, and if he had been in a       about 5 years ago. With an uncertain look on his face, he       yes. I explained how I knew him. His eyes were       with tears, and he gave me the warmest hug.
He began to tell me when he       there comatose (昏迷的), he could hear me talking to him and could       me holding his hand the whole time. He thought it was an      , not a person, who was there with him. Mr. Gillespie firmly believed that it was my       and touch that had kept him alive.
Then he told me about his life and what happened       him to put him in the coma. We both cried for a while, said our goodbyes and       our separate ways.
Although I have not seen him since then, he fills my heart with joy every day. I know that I made a       between his life and his death. More      , he has made a very big difference in my life, too. I will never forget him and what he       for me: he made me an angel.

Mondays are usually pretty busy for me. On one of these      Mondays, I got ready to go to work thinking about all the things I had to       on that day and walked down to get to my car scolding myself for being late to work, but       the car was nowhere to be found. I     right across my apartment the previous night but it wasn’t there that morning.
This was at 8:00 am in the morning. I made      to all the towing（拖）places, police stations all the time thinking that it was towed by     . By around 10:00 am, I couldn’t find it anywhere and the policemen decided that it was      stolen. After filing a report with them, I finally got to work thinking how my day was completely     .
Later in the day I went to pick up a rental car at an enterprise      to realize that my license was missing too along with my car. I told the enterprise guy the whole     and he was so sorry for me that he     to take me to the nearest DMV（車管局）and get a duplicate（副本的）   . I was totally surprised. I didn’t know why this complete stranger would want to     some time off his day to help me . He actually took me to DMV, got a duplicate and then      me a car. I was      the whole day because of the continuous events that happened to me but somehow this simple act of kindness from a     stranger made it all worth it. It cheered me up and made me forget all the misfortunes of the day. I was so     by this kind act that the next day I made sure someone else got a similar      . I took some smiley shaped chocolates and     them on some of my colleague’s desks.
This is still a lot     out there in the world. We just need to take the time to discover it.

When it is Tom’s turn for a cut, Mr. Smith places a wooden board covered with a piece of red leather across the arms of the chair, so that the barber doesn’t have to bend to cut the boy’s hair.
“Hey, young man, you’re       , you won’t need this soon, you’ll be able to sit in the chair.” the barber says.
“Wow,” says Tom, turning round to look at his dad. “Dad, Mr. Smith said I could be sitting in the chair soon, not just on the      !”
“So I hear,” his father replies. “I expect Mr. Smith will start       me more for your hair then.”
In the       Tom sees a little head sticking out of a long nylon cape. Occasionally he       glances at the barber as he works. He smells a(n)       of smelly sweat and aftershave as the barber moves around him, combing and cutting.
Tom feels like he is in another world,       except for the sound of the barber’s shoes rubbing on the plastic carpet and the       of his scissors. In the       from the window he could see through the window, a few small clouds moved slowly through the frame, moving to the       of the scissors’ click.
Sleepily, his eyes dropping to the front of the cape where his hair       softly as snow and he      sitting in the chair just like the men and older boys, the special       left leaning against the wall in the corner.
When Mr. Smith has      , Tom hops down from the seat.      , he sees his own thick,       hair mixed among the browns, greys and blacks of the men who have sat in the chair before him. For a moment he wants to reach down and       the broken blonde hair, to       them from the others, but he does not have time.
They reach the pavement outside the shop. “I tell you what, boy, let’s get some fish and chips to take home,       your mum from cooking tea,” says Tom’s dad.
Tom is excited and catches his dad’s hand. He is surprised to find, warming in his father’s palm, a handful of his own       .

Jasmine Harman，a famous TV presenter, was sunny and active. Nothing seemed to       her down. But nearly a decade on, Jasmine spent the first years of her TV life      a secret about her background—one she couldn’t      to be made public.
“When I started out in TV, I lived in fear of someone discovering about my      ,” she admitted. Because her mother had a       illness called hoarding Disorder(囤積癥). “Mum would keep     batteries, old speakers, broken dolls and baskets she       in the street. Nothing would be thrown away. And she’d be       if you ever tried to clear them up,” Jasmine recalled. Eventually, the entire family couldn’t have a       life.
Two years ago, Jasmine did something      . She made a documentary called My Hoarder Mum and Me about her family’s battle to fight against her mum’s disease. “I do      our program will shine more light on the issue,” said Jasmine. Then a second program, Britain’s Biggest Hoarders      
Luckily, there are diagnostic criteria(診斷標準)now and experts that can help. Jasmine has become a(an)       herself in a way. She runs a website to help sufferers and their      . “It’s incredible. I spent most of my childhood being ashamed, but now I’d like to make it      . People like my mum need help, but not to be made to feel      .”
“We hadn’t been able to have Christmas dinner at Mum’s for      , because you couldn’t get people into the house      . But we had one last year, and it was amazing,” Jasmine said. “The       still isn’t perfect, and Mum isn’t perfect either. She’s still       with it. But I’m so proud that she’s come this far, and I want to tell other people it’s possible.”