A Mom’s Favourite Words

    When my little boy, Skyler, was born, I longed for the day he would talk to me. And I   (1)   about the first sweet “Mamma”.

    Skyler was born with several   (2)   problems, which had delayed his development. At age three,Skyler was   (3)   autistic (自闭症患者). He couldn’t talk and wouldn’t   (4)   . I would probably never hear any   (5)   from him at all.

    I could have learned to live with his   (6)   if it hadn’t been for another characteristic of autism.Skyler didn’t want to be held, much   (7)   to lie in his bed. He wouldn’t look at me; sometimes, he even   (8)   me. At the age of three, when he returned after spending three days at a camp for disabled children, he didn’t even   (9)   me.

    I hid the pain and did the best I could for Skyler. The one dream I couldn’t let   (10)   was to have Skyler understand that I was his mom. Even   (11)   I never heard him say “Mom”, I wanted to see the recognition in his   (12)   .

    The summer of Skyler’s fourth year was the time when it started. His first words were   (13)   recognized, often out of context. Slowly, he could point to a(n)   (14)   and say a word. Then two words together as a(n)   (15)   . Each day, he added more and more   (16)   words, using them to identify pictures and ask questions. We could see his understanding increase, till his eyes would   (17)   mine, wanting to comprehend（理解）.

    One evening Skyler was   (18)   tucked (蜷缩) between my legs as I read to him from one of his   (19)   books. Skyler interrupted me, leaning back his head   (20)   he could look me in the eye.

    “Yes, Skyler?”

    And then the voice of an angel, the voice of my son:“I love you, Mom.”

  Many years ago, my dad was facing a ___41___ heart condition. He was unable to do a steady job. Sometimes he fell suddenly ill and had to be ___42___ to the hospital.

    He wanted to do something to keep himself busy, so he __43___ to volunteer at the local children’s hospital. My dad loved kids. It was the perfect __44___ for him. He ended up working with the ___45___ children. He would talk, play, and do arts with them.

One of his __46___ was a girl with a __47___ that paralyzed(使瘫痪) her from the neck down. She couldn’t do anything, and she was very __48____. My dad decided to try to __49___ her. He started visiting her in her room, ___50___ paints, brushes and paper. He ___51___ the paper up, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to ___52___. He didn’t use his hands at all. All the while, he would tell her,“See, you can do anything you set your ___53___ to.”

    At the end of the day, she began to paint using her ___54___, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was sent __55____ because the doctors felt there was nothing else they could do for her. My dad also __56____ the children’s hospital for a little while because he became ill. Some time later, after my dad had ___57___ and returned to work, the little girl who had been paralyzed came in, but this time she was ___58___. She ran straight over to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave him a __59____she had done using her hands. At the bottom it ___60___:“Thank you for helping me walk.”

     My dad said sometimes love is more powerful than the doctor. 

           I became lame（瘸的）in both legs in my childhood. I can't stand   (1)   the support of two sticks. Only in my wheelchair can I “   (2)   ”.

       I still remember the first day at   (3)  . When I appeared at the door,   (4)   in the classroom stared（凝视）at me in   (5)  . My face turned   (6)  . I couldn’t help  (7)  back. It was the   (8)   and sympathy（同情）in their eyes that   (9)   me doing so. I went shyly towards an unoccupied (空的) seat.

       Being lame, I didn’t dare (敢) to   (10)   in front of my classmates. I was afraid that I might be   (11)   at. In those days I was very sad to see others walking   (12)  .

        One day, a few students came up to me and asked me to go outside. I was really   (13)  . They encouraged me with a(n)   (14)   smile and   (15)   me in my wheelchair from place to place. I was   (16)   to them for giving me a chance to see the   (17)   of our lovely school with my own eyes.

      After that we often read, played and talked together. My friends are always   (18)    to help me. It made me   (19)   I am disabled (残疾的).

      Once they asked me, “What is the most beautiful thing in our school?” Without hesitation (犹豫) I said, “It is the   (20)  . ”

请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题纸上将该项涂黑。

    I used to hate being called upon in class mainly because I didn’t like attention drawn to myself. And 36______ otherwise assigned (指定) a seat by the teacher, I always 37_______ to sit at the back of the classroom.
      All this 38______ after I joined a sports team. It began when a teacher suggested I try out for the basketball team. At first I thought it was a crazy 39_______ because I didn’t have a good sense of balance, nor did I have the 40_______ to keep pace with the others on the team and they would laugh at me. If the teacher hadn’t kept insisting on my “41________ for it”, I wouldnˈt have decided to give it a try.
    Getting up the 42__________ to go to the tryouts was only the half of it! When I first started 43________ the practice sessions(训练课), I didn't even know the rules of the game, much

44_________ what I was doing. Sometimes I’d get 45_______ and take a shot at the wrong direction----which made me feel really stupid.46________, I wasn’t the only one “new” at the game, so I decided to 47________ on learning the game, do my best at each practice session, and not be too hard on myself for the things I didn’t 48________ “just yet”.
          I practiced and practiced. Soon I knew the 49________ and the “moves”. Being part of a team was fun and motivating. Very soon the competitive 50________ in me was winning over my lack of confidence. With time, I learned how to play and made friends in the 51__________

   ----friends who respected my efforts to work hard and be a team player. I never had so much fun!
       With my 52________ self-confidence comes more praise from teachers and classmates. I have gone from “53_________” in the back of the classroom and not wanting to call attention to myself, 54________ raising my hand---even when I sometimes wasnˈt 100 percent 55.________

        I had the right answer. Now I have more self-confidence in myself.

Around  twenty years ago I was living in York.   (1)   I had a lot of experience and a Master’s degree, I could not find   (2)   work.

I was    (3)   a school bus to make ends meet and  (4)   with a friend of mine, for I had lost my flat. I had   (5)   five interviews （面试） with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say I did not   (6)  the job. “Why has my life become so   (7)    ?” I thought painfully.

As I pulled the bus over to   (8)   a little girl, she handed me an earring  (9)   I should keep it   (10)   somebody claimed(认领) it.

At first I got angry. Then it   (11)   me- —I had been giving all of my  (12)    to what was going wrong with my   (13)   rather than what was right! I decided then and there to make a    (14)   of fifty things I was happy with. Later, I decided to    (15)   more things to the list. That night there was a phone call for   (16)   from a lady who was a director at a large   (17)    .She asked me if I would  (18)   a one-day lecture on stress management to 200 medical workers. I said yes.

My   (19)  there went very well, and before long I got a well paid job. To this day I know that it has because I changed my way of   (20)   that I completely changed my life.

Ten years ago, I moved to Chicago. As I was new to the area, I had   (1)   friends and rarely went out to parties. But a month later, I was invited to a party and there I    (2)    an elderly couple.

  The wife and I  (3)   for a long time. She told me how   (4)  she was about her husband who was   (5)   a heart operation. At that time I was working as a researcher in the same    (6)   where the husband would be going for his operation,   (7)  I told her to set down my phone number and   (8)   me to let me know when he was there. She phoned a few weeks later as   (9)   and told me that her husband was admitted to the hospital and   (10)    waiting. I told her that I would go and check on him every day when I was at   (11)   . I thought that if it was my dad, I would do the same, so I   (12)   to keep company with them. Weeks turned into months and it just became my  (13)  to see them and keep track of how things were going before, during and after the heart operation.

    Sometimes I’d bring a   (14)  for him to read, or some food that we would   (15)  together. As time went by, it seemed like I became part of the  (16)  . Even after the husband returned from the hospital, we still often  (17)  each other on holidays. Now, ten years later, I   (18)  my own family.

    Since our parents don’t   (19)   close by, this couple has become my son’s “local” grandparents. My wife and I often feel truly   (20)   to have this couple as our “local” parents! Sometimes family comes out of the most unexpected place.

“Where’s the light?” My dad used to ask me that     (1)   when I was little. It’s one of those questions that parents use to     (2)   how smart their young children are. During my teenage years, my dad     (3)   told me that he thought I was going to be foolish because I      (4)   at him whenever he asked me where the     (5)   was.

    I consider myself to be a “Daddy’s girl”. Dad never      (6)   me, but he did buy me nice things---dolls and shoes---for my birthday. I am now 28, and I      (7)   live with my parents in Baguio, Philippines.      (8)   my father is always very busy, we still    (9)   time with each other. We     (10)   go for a drive in the country. Most girls of my     (11)   would rather go out with their friends than be with their family, but my family has always felt a bit     (12)   .

    Looking at my father now, I can see he is a(n)   (13)   man. So many difficulties were in his life, but his dream of a better life kept him     (14)   . At 14, he began working at his high school to     (15)  himself.

    During his life, my father has overcome a lot of difficulties and he always      (16)   education. When we were      (17)   , he would tell my brother and me to seek improvement in ourselves through     (18)   .

    Like a light, he shines with respect, but he sends out the brightest light for    (19)   our family as a unit with love and faith as its    (20)   . There are times when my dad makes jokes and asks me, using my childhood nickname, “Sasi, where’s the light?” I just smile, and point at him.

When I was a boy, every holiday that I had seemed wonderful. My   (1)   took me by train or by car to a hotel by the   (2)  . All day, I seemed to remember, I   (3)   on the sands with strange   (4)   children. We made houses and gardens, and   (5)   the tide destroy them. When the tide went out, we   (6)   over the rocks and looked down at the fish in the rock-pools.

In those days the   (7)   seemed to shine always brightly   (8)   the water was always warm. Sometimes we   (9)   beach and walked in the country, exploring(搜寻) ruined houses and dark woods and climbing trees. There were   (10)   in one’s pockets or good places where one could   (11)   ice creams. Each day seemed a life-time.

Although I am now thirty-five years old, my idea of a good   (12)   is much the same as it was. I   (13)   like the sun and warm sand and the sound of   (14)   beating the rocks. I no longer wish to   (15)   any sand house or sand garden, and I dislike sweets.   (16)  , I love the sea and often feel sand running through my fingers.

Sometimes I   (17)   what my ideal(理想的) holiday will be like when I am   (18)  . All I want to do then, perhaps, will be to lie in bed, reading books about   (19)   who make houses and gardens with sands, who watch the incoming tide, who make themselves   (20)   on too many ice creams.

On the morning of May 18, 2010, Enzo Piscopo’s alarm clock went off, signaling the start of another workday. Moments later, unbearable pain shot through his back.

“I   (1)   so loud that I probably woke up the whole neighborhood,”he says. He became paralyzed(瘫痪的) from the waist(腰）down. Doctors said he’d likely never   (2)  again.

The last three years have been a challenging, but equally   (3)  , journey for Enzo, a Coca-Cola employee since 1996. He has gone through great pain, relearned everyday tasks and got used to life in a   (4)  .

“These lessons have made me the happiest I’ve ever been,”Enzo says. Nearly every day, someone asks Enzo how he can be so   (5)   after such a life-changing   (6)  . It is a question, he admits; he’s asked himself more than a few times.

One particular   (7)    changed Enzo. A few weeks after his injury, he was talking to his wife in his hospital room,   (8)   focusing on what he had, he fixed his attention on what he thought he’d   (9)  .

His wife told him the things that mattered most to them were   (10)   intact(完好无损的), and that they would continue to follow their dreams and do everything they   (11)   to do, including traveling.

“That conversation   (12)   me that I have the most wonderful wife and four beautiful and healthy kids,” he says.

Enzo, who returned to work three months after his injury,   (13)   that happiness is a choice. “You can find millions of   (14)   to either be happy or unhappy. The choice is yours. Many people who seemingly have everything are   (15)   , while some of the   (16)   people in the world are deeply happy. The    (17)   is focusing on the things that really matter. Today I made an effort to   (18)   all the ‘little things’ that make me happy. I still want to   (19)   and grow as a person in all aspects of my life,   (20)   I’m now enjoying the abundance(丰富) of things I already have much more.”

     Having been out of work for two years because of poor health, I decided to look for a part－time job.

     I __  (1)  __ and interviewed again and again with no progress. I was getting pretty __  (2)  __．

     It was freezing cold last Tuesday evening. I was waiting at a(n) __  (3)  __ when I saw a young woman wearing just a T－shirt and no __  (4)  __. I asked if she needed any __  (5)  __. She told me she had lost everything in a big fire and had been __  (6)  __ for two days.

     I dug in my __  (7)  __ and took out $5.00 so she could get something to eat. I then took off my __  (8)  __ and shoes and gave them to her. She looked at me and said,“Arenˈt you going to be cold？”I told her, it would be worth it if they could keep her a little bit __  (9)  __. She was moved to tears and thanked me with a __  (10)  __．

     Then as I got on the bus the miracle(奇迹) of __  (11)  __ kindness happened. When I was to __  (12)  __ the fare, the bus driver said with a smile, “Madam, I saw what you just did and your __  (13)  __ is on me.”

      I __  (14)  __ my thanks and was about to sit down when a lady dressed in a business suit said to me,“You just did the most __  (15)  __ thing I have ever seen. What can I do for you？”I jokingly said a __  (16)  __ job would be nice. She asked for my name and said she might be able to __  (17)  __ something out.

      The next day she __  (18)  __ me, saying she had a part－time position __  (19)  __ in her company and wanted me to come in and meet with the manager that day. I had started my act of kindness just to make myself feel good, but I never expected to get so much __  (20)  __！