A woman in her sixties lived alone in her little cottage with a pear tree at her door. She spent all her time taking care of the tree. But the children nearby drove her  16 by making fun of her. They would climb her tree and then run away with pears,  17 “Aunty Misery” at her.
One evening, a passer- by asked to  18 for the night. Seeing that he had an  19 face, she let him in and gave him a nice   20  . The next morning the stranger, actually a sorcerer (巫师), thanked her by granting (允准) her     21 that anyone who climbed up her tree  22  not be able to come back down until she   23  it.
When the children came back to steal her   24  , she had them stuck on the tree. They had to beg her long   25  she gave the tree permission to let  26   go. Aunty Misery was free from the   27  at last.
One day another man    28  her door. This one did not look trustworthy to her,   29  she asked who he was . “I am Death, I’ve come to take you   30    me.” said he.
Thinking fast Aunty Misery said, “Fine, but I’d like to  31   some pears from my dear tree to remember the  32 it brought to me in this life. But I am too    33  to climb high to get the best fruit. Will you be so   34   as to do it for me?” With a deep sigh, Mr. Death climbed up the tree   35  and was immediately stuck to it. No matter how much he warned or begged, Aunty Misery would not allow the tree to let Death go.

A passenger told an air hostess that he needed a cup of water to take his medicine when the plane just took off. She told him that she would   21 the water in ten minutes.
Thirty minutes later, when the passenger’s ring for  22  sounded, the air hostess realized it at once. She was kept so  23  that she forget to deliver him the  24  . As a result, the passenger was  25  to take his medicine. She hurried over to him  26  a cup of water, but to her surprise he  27  it.
In the following hours on the  28  , each time the air hostess passed by the  29  , she would ask him with a  30  whether he needed help or not. But the passenger  31  paid attention to her words.
When he was going to get  32  the plane, the passenger asked the air hostess to  33  him the passenger’s booklet(意见簿). She was very 34  . She knew that he would write down  35  words, which might result in the loss of her job.  36  with a smile she handed it to him.
Off the plane, she  37  the booklet and cracked a smile,  38  the passenger put it, “On the flight, you asked me whether I needed help or not for twelve times  39  . How can I refuse your twelve sincere smiles?”
That’s  40  ! Who can refuse twelve sincere smiles from a person?   

My mom is a teacher．She finds a lesson in everything．I was watching Sesame Street by my second birthday so I’d   16   my ABCs and 123s．Our weekly family trips to the library began when I was three．And my mom had me spotting （认出） the historical markers with childlike   17   on family vacations by the time I was six．For her, life was all about learning．But the biggest lesson she   18   me was never to let my   19   define who I am, and never forget what is   20   in life．
I was born with Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome, an extremely   21   genetic bone and muscular disorder．There are only about 100 reported   22 ．At birth, my knees were bent more than 90 degrees, and I had my first surgery to   23   them when I was just six weeks old．This surgery was the first of many in my   24 ．I’d had 26 surgeries by the time I was 15．
Strange as it   25  , I have good memories of my medical days．One of my   26   is about my mom and me being in the hospital cafeteria（自助餐厅）．We sat down for an ice cream sandwich dessert．It was   27   fancy, but at that moment, I knew I was   28 ．
My parents pushed me to be as   29   as possible — even when I didn’t want to be．My mom taught me that I could do anything and that I should   30   let my disability stop me．In high school, I was a member of the National Honor Society, and in college, I was editor-in-chief of my school newspaper．I wouldn’t have had the   31   to push myself if my parents hadn’t been there,   32   me on and giving me a reality check when I got down on myself．
Every night before I go to bed, I   33   my mom for everything, for all the great help she’s given me．And   34   I get older, I know that “Thanks, Mom” is about so much more than the physical assistance．And that’s   35   matters the most．

According to legend, a young man while wandering the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet, he   21  his leather container so he could bring some   22  to a tribal elder who had been his teacher.
After a four-day journey he   23  the water to the old man who took a deep drink,   24  warmly and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy   25 .
Later, the teacher let another student   26  the water. He spat it   27 , saying it was awful. It   28  had been no longer fresh and   29  unpleasant to drink because of the old leather container.
The student challenged his teacher: “Master, the water was smelly. Why did you   30  to like it?”
The teacher replied, “You only tasted the water. I tasted the   31 . The water was simply the container for an act of loving-kindness and nothing could be   32 .”
I think we understand this lesson best when we receive   33  gifts of love from young children.   34  it’s a tray or a bracelet, the   35  and proper response is   36  and expressed thankfulness because we love the idea within the gift.
Gratitude doesn’t always come naturally.   37 , most children and many adults value only the thing given   38  the feeling embodied in it. We should remind ourselves and   39  our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of gratitude.   40 , gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.

Dad taught me a lot about life, especially its hard times. I remembered one of his ___21___ one night when I was ready to ___22___ a political campaign I was losing, and wrote about it in my diary.
Tired, feeling the months of ___23___ in vain, I went up to my study to make some notes. I was looking for a pencil in the back of my desk drawer ___24___ I turned up one of Dad’s old business cards that he was proud of: Andrea Cuomo Italian-American Groceries --- Fine Imported Products. Then I thought about how he ___25___ with difficult situations. A lot of pictures ___26___ into my mind, but one scene came sharply into ___27___.
We had just moved to Holliswood, New York. We had our own house for the first time; it had some land around it, even trees. One, ___28___, was a great blue spruce (云杉) that must have been 40 feet tall.
Less than a week after we moved in, there was a terrible storm. We came home from the store that night to find the spruce pulled almost ___29___ from the ground and thrown onto the street. When my brother Frankie and I saw the spruce, our hearts ___30___. But not Dad’s.
The rain was falling. Then he ___31___ , “Ok, we’re going to push him up!” “ What are you talking about, Dad? The ___32___ are out of the ground!” “ Shut up, we’re going to push him up, he’s going to grow again.” We couldn’t say ___33___ to him. So we ___34___ him into the house and got what rope ___35___ was and tied it around the top of the tree that lay on the street, and then he stood up by the house, ___36___ me pulling on the rope, and Frankie in the street in the rain, ___37___ to push up the great blue spruce. In no ___38___ at all, we had him standing up straight again! Dad ___39___ the stakes (桩) in the ground, tied the rope from the trunk to the stakes, and said, “ Don’t worry. He’s going to grow again…”
I looked at the card and wanted to cry. I ___40 ___ wait to get back into the campaign.
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