That’s all for the introduction to your arrangements these days. So now ______ there are any questions, I’d like to go ahead and start the first video.

A．if                B．unless            C．until             D．though

I'm feeling sad．My 19-year-old∞nleft home about a week ago to  36  the Air Force, and my 23-year-old daughter left two days ago to marry in another state．I'm so  37  of my son as he had to really work hard to get into the Air Force, and my daughter moved to be with her fiance（未婚夫）．I'm just simply upset．It  38  feels like someone has ripped my heart from my chest．I’ve tried to talk to their father, friends, and family but it just feels like no one around me   39  what I'm going through．
My children were  40  to me．I put all my energy into   41  both of them and doing all types of activities with them, even sometimes at the  42 of my own best interests．I understand they grow up and need their _43 ,but for some reason I just can't seem to let go．I am go _ 44  that they're establishing their own lives,   45 I get so depressed whenever I have even a simple _46 of them．I've been crying for over a week now．I really don't know what to do to make this  47 go away．I can't even walk by either one's room without bursting into tears．I don't understand why I'm unable to _48 this sense of great loss．I'm  49  that I need to move on with my own life and find  _50 things to devote my attention to, but I _51 being a mom and spending time on my children．I've    52  adopting a child but it's _53  atthe moment for me considering my poor health．
I'm just thankful to have found this website and found there are others who are  54 similar problems．It helps to   55 I'm not crazy or overreacting．Thank you for sharing your problems and showing others like myself this isn’t so abnormal．

Some years ago, writing in my diary used to be a usual activity. I would return from school and spend the expected half hour recording the day’s events, feelings, and impressions in my little blue diary. I did not really need to express my emotions by way of words, but I gained a certain satisfaction from seeing my experiences forever recorded on paper. After all, isn’t accumulating memories a way of preserving the past?
When I was thirteen years old, I went on a long journey on foot in a great valley, well-equipped with pens, a diary, and a camera. During the trip, I was busy recording every incident, name and place I came across. I felt proud to be spending my time productively, dutifully preserving for future generations a detailed description of my travels. On my last night there, I wandered out of my tent, diary in hand. The sky was clear and lit by the glare of the moon, and the walls of the valley looked threatening behind their screen of shadows. I automatically took out my pen…
At that point, I understood that nothing I wrote could ever match or replace the few seconds I allowed myself to experience the dramatic beauty of the valley. All I remembered of the previous few days were the dull characterizations I had set down in my diary.
Now, I only write in my diary when I need to write down a special thought or feeling. I still love to record ideas and quotations that strike me in books, or observations that are particularly meaningful. I take pictures, but not very often—only of objects I find really beautiful. I’m no longer blindly satisfied with having something to remember when I grow old. I realize that life will simply pass me by if I stay behind the camera, busy preserving the present so as to live it in the future.
I don’t want to wake up one day and have nothing but a pile of pictures and notes. Maybe I won’t have as many exact representations of people and places； maybe I’ll forget certain facts, but at least the experiences will always remain inside me. I don’t live to make memories—I just live, and the memories form themselves.
【小题1】Before the age of thirteen, the author regarded keeping a diary as a way of ______.

In ancient Japan, if you saved someone’s life, they would make it their duty to spend the rest of their life serving you. Nowadays, if you rescue someone’s story, he or she will feel the same kind of gratitude(感激).
It happens all the time. Someone in a group is telling a story and, just before their big point, BOOM! There’s an interruption. Someone new joins the group, a waiter with a plate of biscuits comes over, or a baby starts crying. Suddenly everyone’s attention turns to the new arrival, the food on the plate, or the “charming” little child. Nobody is aware of the interruption — except the speaker. They forget all about the fact that the speaker hasn’t made his or her point.
Or you’re all sitting around the living room and someone is telling a joke. Suddenly, just before his big punch line(妙语), little Johnny drops a dish or the phone rings. After the crash, everyone talks about little Johnny’s carelessness. After the call, the subject turns to the upcoming marriage or medical operation of the caller. Nobody remembers the great punch line got unfinished — except the joke teller. When it’s you entertaining everyone at a restaurant, have you ever noticed how you can almost set your clock by the waiter coming to take everyone’s order just before your funny punch line?
Most joke and story tellers are too shy to say, after the interruption, “Now, as I was saying…” Instead, they’ll spend the rest of the evening feeling bad they didn’t get to finish. Here’s where you come in. Rescue them with the technique I call “Lend a Helping Tongue.”
Watch the gratitude in the storyteller’s eyes as he stabilizes where his story sunk and he sails off again toward the center of attention. His expression and the appreciation of your consideration by the rest of the group are often reward enough. You are even more fortunate if you can rescue the story of someone who can hire you, promote you, buy from you, or otherwise lift your life. Big winners have excellent memories. When you do them subtle favors like Lend a Helping Tongue, they find a way to pay you back.
【小题1】
Very often, a storyteller cannot make his point because ______.

Cheating happens a lot in our city. It can be hard to know who is really in   1  and who is trying to take advantage of other people's    2  .
Recently, I was finishing my work at home    3  the dog barked letting me know that   4  was at the gate. I rushed to see who it was and there I saw a   5  weak woman in her late fifties. I said to her, "May I ask you what you   6 ?" She   7  , "Hello, my name is Mary. My husband and I live in the slum nearby. We earn our living   8  working at construction sites. A few days ago my   9  tripped on the stairs while
  10  a heavy load. He is   11  hurt and hasn't been able to  12 for the past five days, so we have no food. Now he is at home in bed with a high fever. Please help me! I need to take my husband to a doctor!"
"Oh!" I said. "Please  13  here." I went into the room. I felt really bad about her  14  but--- Was she telling me the   15  or trying to cheat me out of my money?
Finally, I   16 to help her. But first I said a simple prayer, "Dear Lord, you know  17  I earn my pennies, so please make sure that my hard earned money helps those who  18 need it. Amen." I went out with a fifty note and
  19 it to her. The moment she got the money she broke down in tears. She took my hand and said, "May god bless you, my dear! Thank you so much!"
I was so   20 , and turned back to my work smiling.