Mike was 11. As his birthday was coming up，he _____ his father to buy him a bike, so that he could go to school cycling and not by _____ or relying on his father to _____ him at school, which was _____ a mile away from his home.

On his _____ , seeing a set of books wrapped nicely in his father's hand, though _____ , he thanked his father. Mike's father was _____ as he didn't have enough money to buy a bike.

After a week，when Mike was walking home from school, he saw a boy riding a bike. Mike _____ that the bike was too small for the big boy. _____，the boy ran into a post and fell on the street. Mike rushed to him and ______ him who was his schoolmate Sam.

Mike helped him stand up and provided him with water. _____ Sam was riding the bike fast, his left leg and hands were ______ injured. Mike asked him to sit in a corner and took the bike and rushed to a ______ nearby.

An ambulance （救护车）came and carried Sam to hospital. He then rushed to Sam's home and ______ his parents about the accident.

Sam and his parents thanked Mike for the ______ help. Mike in turn said, “It was all ______ just because I rode Sam's bike. ” He added, “The bike is too small for Sam to ride and that's why he was _______” Mike met Sam every day in hospital until he ______.

Sam got a new bike and he came to know that Mike didn't have the ______ to own a bike. He gave his old bike to Mike and with his parents' ______, Mike accepted the gift.

   When she was just 17 years old，Liz crashed into the back of a truck that was waiting to turn in a left-turn lane（车道）. The crash is a life-changing one for her. Because of the crash，she's blind in one eye，loses her sense of smell，loses some of her hearing，loses the ability to create tears，and she cannot fall asleep naturally.

“Initially，I thought I would not be defeated but clearly I was completely wrong. Apart from the medical problems，the hardest part about my life after the car accident was the fact that I was alone，”Liz said.“Everyone was away at college，but I wasn't. I couldn't drive or go to college. My friends who used to hang around with me were there for me at first，but after a while they stopped coming by.”

“I viewed her Facebook page，and she said on there: Can anybody please hang out with me today？I don't have any friends，”recalled Liz's mother，Betty.

In time, Liz and her mother teamed up with the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to make a video. They wanted to get the point across that texting and driving can have life-transforming consequences.

In the video Liz appealed to drivers not to text when driving. She admitted she was checking and sending messages via her phone when she crashed her car into the back of the truck.

“Don't text your loved ones when you know they' re driving,”said Liz's mother.“It can change their lives forever.”

“If you get a text, don't look at it,”Liz said.“It's not worth it.”

   I was one of the young US soldiers in Saudi Arabia. At one time before the Internet，our only lifeline to friends and family was the mail we sent and received.

One evening the mail soldier called my name and，instead of a letter，handed me a large box from my grandmother in Oklahoma. One of the great hardships of the war for me was the absence of my grandmother's cooking—her fried chicken and onion，corn bread，and，most of all，her desserts. But on that evening I was about to take a gastronomic（美食的） journey home: I opened the box and found two dozen pies made by my grandmother.

A man from New York approached and asked me what I had received. I couldn't answer；my mouth was full of pie. So I just offered him one. “So nice！”he said. “What are they？”He had to wait a few moments for an answer，but eventually I explained. As insurance，I offered him another pie to keep him quiet.

Once a day for the next three weeks，I imagined returning home to my grandmother's kitchen，if only I had had a few sweet bites at a time.

Some of my earliest memories are associated with my grandmother's pies. She had been baking pies since before the Great Depression. She would have astonished the judges on today's TV cooking challenges. I remember coming across a persimmon（柿子）tree once while out hiking. It was autumn，and the fruit was soft and sweet. I picked a few dozen and brought them to Grandma. Guess what！The next day I walked into her kitchen to find a persimmon pie waiting for me.