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.”

   My family lived in a motel（汽车旅馆）for two years. Like most families living there, we stayed in a two-bedroom suite. We were living from paycheck to paycheck, so when Christmas approached, we didn't know if we would be able to buy gifts for our children.

A few days before Christmas someone dropped off presents for all the kids that lived at the motel. It brought so much joy to all the children, most of whom knew that they wouldn't be receiving anything.

Five years ago, we moved out of the motel. After that, my husband and I were working hard at Joe's Crab Shack to support our family. A few days before Christmas, I was busy working. The man at my table could see the large tables were taking most of my time, but I was very patient and friendly. Between drinks and food I was able to chat with him about his family and mine. He left me $10, then walked out. About 10 minutes later, I turned around and there he was again. He gave me a hug , and put something inside my apron, telling me“Have a Merry Christmas”. I reached into my apron and pulled out $800.

I was so overwhelmed（不知所措的）by his generosity that I burst into tears. He had given me more than enough money to help my family catch up on our bills. After discussing what we should do with the money we had left over, we decided to buy presents for the families living at the motel, so we could pass on the blessing that we had received. Since then, it has been a tradition for us to give Christmas gifts to the families in need.

Last year we were able to give presents to each of the 80 children at a school in our community, and throw a Christmas party for them. This year our goal is to add at least 20 children.

   When I read a post about taking someone to the movies, I remembered something that happened a couple of years ago.

I used to drink Coca-Cola and they had a contest where there was a ___________ inside the bottle cap. You went to a website and entered the code and maybe you _________ something. I won some ___________ Cokes. But then, I won the Grand Prize！I was surprised and ___________.

The Grand Prize was free movies for a year. What that ___________ to be was that the company sent me 52 admission tickets for a local movie theatre — they _________ one movie a week was what free movies for a year _______. All of the tickets had expiration dates（失效期）later than a year from the day I _________ them. I used quite a few taking friends to see _________.

But the best thing I did with them was that I ____________ twenty-two tickets that I had left by that time, to the local Women’s Transition House. It is a place where women and their ____________ could go when they’re ______________ domestic violence or just a bad situation in general and get help to make a ______________ start.

My work team had decided we would be a charity through which we ______________ donations for that particular Christmas. I knew that the Women’s Transition House ______________ some childcare for the women ______________ they could go for job interviews and things like that.

I put those tickets in a(n) ______________ and wrote a note on the outside, asking the Women's Transition House staff to give the movie tickets to women there ____________ the holidays to have something ____________ to do, with or without their children. It made me ____________ happy to do this.

   It was a few days before Christmas many years ago and it looked like it would be a hard one for my family. I lost my job so we didn't have much _______ . My wife and I had saved to buy our young children  some toys , _______ an unexpected car repair took most  of our cash. We decided then that we could only _______ to get one small gift for each of our children.

We arrived at the store and walked past people loading gifts into their cars. I _______ them a bit,because it sure didn't feel like Christmas to me. We hurried into the store past the Salvation Army bell ringer with our heads _______ . I had always enjoyed putting something in his _______ before but wasn't _______ if I could afford this time. We _______ all through the store hoping to find one thing each of our small children would like. _______ , we were able to get them each something sweet. We headed for the ________ ，bought the toys, and were amazed that we even had a few dollars ________ . As we walked out of the store, I stopped and ________ those dollars into the bell ringer's kettle. I didn't have a coin left but that didn't matter. ________ , it felt like Christmas.

I think the wonderful actress, Dale Evans ________ it best when she said,“Christmas is love ________ . Every time we love, every time we ________ ，it's Christmas. ” It doesn't ________ have to be a gift of money either. When we give our time, it's Christmas. When we share our ________ ,it's Christmas. When we give others our ________ and compassion , it's Christmas. When we do ________ at any time to help another, it's Christmas.

Nathan Sawaya showed a strong 【小题1】（prefer）for building blocks when he was young. At the age of 5, his grandparents bought his first set of building blocks and he 【小题2】（play）with them ever since. He even took his building blocks to college with him. Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village 【小题3】（make）of bricks on his desk.

Nathan started as a lawyer 【小题4】 gave up his well-paid job to become 【小题5】 artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty to Superman！He has more than 1. 5 million colored bricks 【小题6】 are used by him to make pieces of art in his office in New York. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait. It took him two days just 【小题7】（build）the eyes.

Nathan's works have appeared in museums around the world. People love his arts because they are 【小题8】（fascinate）. Since it began in 2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular 【小题9】museum visitors everywhere.

"I'm proud that I have fulfilled my childhood dream, and I have actually made a job out of it, "says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is 【小题10】（important）thing. "