I now remember the day as if it were just yesterday. It was the early morning hours and I had _____ to my dad several hours before. We hung up the phone and I _____ my night time routine, getting my daughter ready for _____ and doing the same for myself. I went to sleep that night and the phone rang around 1:30 a.m. I saw that it was my brother _____ I thought he had probably been drunk so I hung _____ up. My brother gets drunk and calls me _____ Then the phone rang again and I answered. He asked me if I knew what was _____ because our cousin had called him and told him to call our aunt because she _____ to talk to him. She said there was no _____ at my parents’ house. At that point I started to ______ but I had to stay strong for my brother. I called the hospital and I asked if they had a ______ by the name of Ray Green. They said yes and nothing else. My mother called me back after a few minutes and told me that my father had ______.

I’m still so lost that sometimes I pick up the ______ to call my dad and then I remember he’s not there for me to make a phone call to. ______, I see something that would have made him ______ and I laugh twice for him too. My mother is so much ______ than I am. She is back at work and going on with her life and I’ve done the ______ but not like her. I know she ______ my father dearly but she is strong and keeps on so that everybody else can ______ her lead. So that is what I’m trying to do: stay strong and keep my ______ up.

Six-year-old Ismail Zulfic was born with no arms and used to be scary of going into the water after incident in a pool. So that changed when the little boy met Amel Kapo. He set up a local swimming club after noticing what disabled kids struggled to swim in pools for lack of special equipments for them. Kapo taught Zulfic to swim. Zulfic was able to swim well after a little months of practice. He even won for a gold medal in a local swimming competition for disabled people，finish well ahead of other swimmers.

This butterfly without wings showed that desire, will and perseverance are things that real pay off.

   Today, nobody talks to anybody anymore. Everybody is _______ at their phone. But sometimes, there are unexpected moments of _______. I happened upon one just the other night. I was going home, taking the _______ as usual and was glad to get a seat. I _______ my phone and started reading. Then I noticed that nobody was sitting in the three seats across from me.

I _______ figured out why. Next to the _______ seats was an old woman. She smelled as though she hadn’t _______ for a few days. The next thing I knew was that a man stood up from his seat and sent some _______ into her hand, then sat back down. She nodded and gave a _______ smile. Another man standing near the door started ________ to her. “Grandmother,” he called her, “Are you okay?” We all looked at her for her response. More ________.

“It could be you. It could be me. It could be one of our relatives,” he said to the rest of us. “So true,” said the ________ with him. He also dug into his ________ and took out some cash to give to her. Others were ________ to do so, too.

Just before they got off, the couple made an unexpected ________ . “We just got married in City Hall.” There was a short round of ________ from this group of strangers. “Congratulations!” someone ________ out. It occurred to me that the first thing they were doing was giving, a perfect start to a ________.

I put something in the old woman’s hand before I ________ the subway. It was cold outside. But I felt ________. I hoped that she would find a home — somehow — for a warm night’s sleep.

   Caroline Solomon was on her high school's swim team. But at times she could not go into the creek（小溪）near her home. It was simply too polluted. "I decided I wanted to do something about it，"she recalls. So she studied environmental science and public policy at Harvard University in Cambridge. Later，she went to graduate school. Some of her classes could be challenging，though，since she couldn't hear her teachers. "I've been deaf since I was 15 months old，"Solomon notes.

Today she teaches biology at Gallaudet University in Washington，DC. She has no trouble communicating with her students. They，too，are primarily deaf or hard of hearing. That's why all classes at Gallaudet are taught in American Sign Language. Solomon also has an active life outside the classroom. She especially enjoys hiking，biking and other activities with her family.

Her research takes her to the Anacostia River. "It is very close to Gallaudet，and I easily bring my students there，"she says. Water running through local forests and marshes drains into this river，so does water running off urban streets，golf courses and industrial sites." The river's watershed（流域）kind of concentrates all the things that happen when humans mess with the natural landscape，"she explains. Not surprisingly，this river has developed a reputation for being quite polluted.

Solomon has been focusing on how pollutants affect tiny organisms that form the base of the river's food web. "I am now looking at the bacteria population，" she says，"to see what types there are."

Solomon wants to see more students who are deaf or have other disabilities make a difference in environmental science and other fields. As she often says, "If I can do it, you can do it."