Years ago my three-year-old son, Jeremy, and I walked to our car. He _______ me with excitement. I found he was holding a _______ in his little hand. I hadn’t given it to him, so I asked, “Where did you get that?” He _______ to the store we’d just _______. But we hadn’t paid for it.

I had a lot of things to do that day, but taking _______ of this moment to teach character to my son just moved to the _______ of my to-do list. I sat him in the front seat next to me in the car without _______ it, so the two of us could talk. I _______ to him that we couldn’t just take things from stores without _______ them. When he realized he’d done wrong, tears ________ up in his eyes. I looked at my ________ boy and said, “Here’s what we have to do. We have to go back to the ________. I want you to tell the manager that you took it, and you’re sorry.” We walked back to the store, and I asked for the ________. “My son has something to tell you,” I told her. Jeremy ________ the toy and said, “I took this, and I’m sorry.” The manager ________ it beautifully, and a little boy learned an important ________.

My son is now 40, with children of his own, but he still clearly ________ that day. And, now, I’m so ________ that those character traits I tried to teach him took ________ in his heart and life. He’s now teaching them to my beloved ________.

We can impact our world by teaching our children character-by being examples of them.

   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.

   A young Los Angeles actor in need of a second job to pay his bills has come up with a brilliant way to supplement his income — people walking.

Chuck McCarthy originally considered becoming a dog walker to earn some extra cash, but soon realized that the job requires more than walking dogs on a leash. However, walking people doesn’t require much when they are out on walks. Chuck realized there would be money to be made if he walks people around Los Angeles instead.

It might sound like a joke, but The People Walker, as he calls himself, is very serious about his new job. For $7 per mile, he offers to walk with clients around L. A., listening to their problems or simply making conversations and offering them a sense of security. At 6 feet, 2 inches, and with a bulky figure and bushy beard, Chuck doesn’t look like the kind of guy you’d want to mess with.

Chuck’s services are aimed at people who need a motivational boost to go walking, those who don’t feel safe walking alone in some areas, and those who are afraid that people might see them walking by themselves and think that they have no friends. “I wear my The People Walker shirt upon request and on the first walk with a new client, so he can be 100% sure it’s me,” McCarthy says. However, he admits some people are a bit uncomfortable with this policy, as they don’t necessarily want everyone to know that they’re being walked.

So far, Chuck McCarthy has already had another five people walkers employed, covering various areas, like downtown L. A., Hollywood, Eagle Rock, or Fairfax County. Once he posted signs around the city, his phone started ringing and clients began rolling in. And with all the free publicity he has been getting in the press lately, more requests are coming.

While he hopes that his acting career will take off soon, Chuck is very happy with his people walking business. After all, it’s literally a walk in the park and it pays the bills.

   One afternoon I had been driving down the freeway when I spotted what looked like a stalled (熄火)car. I _____ that other cars had slowed down in order to briefly look at the stalled car. I decided to _____ behind the car and find out what was going on. Suddenly, a pregnant woman stepped out, and she appeared to be _____.I approached the woman asking if I could _____ She said, “Please call my husband. I am trying to get to the _____ . I am about to give birth！” _____ as I was, I said, “ We have no _____ for that. Quick! Get in my car and I will _____ you.”

I tried to drive both quickly and steadily _____ my passenger would not move around a lot. I also tried offering a ______ talk on the way, like “Everything is going to be OK.” and “We’re almost there.” ______ , we met no obstacle all the way and arrived at the hospital in no time. It seemed a bit ______ to answer the staffs questions about her since we had just met a few minutes before and I ______ nothing about her besides her name.

11 minutes later her ______ came, out of breath. Upon seeing me, he thanked me and handed me a $ 100 bill. At that moment I ______ the SMILE card in my glove box. I walked out and ______ with it to the room where the woman had been settled. I told her that something ______ happened to me when my second child was born and we had a good laugh over the ______ .

On the way out I ______ a nurse to give the couple an envelope with the SMILE card. Its ______ included the $ 100 bill with a note that read “Baby’s college fund”. Whew! What a day!

   Blind people can read. They do so by running their fingers along a line of raised points or dots on paper. Of course, they first have to learn the code（代码）. Here are some examples of it. One dot stands for the letter “A”. Two dots side by side mean “C”. Four dots arranged to look like a box（：：） stand for the letter “G”. By placing the dots in special patterns, all the letters of the alphabet can be formed.

This code was made up by a Frenchman called Louis Braille. Though he could see at birth, he became sightless when he was only three. Braille was cutting leather in his father’s shop. His knife slipped and cut his eye. Infection（感染）spread to both eyes, and he became blind.

At 10, he was placed in a home for the blind. But young Braille had great talent. He became a skilled musician and soon got a job as a church organist（风琴弹奏者）in Paris.

Because he had talent and was quick, he became a teacher at a school for the blind. While there, he heard that a captain had sent messages to his soldiers that they could read at night without light. His messages were in the simple form of raised dots and dashes. This was the clue Braille needed. At the age of 15, he worked out his own six-dot code. Each group of dots is called a cell. The cells are three dots high and two dots wide. For the rest of his life, Braille taught his young flock to read both written and musical works using his code.

For the last 17 years of his life, Braille was ill with tuberculosis. He died at the age of 43.