This morning, I was jogging in the park where I caught sight of a wallet on a bench. Clear, someone had left it there by an accident. I picked it up and checked the contents. Inside them, I found some money and a card with a phone number. Believing that the owner would be worrying, I immediately tried the number. A man answers it in an anxious voice. Heard that I had his wallet, he sighed with relief and told me he would return right away. Ten minute later, the man arrived. After confirming (确认) he was the owner, I handed the wallet back him. With his thumb up, he expressed his gratitude to me repeatedly. Seeing the smile in his face, I felt happy that I was able to help.

   A little girl studied at her desk in the purple bedroom of her childhood home. The girl’s homework was to _______ a true story. Simple. Yet there she was, _______ it for a long time for better past her bedtime.

So attentive was the girl — changing words to _______ the mood (语气), erasing passages to move the story along, reading out loud to _______ the rhyme — that she jumped when she _______ her father’s hand on her shoulder. Dad was a business manager. He liked to _______ and watch TV at night. It was not his _______ to check up on her.

“Daddy?” she said, looking up at him. “I think I just decided what kind of job I want when I grow up. I like to write about things that really _______. I like to move the words around.” “I’m glad to see you take your schoolwork so _______,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”________ he kissed the top of her head.

Decades later, the girl made great efforts in writing, which ________ her a top job at Reader’s Digest, a ________ that has for nearly a century told true stories of ________ interest. As she walked out of the office that afternoon, she ________ the night in her purple bedroom and decided that for every issue (期刊), she would write her editor’s note as a story. That way, she would honor the ________ of the magazine. She ________ her mom with the news of her job. “Oh, honey, I wish your father were ________,” her mom wrote. “He would be so proud.”

“As an ________, I am doing the work I love, writing about people of interest doing things that matter. It’s been a (n)________ to connect with the thousands of you who have ________ to me. Let’s continue to do so,” the girl said.

   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.

   The moment Aleeya opened her eyes from sleep, she knew it was Mom’s birthday. She _______ quickly and ran to the kitchen. There was no birthday _______. Then Aleeya went to the refrigerator, _______ its door and looked inside. There was no birthday cake in the refrigerator and no birthday cake _______.

She could not _______ that; she opened the door of the refrigerator again and put her head all the way in. Maybe there was a birthday cake _______ somewhere. But there was none, and she felt very _______. Just then she saw the apple butter-Mom’s ________! Aleeya took the jar of apple butter and ________ it on the table. She got a plate, a spoon, and a piece of bread. She opened the jar, took some apple butter and spread it on the bread the ________ Mom liked-not too thick, and evenly（均匀地）to the sides.

Aleeya became happy then and a gentle smile ________ over her face. It became bigger and bigger as she _____ to Mom’s room with the ________ bread. “Happy Birthday to Mom. Happy Birthday to Mom,” she _______.

Mom was ________. She took the plate and held her daughter in her arms.

“Pretend（假装）there are ________ ,” Aleeya said, “and blow them out.”

Mom closed her eyes and ________ a wish. Then she blew out the imaginary candles.

“Was it a good ________?” asked Aleeya.

“It was the best one ever in my life, my baby,”said Mom.

   I was attending a party one night given in Sir Ross's honor. During the dinner, the man sitting next to me told a humorous story and spoke of the quotation:“There's a divinity（神）that shapes our ends, /Rough-hew them how we will. ”

The storyteller mentioned that the quotation was from the Bible. He was wrong. I knew that； I knew it positively. There couldn't be the slightest doubt about it. And so, to get a feeling of importance and show my high quality, I chose myself as an unwelcome person to correct him. He stuck to his guns. “What? From Shakespeare? Impossible! Absurd ! That quotation was from the Bible. ”

The storyteller was sitting at my right hand, and Frank Gammond, an old friend of mine, was seated at my left hand. Mr. Gammond had devoted years to the study of Shakespeare, so the storyteller and I agreed to leave the question to Mr. Gammond. Mr. Gammond listened, kicked me under the table, and then said ,“Dale, you are wrong. The gentleman is right. It is from the Bible. ”

On our way home that night, I said to Mr. Gammond,“Frank, you knew that quotation was from Shakespeare. ”

“Yes, of course,”he replied. “Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2. But we were guests on a festive occasion, my dear Dale. Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save his face? He didn't ask for your opinion. He didn't want it. Why argue with him?”The man who said that taught me a lesson I would never forget. I not only had made the storyteller uncomfortable, but had put my friend in an embarrassing situation. How much better it would have been if I hadn't become argumentative.

Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants（竞争者）more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right. You can't win an argument. You can't because if you lose it, you lose it； and if you win it, you lose it.