Sometimes you meet an ordinary person doing something extraordinary. On a recent trip I met Normand Gallant. Normand is someone you could _____ on the street and never notice but he is a very special person who _____ recognition.

Norm lives in a remote area far from the _____ big hospital, so when his wife _____ cancer several years ago, Norm was faced with a four-hour _____ to where she could be treated. That meant lots of _____ for meals, fuel, hotels and so on. But in the end the cancer took his wife’s life _____.

Norm was obviously _____ by his wife’s passing, and he was quite upset, _____ he realized that other people were ______ the same sorts of hardships. He wanted to do something but he didn’t want to give money to the ______ that support cancer research because he didn’t know how much would actually get to the researchers. What he did was to ______ parties.

About every three weeks on Saturday evenings, there is a party in Norm’s garage. ______ during the evening Norm tells about a family who is having difficulty ______ the cost of supporting a cancer patient in undertaking ______ far from home. Then a pail is passed around and the money is ______, every cent of it goes ______ to that family.

Norm’s personal loss has ______ an act of kindness in ______ of the wife he has lost. Wouldn’t it be ______ if we had more people in the world like Normand Gallant? He makes the world a better place.

   Chances are the first Monday in September is a day off from school for you. If it is, you can _______ a man named Peter McGuire. Who's Peter McGuire?According to_______  , he's the founding father of Labor Day. On September5, 1882, McGuire led a_______ of 10, 000 workers in New York City一workers who took the day off from their jobs to hold a parade(游行) and a picnic. The_______ came to be known as Labor Day，and the idea_______ throughout the country. In 1887，Oregon became the first state to make it a statewide holiday, on the first Saturday in June. And in 1894，President Grover Cleveland_______ a bill that made . Labor Day a(n)_______ holiday, on the first Monday in September一the date we still celebrate to this day.

Labor Day began as a day for workers to protest, (抗议)_______ poor working conditions一long days, low pay and a lack of job security. Back in Peter McGuire's day, you could be_______ just for calling in sick -________  you were really too sick to work. Twelve-hour workdays were also________  . And workers had only short breaks for meals and other necessities.

McGuire went to work at the age of eleven, ________ newspapers on the streets of New York City. He had to help________ his family. McGuire saw poor working conditions first-hand. And he________ those conditions himself. That urged him to help________ the first trade unions in the United States.

The workers hoped strength in numbers would________ their employers to improve working conditions. They weren't always ________ . But' thanks to their________ the eight-hour workday and the five-day workweek became common practices. So did________ vacations and sick days. As for Labor Day itself, it became a day________  labor for most workers. So thanks to Peter McGuire, Labor Day means a day off from school for you and your teachers.