A couple of weeks back，my friend had a yard sale（庭院拍卖会）.She ___________ to sell some of our stuff for us. I thought it would be a good chance to ___________ my 7-year-old son's room and sell some toys that he no longer _______.We agreed that whatever we sold in toys would be his ______.

The night before the sale，we loaded up the ___________ with toys and a little bike that he was now ___________tall for. He had taken the bike for a final spin（高速旋转）___________we left home but ___________ put it on the truck for the sale. This little bike had at least two ___________owners that we knew of. It was not in the best ____________ and it certainly was not shiny new but it was still a bike，and the tires were still good.

We put a price of $ 10 on it but it didn't ____________.So，after the sale was ____________，my friend put it on the sidewalk with a sign that ____________"FREE BIKE". Within five minutes her doorbell rang. A little boy was standing there. His English was not very good but he asked if the bike was really ____________.She said yes and told him that he could have it for nothing. He smiled，jumped on the bike and ____________ away.

Later that evening when I told my son how much money he had ____________ at the yard sale, he was very excited. The next day we were going to take the money to the bank. He asked about a few of his things, ____________ if they had been sold. When he asked about the bike, I told him about the little boy and that he made a big ____________because he got the bike for free. The smiles on my son's face were truly ____________, much more than when I told him how much he had made. He was so excited to hear that someone else would get good ____________out of that little bike.

   When I was 17, I paid a long visit to Iowa to see a college I was thinking of attending. While the _______ was fun for the most part, I was feeling depressed and _______. I was realizing that I wouldn't be seeing my family _______ if I went to school here. I was also _______ the forests in Appalachian mountains of my home. I loved how the leaves turned a thousand _______ of green in spring and then became a sea of colors in autumn. I loved the _______ of the forget-me-nots and countless wild flowers that grew on the hillsides.

Here in Iowa everything was _______. The grass looked brown and _______. All that I could smell was a_______ of corn, mud, and pigs. One day I lay down on the ground. Eyes closed, I ________ being back home over and over again. When I ________ opened them, however, I saw something that ________ my soul: a prairie (草原) sunset. It seemed to fill the whole sky from the________. Gold, red, purple and pink clouds all flowed together and________ an amazing picture. It was so huge that I was________. In comparison with it, our mountain sunsets ________. I was filled with wonder and a sense of ________. I realized too that I had been picky and________. This place too had its own special ________

Over the years to come I learned something else. Each of us has a special beauty too —everyone has their own________talents and abilities to share.

As new students at an university in Boston，many of us were unfamiliar with the campus but consequently late for class. One professor，however，was particular intolerant of being late，making clear that no excuse would be acceptable. So when a girl student came to his class one morning later，we expected the worst results. Then the professor demands the reason for her coming late.“I was being waiting online to buy your new book，”she replied very nervously. While looked at the rest of the class，the professor asked，“Well，why was not the rest of you late？”

   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.