Sometimes you meet an ordinary person doing something extraordinary. On a recent trip I met Normand Gallant. Normand is someone you could pass on the street and 1 notice but he is a very special person who2 recognition.

    Norm lives in a remote area far from the 3 big hospital, so when his wife4 cancer several years ago, Norm was faced with a four hour5to where she could be treated. That meant lots of6 for meals, fuel, hotels and so on. But in the end the cancer took his wife 7.

    Norm was obviously8 by his wife's passing, but he was also very angry, 9 he realized that other people were10 the same sorts of hardships. He wanted to do something but he didn't want to give money to the 11 that support cancer research because he didn't know how much would actually get to the researchers. What he did was to 12 parties.

    About every three weeks on Saturday evenings, there is a party in Norm's garage. There is music and dancing, and 13 during the evening Norm tells about a family who are having difficulties 14the cost of supporting a cancer patient undertaking 15 far from home. Then a honey-pail is passed around and the money 16, every cent of it goes 17 to that family.

    Norm's personal loss has 18 an act of kindness that honors the 19 of the wife he has lost. Wouldn't it be 20if we had more people in the world like Normand Gallant?  He makes the world a better place.

    For several years, we lived at the end of a long Texas country road. Every evening when I was away from home on business, my little boy would ask 1 of his mother to take his black2 and my walking stick, to make the half-mile 3from the house to the fence (栅栏) which 4 the beginning of the avenue to home.

    One day, I was busy with my business and was 5 for about an hour, completely forgetting about the 6 little boy down the road who might be 7 for his daddy.

    On my way home, the rain was so thick that I could not8 ten feet in front of me. All I could 9was finishing my journey and getting out of the rain.10 the downpour began to become weak. It was only a drizzle (细雨) by the time my car turned the last11 and approached the final street between me and a warm home and nice meal.

    12 I caught sight of my little boy, who was 13 an umbrella in one hand, a walking stick in the other, and was wearing the biggest and most beautiful smile ever to lighten the14 of a little boy.

    As I stopped the car and 15 the door, he ran into my arms and held me. He was wet and 16 with cold, but he never 17the rain, nor the hour-long wait. He simply said, “Daddy, I am so glad you are home.”

    Last year, we 18 to a wonderful new home provided for a special season in our lives. We no longer have a long country road.19 I have never forgotten the rainy day and the little boy and his black dog. Often, perhaps a thousand times, that 20has appeared in my mind. Like all events in our lives, it happens once, and must be treasured.

    Terry Fox never thought he'd live a great life. He liked sports, but no one thought he was talented. However, Terry was 1 for one reason he had determination.

    Terry was too short for basketball, but he worked harder at it. He also practiced cross-country running 2 he didn't like it. Finally he made the 3 team and even won the Athlete of the Year Award later.

    During his first year at university, he had a pain 4 his right knee, which was so bad that he 5 stand up. He went to the doctor for 6. They showed that he had cancer. He was going to lose one of his 7 and be given an artificial one.

    Terry's family and friends all gave him support. "Knowing that all those people cared really helped me," Terry said. He decided to face it with courage and 8.

    One night Terry was 9 through an article. It was about Dick Traum, who also had an artificial leg and had 10 the New York Marathon. "If he can do it," thought Terry, "I can, too. I'll run across Canada and 11 money for cancer research. It will be a Marathon of 12!"

    Terry did just that. He began to run a little every day. It is 5,300 miles across Canada. Terry hoped to run thirty to forty miles a day so that it would 13 him six months. Most of all, he hoped to raise $1 million for cancer research. Because Terry had an artificial leg, running wasn't 14. People supported Terry. As he ran, they 15 and cheered. However, he had to give up the Marathon after 3,339 miles, with a 16 pain in his chest. He told the people before he left, "I won't 17. I just hope people will 18 to give money." And they did. Just under $25 million was given.

    Terry 19 a lot of awards all his life. He passed away on June 28, 1981, almost a year after his Marathon of Hope. He was considered a 20 in all areas of his life.

The Sweetest Thing

    When I was ten, I was crazy about candy. Whenever in our small-town store with my mom, I would 1 my fingers through my favorite candy on the shelf.

    Once there, thinking about all things sweet, I noticed a man a few feet away pressing buttons on the ATM machine. Dressed in a suit, he seemed to be late for something, 2 waiting for his cash to appear. The machine made a noise, and he immediately 3 a pile of bills and headed out. Curiously, I walked over to the ATM, where I started pressing the buttons as if knowing the 4. Then I looked into the bottom of the machine. There I saw it: a beautiful, crisp $ 20 bill! 5 I wanted to believe my magic made the cash appear, I knew the man in the suit must have left it behind.

    I held the money in my hand, staring at the number "20" and feeling 6 than I ever had. I thought about slipping the money into my pocket. No one would know, but I just didn't feel it was 7. I knew it didn't belong to me. I had to find its owner and give it back! So I told my mom what had happened. "We'll look for him." she said kindly. We rushed out and found him stepping into his car in the parking lot! We 8 him and asked whether he had left money at the cash machine.

    "Let me 9" he said, pulling out his wallet and bills. "Twenty, forty, eighty...Oh! You're right," he said with surprise, "I'm 10 a $20 bill."

    "Here you go," I said, smiling with pride, as if I was a(n) 11 who had solved a mystery. "Thank you so much," he said, bending down and shaking my hand. My heart swelled. Before saying goodbye, he asked my mom for my name and 12. "I want to send your daughter a thank-you card," he said.

    On my way home, my 13 was racing. Twenty dollars. What could I have done with it? I bet I could have bought a puppy or every single candy bar in town! But now 14 of that would happen. Yet I knew I had done the right thing.

    A few weeks later, I got a box with a note. I ripped it open to find packages of candy. "Dear Felice, thank you very much for 15 my $20. You are a great girl, and I appreciate your 16. I hope you enjoy this candy. Best wishes, Tom." Tom included his business card. It 17 that he was vice-president for the candy company. The candy tasted sweet, each 18 reminding me that what I had done mattered. Although my honesty wouldn't always be 19 with candy, it would make a difference to someone. And that was the 20 part of all.

    In 1957, Jane Goodall first met the famous anthropologist (人类学者) Dr Louis Leakey, who later played an important role in her life. With the 1 of gaining insight into humans' evolutionary (进化的) past, Dr Leakey 2 a pioneering long-term field study on 3 chimps. Even though Jane had no formal 4, her patience and determination to understand animals 5 him to choose her for the study. 6 it was unusual for a woman to work in the forest of Africa, going there 7 the fulfillment (实现) of her childhood dream. In the summer of 1960 she 8 in Tanzania (坦桑尼亚) on Lake Tanganyika's eastern shore. This marked the 9 of the longest continuous field study of animals in their 10 habitat (栖息地). Five years 11, she earned a doctor's degree at Cambridge University and then 12 to Tanzania to found the Gombe Stream Research Center. And in 1977, to provide on—going 13 for chimp research, Dr Goodall 14 The Jane Goodall Institute.

    Today, she 15 most of her time traveling around the world, giving lectures on her 16 at Gombe and speaking to school groups about Roots && Shoots, her environmental education and humanitarian program for the 17.

    "Chimps have given me so 18. The long hours spent with them in the 19 have enriched my life beyond measure. What I have learned from them has shaped my 20 of human behavior, of our place in nature."

    My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were1itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an)2price of $28, which was popular just then with3, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that4of classic elegance(优雅). John tried it on and the fit was perfect.

    John5the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile" Did the kids like your coat?" I asked. "They loved it," he said,6folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a7came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce8. He became more mannerly and9, eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him10his behavior.

    When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and11what caused the changes, she said laughing. "It12be his coat!" Another teacher told him she was giving him a good13not only because he had earned14but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend "Could this be John?" he asked surprisingly,15John's new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.

    John and I both know we should never16a person's clothes for the real person within them.17there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for18what is on the inside to what is on the outside.

    For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to19as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape20all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.