My husband, Tom, has always been good with animals, but I was still amazed when he befriended a female grouse (松鸡). It's 1 for a grouse to have any contact (接触) with people. In fact, they're hard to spot, 2they usually fly off when they hear humans approaching.

    This grouse came into our lives in 3. Tom was working out in the field when he 4 her walking around at the edge of the field. She was 5 unafraid and seemed to be 6 about what he was doing.

    Tom saw the 7 bird several times, and she got more comfortable around him. We quickly grew 8 of the bird and decided to call her Mildred.

    One day, as Tom was working, Mildred came within a few feet of him to watch. Tom 9 he didn't see her and kept working to see what she would do next.

    Apparently, she didn't like to be 10. She'd run up and peck (啄) at Tom's hands, then 11 off to see what he would do. This went on for about 20 minutes, until Mildred became tired of the 12 and left.

    As spring went and summer came, Mildred started to 13 more and more often. 14 Mildred felt comfortable enough to jump up on Tom's leg and stay long enough for me to get a  15 of the two of them together. This friendly grouse soon felt 16 not just with our family, but with anybody who walked or drove by.

    When hunting season started, we put a 17 at the end of our driveway asking 18 not to shoot our pet grouse. My father, who lived down the road, 19 warned people not to shoot her. 20, hunters would stop and take pictures, because they had never seen anything like her.

    It was a bright sunny day, and the terrible experience happened when I was studying in Bangalore. One day, I got a call from my mom that my brother's 1 was fixed and they were arranging the wedding ceremony in the next few days. My 2 was pretty far. So the next thing I was 3 to do was to book my 4 ticket as there was no direct flight to my hometown. The 5 was done by an agent in my neighborhood. I paid the whole amount 6But when the day approached the 7 disappeared，leaving me without the train ticket, and thus 8 all my travel plan.

    But as it is said, once you face such 9 situations, you realize your inner strength. I 10 decided I would complete my whole journey by bus. Without further 11, I took a bus to the first city stop. The next bus was again not 12 —it was 8 hours to a city near my hometown, where my aunt lived. They were also going to 13 my brother's wedding ceremony. So I called them and 14 them to accommodate me. They15. Half the battle was won.

    Then next day, I was just a few hours from my hometown. When my aunts family and I were boarding our car, my 16 asked me to switch places with her.

    The journey continued. We were trying to overtake(超越) another car when 17 a truck appeared in front of us and we went directly head on in front of it. We 18with the truck. In this accident, almost everyone in our car was 19. Fortunately, I didn't have any injury, 20 my cousin who switched places with me was seriously injured!

    I have written a poem called Flying Kites, in which a man 1 his son to fly a kite. After a few minutes, the child2 drops the string and lets the kite soar(高飞). With joy in his eyes, he watches it climb until it disappears 3.The father realizes that 4 he'll have to loosen the string that ties him to his son. And he 5 ,“Will I release the tie as unselfishly as that?”

    Many years later my son, Gary,6 he wouldn't finish his college career. I tried to talk him out of it. But none of my reasoning made any 7 . At the end of the semester Gary moved back home.

    Gary managed to find a job at a nursery and went at it with 8enthusiasm. I,9, was deeply disappointed. What was a college professor's 10  doing at a job that any high school dropout could perform? Then I tried to11 him. “Look,” I said, “In a few years you'll be at your high school reunion with 12 classmates who became doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Do you think you'll be able to 13 that?”

    “Yes, Dad,” he replied without 14. Then he fixed his eyes on mine and said, “But the real question is: Can you?”

    Shame suddenly 15 me. I wasn't thinking about my son; I was thinking about myself and what my friends would think. The problem wasn't Gary's pride; it was mine. All at once I remembered my  16  and the question it asked “ Will I release the 17 as unselfishly as that?”. At that moment I knew I had to let go. Gary was  18 enough to make his own choices.

    Today Gary has a successful career working for the city. I am very 19 of who he has become.20I let go of my pride, I've been able to sit back and enjoy watching him soar.

    My son Joey was born with club feet(天生特厚的畸形脚). The doctors assured us that with treatment he would be able to walk1, but would never run very well. The first three years of his life were2in surgery(手术). By the time he was eight, you wouldn't know he had a 3when you saw him walk.

    The children in our neighborhood ran around as most children do during4, and Joey would jump right in, run and play, too. We5told him that he probably wouldn't be able to 6 as well as the other children. So he didn't know.

    In seventh grade he7to go out for the cross-country team. Every day he 8 with the team. He worked harder and ran9 than any of the others—perhaps he sensed that the10that seemed to come naturally to so many others did not come naturally to him.11the entire team runs, only the top seven runners have the potential to12points for the school. We didn't tell him he probably would never make the team, so he didn't know.

    He13to run four to five miles a day, every day —even the day he had a 103-degree fever. I was14, so I went to look for him after school. I found him 15all alone. I asked him how he felt. “Okay,” he said. He had two more16to go. The sweat ran down his face and his eyes were glassy from his fever.17he looked straight ahead and kept running.

    Two weeks later, the names of the team runners were18. Joey was number six on the list. Joey had made the team. He was in19grade —the other six team members were all eighth-graders. We never told him he shouldn't20to make the team. We never told him he couldn't do it… so he didn't know. He just did it.

As a primary school student in New York City, Robert Lee would stare in 1 at his classmates throwing away half-eaten sandwiches after lunch, because his parents had 2 him and his elder brother not to 3 food. They said it was bad karma(作孽).

    While studying at New York University, Robert remembered this4 and joined Two Birds One Stone, a food-rescue club on campus that5, five days a week, uneaten pasta, vegetables, and other leftovers from the school 6to nearby homeless shelters.

When Robert and fellow club member Louisa Chen entered a college contest, they 7 a slightly 8 idea for a food-rescue nonprofit group: Their program wouldn't have a 9minimum, would 10seven days a week, and its staff would 11volunteers.

Their idea12the competition. With the＄1,000 prize, they13Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC) in July, 2013. In just the first few weeks, Robert's team delivered a donation of enough spaghetti and meatballs to14 20 people in line at a New Yorker City homeless shelter that had 15food.

Robert, who had taken a job as an analyst at J.P.Morgan, devoted his spare time to creating a network of New Yorker City restaurants that were16to donate food, and he enlisted(征募) volunteers to make food deliveries to homeless shelters. After RLC received national press17, homeless shelters and soup kitchens in many places reached out to Robert for18. Two years after being founded, RLC had already distributed more than 250,000 pounds of food.

    Only a year into his finance job, Robert gave up his six-figure salary to19RLC. "I compared work at J.P.Morgan with that at RLC, and the difference was great," he says.

    "One shelter told us that our donations allow them to provide entire dinners for more than 300 people, three nights a week," Robert says. "Things like that make me feel20that I quit my job."

    Ferdinand de Lesseps, once a French diplomat(外交官)，became 1 with the cultures of the Mediterranean(地中海)and Middle East and the growth of western European 2. But in 1849 he retired after a disagreement with the French government.

    In 1854,3his expectation, he returned to Egypt, 4 he was given a warm welcome and, soon afterwards, permission to begin work 5 the Suez Canal. De Lesseps had been 6 by reading about Napoleon's abandoned plans for a 7 that would allow large ships wishing to sail to the east to go8 from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, therefore 9 out the long sea journey around Africa.

    De Lesseps' plan was 10 by an International commission of engineers, but failed to win the support of the British government, 11 de Lesseps making a number of trips to London. He persevered and 12 attracted financial support from the French emperor Napoleon III and others.

    De Lesseps was no 13 ­ his achievement lay 14 organizing the necessary political and financial backing, and providing the technical support 15for such a huge project. 16 began in April 1859, and the Suez Canal was 17in November 1869. British attitudes changed when the canal was seen to be a 18and de Lesseps was treated as a great celebrity (名人) on his later visit to Britain. In 1875, the Egyptian government sold its 19, in the canal and the British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, 20effective control of the Canal Company.