There is something graceful about a well-made hurricane lamp, especially the antique ones. Mom had affection for them.

    I can remember 1 through countless flea markets for hurricane lamps, which are 2 to keep their light lit through the 3 of moments. Mom tried hard to buy the lamps in 4, as her favorite of all the lamps had no mate.

    The spring after Mom's first 5 with cancer, we went to a local craft fair to pass the time, to keep 6. We were still waiting to hear from the doctors on the 7 of her follow-up tests.8 to search something for my mom, I bounded ahead of her and baby brother as they 9 along the tables. I didn't 10 far before something caught my eye. Standing proud on the display table sat a lamp.

I was excited, as I 11 back through the crowd to my mom. "Mom! You have to see something!" I shouted. "12. I think I'm going to get these lamps. What do you think?" She 13 so I could see them but I didn't even look at them. "You've got to see what I found first," I 14 her through the fair. When she saw the lamp, she picked up the lamp 15, running her fingers over the bowl, over the hurricane glass, and 16 it closely. "See this?" She pointed at a very small mark in the glass. "The one at home has the same mark." She smiled. It was the first time I had seen her 17 smile since the doctors first found the cancer.

    When the lamp 18 in our house, next to its mate, she cried. She went to light the lamps and sit on their glow until she could sleep. Years later, I understood her 19 for those lamps, through the darkest moments of her life. Mom was my hurricane lamp. She was inextinguishable (永不熄灭的) — through the darkest moments. She lit my way without 20. She still does.

    Mrs. Jones was over eighty, but she still drove her old car like a woman half her age. She loved driving very fast, and was proud of the fact 1 she had never, in her thirty-five years of driving, been punished 2 a driving offence (犯规，犯法).

    Then one day she nearly3 her record. A police car 4 her, and the policemen in it saw her5 a red light without stopping. Of course, she was stopped. It seemed 6 that she would be punished.

    7 Mrs. Jones came up to the judge, he looked at her seriously and said that she was  8 old to drive a car, and that the 9 why she had not stopped at the red 10was most probably that her eyes had become weak 11 old age, so that she had simply not seen it.

    When the judge had finished what he was 12, Mrs. Jones opened the big handbag she was 13 and took out her sewing. Without saying a word, she 14 a needle with a very small eye, and threaded it at her first attempt.

    When she had 15 done this, she took the thread out of the needle again and handed 16 the needle and the thread to the judge, saying, “Now it is your 17I suppose you drive a car, and that you are quite sure about your own eyesight.”

    The judge took the 18 and tried to thread it. After half a dozen tries, he had still not succeeded. The case (案例) against Mrs. Jones was19, and her record20 unbroken.

A Game of Light and Shade

    It was a sunny day. I had gone up and down the tower when, outside the door at the foot, a blind man came toward me. In a moment, he disappeared up the stairs. I looked at the sign that said "To the Tower", and decided to 1 him.

    I caught up with him in the ticket office. There I was 2 to see the attendant (工作人员) selling him a ticket as if he were any other visitor. Then, with the ticket in one hand and 3 the wall with the fingers of the other, the blind man reached the stairs 4 to the hallway.

    "That man is blind. What would a blind man climb up the tower for?" I said to the attendant, expecting him to show some 5, but he didn't answer.

    "Not the 6 certainly," I said. "Perhaps he wants to 7."

    I bought a ticket and 8 up the stairs. The man hadn't gone as far as I 9. A third of the way up the tower, I heard his 10. I slowed down and followed him at a little 11. He stopped from time to time. When he got to the balcony, I was a dozen steps 12. As I reached it, I saw him at the corner of the tower.

    At last, after ten minutes, I 13 him. "Excuse me," I said as politely as I could, "but I am curious to know 14 you came up."

    He smiled. "Coming up the stairs, you will notice how not just light but sun 15 into the tower through the narrow windows here and there, so that you can feel the 16—the cool stairs suddenly become quite warm—and how up here behind the wall there is 17, but as soon as going opposite a window you can find the sun. There is no 18 so good as this for feeling the difference between light and shade. It is not the first time I've come up."

    The blind man seemed quite 19 just like a child who was enjoying his favorite games. He told me the truth that blind men can also find the beauty in life 20 they cannot enjoy the sights of the world.

    No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own 1.

    I learned this lesson from a(n)2many years ago. I took the head 3 job at a school in Baxley, Georgia. It was a small school with a weak football program.

    It was a tradition for the school's old team to play against the 4 team at the end of spring practice.

    The old team had no coach, and they didn't even practice to5the game. Being the coach of the new team, I was excited because I knew we were going to win, but to my disappointment we were defeated. I couldn't 6 I had got into such a situation. Thinking hard about it, I came to 7 that my team might not be the number one team in Georgia, but they were 8 me. I had to change my 9about their ability and potential.

    I started doing anything I could to help them build a little 10. Most important, I began to treat them like 11. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their 12, we met every day and 13passing and kicking the football.

    Six months after suffering our 14 on the spring practice field, we won our first game and our second, and continued to 15. Finally, we faced the number one team in the state. I felt that it would be a16 for us even if we lost the game. But that wasn't what happened. My boys beat the best team in Georgia, giving me one of the greatest 17 of my life!

    From the experience I learnt a lot about how the attitude of the leader can 18 the members of a team. Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I pushed and 19 them. I helped them to see themselves 20, and they built themselves into winners.

    Winners are made, not boom.

    I believe in miracles(奇迹) because I've seen so many of them. One day, a patient was referred to me who was one hundred and two years old. "There's a1in my upper jaw," she said. "I told my own dentist it's nothing, but he 2I come to see you."

    Her eighty-year-old son accompanied(陪伴) her. He would3to add something, but she stopped him. She wanted to tell everything herself. I found a large cancer that spread over much of the 4of her mouth. A careful examination later 5that it was a particularly bad sort of cancer.

    During her next appointment, I explained to her the6of the problem She held my hand in hers and said, "I know you're worried about me, but I'm just7."

    I thought otherwise. After a great deal of 8on my part, and kindness on her part because she wanted to 9me, she agreed to have me refer her to a cancer surgeon. She saw him, but as I expected,10treatment.

    About six months later she returned to my office, still energetic and11.

    "How are you?" I asked.

    "I'm just fine, honey," she responded in 12 spirits. "When can I get started on fixing my dentures(假牙)?"

    Surprised to see her at all, I answered 13 ,"Let me take a look in your mouth and we'll see about it. "

    I couldn't believe my eyes. The cancer that had 14 nearly the entire roof of her mouth was gone—only one small area of redness 15.

    I had read of such things happening, but had 16seen them with my own eyes. That was my first miracle. Since then I've seen many others, because they keep getting 17to see. In fact, miracles are daily events for me now. And people are in miracle,18through them we have a chance to know ourselves and to19the miracles of one another.

    Since my first miracle, I've come to understand that a miracle is20we choose to find it.

    I'm not a person who loves collecting, but the TV room of my house is full of things. In it are things that there's no other place to put, and things I can't decide1to throw away, such as a lot of old bottles and boxes, some books and out-of-date magazines and a wood stove (炉子) I2use. The TV itself could actually work, but I only turn it3every four years to watch the presidential election.

    The other night, scratching (抓) sounds from the TV room4me up. Quietly, I entered the room,5the stove and opened its front door. There it was, a trembling squirrel,6me desperately.

    I decided to give it a(n)7escape way. Therefore, I opened the outside door, stepped back and8. The squirrel jumped out of the9, but didn't head outside.10, it run through my magazine pile and then struggled among the bottles.

    "Why didn't it11?" I wondered for a while until I12 that I probably put13into that small squirrel's heart. So I quickly14myself in the kitchen and watched the uninvited guest through the window. In my15, the squirrel became16enough to look around and assess the situation. Suddenly, it17merrily.

    The animal actually did a great18: I couldn't stand my19TV room for so long, so after the unexpected guest's leaving I spent half a day cleaning and throwing. I eventually got a tidy TV room and some20space.