Ann worked for a big company. One of the duties of her 1 was to go to the post office every day and 2  the company mail. One day in December, she 3  a beggar making himself up as a Santa Claus 4  on the corner of the street. Each day she 5 her coins and dropped them in his bowl. He would smile and 6  her a Merry Christmas.

      At night the temperature dropped below 0℃, but the Santa Claus 7 stood in the cold wind.  8  she dropped her coins into his bowl, she handed him a pair of gloves.

      A week later, a(n) 9  Santa Claus was standing there. “What happened to the other Santa Claus?” she asked. He told her, “He's very 10  today.” She prayed for his health.

      Later that day, a colleague came into her office 11 . “I don't know what I'm going to do.” “What's wrong?” she asked. “It's my ex—husband,” her colleague 12 , “I don't have any money to buy my boys anything for Christmas, 13  my ex—husband refuses to send money to them. It breaks my heart that they won't have anything this year. ” The lady 14  her colleague, “I'm sure everything will 15  It's Christmas. Believe in miracles (奇迹).”

      That evening, she told her husband about her colleague's 16 , “I know we don't have much money to 17  , but I'd like to give her fifty or a hundred dollars. We'll just get ourselves less this year. Last year we couldn't afford to buy anything for 18  but we still had a wonderful Christmas.” Her husband smiled, “Give her one hundred dollars. She needs it more than we do.”

      She reached up and held him. Warmth spread 19  her body. He held her and realized that there really was a Santa Claus—and he had 20  her !

    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 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 the4of her mouth. A careful examination later5that it was a particularly bad sort of cancer. During her next appointment, I explained to her the6of the problem. She clasped my hand in hers and said, "I know you're worried about me, but I'm just7."

    I thought otherwise(不同). After considerable8on my part, and kindness on her part because she wanted to9me, she agreed to have me refer her to a cancer surgeon. She saw him, but as I expected,10  treatment. About six months later she returned to my office, still energetic and11.

    “How are you?” I asked.

    “I'm just fine, honey, ” she responded12 high spirits. “When can I get started on fixing my dentures(假牙)?”

    Surprised to see her at all, I answered13, “Let me take a look in your mouth and we'll see about it.”

    I couldn't believe my eyes. The cancer that had14nearly the entire roof of her mouth was gone-only one small area of redness 15.

    I had read of such things happening, but had16seen them with my own eyes. That was my first miracle. Since then I've seen many others, because they keep getting17to see. In fact, miracles are daily events for me now. And people are a 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 the place for a miracle is20we choose to find it.

    Recently I was invited to a friend's house for supper — and had a meal I have never had before.

    All the friends invited were a little1It's not that Ben is unsociable, or a bad cook, but it's just that he never 2more than he has to. So how come he was inviting us round for a meal? Had he bought something 3for his friends? He greeted us at the door and showed us into his dinning room where a 4table was waiting for us. “Nothing but the 5for my friends!” said Ben. We all sat down and looked 6at each other — what did he7to?

    Ben returned with four bowls of hot soup. “It's a 8of carrots, potatoes and tomatoes,” said Ben. The next 9was also a little strange in that we didn't quite know what it was again. It's just 10mixture of vegetables.

    As we ate we chatted and finally the11turned back to what we were eating. “Was there a recipe(食谱)for this,” asked Marina , “or did you 12it up?” Ben put his fork down. “What I cooked 13what I could find.” Marina was surprised. “But you can find anything in supermarkets these days.” “But there's 14choice in what you can find 15supermarkets,” he replied.

    16that we had all finished the food, Ben decided to tell the truth. He had read recently that supermarkets usually 17away 5 percent of their food every day. So Ben decided to look inside his local supermarket bins. There he found food that was slightly out of 18 boxes of throw-away vegetables and fruit.

 So Ben had19provided a decent (不错的) meal for his friends, and made us aware of the fact that there are many poor people who need the food, but the amount of food thrown away is enough to 20millions of people.

    The big day had finally arrived. I had won the local speech contest(比赛),representing Madison Middle School. Here it 1the state competition. I waited backstage for the host to announce2name.

    3I had practiced much, I was extremely nervous.  My heart was thumping my palms4, and my mouth was dry. “Calm down,” I told myself. Still, picturing an audience of teachers, parents and classmates made me want5totally.

    Mr. Patrick6taught me to give speeches, reminded me, “You'll do great. You're prepared. You've come this far.”

    Mr. Patrick was right. I was ready7this, and besides, I won first place in the8contests. Yet, when I pictured9eyes on me waiting for me to mess up, my heart was gradually sinking into my stomach.

    “You10back out now,” I told myself as Mr. Nichols, the host, announced my name and the title of my speech, “My Hero.”

    The daughter of two "extremely intelligent and very, very hardworking" doctors, Katherine originally had plans to follow in her parents' footsteps. She told a careers adviser that her first 1 was medicine, followed by politics. The third on her list of career choices was musical theatre. "Even though those first two 2 were very different, I always want to do something that was going to make a difference," she said.

    By the time she 3 from high school, Katherine knew she wanted to be an actress. But she was 4 by every acting school, in that she was too young and didn't have enough life 5. So she 6 teaching herself everything she could about the craft. At the end of that year, some managers from the US visited Australia. She was asked to 7 an audition tape. The next day the managers called her to say they wanted her to audition. Needless to say she 8 it. Katherine 9 a school student Hannah who committed suicide in 13 Reasons Why. And she 10 a Golden Globe nomination for the role. Hannah's life, Katherine admitted, was 11 easy. "Luckily for me, my high school experience was very 12 to Hannah's. I went to a gifted and talented school, and I got 13 from a group of friends," she said.

    This year Katherine 14 in her film Love, Simon, which is another coming-of-age drama, this time 15 bullying. "What 16 me about Love, Simon was it's not a high school movie; it's a love story. There were so many narratives that felt 17 yet unique, just because of the way they were written and the way I felt they were portrayed," she said.

    Being thrust into the public eye so suddenly and so early in her career has meant a 18 learning line for Katherine, who now finds herself walking the red carpet at Hollywood events and being approached by strangers in the street. Despite being involved in such a massive hit, she's not particularly 19 in the size of her following on social media. She said, "For me, it doesn't matter how many followers I have, but if my followers love the show and I'm able to interact with them, that is the biggest 20."

    It happened when our grandchild, Anne, was three years old. My husband, Paul, asked her if there was anything she wanted to plant in our garden. She had an answer—Fritos (油炸玉米饼).

    "Anne, Fritos might not 1 in this soil," he said. But Anne looked at her grandfather and said that if the other 2 could grow, so would Fritos. Paul 3 this in the simplest way possible. He sent Anne running to the house for Fritos.

    That evening, I asked Paul, "Are you 4?"

    "She will forget it," he 5. The next day, Anne asked again. To gain time, Paul said it would 6 two weeks for Fritos to come out. That should be plenty of time for her to forget, he thought.

    For the next two weeks, she arrived every evening to 7 her "Frito land". Anne grew more 8. But with each passing day, Paul became more and more 9. By the 13th day, he had 10 a plan, and the next morning we began to work.

    We planted two plants where the Fritos were 11. Then we began the difficult task of tying Fritos around the leaves of the plants. At last, that was quite a 12 off our mind. Anne ran straight to the garden as 13. We were shocked when she shouted, "Grandpa! They're up! The Fritos came up!"

    The story was repeated several times. When Anne was in second grade, it was finally 14 until the day her teacher talked about the topic of 15. As part of the lesson, the teacher asked each child to 16 something that grows in a garden. You can 17 what Anne said!

    Anne's parents 18 it was time to tell the truth. Their daughter sat very still while they talked, and when they finished, she remained 19. Suddenly, Anne burst out 20 and said, "That's the best joke Grandpa ever played on me."