“I failed to protect you.” That was the message posted online by Du Yijun's boy friend. He was with the 21-year-old Fudan University student as she died in the crush of the New Year's Eve crowd on the Bund.

        Du was one of the 36 people who died that night when a holiday celebration 1  into a terrible tragedy. Authorities say over crowding and the  2  of the police to control the crowds were the main reasons why it happened.

         For the last three New Year's Eve celebrations, a light show on the Bund had 3 large crowds and a large police presence, but this year the light show was cancelled and there were fewer police on hand. But the crowds came 4  About 300,000 people were on the Bund by 8:30 that evening and more kept  5  until all hell broke loose around 11:30.

         For some unknown reason, on a stairway  6  up to the riverfront viewing platform, a sense of  7 overtook the crowd and they began to stampede(蜂拥). Some people  8  on the stairs and were stepped 9 to death. More lives would have been  10 had it not been for a group of brave young men who urged the crowd to  11

         Crowd  12 like the one on the Bund happen all over the world and they are becoming more 13   .According to one study, human stampedes have more than doubled in the past two decades. In recent years, hundreds of people have died at 14   festivals, football games and rock 15  all caught in the crush of panicked crowds.

          In Shanghai, authorities have reacted to the Bund tragedy by cancelling or scaling back big events. But this isn't really necessary. Better planning and better crowd 16  can ensure safe celebrations.

17, if you're going to a place where there will be a big crowd, you should take notice of where the exits are and, if the crowd becomes large,    18 away from the center. And most  19 , if the crowd seems too big and makes you feel uncomfortable, just leave. No celebration is 20  losing your life.

    For a long time Gabriel didn't want to be involved in music at all. In his first years of high school,Gabriel would look pityingly at music students,1across the campus with their heavy instrument cases.2at school for practice hours3anyone else had to be there.He swore to himself to4music,as he hated getting to school extra early.

    5 ， one day，in the music class that was 6of his school's standard curriculurn，he was playing idly （随意地）on the piano and found it 7to pick out tunes.With a sinking feeling,he realized that he actually 8doing it.He tried to hide his 9pleasure from the music teather, who had 10over to listen. He might not have done this particularly well,11the teacher told Gabriel that he had a good12and suggested that Gabriel go into the musin store-room to see if any of the instruments there13him. There he decided to give the cello（大提琴）a 14. When he began practicing, he took it very 15. But he quickly found that he loved playing this instrurnent, and was 16to practicing it so that within a couple of months he was playing reasonably well.

    This 17, of course, that he arrived at school early in the morning,18his heavy instrument case across the campus to the 19looks of the non-musicians he had left20.

    Having said good-bye to his parents, Alvin, with his wife and one-year-old son, set off back home. Still1Alvin and Clare talked and laughed happily. And even little Alax2from time to time. The family were3their trip.

    But three hours later things began to 4. It was starting to snow. Alvin sped up the car,5to arrive home before dark. But it was too dangerous to drive fast now because it was snowing more and more heavily. So Alvin had to 6down. The snow on the 7was getting deeper and deeper until it was hard to 8on it. Their car slipped(滑落)off the highway and got caught in the deep snow and the engine refused to start again.

    “The snow doesn't seem to9. Shall we stay in the car waiting to be frozen(冻)to death or walk ahead 10the snow?”Alvin asked. Clare said she 11to walk. So they got out of the car with their Alex and began walking. But something 12was to come. Soon they lost their 13 and had to walk aimlessly(无目标的)on and on.

    Night came. They were not 14of the dark. But they feared that poor Alax would die of cold. However, their faith(坚信)to keep Alax 15filled them with courage, warmth and strength. They slept and rested in turn and then continued their 16. They had fallen down many times but each time true love encouraged them to rise to their 17again.

    One, two, three, …seven days passed. On the eighth day, 18 at last came from Alvin's parents, the police and local people. But the young 19had to have their feet cut off because of the bad frost-bites (冻伤). Fortunately, there was 20 seriously wrong with little Alax.

    One autumn morning, I spotted a pair of wild geese on our pond. The beautiful sight caught me by 1 because I'd never seen geese there before. Thinking they would soon leave, I 2 the chance to get close to them. I wondered where they came from and why they had chosen our pond.

    The next morning, the geese were still my 3 I walked round to the mailbox, showing them I meant no harm4I couldn't resist getting a 5 look. I hid behind some trees and 6 the handsome pair quietly through the branches. I was surprised to see they were staring at me, too!

    As days passed, I started 7 to them on my trips to the mailbox. They craned （伸长） their necks and raised their heads 8 but seemed to realize I was their friend. By then, my curiosity about 9 they were staying so long at the pond changed to10. As they were feeding in the grass the other day, I discovered the reason for their 11the male had a broken left wing. He couldn't 12 and his faithful mate wouldn't leave him behind. I asked a biologist what to do. He explained that sometimes a13 wing will heal by itself and suggested letting nature take its course.

    On the first day of November, I was working in the neighborhood of the geese with my tractor. As I bent to fasten a chain from the tractor, I 14some movement from the corner of my eye. Both geese were running towards the pond. Their wings were 15 like crazy, struggling for take off. Gradually, they flew over the pond. They16 enough altitude to fly past a neighbor's house, and then circled back towards me, flying no more than 50 feet over my head as if to say goodbye. Then they were out of my17.

    The season's first snowflakes fell the very next day. The birds must have 18 that winter was coming, and it was time to go. I became fond of them during their 19 visit to our pond, and now I miss them. I'll never forget their 20 to each other.

    For me personally, I could write for days about many different situations where adversity (逆境)1my life. Now let me tell you one experience where I almost let adversity2.

    We had a glass studio, which was located 50 feet from our home. A couple of years ago we experienced an 3winter; we had a lot of snow and ice. The4of the ice and snow5the roof on our studio, taking with it one of our sources of income.6it did fall down, we got on the roof and tried to 7the snow and ice, but when you have 5 feet of ice and temperatures of minus 20 Celsius, it was pretty8to do.

    We had a partner come in to help us try to9the roof by supporting. In the end, there was 10that could be done. The roof came down. We had moved a lot of our goods and tools from the studio11 we lost a lot also: glass, kilns, work benches, to name only a few of the items. It was a 12experience.

    Here we were in the middle of winter with our studio collapsed. We couldn't work as we had almost 13all the material in a building we were not using. We could have done one of two things: we could simply say that we can no longer 14 our glass business. Let me tell you that this was certainly a thought that15our mind. Or we could find a way to get our studio back up and running.

    We picked the16option. We had a large barn that we were not using. So we renovated (翻新) the barn17our working area and today we have a nicer studio than we 18 had. If the adversity we were19had not happened, we probably would20be working in the old studio—a studio that was less efficient.

    Last weekend, I had some extra time before going through security to catch my flight at the airport. While wondering what to do, I decided it was the1time and place to look for an act of 2 to do!

    One of the magazine stands outside the security check area had flowers3. I told the clerk that I'd like to buy flowers for someone else, and she could4who to give them to. She looked a little5, so I explained perhaps she could hand the smile cards with the flowers to someone who seemed to need some to6 .

    At first, the clerk7, “That's8. I can't tell which customer needs encouragement.” But then, I explained a little more about9cards and the concept of doing something kind for a complete stranger, and she10up.

    “I'll never know how it11out,” I said, “but you will have the 12 to make someone's day.” At that point, she started to seem genuinely excited about it.

    She went to take the 13 out of the water. Then I explained, “It's fine to __14them there until the person you want to give them to 15 .”

    At that point, I thought she was somewhere between surprise and delight, __16 it was clear this was not a(n) 17 she had ever gotten from a customer before.

I 18 the flowers, said goodbye, and headed for the 19 line.

    I'll never know how it turned out, but I was in good 20 for the rest of the morning.