Kim Stemple was a special-education teacher. In 2012, she found herself in Boston hospital being ____ for one of several diseases she had been diagnosed (诊断) with. The normally energetic Stemple was naturally getting very ____ . And then a friend gave her a medal.

Before she got too ____ to exercise, Stemple had been a marathon runner. The medal came from a ____ partner who had just ____ a half marathon in Las Vegas and hoped the medal would act as a kind of ____ . It worked like magic.

After Stemple hung the medal on the wall, other ____ said they wanted medals too. That got Stemple ____ . “A medal is a simple way to give a _____ message,” she told others. And so was born her charity, We Finish Together, which ____ medals from strangers — runners, dancers, swimmers, singers, and even spelling bee winners — and gives them to all sorts of people ____ .

People who have received the medals have ____ hospital patients, people from homeless shelters, etc. Part of the process involves the ____ owner writing a personalized note on the ribbon (绶带) . “This helps them ____ with someone,” says Stemple. “If they receive a medal, they know someone ____ .”

Can a simple medal ____ make a difference? Yes, says Joan Musarra, who ____ from a serious lung disease. “When I opened my package containing my new ____ and the notes of positive, warm thoughts, I was very _____,” she wrote to Stemple. “At that moment, I was sitting on my sofa breathing through an oxygen cannula (氧气管) because my lungs were so weak. It ____ so much to me to feel that I am not alone.”

I remember it as if it were yesterday.I was 11 then,thinking,if my parents weren't going to tell me,I would _________what was going on myself.I slowly walked up to my teacher and asked, ＂Mrs.Marcus,do you know what prostate cancer is?"She looked at me in ________,“Why do you ask, Rachel?" I responded,"I _________my parents talking about it.”

Mrs.Marcus taught us health and nutrition.If there was anyone who had information on the topic,it was her.The next day,she _________me an envelope in which was an article that answered my question.I read the article and learned it was a cancer with a low survival rate as it was__________found early on.

My father had gone for a yearly check-up.Results came back and everything looked great.He looked at the reports and saw that some levels were _________elevated(升高），yet still within the normal _________

However,I was determined to talk with him seriously after careful ________.I told him,＂You'd better check again just to be_________.These levels aren't concerning,but you know..."＂Why not?"That"why not"_________my father to live for another 22 years.It _________my father did have early prostate cancer.In addition to traditional medicine,my parents tried every type of _________treatment they could get their hands on. _________,he chose to operate.The operation proved successful and just weeks after they__________the cancer,my father went skiing all day long.

I couldn't imagine what would have occurred if the borderline results had been ignored. With time, I understood , realizing my dad had cancer as a child was challenging and _________the way I view health.

Charles R. Drew was a medical student at Columbia University in New York. Before he graduated, he wrote an article________ blood bank（血库）, that is, the storing of blood. Up till then, a lot of people had died from loss of blood ________ there was no blood bank.

When the United States entered the Second World War, it became________ to set up blood banks. Dr Drew became ________ of the red cross’s first blood bank. When the Red Cross________ blood banks to collect and store blood for men ________ in battle, black American gave blood along with the whites. At ________ their blood was not accepted. Later blood from the blacks was ________ but was stored in a________ place from “white” blood. Although the best doctors ________ that there was ________ difference at all between the blood of blacks and whites, the Red Cross, with the support of the government, ________ to separate black blood from white blood.

After the war, Dr Drew was ________ from Washington with three other doctors to attend a medical meeting in a southern state. In northern Carolina their car went ________ a ditch（深沟）and Dr Drew was ________ hurt. He had lost much blood by the time a passing car took him to the   nearest hospital. But they were stopped at the gate of the hospital. “Take him to the hospital for blacks.” No matter what they said, they could not get into the hospital. They had to take him to the colored hospital, but on the way Dr Drew died because he had lost too much blood.