Cruz Genet, 11, and Anthony Skopick, 10, couldn’t agree. Were the birds out on the ice ducks or geese? There was only one way to find out. So on a chilly January evening, the two friends ventured (冒险) onto the _________ pond near their homes in Frankfort, Illinois, to get a better look. First they threw a rock onto the ice to _________ it. Cruz told NBC 5 Chicago. “Then we stepped on it.” _________ the ice would hold their weight, Anthony took a few steps. Then he crashed through the _________ frozen surface. “There was no sound, no crack.” he told NBC 5 Chicago. “I just fell through instantly.”

Cruz rushed to help his _________ friend. However, the pond _________ him too. Cruz managed to lift himself out of the extremely cold water and onto a more _________ section. He then _________ worked his way toward Anthony. But the ice didn’t hold, and he fell in again. This time, he couldn’t get out.

The boys were up to their necks in icy water and quickly losing feeling in their limbs. Any chance of their _________ themselves was slipping away (溜走). Cruz was sure he was going to die. Anthony’s older sister had seen the boys fall through the ice and started __________ for help.

John Lavin, a neighbor driving nearby on his way to the grocery store, heard her. He quickly __________. Seeing the boys, he __________ a nearby buoy (救生圈), kicked off his shoes, and ran into the water. Lavin made his way to Cruz and Anthony and pulled them back to land. They were taken to the hospital, where doctors discovered that their five-minute stay in the water had __________ their body temperature nearly ten degrees.

Fortunately, the boys have fully __________. They are grateful and amazed by their __________ neighbor. “Just to think,” says Cruz, “if he were not there, I could have died.”

Several years ago, I quit my job to chase my dream of writing a book, but that book was ______ repeatedly. Everybody was asking, “How’s the book coming?” I was so ______.

My friend got together one day and I blurted out(脱口而出), “I don’t know my purpose in life.” The outburst was met with ______ and stares. Finally, Pam said, “I don’t know, either.” She was in a job she ______. Teresa said, “Me either.” I was sure that Bette would have a(n) ______. She was suffering from cancer and, surely she had figured things out since she was facing a likely terminal outcome. ______, she shook her head.

Two years passed and, during that time, I sold my ______, Teresa went back to school, Pam switched ______, and Bette kept on living as best as she could.

Actually, for those two years, Bette lived a ______ life than any of us. She built a butterfly garden in her neighborhood. She spent time with her family, went hiking, ______ and lived.

My book was finally ______and Bette made it to my first big signing. A day or two later, she was back in the ______ as she was seriously ill. I left on tour for several weeks, and when I______, she was close to ______.

The day came when her brother called to let me know Bette had ______. He asked me to write her obituary(讣告). I thought about how she’d filled every moment with as much joy as she could find. That obituary wasn’t a list of ______. It was the story of a woman who lived ______ what life threw at her, she lived.

That was when I ______ what I’d learned through her passing. She defined her purpose in life by simply living her life. That’s all any of us are here to do. In the end, the only thing that ______ is that we breathe in our time here and fill it with ______

Thirteen years ago, I fell in love with a white ball of fur that wagged its tail at me. I was about to_______a steady job to follow my dream of becoming a travel_______, which would possibly make my life harder — not to mention_______ an animal that would need care during my long absence._______I never gave it a second thought. She had me at the first wag.

Layla was good at conveying her displeasure with her body language every time I_______. But her_______at my departures was more than compensated for by our reunions. And when I sat to write my_______, she would settle herself next to my desk. I would _______to her what I’d written and she would cock her head or wag her tail_______.Of course she didn’t________what I was writing. But this exercise with her was my means of self-editing. This helped________what I put on the page. Having such a ready and________audience made me a better writer. Giving a________to Layla in this process turned a task into a joy.

I have no words to describe the________that connected me so________to her. Like many old friends, she and I________much over the years, and I’m so________to her. Whatever success I’ve had as a travel writer, I________large part to her listening and being at my side.

It does not________if she never understood a word I said. She was my travel partner and will________be.