On June 23, 1970, I had just left the Army after completing my one­year duty in Vietnam. I was on ______returning home in Texas. I had been warned about the ______of our fellow countrymen. There was no ______ welcome for us when we came home from that unpopular war.

I sat, in uniform, in a window seat，______eye contact with my fellow passengers. No one was sitting next to me, which added to my ______. A little girl suddenly appeared in the passage. She ______ and, without saying a word，_____handed me a magazine. I accepted her ______， her quiet “welcome home.” All I could say was, “Thank you.” Her small gesture of ______was the first I had experienced in a long time.

I always believe in the connection between ______ when they reach out to one another.

That girl ______ has no memory of what happened years ago. She might have been told to do that by her mother. It doesn't ______ why she gave me the magazine. The ______ thing is what she did.

Since then, I have followed her example and tried in different ways for different people, to do the ______ for them. Like me on that plane ride long ago, they will ______ know why a stranger gave a hand. But I absolutely know that my ______   since then are all because of that little girl. Her kindness of offering a magazine to a ______， scared and lonely soldier has been ______ throughout my life. I have to believe that my small ______ have the same effect on others. And to that little girl, now a ______， I would like to say again: thank you.

One time, probably at my age of 16 or 17, my motorcycle broke down at a crossing. It suddenly died while I was _________. I pulled the bike to the side of the road and onto the _________. It was nighttime and it was dark. I was so _________.

Not knowing where to seek help, I tried to _________ the problem of my bike. Then, out of nowhere a man walked up the sidewalk. He _________ next to me, looked at me, and smiled. “Do you need some help? I have a flashlight.” I told him I had no idea what was _________and I just was going to call my dad. He handed me the flashlight and helped me _________ the bike to a car wash, which was brighter.

I called my dad but he went to the wrong _________. So I had to wait twice as long for him, during which the man _________ talking to me just about life and growing up. To be frank, I was in no __________ for what he was saying. But due to his company, my fear disappeared and I __________ calmed down. In the end, my dad __________. The man helped us load the bike onto my dad’s van (小型货车), and then he waved goodbye to us and walked away.

Years have passed, but that night still __________my mind occasionally and gives me a feeling of warmth. Never hesitate to offer your __________, for you will never know what a(n) __________ it can make.

When I was ten, I lived in a neighborhood with a public library nearby which opened in the evening. I enjoyed reading and after school I would _________ there ahead of its opening time. Without waiting for things there to be _________, I would just turn on the lights in kids’ section and start my reading.

The _________ didn’t look approachable. I used to hear him being _________ on people who had late returns or damaged the books, so I was afraid of him. Every day, fifteen minutes before the _________ closing time, he would start announcements and ask people to _________. I didn’t have a library card and couldn’t take my half-read books with me, simply putting the book back _________. The librarian must have silently _________ my long face, because he started _________ the closure only in other sections. This __________ me minutes to read.

For five years, I had read most of the books in the library. The librarian, still serious and __________ on words, but would smile and point at new books to me. If I missed going to the library, he would be __________ and ask why I had missed my routine (常规). Then one day the librarian asked me to __________ for my own borrower’s account and penned my name on my first-ever library card.

After my graduation, I moved away and __________ that library. When I went to the library again, unfortunately, I was informed that the librarian had retired and the library has smart cards instead of those with the librarian’s __________!