Tears clouded my eyes as I stood in our washing room, holding Brett’s jeans and shirt full of burn holes.

Tired and defeated, I________to the floor. The clothes were just one more thing Brett had________. He often got almost everything in the house out of ________. Many windows in our house needed repair due to his breaking ________to steal money when he chose to live on the street. Yet none of this could ________ the emotional damage Brett had done to our once quiet home.

As a native speaker, Brett came to live with us when he was 12 years old. During the next few years I had dealt with Brett as ________ as possible, but inside I was shouting, “I don’t want him in my house another day, Lord! I just can’t ________ him!” Having wiped my tears, I continued ________ him as before.

When Brett was nearly 18, he landed again in the juvenile hall (少管所). After that, my husband and I had to send Brett to a boarding school for helping ________ teens.

At the ________ ceremony, each graduate held a white rose to give to the person who had ________ the most to him or her.

Brett spoke ________ to his parents and then spoke to me, “You did so much. You were always there. For my mom and dad, I was their ________. But you, although________   enough by me, always________ me such love. And I want you to know I love you for it.”

Love is action. We may not always have positive feelings about certain people in our lives, but we can love them.

The other day I was shopping at a local store and met a lady. She was squatting (蹲坐) on the floor looking for a _______ product on the bottom shelf. She jumped up when she saw me as if to _______ my way. Apologetically (抱歉地) she _______ that she was a _______ at a nearby store and was on her lunch _______, trying to get a few needed items.

I reassured (使消除疑虑) her, “I am in no hurry. Go ahead and do what you need to do. ”

_______ she searched for a particular brand she said that sometimes _______ were rude to her at the store and she really _______ my kindness. I told her that I had noticed cashiers being treated rudely. I explained to her that I was a retired nurse and _______ some of what she was saying first hand. Sometimes, the sick people could be rude.

She thanked me for being so nice and friendly. I told her, “The world would be a ________ place if we all acted ________. Those who are rude may have bad karma(因果报应) coming after them eventually for ________ people badly. ” She nodded and broke out in a big smile.

In a brief ________ I showed her there are good and kind people in the world and may have boosted (增进) her ________ in humanity. Maybe she ________ that later in the day, perhaps when someone was treating her unkindly.

By the age of 27, Vincent had made the most important decision of his life, to become an artist. He spent the years between 1880 and 1885 developing his _______. He had little money and lived in _______ rooms all over the Netherlands, including the flat agricultural landscape of the Drenthe. There he _______ country people. He was often ill and miserable, but determined to _______ this new career.

After the failure of his studies for the priesthood, Vincent didn’t want to _______ art formally at an academy. But he knew nothing of anatomy (解剖学), the study of the human figure, or of perspective, by which artists show a sense of _______ in work done on flat paper or canvas. Theo, his brother, knew a rich young _______, Anthon van Rappard, who taught Vincent perspective, and _______ him prints to copy. Vincent made hundreds of drawings of people, _______ charcoal, crayon, ink, and watercolor. Theo provided ________ for oil paint, and he began to paint in oils. Vincent often traveled to the ________ or the coast to draw working people. He was beginning to believe in himself as an ________.“Diggers, sowers, planters, male and female, they are what I draw ________. I have to ________ and draw everything that belongs to country life.” The compassion that Vincent ________ for poor people as a preacher was now channeled into his art.