My wife and I usually don’t keep houseplants. Anything in pots gets either overwatered or underwatered. But after my diagnosis with a brain cancer, I loved the idea of having something green and _________ around us.

Last year, my friend Mitch gave me a lucky bamboo plant. _________ the plant gave me a sense of achievement at a time when I sometimes felt _________ because my ability to move was limited. As a physician, I was used to being the one who _________ care. Watering the plant _________ me to a core part of my old identity and _________ me that I could still be a caregiver.

However, after several weeks growing in perfect condition, the plant _________ began to show signs of stress. No matter what I did, the leaves kept _________ and dropping to the floor.

“I can’t even care for a simple plant!” I yelled. “If my lucky bamboo dies, I might die too!”

Identifying with the green and growing plant had offered me _________. But when the tree was struggling, I felt increasingly uneasy and ____________.

It was several months later when I recovered from surgery that I realized I had ____________ linked my careful nurturing of the plant — something over which I had at least some control — with my own ____________ — something over which I had no control.

As my ____________ lessened, I began to study online tutorials to figure out how to care for the tree. I ________________ it to a larger pot, and when it was back in the sunny window, we both began to thrive (旺盛) again.

Now whenever I look at the tree in its new pot, I make a point to relax and think of the things I can ____________.

I went with some colleagues from my office for a dinner in a very popular local restaurant. It was__________business time and the restaurant was packed. We__________found a table in a corner for three of us.

As soon as we sat down, we heard a crash when a cleaning boy__________the floor with all the plates he was carrying. There was__________and no one was saying or doing anything.

In a flash I remembered my__________many years ago. Once, I__________in the airport because I had rushed there on my own on an empty stomach. I was picked up and taken care of by two__________. Now this was my chance to_________it forward.

I ran to the young man’s side immediately, turned him on his back and screamed for someone to__________a hot drink. Soon people started asking if I was a doctor. I said I was not,________I was skillful at blacking out(晕厥).

The kid soon opened his eyes,_________what had happened. I_________him by saying it was OK and I had had a__________experience. He had not eaten anything. I held the__________drink to his mouth till he finished it and sat with him till he felt OK. By then the_________had arrived. I asked her to give the kid something to eat. I offered to pay.

The manager was kind enough to refuse the_________and agreed to make sure the kid ate before he went home. By the time all this was_________it was getting late for my colleagues. We hadn’t__________anything yet, so they decided to go home.

I slowly walked home, not hungry any more, feeling_________for the opportunity I pay forward the________I had received many years ago.