While Sam Bloom was on a vacation in Thailand, a balcony railing collapsed (倒塌), sending her falling 20 feet to the ground. The _________ left her with numerous injuries, including a broken spine. Her life was _________ changed.

In the many months that followed, she fell into a deep _________. Before her accident, she spent her time _______her family, surfing, exploring the outdoors, and traveling the world. Her _________ sense of self disappeared overnight—as she _________ it in her piece in a Time article, “I was no longer a(n)_________ woman, and I no longer _________ myself as a wife and mother.”

A few months after returning home, her son Noah _________ an injured baby magpie that had fallen from high in a tall pine tree. After no veterinarian (兽医) would rather __________ her in, the family decided to try and __________ her back to health themselves.

Due to its wobbly (摇晃的) walk and black and white __________, Bloom’s three boys decided to __________ the baby bird Penguin. And so, this __________ new creature became a member of the Bloom family. This new addition required constant __________, needing to be fed every two hours and kept warm constantly. This new __________ fell on Sam, and soon, Penguin became a form of __________ in soul to Sam.

“I didn’t feel as __________ anymore;my instincts as a nurse and mother came to life when I was __________ to this tiny, feathered soul. I didn’t __________ it at that time but, in a way, we were keeping each other alive.”

The other day, my friend Sara was telling me about a relationship with her colleague that was broken beyond repair. The two of them had been close enough and then one day, Sara had, with the best ________, done something that her colleague hadcompletely misunderstood and had taken ________ at.

Things went ________ and became worse. Sara didn’t know how to repair the relationship. She began to get angry at her colleague for misunderstanding her and judging her. She felt ________ in her anger. The two of them still were not really speaking and certainly weren’t collaborating.

It was time to do something to ________ the situation. I asked Sara what she needed. After much thought, she told me that she needed her colleague to be willing to listen to her with an open mind, to consider that she hadn’t ________ any harm by what she’d done and to apologize for taking things so ________ and making things so bad.

“Ah .….”I said to her.“You want a(n) ________.”She looked at me and then looked away. She’d known me long enough that she knew what was ________.“What do you think your colleague might want?”I asked.

She didn’t have to ________. We both knew that she knew what my ________was.“Did you ever apologize?” I asked her. She shook her head no.“ Do you think you might want to apologize?” I asked her. She shrugged her shoulders ... then shook her head yes.

Sometimes we take so long to apologize. We justify our ________, saying it won’t really make a difference. Or they should apologize first. Or they simply misunderstood us. ________, I’ve found and realized that an apology- a true, heartfelt apology- can________ wonders. It can repair the ________. It can fix just about anything.

My brother Gene was four years older than me. By the time I turned four, I was upset that he could read but I couldn’t. I burned with ______ to read a book like my brother. I begged: “Teach me to read, Mom! Please, please?!” Finally, Mom set aside time after lunch ______ reading lessons, and soon after my fifth birthday, I was reading.

I longed for my father, who was a great storyteller, to read me the books that I couldn’t yet read on my own. But my father worked three jobs to feed the family. He didn’t have the time or ______ in the evening to read to me.       ____, every Sunday morning, my brother and I lay next to him in bed, waiting for him to tell stories about his   ____. I can still hear my father’s voice ______ the cold winters on the family farm in Poland. His family didn’t have enough money to burn wood in the fireplace all night. He told us that he always volunteered to help with ______. I can smell the soup made by my grandma and ______ my father cutting onions, carrots and tomatoes for salad, and when no one was looking, putting a piece into his mouth. “I was always ______,” he explained. Hearing my father’s stories   ______ me closer to the books and the stories they held.

One Saturday afternoon when I was seven, we walked two blocks to the small ______ in our neighborhood, and my dad filled out forms for a card. That Saturday ______ my life: I met Mrs. Schwartz, the librarian, and my dad said, “You’re ______ enough to walk to the library yourself.” And so I did—almost every afternoon.

In my mind, Mrs. Schwartz was “the keeper of books and the guardian of stories.” Some days she read aloud to a small group of us ______. Most of time, Mrs. Schwartz let me ______ myself with books I pulled from the shelves and look through them to see which ones I’d ______ out. I remember that sometimes she’d ______ a book and tell me a part of the story. But she always let me choose. Books became my ______ who were my comfort when I felt lonely.

Yes, reading changed me. It gave me the _____ to study hard so I could become a teacher, and share my _____   of reading with my students. And inside my head, I can still hear the voices of my mother, father, and Mrs. Schwartz, which are with me every time I open the first page of a new book.