Last December，just a week before Christmas，I went to a local KMart store to pick up my layaway(预付定金购物). Upon reaching the counter, I _____ the clerk my layaway receipts and told her I was there to pay off the balance and take the   _____ home with me. She grabbed my receipts，and kept messing with the computer _______ something was wrong. I felt a little uneasy. I was_______ her to tell me my layaway had been misplaced or something of the sort.

______，after about ten minutes，she said. “Oh，that’s why I can’t find it in our ______. You should have _______a phone call a few days ago that your layaway was paid off by a(n) ______ Santa. ”I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! This kind of story only happens in the ______. Why was my family ______ to receive such a blessing?

Immediately I asked the cashier if there was a _____ that I could leave something for the Santa ______ his random act of kindness，but she said that the individual wanted to _____ completely unknown. It definitely ______ my heart. However. I felt ______. I kept thinking that perhaps some family out there was not going to have a Christmas because they really couldn’t ______to pick up their layaway.

I decided to pay it _______，so I used the money I had for the balance on my account to purchase some ______ and on my way out，I gladly ______ them off inside a huge toy donation box. Since I had received such a nice，heart warming gesture from someone，I wanted to keep the _______ going. And it felt nice to receive and to be able to give right back.

A little boy was visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot (弹弓) to play with out in the woods. He ____ in the woods, but he could never hit anything. Getting a little ____, he headed back for dinner. As he was ____ back he saw Grandma’s pet ____. Just out of impulse (冲动), he let the slingshot ____, hit the duck right in the head and killed it. He was shocked and ____.

In a panic, he hid the____duck in the wood pile, only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said ____. After lunch the next day Grandma said, “Sally, let’s wash the ____.” But Sally said, “Grandma, Johnny told me he____to help in the kitchen.” Then she____to him, “Remember the duck?” So Johnny washed the dishes. Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Before they left, Grandma said, “I’m sorry but I______Sally to help me make supper,” Sally just smiled and said, “Well, you needn’t worry about it______Johnny told me he wanted to help.” She whispered again, “Remember the duck?” So Sally went ____ and Johnny stayed to help. After several days of doing both his______and Sally’s, he finally couldn’t ____ it any longer. He came to Grandma and admitted that he had ____ the duck.

Grandma squatted down (蹲下), gave him a ____ , and said, “Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the ____ thing, but because I love you. I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a ____ of you. If you make a mistake, just be brave to admit to it and promise not to make it again. In that way, everyone will forgive you.”

I was born into a family of educators. Growing up, I___________ stories about my grandfather, a headmaster in Guyana. His wife was a teacher. My father and mother continued the _________, teaching at the secondary school levels. As we _________ National Teacher Appreciation Week, I was ___________ by Charles Blow’s Op-Ed column in The New York Times to _________ two teachers who had never failed me: my parents.

I hardly remember a period when my parents were not engaged in the act of ___________ and teaching. When I was born in 1991, my dad, William Panaram, was trying to___________a doctor’s degree in plant science in North Dakota. After we ___________ to the Bronx, New York, my mom, Dhanwanti Panaram, started night ___________ to get a master’s degree in nutrition.   ____________   my mom studied, she also managed a full-time job, raised me, and learned a new city.

As I watched their schooling ____________, I learned that receiving an ____________ meant much more than getting high grades. In fact, a true education has meaning when its learners ____________.

Both my parents show me daily how to live as a good ____________. Both teach me how to love. My parents—my educators for life—make it ____________ that a teacher’s job is ____________ the classroom. A meaningful teacher stays with students ____________ , in mind or in person. I am determined to be a teacher myself, helping young students think freely and ____________ their own ideas, which is a __________   of living, learning, and loving with my first teachers.

National Teacher Appreciation Week might come around once a year, but the reality is that every single day we need to thank those who__________more about others than they do about themselves. Who will you thank today?