I decided to take part in an international marathon in my hometown last year. Being an _______ person, I hoped to finish it within 5 hours, _______ by my friend with whom I had trained.

At first, we kept a rapid pace. After a while, my running mate began to slow down. I _______ him to keep running at the same pace but he said no. He wanted to _______ his energy. A few kilometers later, I began to understand his _______ as my pace slowed to a jog then a walk. After that I was _______ of moving another step. I started to doubt my _______ to finish it as more and more people passed me. I even thought about giving up the_______.

At this moment, my running mate _______ me and patted me on the back. “Follow me,” he shouted and encouraged me to ________. Slowly, painfully but ________ this time, we established the most ________ pace within the natural flow of our physical capabilities.

Eventually we ________ our first marathon of 42 kilometers in four and a half hours. I asked myself what this marathon meant to me. My marathon ________ became an influential metaphor (比喻) for my life about how we must learn to ________ ourselves in everything, by being in tune with the rhythm of life.

When the dirty orange cat turned up in the prison yard, I was one of the first to go out there and pet it. I hadn’t ______ a cat or a dog in over 20 years. It was graceful to feel him and know that I was ______ the life of another creature. I believe that caring for something or someone   _____ is what makes us human.

Over the next few days, I watched other prisoners ______ to the cat. They stood around talking and taking ______ petting the cat. These were guys you wouldn’t usually find talking to each other. Several times I saw an officer in the group—not forcing people away, ______   just watching and seeming to _____ it.

Bowls of milk and water appeared, along with bread, ______ placed under the edge of the dustbin to _____ the seagulls(海鸥)from getting it. The cat was obviously in pretty bad _______. One prisoner brought out his small ______ , and trimmed(修剪)for him.

People said, “That cat came to the right place. He’s getting _______ like a king.” This was true. But as I watched, I was also thinking about what the ______ was doing for us.

There’s a lot of talk about what’s ______ with prisons in America. We need more_____ or treatment of various kinds. Some even talk about making prisons more kind, but I think what we really need is a chance to _____ kindness ourselves. Not receive it, but _______ it.

They’ve taken him away now— _______ to a comfortable home—but it did my heart good to see the effect he had _______ me and the men here. He didn’t have a PhD, he wasn’t a psychologist, but by simply saying, “I need some help here,” he did something important for us. He needed us, and we need to be ______. I believe we all do.

When I was 24, I moved into an apartment and the couple next door were loud all the time. After putting up with it for a couple of weeks, I decided to ____ them and politely ask them to be ____ after noon, as I had to work at midnight, so I ____ went to bed around noon.

I went next door and knocked on the door and an old woman answered. I ____ myself and she asked if I came over to complain about the ____, and I said yes. She ____ both she and her husband were going ____ and that they needed to speak loudly to hear each other. She invited me in and ____ me a coffee and we started talking. ____, we heard a loud bang in the kitchen. Then we found her husband had fallen onto the ground. Immediately, ____ him to the hospital.

When I came home from work the next day, there was a ____ on the door from the lady asking me to come over. When I reached her ____, she asked if I’d drive her to the hospital, to which I said no ____. When we got to the hospital, I ____her to her husband’s room, where he thanked me. Soon I ended up being friends with this couple ____they moved away a year later.

One day after ten years, I got a ____from a lawyer. I was ____what was going on, so I went down and when I arrived at his office, the lawyer asked me if I knew a ____by the couple’s names and I said yes. He told me that the couple had died and he was employed (雇用) by their children to find me. They wanted to thank me ____, I met the family and then we became friends!

You can never know when, where or how you are next going to make new friends. Life is full of ____. Whatever happens, try to treat others exactly as you would like to be treated.