The young college students jumped into the river and swam to the boys ________they heard them crying for help．

A．a(chǎn)s soon as          B．before           C．because         D．till

I am a mother of three and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology. The teacher was really inspiring. The class was asked to go out and smile at three people.
I am a very   1  person and thought this would be a piece of cake. Soon after, my husband, youngest son, and I went out to McDonald’s. We were standing in line, waiting to be    2 , when all of a sudden everyone around us began to   3  away, and then even my husband did.
As I turned around I   4  a terrible “dirty body” smell, and there standing behind me were two poor   5  men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, he was “  6 ”. His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God’s Light as he searched for   7 . He said, “Good day” as he counted the few coins he had been   8 .
The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, “Coffee is all Miss” because that was all they could   9 . He just wanted to be warm.
Then I really   10  it—the compulsion（沖動）was so great that I almost reached out and hugged the little man with the blue eyes.
That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging(判斷) my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a   11  tray（托盤）.
I then walked around the corner to the   12  that the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman’s   13 hand. He looked up at me, with   14 in his eyes, and said, “Thank you.”
I   15  with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: acceptance without condition.

A thief entered the bedroom of the 30^th President of the United States, who met him and helped him escape punishment.
The event happened in the early morning hours on one of the first days when Calvin Coolidge came into power, late in August,1923. He and his family were living in the same third-floor suite (套房) at the Willard Hotel in Washington that they had moved in several years before. The former President’s wife was still living in the White House.
Coolidge woke up to see a stranger go through his clothes, remove a wallet and a watch chain.
Coolidge spoke, “I wish you wouldn’t take that.”
The thief, gaining his voice, said, “Why?”
“I don’t mean the watch and chain, only the charm (表墜). Take it near the window and read the words on its back, ” the president said.
The thief read, “Presented to Calvin Coolidge.”
“Are you President Coolidge?” he asked.
The president answered, “ Yes, and the House of Representatives（眾議院）gave me the watch charm. I’m fond of it. It would do you no good. You want money. Let’s talk this over.”
Holding up the wallet, the young man said in a low voice, “I’ll take this and leave everything else.”
Coolidge, knowing there was 80 dollars in it, asked the young man to sit down and talk. He told the President he and his college roommate had overspent during their holiday and did not have enough money to pay their hotel bill.
Coolidge added up the roommate two rail tickets back to the college. Then he counted out 32 dollars and said it was a loan (借款).
He then told the young man, “There is a guard in the corridor(走廊).” The young man nodded and left through the same window as he had entered.
【小題1】What caused the thief to meet the President?

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had   16      a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well   17  it, he told him that was all he wanted.  
On the morning of his graduation day his father called him into his own study and told him how   18  he was to have such a fine son. He handed his son a beautiful gift box.   19  but slightly disappointed（失望）, the young man opened the box and found a lovely book.   20 , he raised his voice at his father and said, “With all your money you give me a book?” and rushed out of the house,   21  the book in the study. 
He did not contact his father for a whole year until one day he saw in the street an old man who looked like his father. He   22  he had to go back home and see his father.  
When he arrived at his father’s house, he was told that his father had been in hospital for a week. The moment he was about to leave for the hospital, he saw on the desk the   23  new book , just as he had left it one year ago. He opened it and began to turn the pages. Suddenly, a car key   24      from an envelope（信封）in the book. It had a tag（標簽）with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car. On the tag was the   25  of his graduation, and the words “ PAID IN FULL”.