1 . In the early hours of March 23, about 12 hours before our treasured 12-year-old son died of a rare form of brain cancer, I climbed into his hospital bed, _________ him in my arms and recited Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.

My child was no longer _________, but I hoped and believed that he could sense my presence and that my voice would _________ his wildly beating heart.

My son had been _________ with the words of the poem by _________ me reciting it to him almost every night before going to bed. He loved the _________ of the “beamish (神采焕发的) boy” as, with a short sword in hand, the boy takes on a strong man several times his size.

My son was also a passionate _________. But with many surgeries, rounds of radiation and medications _________ most of his time, he could _________ read on his own. Therefore, I ________ to read to him. And it was during the reading that I found that poems could relieve my __________. They offered an anchor to me during unpredictable and painful times. They also helped me prepare for the arrival of the final time.

Then it came — at 12:52 am on March 23, my son’s heart stopped beating forever. Despite my __________, I was still overwhelmed by grief. Then I received a message from my friend. It was Raymond Carver’s Late Fragment: “And what did you want?/ To call myself beloved, / to feel myself beloved on the earth.”

It __________ me a bit, because I was __________ that even in my son’s darkest hours, he was always __________ — and still is. And thanks to poems, I was able to get through the pain and get on with my life.

2 . Turning 13 can be painful. Sure, pimples (粉刺) are a problem. _______ it’s the feelings of insecurity that really _______. “I would gaze into the bathroom _______ and ask myself, ‘Is this the sum of my 13 years?’” author Gary Soto says of his _______ self. “We all doubt ourselves — _______ we look, how we play on the field, how we dress, how we do in school.”

These _______ form the basis of Soto’s latest book, Mercy on These Teenage Chimps, which is _______ in bookstores.

Soto tells the story of two 13-year-old friends, Ronnie and Joey, who are self-conscious about their _______ appearance. In the mirror, they see the _______ coming out of their chins doesn’t improve the look.

It gets ________ when the coach at school embarrasses Joey in front of a girl. ________, Joey returned to his childhood hideaway in a tree. Soto understands the need of a place to ________ it all. “I remember my childhood street from tree level. It was an escape from the ________.”

The trouble is that Joey has no intention of ________ his sanctuary (避难所). It’s up to Ronnie to convince his friend to face the world ________. In his search, Ronnie stands bullies and nosy neighbors, and ________ from more than one roof.

“This book is a call for mercy for young people ________ self-doubt,” Soto told TFK. “It’s a comic novel about ________. Ronnie concerns his friend and knows he must do ________ in his power to return him to his optimistic, fun-loving spirit. That’s ________ a friend does.”

The moral of the story: You don’t need to be the best-looking chimp in the jungle. All you need is a loyal friend who will stick by you, even when the going gets a little, well, hairy.

3 . One afternoon in late September, little Zhang Feng sat down with his school friends and read out a poem he had just written:

In the eyes of a frog,

______ form seas,

Big and small,

Wherever they fall,

But me, too,

I see those seas.

It was a rainy day, and the children had been ______ inside during their break. Eleven-year-old Zhang’s poem was ______ by the rhythm of the raindrops, the first sign of autumn.

As soon as he ______ reading his poem, his classmate Liu Jie ______ shared his own verse:

It is raining.

Ordinary raindrops fall on the ground,

But the naughty（调皮的） ones slip off the wall,

Into my soul.

“You must be a naughty raindrop,” one boy joked, and they ______ laughter.

The children are members of a poetry club ______ in 2019 in a rural school in Henan province’s Xiuwu county, which has about 50 ______, all natives studying in Dananpo, a mountain village that is home to about 1,000 people.

These young poets, ______, have written more than 2,000 poems, and their works have been ______ into three books since the club was founded four years ago.

Liang Yawen, the poetry club’s ______, says that many rural children are feeling ______ because they are separated from their parents, who are working in faraway cities. “Some children, due to a lack of security, are ______ to open up to their families, teachers or peers, but now they have learned to pour out their ______ in writing,” she says.

The teacher thinks that poetry is like a ______ light that helps us understand life better.

4 . The Art of Poetry

Poetry is a form of expression that captivates the heart and mind. It is not just about rhyming lines or perfect meter, but about conveying deep, often unspoken emotions. A poet uses words to paint pictures, to tell stories, and to express ideas in a way that is unique and powerful.

In poetry, every word counts. It’s not just the meaning of the words, but how they sound together, how they flow. The rhythm of a poem can   _______ a heartbeat or the quiet   _______ of a summer breeze. Imagery in poetry helps to create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. It’s like a _______ that takes you on a journey through the poet’s thoughts and feelings.

But poetry is not always easy to understand. Sometimes, it requires   _______ and patience to unravel the layers of meaning hidden within the lines. It might speak of love, loss, joy, or pain, and often it reflects the _______ of life itself.

Poetry is a bridge between the _______ and the unknown. It allows us to explore the depths of our   _______ and to connect with others on a level that is deeper than words alone can achieve. In this way, poetry is not just a form of art; it is a form of   _______.

However, the true essence of poetry goes beyond its words and   _______. It captures the intangible, the feelings and thoughts that are universal yet deeply personal. Through poetry, we can experience the world from different perspectives, gaining insights into cultures, histories, and individual experiences.

Ultimately, poetry is a celebration of language and its power to evoke emotion, provoke thought, and connect us across time and space. It is a testament to the human spirit’s capacity for creativity and expression, where words become more than mere sounds or letters. They become the   ________ of our shared humanity.

9 . As a child, Robin Stevens loved reading murder mystery stories. She _________ herself in the worlds of fictional detectives(侦探) like Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple. These childhood heroes now _________ her own detective stories and most recently the first in her new _________ of books was called The Ministry of Unladylike Activity.

This series is set in the Second World War (1939—45) and tells the story of May Wong, _________, with her friend Eric, wants to be a spy(间谍). They _________ a case at the mysterious Elysium Hall. Stevens tells The Week Junior that all her characters are _________ “parts of myself, parts of friends and some historical characters who I _________.”

Stevens tries to write 2,000 words every day when she’s first _________ a story. “It’s complicated(复杂的) and I think, ‘This is _________, I can’t write’,” she says, but then she goes back, checks and __________ a few pages at a time and __________ the story comes together. She says her snack of choice is jelly beans, to keep her brain __________.

“If you want to write, you have to __________,” she says, or at least, __________ stories from books, TV or films. Although writing can be hard and __________, if you give a few minutes to it every day, week or month, you will improve. Remember to have fun with a story, Stevens says, “and if you’re not having fun, write something else.”

10 . I remember dreading (惧怕) having to sit through fifty-five whole minutes of a poetry class when I was in high school. But walking into that class _________ my life.

Before I took the _________, I believed poetry was all fluff (没多大意义的娱乐) — just rhymes about rainbows, flowers, love and the stars. I soon _________ that poetry could be about that, but it was also so much more. Poetry is about _________ yourself in a completely raw form and using phrases other than “the sky is blue”. Poetry is a reminder that it’s okay to feel pain._________ is supposed to evoke emotion.

Through that high school poetry class, I found I was able to _________ the perspectives of so many lives. People I only knew the names of became people I was _________ invested in because I was forced to try to understand the experiences they had to _________. Before the class, I was aware of the hardships my classmates suffered, but the poetry class let me _________ the same emotions they had through their poetry.

Since high school, I have taken two more poetry classes.__________ these classes, my writing has been strengthened, my listening skills have __________ and my public speaking has developed greatly.

My poetry classes helped me to view the world with a(n)__________ set of eyes and have taught me to __________ criticism with open arms.

Critical thinking, writing and public speaking are __________ in the workforce, and my poetry classes have enabled me to __________ those tools. Poetry has really changed my life.