1 . Orange chicken, salt and pepper chips, fried rice... Max Burns lists several typical Western-style Chinese dishes that _______ him. For Burns who spent his childhood in China, those cuisines are far from _______. They are invented to satisfy Western preferences.

Actually, many Westerners regard that particular type of _______ as the whole of Chinese cuisine. The average Westerners are not as _______ and educated as they could be. That is why he tries to show Chinese food by vlogging (视频博客) about _______ Chinese dishes at home.

The food adventure has helped Burns grow into an _______ with over three million subscribers worldwide today and helped _______ some people’s ideas about Chinese food. His friends told him they were shocked by the _______ of Chinese cuisine and it took them a long time to figure out categories of Chinese cuisine.

_______, when Burns first started vlogging in 2016 after returning to England, cooking Chinese food at home was a then “________ idea”, because he was never into cooking. At the time, the ________ centered more on explaining aspects of Chinese culture. However, during COVID-19 when Burns couldn’t ________ outside, he had to learn to cook. “Then I instantly fell in love,” he ________. “The more I learned about Chinese cooking, the more I got into it.”

The cooking journey also serves to maintain his ________ with China, even though he has left China for years. Burns ________ the experiences of living in China, enabling him to teach about Chinese cuisine and build a cross-cultural bridge between the East and the West.

2 . My grandparents’ tiny farm is surrounded with rolling hills in Brazil. That’s where they work and _________ coffee fruit. At my grandparents’ home, coffee is usually served sickly sweet and never _________ even in the middle of summer. And we drink the coffee out of little glass cups _________ by the wood stove(炉子).

Although I have _________ the coffee fruit on the trees and watched firsthand as my grandparents spread the fruit onto big, wavy multicolored sheets under the sun to _________, there isn’t a coffee culture there.

I first heard the _________ when I started to work at a cafe that served the tourists, students and professors in Harvard Square, in New York City. I was told that my grandparents’ process for _________ coffee is just one of the many ways to do it. For example, the fruit can be dried in the sun or in a big machine, or washed first. All these _________ can change the way the coffee tastes. I also learned that the fruit from different _________ have different tastes. Mexican coffee tends to be lighter while Vietnamese coffee is __________.

Since then, when I __________ and make my first cup of coffee in the morning, I do it like __________ a sacred ceremony. I know that the fruit has traveled far, and been __________. Someone has probably lost sleep over them when bad __________ was in the forecast(预报). It only feels right for me to make sure to let my brain go blank(空白)and see where it takes me, when I __________ it.

8 . It was the first time Moham went to a restaurant in his new neighborhood. He looked up at the menu board, and ________ how he could understand what all of these strange names meant. Moham decided that he would ________ ask the waitress for ice cream in a cup. She smiled brightly, wrote down his ________ and disappeared behind the big glass display case (陈列柜). A moment later, she came back with a tall paper cup. ________ it was a long straw (吸管) and some kind of drink. Moham, quite ________, took the cup and thanked her, thinking about the possibility that he had used wrong words.

“It’s the soda you ordered,” ________ said, “an ice cream drink in a cup”.

He smiled at the waitress, pointed at one of the ________ in the display case, and said, “That one, please," which seemed to ________ better.

Moham took the cake and his unexpected soda to a table and sat down to eat. Why was it that English had been so ________ for him in his classes in Tunisia, but when it came to ________speaking, he couldn’t even get what he wanted to eat?

Just then, a girl, who sat at the next table and had watched the whole ________, smiled at him and said, “Hey, welcome to our beautiful city! Don’t feel ________ about your English-you’ll get better at it ________ you’ve lived here for a while. I’m from Spain, and the first time I tried to order a salad here, I ________ with a plate of pig’s feet. At least you got a soda!”

Hearing this, Moham felt much better. He wasn’t the only one ________ to communicate, and his new city began to feel just a little more like he could call it home.

9 . As an immigrant from China, my mother loves Chinese culture deeply. She _________ Chinese food every night. She prefers to do it herself at home because she thinks the local restaurants aren’t authentic. _________, strangely enough, she likes to take my son to Panda Express to have _________ with her friends who are also from China. She is even _________ to point it out whenever they are at a food court.

Why is American Chinese food not _________ among some Chinese Americans? How is American Chinese food not better than _________ Chinese food? I can’t _________ that it’s not as good as authentic Chinese food. In fact, authentic Chinese food really tastes better while American Chinese food _________ to have food with its own taste — they are right for different persons. It’s important to _________ American Chinese food from authentic Chinese food. They are not the same __________ and have their own characteristics. So they should be treated __________. That’s why my mother thinks that Panda Express is not very authentic, but can still __________ it. Actually, American Chinese food is often created by Chinese immigrants according to their own preferences. As people from various countries have differences in their __________, it is changing.

My mother has a deep feeling for authentic Chinese food and restaurants, so I decide to open a restaurant where she and other immigrants can feel the __________ of Chinese family dinner. My son says he’ll learn Chinese cooking skills from me, which, I think, should be __________ from age to age. Likewise, I’ll also pass on the Chinese food culture to the world.

10 . I was ten years old at that time. It was a hot, summer afternoon and I decided to _______ by swimming in the river where the water was cold. After a while I grabbed my _______ and headed back up to the house. I knew that _______ would be ready soon.

I _______ in slowly and saw my grandmother busy cooking. Two freshly baked loaves of Italian bread smelled wonderful. My grandmother was _______ her special sauce (调味汁) without noticing my arrival. It had been slowly _______ for hours. Potatoes, pieces of chicken, and meatballs had been quietly cooking in it. Grandma _______ a wooden spoon, stirred the sauce and brought up a bit for a _______. She made a face and shook her head. Something wasn’t quite _______. She added some salt. Then she shook in a little more garlic powder. She ________ stirred the sauce for a while longer. ________ she took another taste. This time her ________ widened and she nodded her approval of her ________. I smiled too. I knew it was going to be another ________ dinner.

Looking back I think grandmother was such a ________ cook because she not only seasoned (给……调味) her food with the right ________ but also seasoned it with her love. She was a true ________ when it came to cooking and truly wise when it came to living. I still ________ her every single day and I am so thankful for all the ________ she taught me. Life is so much tastier when you ________ it with joy. Be the chef of your own life then.