1 . It was a sunny day. I had gone up and down the tower when, outside the door at the foot, a blind man came toward me. In a moment, he disappeared up the stairs. I looked at the sign that said “To the Tower”, and decided to _______ him.

I caught   up with   him in the ticket office. There I was _______ to   see the attendant selling   him a ticket   as if he   were any other visitor. Then, with the ticket in one hand and _______ the wall with the fingers of the other, the blind     man reached the stairs _______ to the hallway.

“That man is blind. What would a blind man climb up the tower for?” I said to the attendant, expecting him to show some _______, but he didn’t answer.

“Not the _______ certainly, ” I said. “Perhaps he wants to _______.”

I bought a ticket and _______ up the stairs. The man hadn’t gone as far as I _______ . A third of the way up the tower, I heard his _______. I   slowed down and followed him   at a little _______ . He   stopped from   time to   time. When he got to the balcony, I was a dozen steps _______. As I reached it, I saw him at the corner of the tower.

At last, after ten minutes, I _______ him. “ Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could, “but I am curious to know _______ you came up.”

He smiled. “Coming up the stairs, you will notice how not just light but sun _______ into the tower through the narrow windows here and there, so that you can feel the _______ —the cool stairs suddenly become quite warm—and   how up here behind the wall there is _______, but as soon as going opposite a window you can find the sun. There is   no _______ so good as this for feeling the difference between light and shade. It is not the first time I’ve come up.”

The blind man seemed quite _______, just like a child who was enjoying his favorite games. He told me the truth that blind men can also find the beauty in life _______ they cannot enjoy the sights of the world.

2 . I knocked lightly on Mrs. B’s door. “I’m Barbara, a hospice (临终安养院) volunteer.” I said nervously. It was my first week on the job, and my biggest ________ was figuring out how to begin with a patient.

“Please, sit down,” Mrs. B said, indicating the chair beside her bed. We chatted ________ about the framed ________ on her windowsill—her two daughters, many grandchildren, even great-grandchildren. Then she grew ________.

“What were you thinking about when I walked in?” I asked, sensing she might be waiting to see if I would ________ her to the truest place where this conversation could go.

“I know I’m not going to be around much ________. I’m at peace with that. But my grandson called yesterday. He’s ________ that he can’t make it to see me before I pass.”

“Have you thought about writing him a(n) ________?”

Mrs. B seemed to ________ a little. “I can dictate (口述) if you’d write for me,” she said.

I walked down the hall and ________ pens and paper materials. Mrs. B ________ her grandson’s letter and decided to dictate others — for her daughters, the other grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Then she ________ her church community and her bridge club too.

She asked me to put away the letters before I left. “I asked God to send me a(n) ________ this morning,” she said. “Now I know it was you.”

At that very moment I came to realize that we all ________ a loving spark. Kissing Mrs. B on her forehead, I knew simply showing up might be a precious ________.

3 . China is one of the world’s ancient civilizations and has the earliest outstanding bronze casting (青铜冶铸) technology. Here we’ve created a list of 4 museums where you can gain an in-depth understanding of Chinese bronze.

For more information, click here.

4 . The music world lost a rock and roll superstar this week when guitarist Eddie Van Halen passed away. He was only 65 years old.

Eddie Van Halen was a founding member of the band Van Halen. He formed the group in 1974 with his brother Alex, who played the drums. Van Halen released (发行) its most popular single, the song Jump, in 1983. Jump rose to the top of Billboard Magazıne’s list of Hot 100 songs and stayed there for five weeks. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio lists Jump among its “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Eddie Van Halen released at least 15 record albums with his band over the years, selling more than 80 million around the world. In 2007, Van Halen entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Van Halen brothers were born in the Netherlands. Their father was a professional musician. Their mother was from Indonesia. In the 1950s, some Netherlanders did not support the mixed-race (混种族) marriage, so the family moved to the United States. They settled in southern California. Eddie and Alex Van Halen had to learn English in their new land. Both brothers studied piano for years before getting interested in rock and roll.

As a child, Eddie was considered musically gifted. Eddie told a reporter he did not learn to read music. He said he would watch his teacher play and memorize his moves. He also said that he never took a class on playing the guitar, although he studied under Eric Clapton for a time. His father was among the first to recognize Eddie’s guitar skill. “You’ve got it, kid,” Eddie’s father said to him early on.

Eddie’s guitar playing was hard and fast. He was energetic while performing, often jumping like an acrobat (杂技演员) as he played. He was known for the way he tapped on the guitar strings with both hands. It influenced many musicians that followed.

6 . When I was a college student, I did a lot of traveling abroad. That was because a professor _________ me to do so. She said, “Now is the time for you to travel around the world, _________ your knowledge through actual experiences and have fun!” I _________ her.

Since I started to work for a food company, _________, I have done most of my traveling through the Internet. By using the Internet, I have seen the _________ of many cities on my computer screen. And I have really made business _________, too. With the help of the Internet, I have also got _________ about food from different countries.

Therefore, I was beginning to feel that actual trips were _________ necessary when I happened to read a famous chef’s comment on the Internet. He said, “It is very difficult to have real Italian food in a foreign country, because we enjoy food and the _________ around us at the same time.” Those words __________ me of my professor’s advice. With information technology advancing, you might be able to do without making some real trips. But this also means that you will miss the various __________ you can get from traveling.

Today, people __________ direct communication with others and spend much of their time on the Internet. I do not think that they are taking good advantage of information technology. We should use information technology as a tool to make our daily communication more __________. Besides, we should never let it __________ our time for face-to-face communication. Let’s make use of information technology more __________ and have great fun in experiencing the actual world.

7 . I had just finished my dance class, and it was a disaster: I started on the wrong foot and couldn’t get the steps that other students seemed to do easily. I began to _________ my talent for ballet.

Just then, my big sister Julissa arrived. She took one _________ at me and asked, “What’s wrong, Lakeisha?”

“Nothing,” I said _________.

“Uh huh,” Julissa replied. “Looks like a (n) _________ ‘nothing’ to me, so tell me what happened.”   

“Well,” I mumbled (咕哝) , “maybe I shouldn’t be taking _________ classes? It felt like I was the only one who couldn’t land her pirouettes (单脚尖旋转) today.”

“Listen,” she said, “not every day is a (n) _________ one, and not everything you try is going to _________ the way you want. The point is to keep _________. Remember that and you’ll be fine.”

“I tried my best, but …” I replied.

Looking at me seriously, Julissa said, “Maybe ballet is not your _________ yet, but dance is. I see how you shake and move all the time. There are all kinds of __________ to dance, so maybe you just need to __________ your own style. Why not stick to jazz dance? You are so good at it.”

I thought about her __________ and my performances carefully. Yes, why had I never __________ that? I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but it may not be a good __________ for me. It seemed as if I suddenly saw the light. “You’re right,” I replied. “Thank you. I’m so __________ to have you to guide me!”

8 . It was the most destructive wildfire in California history. It started in Paradise (天堂镇) and caused $16.5 billion in _______, destroying nearly 19,000 buildings and killing 85 in all. The beauty of this _______ named place was gone.

Grammer, working in Los Angeles, grew up there. When his friend Edwards posted pictures of his white chimney — the only part of his house to survive — he felt _______. And then he had an idea.

“I’ve got to _______ that chimney,” he says, “I’m not trying to say anything. I’m an artist. It was an opportunity for me to _______.”

Grammer spent three hours painting an image of a woman on the _______ — a reminder of the chimney, of the beauty of life, or even just of _______ itself.

Grammer posted the image on Instagram. Those who were affected by the fire, _______, could not calm down. Someone _______, “You bring beauty and hope.”

Greatly inspired, Grammer returned eight times. Outside one house, he found a photo of a girl, Eleanor. He painted a picture of her on the wall of her home left __________. It was a stamp that life was here and that life can __________ to be here. The painting has __________ meaning for the homeowner. Eleanor’s father, recalls how she used to play just feet away. Eleanor herself returned once to __________ the painting.

Ironically (讽刺的是) that first painting, on the chimney in Paradise, __________ only a few months — the bulldozer (推土机) is a cruel art critic. However, Grammer couldn’t be more delighted. It means that the __________ of Paradise is rising again.

9 . The latest data shows the population of wild Asin elephants in southwest China’s Yunnan Province has increased from around 150 to more than 300 from the 1980s to the end of 2021, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

With the growth in the elephant population, conflicts between humans and elephants have become frequent. In order to fundamentally and peacefully solve the issue and protect the elephant’s habitat at the same time, construction of the Asian elephant National Park is picking up speed. Experts suggest that national parks are not intended to be entirely free of people. Instead, they should offer a method for coexistence.

Asian elephants play an important role as engineers of the rainforest, said the expert. Their migration (迁徙) can speed up the replacement of forest ecosystems along the way. Elephant waste remains not only food for insects, but also attracts insectivorous birds, allowing plant seeds to spread. Therefore, protecting the elephants and their habitats guarantees the shelter to other wildlife in forest ecosystems.

To cope with human-elephant conflicts, Yunnan took the lead in introducing a commercial insurance model into its compensation (补偿) system: local residents will be paid with the amount of money for the crops destroyed by the elephants by the insurance company. In the past 10 years, Yunnan has paid a total of 173 million yuan for losses caused by Asian elephants.

“The standard of compensation is constantly being adjusted, and the amount of insurance coverage for compensation is also increasing,” said Yang Hua from the Forestry and Grass Bureau of Yunnan Province. “At present, the insured amount in Pu’er City and Xishuangbanna Prefecture alone has already gone beyond 50 million.”