2 . Desperate to help his 96-year-old mother to speak her mother tongue again, Keith McDermott made an ____ on social media and was met with a flood of kind responses. The old ____, Ray, was moved to tears after talking on the phone with one of the ____respondents in Welsh.

Ray moved to America after meeting her husband when she was only 18, hence waving goodbye to her ____in Wales. She continued to speak Welsh with her mum keeping a little bit of ____. But she lost her beloved mum four decades ago and hadn’t spoken Welsh since.

____ suffering from short-term memory loss and sometimes not remembering what she has done recently, Ray’s childhood memories in Wales remain crystal ____”She wants to ____, but I know, ___ her age, such long-distance travel is out of the question, “ said Keith. ”Once she mentioned: I wish I could speak Welsh again but I suppose I never will. It was then that I thought I should make her wish____”

So Keith, 70, ____ on social media on a group called “New York Welsh” asking for any Welsh speakers that could speak Welsh with his mum. And he was ____ , as well as a little shocked, to receive over 30 responses within half an hour. “Speaking with Melisa, her (Ray’s) Welsh was a little rusty. A few more Welsh conversations and I think she’d be ____ again, ” added Keith.

“When you have a parent in their nineties, you will find you two have something in common: you’re both old, so I am very sympathetic to my mother’s feelings of loneliness and isolation. I’m feeling it myself. ” Keith hopes to ____ more Welsh phone conversations for his mum and Melisa has promised to send Ray some short stories in Welsh to ____ her of her life in Wales.

5 . I was a shy girl and I was afraid to talk to people I didn’t know. I enjoyed the______of exploring nature. ______, at school I had to spend all day in the company of others. My ______ was reading. I spent a lot of time studying and was ______ good grades. My only failure was Spanish—I’d get all As on my written work and tests, but Ds and Fs on the ______ part.

Eventually I went to college. During my third year of college, I had ______ of being shy and determined to change my outlook and behavior. One day while at school, I noticed an advertisement for ______ on the local classical music radio station. I had ______ listening to classical music, and I could easily pronounce names such as Tchaikovsky and Chopin.

I had no background in radio, and absolutely no hope of getting the job. The idea of ______ thousands of listeners in “radio land” terrified me. However, I ______ survived the interview. I was given brief descriptions of symphonies (交响乐) and a public service announcement to read, and a list of composers’ names to ______. It wasn’t hard for me. I left the recording session (录音场次) with a sense of relief and a sense of ______. About two weeks later I actually landed the job. It was a ______ job, but I grew to ______ it greatly. I began to feel comfortable talking to people.

Although I now spend many hours each week talking with people, I’m ______ basically a quiet person. Perhaps it is my soft voice and my ______ nature that helps draw people out when they respond to my questions when I ______   them. My former shyness is a ______, as I can relate to people who feel discomfortable when they talk to reporters. I still enjoy moments of loneliness and the ______ found in nature. But I’m also glad I decided to make a ______ in my life that has opened many doors and opportunities that I never knew existed.

6 . Do you think you have what it takes to be a successful scientist? A successful scientist is generally a good observer. He makes full _____of the facts he observes. He doesn't accept ideas which are not___on obvious facts, and therefore__ to accept authority as the only truth. He always checks ideas__ and makes experiments to prove them.

The rise of modern science may perhaps be considered to__ as far back as the time of Roger Bacon, the wonderful philosopher of Oxford, who lived between the years 1214 and 1292. He was probably the first in the Middle Ages to __that we should learn science___observing and experimenting on the things around us, and he himself __many important truths.

Galileo (1564－1642),___，who lived more than 300 years later, was the greatest of several great men in Italy, France, Germany, and England, who began to show how many important ___could be discovered by observation by degrees. Before Galileo, learned men believed that large bodies ___more rapidly towards the earth than small ones, __ Aristotle said so. But Galileo, going to the ___of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, let fall two __ stones and proved Aristotle was wrong. It is Galileo's __ of going direct to nature, and proving our __ and theories by experiment, that has____all the discoveries of modern science.

What __ those people good scientists? From the example of Galileo, we know clearly that ___scientists are those whose observations have___ better results.

7 . My father was born in a small town in the US. He wasn't sure what he wanted from ______， but something told him to ______ and begin a new adventure.

He began that adventure traveling to cities in the US before going on to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. He took my mother and us three daughters with him and went wherever the road ______ him.

It's easy to feel _____ when you're on the road. We made lots of new friends on our trip — most of them are mechanics, since we often ______ hours in repair shops. But that was a way much _____ than sitting by the roadside while waiting for the engine to ______ when it was 40 ℃ outside.

Getting along well sometimes seemed ______. There were always a lot of _____， especially among us back seat passengers about who had to ______ in the middle. But even if it was hard, we learned a lot about ______. When we were traveling in the Philippines, we drove to Quezon City one day. It should have been an hour's drive but was nearly three thanks to bad roads and ______ traffic. “Did you put our suitcases in the car?” my father asked my mother as we arrived there. From the back seat, we saw her ______ turn toward my father. “No, ” she said. “I thought you did.” That was how a seven hour car trip turned into a 16hour one, which was mostly spent in ______.

On occasions like that, we had to learn to let go of our anger because we were ______ in a rolling box with the same people for the rest of the ______. Even if I sometimes felt like opening the car door and ______ one of my sisters out, I kept my feelings to myself.

This is why road trips were like ______ universities to us. We ______ our PhDs (博士学位) in how to get along with other people just by traveling in our old car.

If we were ______ given a second chance at life, we would do it all over again. Only this time would I put the suitcases in the car myself.

8 . I was so blessed for all the special moments I had with my mother. When she was eighty-two, she thought she was ________ me by asking me to take her to the many doctor visits she had, but it was a ________ for me to spend quality time with her.

I tried to make a(n) ________ of our days together, ________ her doctor’s visits with doing something thrilling. One day, while we were driving and deciding where to eat lunch, I ________ to a stoplight and saw a large sign outside a restaurant. I looked at the ________ sign and asked my mother. “Have you ever played Skee-Ball?”

“No.” she replied.

So we chose to eat in this restaurant. I ________ the special lunch buffet, and it came with fifty tokens (代币) for the arcade (电玩) games. I ________, “Aha! We are rich!”

After we ate, it was time to use those golden tokens. Mom loved playing Skee-Ball and collecting ________. She moved from game to game like a child. She had fun ________ as one machine spewed (喷出) out seven tickets again and again! I ________ her token after token for the next game to be played...until we ________ tokens.

When we went to ________ in our handfuls of tickets at the automatic counting machine, Mom chose a toy whistle. The man gave her a(n) ________ one for me, so we had fun blowing whistles together.

I keep that whistle on my desk, a ________ of a wonderful experience with my mom as we embraced (欣然接受) her willingness to make the most of every day.

9 . After the movers had taken the furniture and boxes, once the house was empty of everything but dust and echoes, I took from my pocket a(n) _______I had found in the garden several days before. A friend had _______saying goodbye to the house with a special ritual (仪式) of the Memory Stone.

The idea is to take a stone that you like and walk through the house and gardens, projecting your _______onto it. I wasn't sure it would work, but I decided to _______ it. One of the things that _______me about leaving the house was the idea of leaving behind all the memories. Perhaps this offered a way to take _______with me somehow.

I stared downstairs. It was a beautiful day and the light was shining through the windows. At first, the memories didn't come _______. I sat there, staring at the stone, but _______ happened. Just some memories of memories--- _______I had seen in photographs, words I had read in letters and diaries.

But after just a few minutes, that ________. Suddenly, the room was crowded with people I hadn't seen for years, as well as some people I had seen just the day before. It's winter, and we're all in the kitchen, making a(n) ________ for Christmas. It's summer, and we are trying to find ________ from the heat. I'm 11, trying on my new school uniform in front of the ________. My mother is coming upstairs to say good night and give me a hug. I have come in________ for my curfew (宵禁) ；I am tiptoeing up the stairs, hoping I won't ________anybody. My father is dancing with my friend Gideon. Now my father is old and I am sitting close to him on his bed, saying goodbye to him for what would ________ to be the last time.

One moment I found myself ________; and in another, I surprised myself by bursting into laughter. But mostly, the experience was strangely ________.

It's been several months since I walked out of the house for the last time. I don't know ________this stone I have, this piece of the place, can really hold so much. ________, right now, as pick it up and gaze at it, I seem to be back home.