1 . Susan had long blonde hair and big blue eyes. So did most of the other children in her school class, which______ her a lot. “I look like everyone else! I’m not ______! I’m boring!” Susan complained to her mother.

She decided to try to make herself look ______. She painted big pink spots on her neck and when she didn’t get attention, she stuck (粘贴) a long plasti nose on top of her real nose. Nobody noticed that ______. She took ink and poured it all over her ______. She wore clown (小丑) clothes to school and stuck leaves in her ears.______, no matter what she did, she still didn’t get any______ and nobody thought she was special.

One morning her______went to wake her up and told her to get ready for school. She made Susan _______ the ink out of her hair and clean her neck. “I’m not going to school ______! I’m boring!” She buried (埋藏) her head under the quilt (被子) and ______.

“Susan,” her mother said, “You are different. You are unique and special. ______in the world looks just like you. Some people have blonde hair like you and some have blue eyes like you, but none of then has your smile or the twinkle in your eyes or your pink face. Nobody laughs like you, either. Now______and get ready for school.”

Susan went to school that day and looked at all the other kids in her class. “Mom was ______. Nobody looks just like me.” Susan smiled.“I am special. I am unique and I am not ______!”

2 . Being a parent is already a life-changing experience. However, this 40-year-old dad______an astonishing transformation after a hike with his kids.

Before Jeremiah Peterson looked like a supermodel, he weighed 290 pounds. He was only ________to lose weight after he went on a ________ with his family in 2017 and became aware how quickly he got ________ from the activity.

“Instead of remembering all the good ________ we had made on this trip, all I can remember is this one thing that kept playing in my head over and over again: I found myself running out of breath and having to take ________ before my 9-, 7- and 4-year-old kids,” Peterson wrote on Instagram.

The dad from Missoula, Montana then ________ himself to get into shape.

________, he started by giving up drinking and ________ a balanced diet. Every day for five months straight, he would hike for two hours and spend one more hour at the gym.

After 150 days of a strict diet and lots of ________, Peterson lost 92 pounds. Not only that, he can now run ________ up the hiking trail that once made him extremely exhausted.

Peterson now uses his story and fitness knowledge to coach and ________ almost 100,000 social media followers — but he says that his kids are the real _________for his success.

“Finding your reason is ________ if you want to achieve success in life,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “If you don’t have a strong reason behind your ________, you are less likely to get the results.”

4 . My daughter and I were swimming in our pool one summer day. This day was like any of the other days, so I had no way of knowing that this one would go down in our family history as a________we cherish(珍惜)and still________from time to time.  

The sun was setting and the night was________approaching. My daughter________it first—a spider was spinning(纺织) her web at the bottom of the freshly painted blue fence(篱笆)that________our pool. It surprised me that she saw this, and it surprised me even more that she wasn’t________of the spider.  

Instead, she________watched as the spider busied herself in the cycle of life. As we both watched this wonder of nature, a very simple thought________me. I had lost the track of________. I honestly didn’t know how long we had been just staying there and________that spider making her web. But, regardless of whatever amount of time had passed, the truth was that we were________having fun.  

What we had done was to spend time together and________the simple things in life. We talked about how precious our________amount of time is on this planet and how we should________to enjoy the simple things in life like the flight of a bird. The simple things are the ________things in life, even when they include spiders and webs.

8 . A Letter to Mom and Her Mince (肉末)Pies

When I was a little girl, on Christmas Eve, you and I would bake cakes. “Make enough mince pies, because Santa likes them, ” you would tell me.

On Christmas morning, I’d wake up and thrill at the________ before me. At the bottom of my bed would be loads of presents. I’d scream in delight, ________ tearing the wrapping paper. Running downstairs, I would________ that Santa hadn’t just stopped in the________. There were also lots of________ around the Christmas tree.

Many years later, the________ continued. One afternoon________ we were making extra mince pies, it________ hit me that the extra wasn’t for________. I said, “Those extra mince pies were never for Santa, were they? They were________ you!” You never said a word- a smile was your only________.

Christmas changed in 1986, when you suffered a________ brain disease. After________ throughout Christmas, you passed away on December 29.

Only now am I starting to enjoy Christmas again. And while I don’t do the________ any more, I do have mince pies in the house. I leave one out just for you, as if you were________ a part of my Christmas.

10 . Paper cutting is a special form of folk art in China, with a history of nearly 1,500 years. The first paper cutting _______ the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420—589) period. The _______ and spread of paper cutting had a close relationship with Chinese _______ festivals.

In rural areas, paper cutting is _______ a handicraft for women. In the past, every native girl was _______ to master it. _______, professional paper cutting artists were usually males who earned poor incomes by working in workshops.

The main cutting _______ are simple: paper and scissors or cutting knives. It is easy to learn how to make paper cuttings but very difficult to master it with perfection. This is because making paper cuttings _______ much effort, practice, craftsmanship and imagination. Flexibility (灵敏度) is also needed, but any _______ or wiggling (摇晃) will lead to imperfection or __________ damage the whole image.

Wishes for wealth, health and longevity (长寿) are mostly __________ through paper cuttings. For example, during the Spring Festival, the character “Fu” is pasted (粘贴) upside down on the door to express people’s wish for good __________; at a wedding ceremony, a big red paper-cutting with the character “Xi” is a traditional and essential __________; upon the birthday party of a senior, the character “Shou” is often seen and will __________ delight to the whole celebration; a pattern of chubby (胖乎乎的) children hugging fish implies that every year they will be rich in __________.