1 . As is customary in many cultures around the world, when a Japanese couple ________ a baby into the world, relatives come to visit the family and ________. However, because of the pandemic and social distancing rules, that hasn’t been ________ lately. Dakigokochi—rice babies ________ in Japan have been around since the early 2000s, but their popularity has ________ once again because of COVID-19. With relatives unable to ________, baby-shaped rice bags have become a much-needed way of ________ the joy of having a baby with ________ ones. Rice babies are bags of rice that weigh ________ as much as the babies they are replacing, and that have photos of the ________printed on them. They are ________ to relatives so they can hug the “new human” while looking at a picture of the baby’s face.

Naruo Ono, the owner of a rice shop, ________ the idea for rice babies 14 years ago when his own son was born and he was thinking about what he could do for relatives who ________ far away and couldn’t come and see him. He decided to make rice bags that were the ________ shape and weight as the baby, and ________ a picture of him on them, so the relatives could see and feel him.

One day, someone saw Naruo’s rice baby in the window of his shop and ________ on how interesting it was. That’s when he ________ that there might be a ________ for his cute rice bags. He started making them for ________and has since been shipping them all over Japan. Since then, several companies have ________ his invention.

4 . Around a bend (拐弯处) on a narrow trail that runs deep into the forest of Gabon’s Loango National Park, Kamaya comes into view. The huge silverback gorilla (大猩猩) coolly watches _______ arrive, then goes back to his meal.

Seated on a _______ branch, the 150-kilogram beast greedily pulls more _______ from the tree to his mouth with a _______ but powerful movement before slowly climbing down the trunk. Soon he falls asleep calmly.

After two years of a total _______ due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Parks Agency has decided to restart _______ observations of Gabon’s gorillas,_______ the iconic (标志性的) species will serve as a“loss leader” to _______ ecotourism.

That Kamaya and his _______ of about 10 members are so used to humans is the ________ of long labors by a team of scientists who also ________ data.

They work to make ________ to protect a species ________ with extinction and to ________ foreign tourists. Spending one hour with Kamaya and his family costs $500, on top of charges for ________ to the site and accommodation.

Loango Park, which ________ more than 155,000 hectares of the thickly ________ country, offers rich reward for a 4-5-hour road ________ from Port-Gentil, the second city, followed by the track and a ________ stage by boat.

Though expensive, the price is much lower than that paid to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda. It also gets income to manage protected areas that ________ a safe place for the animals.

5 . Lucy Flores spends her days teaching preschool students how to read and write. After _________, the 23-year-old girl goes home and does the same for her 43-year-old dad, Luciano Flores. “I was thinking to myself. ‘Since I can teach these _________ to read and write, why can't I teach my father that?’ _________, we started about four months ago,” says Flores.

Growing up in Mexico, Luciano's family had _________ resources. The school he _________ didn't have much to spare, either. So, after about first grade, he _________ going to class and started working to _________ his family. He began a _________ in construction he continues to this day.

“His work hardly requires him to sign things,” Flores says of her father. “But he told nobody around him that he didn't have the _________.” Unlike her dad, Flores received a good ____________ in school. Last year, she became the first person in her family to ____________ from college.

A few months ago, Flores gave ____________ her dad a shot. Though ____________ at first, he was excited to start to learn. “That first day, I told him to write his name, but he didn't want to do it in front of me,” she recalls. “He chose to sit at the dining room table ____________, because he didn't want anyone to see.” After four months of ____________ together for two hours every time, three days a week, both were done with work. Flores reveals that her dad can ____________ write his name and even read some articles on his own. Witnessing her dad's ____________, Flores feels really ____________.

Meanwhile, Luciano shares that he's eager to ____________ learning to read and write. According to Flores, they're planning a trip to a local library together. “He's never been to a library,” she says. “I’m just wondering his ____________ to seeing a library full of books.”

6 . Today, I went hiking with a friend of mine. The sky suddenly became covered with _________ clouds, so we started walking down the mountain with a(n) _________ step than usual. After a little while, we _________ a large group of children by chance. They were walking down the mountain as well. The path suddenly became _________ for a few moments before the group was well ahead and out of _________.

Left behind were a young boy and his _________. We slowed down for a bit to _________ with them about the weather before finally passing them. They _________ again when my friend stopped to tie her shoes. Suddenly, the boy fell. Fortunately, my friend _________ caught him as he was about to roll down the path. However, he got frightened and was __________ in his mother’s arms. He said that his __________ hurt and I could see the __________ on the mother’s face. I asked if I could help, with my friend__________ that I was a nurse and I could give the boy a quick __________ of his knee. Making sure that they needed nothing more __________ we continued on,I decided to leave the pair sitting on a rock.

I only took a few steps forward before feeling that there was more that could be done. I said __________ to my friend for slowing us down, then turned and asked the boy and his mother if they wanted us to __________ and walk down with us.I could see the relief (宽慰) wash over the mother’s face as she said “yes ” and immediately __________ up.

The __________ in New England had left the path covered with beautiful yellow leaves. Though we walked slowly, we talked __________ with the boy and his mother.

7 . As a PhD student, I went through many difficulties in my research. When I graduated, I wasn’t willing to _________so many hours away from my young children with so _________ to show for it. Instead, I accepted my love of teaching by working as a _________.

A decade later and with my kids in school, my scientific _________ came out of hibernation (冬眠) and I _________ a position at a new arts college. In my undergraduate classes, I asked my students to complete controlled experiments that were _________ guaranteed to produce reasonable data. But after a few years, I grew _________ with the gap between those _________ experiments and my own research projects.

I decided to _________ a new course that would give our students experience performing __________ experiments, ones that had the __________ to fail. Then after a solid hour of __________ and some leading questions on my part, one student finally __________, “It doesn’t make __________.” Hallelujah! One of them had stepped back from seeing what they __________ to see and described what the data __________ showed. The breakthrough helped the classmates start to look at the results with more __________ eyes. Within minutes, they were overflowing with questions and __________ about what could have gone wrong. My students were thinking like scientists.

Research is __________ and full of failed attempts. Trying to protect students from that reality does harm to them. I hope my students will bring an __________ with them that success doesn’t always come easy.

8 . In the evening, Kasi usually gets out of a park and returns home via Hilpher Road. That road has a very unique _________, with kids playing and people bargaining. One day she found a _________ just wandering in the lawn(草地) beside her house. His red coat made dull grass in the lawn _________. Kasi decided to wait for another fifteen _________ for the boy.

Then the boy sat on the bench. He was extremely _________, fear floating in his eyes. She clearly read the _________. After all, she had _________ been homeless. Her own eyes were filled with the memories of _________ times and tears rolled down from her pretty eyes. Yes, she once lived under a bridge where life was _________.

Then, she didn’t know how that fifteen minutes had __________. Still the boy was there. He was looking at a biscuit wrapper lying there. She stood up, wiped off her __________ and went to the boy and smiled. The boy got __________ and backed off and started crying. People in the park suddenly became very “__________” and ran to that boy, who opened up about Kasi. Everyone just got an opportunity to __________ Kasi and said unkind words about her existence. She needed to __________ immediately.

After reaching home, she could not __________ anything. So she put on her clothes and left. When she got to the __________, the poor boy appeared again. She was filled with a mixture of __________, but she could not help but start __________ those people. She immediately __________ the boy up and took him to her home. She decided to think of him as one of the family.