1 . It’s hard being an astronaut’s son, I _________, everybody expects you to be special or _________, but I’m just an average student.

I often wonder _________ my father ever had a son like me. I mean he’s so _________ and so good at everything. So I used to dream about doing something spectacular (令人印象深刻的) to _________ my father.

In one class, my teacher _________ a Father’s Day essay contest for us and the winners’ essays would be read in front of all the parents and students. After school I walked home, _________ about my father, who I would write about in my essay.

He sat with me in the _________ when I was a little kid and had a nightmare. He _________ me with a new puppy at my eighth birthday party. To me, he wasn’t a world-famous astronaut, but just my dad.

I wrote about all these __________ in my essay. One of our neighbours said, “I __________ you’ll win the contest, David. You’re the only one in town whose father is an astronaut.” I didn’t want to win __________ because my father was an astronaut.

I won the second prize. When I finished reading my essay, the __________ applauded. I saw my father blowing his nose.

Dad nodded to me, __________ his throat, and put his hand on my shoulder. “Son, this is the __________ moment of my life,” he said.

It was the proudest moment of my life, too. Maybe I’ll never be a great hero or win a Nobel Prize, but just then, it was enough just to be my father’s son.

2 . A thief dropped a winning lottery ticket (彩票) at the scene of his crime, but he has been given a lesson in _______. The man whom he robbed _______ the ticket and won the ￡25,000 prize. But the man managed to find the thief, and handed over the _______.

The robbery happened when Professor Sabbatucci was changing a tyre on a highway. Another motorist, who stopped “to_______”, stole a suitcase from his car and drove off. The professor found the _______ ticket and brought it home.

The next day, the professor saw the lottery _______ on TV and realised it was a winner. He _______ the ￡25,000 prize, but he decided not to keep the money. He made an announcement on the radio, _______, “I’m trying to find the man who robbed me. I have ￡25,000 for him — a lottery _______. Please meet me.”

The professor received hundreds of ________ from people who were hoping to ________ him into handing them the money. But there was one voice he ________ and he arranged to meet the man in a park.

The robber gave back the ________ and burst into tears. He could not ________ what was happening.“Why didn’t you keep the money?” he asked. The professor replied, “Because it’s not mine.” Then he walked off, turning down the thief’s ________ to share the prize.

3 . More than half the world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 the UN expects that proportion to reach 68%. This means more homes, roads and other infrastructure. Such a construction ________ does harm to tackling climate change, though, because making steel and concrete generates around 8% of the world’s carbon-dioxide emissions. If cities are to ________ and become greener at the same time, they will have to be made from something else.

As it happens, Chicago might become part of the ________. In recent years, as architects have become increasingly interested in modern timber (木材) — construction methods, wooden buildings have been getting steadily ________. The current record is held by the 85-metre-tall Mjostarnet building in Norway, completed in 2019. But this would be ________ by the River Beech Tower, a 228-metre building proposed for a site beside the Chicago river.

As the AAAs meeting heard this week, wood is one of the most ________ sustainable alternatives to steel and concrete. It is not, however, everyday wood but a material called engineered timber, composed of different layers for specific purposes. Besides engineering the shape of a component, designers can arrange the grains (纹理) in the layers to provide levels of ________ that equal steel, in a product that is up to 80% lighter. Engineered timber is, ________, usually assembled into large sections of a building in a factory. That cuts down on the number of ________ that have to be made to a construction site.

All this ________ to carbon-dioxide emissions. Michael Ramage of the University of Cambridge told the meeting of a 300-square-metre four-storey wooden building that generated 126 tonnes of CO₂. Had it been made with ________, emissions would have risen to 310 tonnes. If steel had been used, they would have topped 498 tonnes. Indeed, from one point of view, this building might actually be viewed as “carbon ________”. When trees grow, they lock carbon up in their wood — in this case the equivalent of 540 tonnes of CO₂, representing a long-term reduction of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

If building with wood takes off, it does raise concern about there being enough trees to ________. But with sustainably managed forests that should not be a problem, says Dr Ramage. A family-sized apartment requires about 30 cubic metres of timber, and he estimates Europe’s sustainable ________ alone grow that amount every seven seconds. Nor is fire a risk, for engineered timber does not burn easily, because the inner cores of large ________ timbers are protected by a charring (炭化) layer if burnt.

4 . The earthquake was over and the city was in ruins. I had no choice but to walk home as all the _______ had stopped as a result of the quake. On my way home I _______ an old lady at a bakery giving out free bread, which made my heart warm. A man was holding a sign saying, “Please use our toilet.” He was _______ his house for people to go to the restroom.

My friend, _______ wanted to be of help to others, stood in the cold with a sign, “If you don’t _______ a motorcycle, I’ll be glad to drive you home.” And then I saw him pick up an old man and drive him all the way to a faraway place!

Then the next day I drove to have my car _______. There was not enough _______ and many gas stations were closed or had very long lines. I got worried, since I was _______ fifteen cars. Finally, when my turn came, the man smiled and said, “_______ this situation, we are only giving $30 worth of gas per person. Is that alright?” “________. It’s nice that we are all able to ________,” I said. His smile gave me so much comfort.

At the escape centre I saw a man ________ when people brought food to him. It was the first time in three days that food had been brought to their centre. However, after he cleaned up the tears, his next ________ surprised me. “I am very grateful that we are provided with food. But people in the city next to us haven’t ________ any food at all. Please go to that centre as well.” Hearing that, I realised there was a bright future on the other side of this ________.

5 . An elderly woman is crediting (归功于) her neighbor’s 4-year-old dog with saving her life during last week’s dangerously cold temperatures.

Tim Curfman was _______ his garbage with his dog Midnight when he felt its _______ was unusual. It had its ears held up looking at him. It didn’t _______ do that. Curfman got the feeling that something’s _______. So he observed how his dog was acting and _______ it to a spot on the other side of his house. There, he saw his 87-year-old neighbor, Noreen, _______ in the snow. She was trying to fill her bird feeder when she fell. Curfman _______ she was out there at least half an hour. She could not get up because she didn’t have enough _______ to push herself up, and there was nothing around the corner to get a _______ of, either. The temperature was one degree below zero, but Curfman and Midnight were able to __________ her quickly.

Noreen, who didn’t have serious injuries, was lucky to __________ frostbite (冻伤) even though her clothes were wet. Curfman called his wife and they together helped his neighbor up from the snow and into her __________, where his wife helped the elderly woman get into __________ clothes.

Noreen was __________ to Midnight for saving her life. “A dog like this __________ to be proud of because it’s not every dog that pays attention to things like this,” Noreen said in an interview.

6 . Anxious exam candidates’ problem is the run-up or preparation, not the exam itself.

Exams are always tense and worrying, especially for those of an anxious personality. The silence of the hall; the ________ of the clock; the content expression of the person at the neighbouring desk. It therefore seems ________ surprising that those who worry about tests do systematically ________ than those who do not. Unexpectedly, according to a research in Psychological Science by Maria Theobald, it is not the pressure of the exam which causes the problem. It is the ________ pressure.

What Dr Therobald found was that ________ on the day of the test did not predict exam performance at all. What predicted it was the level of knowledge a student ________ in the earlier learning activities and displayed in the mock (模拟) exam. Those who ________ well in these also did well in the real thing, ________ how anxious they were on the day. What actually ________ students were high levels of anxiety during the weeks before the exam took place. The greater a student’s anxiety in the days before the exam, the lower his or her knowledge-gain was during that period, leaving that student with less material to ________ during the exam itself.

This is a positive discovery, ________ it suggests the anxious might achieve better result by adjusting their approach when revising. Dr. Theobald notes that test-anxiety is at its worst when students have low ________ of success and at the same time know that passing the exam is ________ important. To reduce this anxiety, she proposes a ________ for students to consider as they revise. First, they can raise their belief in their own abilities by reminding themselves of just how much they know. Second, they can ________ the significance of the test by reminding themselves that, while it is important, it is not a life or death situation. It really isn’t.

8 . As our Earth’s temperature warms up because of climate change, it is having unexpected effects on our world’s forests. When temperatures rise, trees close their skins to ___________ the loss of water, and this, in turn, slows down the ___________ of photosynthesis(光合作用). As a result, these trees are shorter and grow slowly, as well as have a ___________ death rate.

Climate change also increases the ___________ of droughts and wildfires. After wildfires, it takes a while for the forest systems to ___________ , and in some cases, the forests are ___________ permanently. Trees that are stressed are also ___________ to attacks by bacteria(细菌). In tropical forests, vines that use the trees as ___________ can often choke the trees and rob them of nutrients. Finally, humans have ___________ the forest landscape through logging. When trees are replanted on the soil, they will never grow as large as the ____________ trees that were cut down.

As these forests disappear, species that once called them “home” are forced to change, ____________ the variety of those systems. ____________ , some endangered species are unable to ____________ and die. Old-growth forests are disappearing in all regions of our world. When forests die, younger forests that are reestablished in the same area grow back weaker and smaller ____________ poor vegetation. With trees dying increasingly and continuously, will future generations ____________ out on the wonders of forests?

10 . Where do you go when you want to learn something？

School？ A friend？ A tutor？These are all _________ places of learning. But it may well be that the learning you really want _________ somewhere else instead. I had the _________ of seeing this first hand on a _________．

My daughter plays on a recreational soccer team. They did very well this season and so _________ a tournament, which normally was only for more skilled club teams. This led to some _________ experiences on Saturday as they played against teams _________ trained. Through the first two games, her _________ did not get one serious shot on goal. As a parent, I _________ seeing my daughter playing her best，____________ still defeated.

It seemed that something clicked with the ____________ between Saturday and Sunday. When they ____________ for their Sunday game, they were ____________ different. They had begun to integrate (融合) the kinds of play and teamwork they had ____________ the day before into their ____________．They played aggressively and ____________ scored a goal.

It ____________ me that playing against the other team was a great ____________ moment for all the girls on the team.I think it is a general principle.____________ is the best teacher.The lessons they learned may not be ____________ what they would have gotten in school，but are certainly more personal and meaningful，because they had to work them out on their own.