1 . I became a gardener when I was twelve. My early________of gardening may not have originated from my love for nature. It was to ________my parents.

At that time, we had a big yard in which a beautiful maple tree stood. But my mother often looked with ________at this work of natural art. Those golden leaves seemed like tons of rubbish to her, “something else to ________!”Seeing the neighbors busy with gardening, my father ever thought it a waste of time.

At that age, I always did something________to whatever my parents did! If gardening were something they found________, I would plant a garden!

I planted some lily (百合花)seeds in the yard. But they failed to ________. I continued to sunflower seeds and roses. Wild ________joy, I found the first rose bloom (开花). One by one, the flowers bloomed their heads off.________, I was touched by this land of wonder.

________, my parents showed no interest in my garden. My father even________at me because he found it was ________to move around my garden to the driveway. To my mother’s ________, I put her vase my real roses which, in her eyes, were simply weeds________flowers.

Regardless of their ________, I kept on planting my garden and ________to enjoy the pleasure gardening. Plants make such good companions: they breathe, they bloom, they________to care and love.

It has been many years since I made my first garden out of my desire to ________my parent. Today I become known as Mrs. Greenthumbs, teaching gardening and hosting a gardening show which makes my parents feel very________. And now I could say it is my affection for________that makes me a real gardener.

2 . I was out in my fields, spade in hand, planting trees this morning. I feel good when I do it, knowing that long after I am gone, these trees will _______ high above the land, providing oxygen for humans not yet born and _______ the carbon dioxide from the air.

Each spring, as I am _______, my mind goes back to a _______ I have of my grandfather, walking with him on the land, listening to his _______ and learning about nature. He often told a story which has _______ in my imagination all these years.

It was in the early 1900s, a man lost his wife and daughter to a terrible disease. Filled with _______, he decided to take up the _______ occupation of shepherd in the hills. He was about 55 years of age at that time, and as he _______ his sheep, he looked around and saw the land was ________. Then the old man felt he needed to do something to help the land________, for it had once been a splendid green forest.

He collected some ________ of oak trees from other places, ________ watered them and cared for the young trees that sprouted the next year. For the rest of his life, he planted every day. No one knew his story until he was 90 years old. Yet he ________ to plant, perhaps only five trees a day. At that time, the hill had become a green forest, ________ as far as people could see.

3 . Alice is a student who came to my class last year. Though she has already turned 60, Alice looks so fit and ________, with a bright smile and an enthusiastic attitude. I am Alice’s teacher in class, but I feel she is my teacher in life.

For my 2-hour class every Saturday morning, Alice has to take a 3-hour round-trip on the road. But she is never ________ for class. Alice is very passionate about learning English. She often says, “Don’t ________ me as a 60-year-old. I am just a new beginner who wants to learn anything ________. You know, I am very excited to come to the class! ” So I feel a strong sense of ________ to make sure what I teach makes sense to her.

Alice came to me with very ________ English skills, but she turns out to be a very fast learner because she always puts English ________ on a daily basis. I _______ her homework before every class. Her homework is usually not what I ________ for the class, rather it is something that she ________ to put together. She makes various sentences using the important words and phrases she learned from our ________ class. I am always ________ by the quality of her work.

I feel fortunate to have a student like Alice. She has ________ me so much. Our ________ is a great learning experience for both of us. Though I have no idea why she learns English, I hope I can help her ________ her dream, whatever it is.

4 . Two years ago, Kiah Twisselman was working for the Kentucky Beef Council, when she reached the weight of 285 pounds. Kiah was responsible for their nutrition program, which meant _______ the health benefits of beef and it wasn’t sitting well with her. She had to stand up in front of a group registered _______, a group of influencers, and tell them about the nutritional benefits of beef, and it made her so _______.

While on a flight to a work conference, Kiah read a book by motivational speaker Rachel Hollis. “That book was kind of my _______ call to me that if you want to change your life, it is 100 percent in your _______ and nobody else’s,” said Kiah.

She started _______ Hollis on social media and decided to try her Five To Thrive plan, which _______ her to adopt five simple habits and commit to _______ them every day for 90 days.

Kiah started waking up earlier, _______, began daily journaling, drank water according to the instruction and ate healthily. In just a few months, she lost 25 pounds, which ________ her to keep going, ________ when she hit a plateau (停滞期). She set a new goal: to lose 100 pounds.

To ________ things up, Kiah started trying out harder workout videos. Unlike previously blaming herself for her failure, this time, she started from a place of ________. “When I failed, I was more willing to ________ myself and say, ‘What can I learn from this?’”

Over the next year, Kiah lost 103 pounds and the physical transformation was so ________!

5 . It’s strange, but I don’t really remember about the hurricane itself. It all happened so ______. I was sitting in my room when the roof (屋顶) just ______. All of a sudden, there was sky where the roof had been and I was very ______. Without a roof, staying inside was really ______. It was August, so it was really hot and it smelled so ______ everywhere! Living in the ______ air, we became breakfast, lunch and dinner for the mosquitos (蚊子). We had lost our home and everything in it. But as Mom kept on ______ us, we were all together and safe. Mom’s words made us feel ______. I remember us all lying under the midnight ______ and looking up at the stars. Even though we had lost a lot, moments like those gave us ______ for the future.

Although it was only a few days before we were ______, it felt like months. We were taken to another town in a faraway county. Now, one year has ______ and I’m back home in New Orleans. We are working together to ______ our homes and our lives. Now we have another chance to look up at the ______ of New Orleans, their beauty inspiring us and giving us ______ to move on.

1.

A．typically

B．currently

C．quickly

D．regularly

6 . An act of kindness doesn't have to be a grand gesture. Even those small acts of kindness can make a difference in someone's day. That was just the case for Amie Mickey when she____________a bumper sticker on her car reading: You Matter.

Amie started to do this several years ago. At first, she wondered if people would________________it. However, much to her surprise, she began seeing a flood of____________every time she hit the road. More often than not, people________________slowly near her car would roll down their windows, raising their____________________,waving and smiling. Sometimes, she even found some sticky notes left on her windshield saying things like “You________________too! “Once while she was driving down the highway, she became____________when a man driving a sports car at a high speed pulled his car alongside suddenly, waving and mouthing, “You matter!” Though it took her some time to recover from the________________, she still felt happy. Last year, someone____________________her car while she was waiting for her friend in the car by the roadside, saying to her, “It is a(an)________________sticker. I’ve seen various stickers before, but none of them have touched me as your sticker has done. “The two small words on the sticker seem simple enough, but they really struck a chord with many complete strangers who___________to catch sight of the sticker.

Stories like Amie's really________________the rest of us. Sometimes a kind word or gesture may lift our____________and it doesn't cost a thing except for a little extra thought. Maybe it means offering a friend a hug, praising the children when their children________________well in school, helping someone out or volunteering at animal shelters or shelters for the homeless. Acts of kindness are waiting everywhere. Small as they seem, they can make a____________impact on the world, and help form general goodness.

7 . When life hands you lemons — well, don’t even bother. Sixth-grader Jamaria Crump has already set an example. It took her one year to perfect her _______ lemonade recipe (食谱) along with some desserts that made her business, LemonTopia, a _______. And what is even more amazing is that, with some help from her _______, Jamaria built LemonTopia herself.

“She had _______ for a lemonade stand for a year before I let her do it,” said her mom, Jasmine Hall. When Jamaria’s previous school announced a bake sale (烤饼义卖), it was the perfect _______.   But the school told her she had to offer baked food _______ lemonade. So Jamaria added cookies and cheesecake. After the bake sale, she kept _______ at school and community events.

“It continued in different places _______ she served a party at the city hall,” Jasmine said. “We made a fortune at the party.” And with that money, Jamaria _______ her mother for working at the stand. “She’s a kid, so sometimes she wants to ________ such as going to the concert,” Jasmine said. “If I have to ________ for her, she will offer me money hourly.” The market manager said, “Jamaria’s drinks and snacks are the special, cheerful presence in the market.” ________, the market is competitive so Jamaria has to   ________   ways to drum up business. Fortunately, she has shown her   ________ as she developed lemonade with new flavors (味道).

“I’m very ________ of my daughter for sticking with it,” said Jasmine.

8 . Two weeks ago my grandfather passed away. It really put me into deep_______because my grandfather held a unique position in my life. For me, my grandpa was not only a_______family member but a tutor (导师) who encouraged me to work hard and_______well. 

I’ll never forget the first time I read a long piece of his writing. It was when I_______for Princeton and he offered to write to the university on my behalf. He wrote in beautiful_______and used poetic language, unafraid of sounding too “flowery”. I read the_______out loud so that I could hear the rhyming sounds. 

My grandfather_______hard work. Every time he came to visit us in New York, he would_______my brothers and me for our good performance, which inspired me. I knew he had worked hard to_______the big family during the Great Depression. He was awarded many military__________for winning many battles in the Navy in World War Ⅱ. 

At the funeral, a friend of my grandfather’s walked to me and said that my grandfather had told him about a small__________I had written. After it came out, I sent it to my grandfather__________received no reply. This man told me that my book hit my grandfather’s__________and brought tears to his eyes. My grandfather said he was so__________of me. 

Now I feel it’s even more worthwhile to write well because I know my grandfather__________it. I know he lives in my heart forever.

9 . A man landed on a deserted island after a shipwreck (船只失事). Every day he prayed, ________someone could pass and save him, but to his ________, no one ever came.

Months went by and this man learned to ________food and firewood from the island and stored them in a hut (小屋) which served as a ________ for him on the deserted island. One day when he returned to his hut after hunting for food, ________, he saw his hut was on fire, along with almost everything he had! The only thing________was the clothes on his back. The man grew so ________that he fell on his hands and knees crying heavily when he happened to look up and ________a ship coming in his direction. The man was ________. As they were heading back to civilization, the man asked the captain, “How were you able to __________me?” The captain __________, “We were voyaging across the ocean __________a cloud of smoke going up __________our attention. We decided to go to check it out and that’s why we found you!”

In life we will always be __________with challenges, problems and disasters. Always keep in mind that a disaster can sometimes be good __________.

10 . Byrd is in her eighth year of teaching at Wilder Elementary in Mansfield. She has taught fifth grader Fisher Croney every year since he was in kindergarten. Fisher _______ in the class by helping in Byrd's classroom whenever he has free time after class.

Byrd also _______ Fisher's mother, Shannon Croney, as an acquaintance. They would occasionally chat at their boys' baseball games. She had heard that Croney was having some _______ problems. In January 2019 Croney received a routine blood test and found her kidneys （肾）were not _______ normally. After going through a string of tests, doctors could not figure what caused her kidneys to _______. But Byrd didn't know what the _______ was until she saw a Facebook post from Fisher around Christmas of 2019. It was _______ to help his mother find a kidney. Byrd did not _______ to help. In March, Byrd, learned that she and Croney were a close _______ Even doctors were ________ that they were not related in blood.

Byrd was in the hospital for ________ in June. She was never ________ about the transplant（移植）. Actually, she felt honored that her donation enabled another person to live a totally ________ life.

Today, both women are doing well. They are turning their ________ to another member of their community, who is also sick and ________ a kidney transplant.