1 . Each morning, I hear my phone ring around 8: 00 am. Instead of _________ it, I let it go to voicemail. Anyone who is not familiar with me will think I am _________ the caller and usually say, “Aren’t you going to respond to that?”

I listen to the message when I have time to relax. It is a _________ from my friend Tina. After listening to her talk, I call her cell and _________ a similar message.

The _________ started ten years ago when I came to a crossroads in my life. Tina was my advisor. I told her my confusion and she gave me some helpful _________. We finally came up with a(n) _________ to keep me on track. We decided to call each other daily.

“Let’s set some guidelines to these calls,” she _________. The guidelines for our calls were simple: We’d leave a list of what we are grateful for. We’d discuss three good things we did for ourselves the day before.

Like anything else, it took a while to _________ the calls. It was a new kind of relationship for both of us. But after ten years, it comes as __________ as breathing.

We’re a team, and when one of us __________, the other is always there to pick her up. I will put in that extra call and talk one-on-one when I’m __________ about her. Tina does the same for me. I know I can __________ her.

Anything is possible when you have the right people there to __________ you. I’m one of the __________ people on Earth to have a system like this.

2 . I was working as a mechanical engineer, doing designing and product development at my company. I was really having a good time.

However, one day, I got a message for a _______ from my manager at 4:45 pm. I went into his office, and I saw someone from HR sitting beside him. My manager said,“Your _______ is not up to the mark. You always need help from others to complete your work. You aren’t working _______ . So this will be your_______day.” I had_______my hardest in the last 3 months and to hear something like that_______my confidence. I tried to convince him but the_______was final.

In this situation, I had two_______. To feel sad for myself or to leave everything behind and go get what I was worth. I told myself that I_______a job. I started________a new job actively. Putting in maximum effort, I got________. I made a record of 12 interviews in a week! I________several offers and accepted a new job! I was really________and proud of myself.

I just want to say that no matter how much you________, you can always get back up. I am proud of myself that I stayed________and got a new offer within a few weeks.

3 . Winnie the Pooh was a source of comfort for me while I was growing up. Not only did he help me get to sleep, he also helped me understand the importance of _________. Little did I then _________ that his words would provide more _________ than I could ever imagine.

I have spent the past five months in isolation (隔离). In that time, I have _________ loss and grief. One of the biggest _________ has been not being able to see those closest to me. This _________ me of the stories that I have read in Winnie the Pooh. He tells me that despite _________ we are stronger and braver than we think. Isolation has taught me how to _________ in the face of adversity (逆境). Time spent with friends has _________. I find that I am spending much more time on phone calls and __________. My friendships have become much more __________, returning to play. Through the children’s stories that I have heard, and my time in isolation, I have learnt the importance of __________. Homeless children often talk about their friends and their need to play to make light of a bad __________. This proves Pooh’s second point: we are __________ than we think.

Winnie the Pooh’s words have taught me a lot of things. Most __________, despite distance, friendship makes us stronger, braver, and smarter. If it weren’t for the __________ that I have had during isolation I wouldn’t have __________ any of these things. I have __________ the words of Winnie the Pooh to remind me that despite the distance __________ between me and those that I love, I can still carry my friendships __________.

6 . A fashion show that features elderly people as models is a rarity. One with elderly Black African models is even rarer. Perhaps that’s why Nigerian visual artist Malik Afegbua got so much attention from around the world when he posted images titled “The Elders Series” on social media last month showing seniors on a fashion runway, dressed in stylish and colorful clothes.

“The inspiration behind this series was my mum,” explained Afegbua, 38. “She had a stroke(中风), and I am very close to her. I just needed an outlet to find a way to express myself and not think about her on a life-support machine. I wanted to think about her in a happy place.”

But what’s truly remarkable about the images is that the ground-breaking fashion show never actually took place. While the images look like photographs of a genuine vent, they were entirely generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

“The Eiders Series” is an extension of other projects that Afegbua has created through AI. He uses the AI Platform Midjourney, which generates images in response to text prompts (提示). Afegbua says he experiments with different phases, refining his search terms until he gets an image he likes, and then edits it in Photoshop-repeating the process until he achieves the effect he’s looking for.

Afegbua believes AI can be a powerful tool for the arts-film and television in particular. “It’s here to say...it’s going to advance and it’s going to get better,” he said. But he says the role of a human creator is still key. “AI is not All. It can’t think by itself. There is always s human being behind it-to put things in motion,” he added.

8 . It was late September. I was driving through a heavy fog to a store to _______ a few things. When I got there, I _______ in the store looking for what I _______ . I chose a bag of food for my dogs, a pack of _______ for my son to play with his toy car and my favorite chocolate bars for _______ . As I turned the corner to _______ the checkout, though, I saw something that stopped me in my _______. A two-foot-tall skeleton (骨骼模型) _______   a tuxedo (无尾礼服) was staring across the room at a two-foot-tall Santa Claus. I _______ shook my head and walked on.

As I was ________ home, the fog lifted and the Autumn leaves started to ________ in the sunlight. There were reds, yellows, oranges and browns. It was so ________ . As I watched them, I found the   ________ why I had been so bothered by what I had seen in the__________. It wasn’t that Halloween was a month away and Christmas three months away. It wasn’t that the stores were doing all they could to________ money from our pockets and add__________ to our credit cards. It was the ________ fact that we possibly had ________ that every day is nice. Every day is ________, which we should treasure. We have created a world in which we regret the past and live for the ________. We spend all of our wealth trying and failing to buy a few moments of joy.

9 . Driving herein the mountains can be a challenge in the summertime. The holes and stones in the road make it a _________ride. The low hanging trees, full of green leaves,_________your view. And you always have to be on the lookout for dogs, cats and deer _________the road.

I saw an incredibly _________sight here just the other day. As I was_________along, I saw a baby deer lying dead along the side of the road. Its white spots were still on it. It was so heart-breaking to see it like that and I _________in ease more deer were coming down the mountains to drink from the_________that ran alongside the highway. When I _________another curve(拐弯处), felt a(n)_________inside my heart and a voice inside my mind, saying “Slow down, more!”

I__________my speed again.

Suddenly two adult deer leaped across the road. I __________on the brakes until I came to a complete__________, and just as I stopped, two baby deer appeared from the woods after their parents,__________them pass and felt__________that I hadn’t hit those baby deer. Then I__________and thanked myself for having listened to that __________in my heart and mind.

So many times I have__________a whispered urging in my heart to says something__________or to help someone in need.

May you always listen to the__________in your heart. They will turn you into a better__________.They will always lead you Home!