1 . I never imagined that an interstate trip could be so exciting. But when your world has become smaller since the pandemic hit two-and-a-bit years ago, and then slowly _________, the most ordinary experience gives new _______ to life. And so it was with me when I was _________ given the chance to take my first flight in more than two years.

I’d forgotten how it felt to be among the people coming and going. I got to the airport two hours before boarding. Time for the bar and, of course, _________.

That group of young Arab women laughing and posing for photographs by the expansive windows, aircraft in the _________ , lighting up the place with their happiness.

The man in the corner drinking alone. Just another one of the 70,000 or so stories that would pass through the airport _________.

I couldn’t be calmer as a flyer. But when the plane took off I was _________, in that moment of weightlessness as the wheels _________ Earth, leaning towards the window to watch everything below becoming smaller and smaller.

Is it possible that the denial of so much during the pandemic lockdown had added new _________to what was the ordinary? I think so. The plane ride, the hotel stay, and the social occasion all now gave me a sense of ____________ that might have previously only aroused in me nothing more than a certain nonchalance (若无其事) or even ____________.

Last June, just ahead of the long Sydney lockdown, a friend ____________ a birthday party. That experience for me would continue happily through some of the____________ months of the lockdown that would follow.____________ the repeated fear that the pandemic holds over us, the memory of that celebration still keeps its bright, warm light in my mind. That’s what happens when everything old is new again, when ____________ is rediscovered as a virtue.

4 . Life can get tough, but it’s important to keep fighting for the better. In particular, due to COVID-19, many more people are struggling with ________ challenges right now, whether that’s illness, inability to move around ________ ,or a reduction in contact with friends and family. Let’s explore some ways to keep fighting and get through the difficult times.

Change any expectations you have of yourself. It’s okay to slow down and________ the number of things you have on your plate. Actually, it’s impossible to ________ at your full potential in a hard time. So understand and accept that you’re going through a rough time and allow yourself to________ to this period in your life.

Be kind to yourself. Whatever it is that you’re going through, make it part of your________ to do something every day that makes you happy. Don’t focus on the big, unsustainable gestures like trips abroad. ________,focus on the smaller pleasures in life, like having a cup of really good coffee or a hot bath.

Reduce your exposure to things that________ negative emotions. When you are mentally strong, you might be fine watching the news about ________ events because you know that life isn’t always like this. But when you’re mentally weak, you might________ yourself that life is all doom and gloom. The ________ hasn’t changed --your state of mind has.

Finally. don’t be afraid to________ for help. We all need a helping hand sometimes. It’s________ to be ashamed of. Online forums are a great way to find ________ because they focus on the problem at hand, and you’ll always find people going through________ issues.You may not get a solution to your troubles, but sometimes just being able to share your feelings is enough.

5 . While washing dishes, I sometimes look into the kitchen window of our neighbor’s house. Our kitchen is always _______ but our neighbors, two young men whom I only know in passing, never seem to turn on their light. Once as I was washing apples, my eyes _______. Shadow gave way to shape. Then I _______ them—head bent, pouring the pickle (腌菜) juice from an empty jar.

On the first Saturday of the COVID-19 lockdown, I wanted to be a good _______ to them. The pandemic seemed to be getting worse. I _______ what the weeks and months ahead might look like. Our family have been trying to take the idea of “love the neighbour” _______, and sometimes that does literally mean the person living next door, _______ you’ve only met them from the kitchen window.

So I made a sign reading “Have a nice day!” and stuck it on my kitchen window. A while later, a sign appeared on their window with a _______ for us. “Thank you. You too!”

We went on like this for a few days and I thought of how this would be a nice story for us all: _______ by signs and moving from strangers to good friends. ________ around Day 5, I posted a line of a Mary Oliver poem, and that was the ________ of that. Maybe I was showing off, so I stopped. However, a week later, when I went out to quiet our yelling dog, I saw one of the guys. “Sorry, we didn’t find a ________,” he said. “We meant to,” he added. “And then we never ________.”“That’s okay,” I replied. And we both went back inside.

It is so ________ to be a good neighbour now. We can’t ________ and knock on a door, or even lend things. After this is all over, I have decided I will invite all our neighbors over for dinner. I can’t be a neighbour now, but I can be a neighbour then. The pandemic will have knitted us together like an old worn sock and we’ll stay that way.

7 . Before there were telephones in every home that could _________ you immediately with a loved one, there were letters. Sure, you might _________ to wait a few days or weeks for the postman to _________ it, but the special feeling it contained made it worth the _________. Although a letter offers no _________ joy, handwritten correspondence (通信) was always highly _________ and favored. A letter could be read _________ so that one could enjoy that special moment over and over again.

In the face of worry over the coronavirus pandemic and all the _________ it has placed on New Yorkers, a Brooklyn-based performance artist and English professor Brandon Woolf came up with the idea of reviving (复兴) the letter-writing _________ as a means to reach out and __________ one another.

Knowing that people have lost loved ones, jobs and businesses, and __________ simple pleasures like hugs from a friend, Woolf began to think about how to help people make meaningful connections.

His __________ was to take a page from history.

“When interpersonal connection is risky during the hard times, what are other ways where we can be together?” Woolf wondered. “What is a better experience than __________ a piece of mail in your mailbox from somebody you didn’t expect to hear from?”

Using a portable typewriter and seated on a folding chair alongside a mailbox, he put a sign says, “Free Letters for Friends Feeling Blue.” Woolf spent several hours, a few days a week for four weeks, typing letters for his Park Slope, Brooklyn __________ .

The 37-year-old New York University teacher called his street performance “The Console” — __________ consolation (慰问). He hoped the neighbors and those hearing from them could feel the warmth.

9 . On Christmas Eve 2020, fire trucks rushed to the Chittle home in the sleepy little town of Manton, Michigan. But it wasn’t because of a Christmas nightmare. _________ it.

Winters can be long and _________ in this far north, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott Chittle knew something had to be done to bring some _________ to the 1,555 people who call Manton home. Chittle, 51, lives in a big house with his two children. When he was three, his father _________ an ice-skating rink (溜冰场) in their backyard, where Chittle and his _________ would spend endless hours playing hockey (曲棍球). That, thought Chittle, is what the children in this _________ need.

One problem: Chittle had no clue how to build an ice rink. _________, there’s the Internet. Soon after watching a video, he was smoothing out a 3,000-square-foot section of his yard, and buying woods to create the walls. Now he needed the _________. That’s where those fire trucks came in. It took 12 of these firemen to spray enough water to _________ the plot of land.Then he __________ for Mother Nature to do the rest.

It wasn’t long before Chittle’s backyard became a Manton __________ spot. The smell of grilled hot dogs and burning firewood filled the air.Lights strung over the ice added sparkle. And the __________ and screams of children playing hockey made their parents smile.

But the kindness didn’t __________ with Chittle. When word got out that he’d spent $1,400 out of his own pocket on the rink, neighbors, strangers, and businesses donated $3,000 to __________ the costs and more.

For Chittle, the ice rink was always about more than kids playing merrily. It was about __________ even the darkest times. “I want to show the rest of the world,” says Chittle, “what a little effort, the best intentions, and community can do, not only for others but for the souls of all.”

10 . Many nursing homes all over the world are locked down to protect their residents from the COVID-19. Group-f is a ______ company in Belgium, whose employees wash the outsides of tall buildings, using platforms that are lifted by cranes (起重机). When the COVID-19 hit Belgium, Group-f’s business ______ . The cranes sat ______ . But one day, company manager Bosch saw a man standing on the ______ and shouting up to his mother who was looking down ______ from her window on the third floor of a nursing home. This gave Bosch a perfect______ .

Bosch realized he could put the cranes to good use. Ever since, he has been ______ them to nursing homes. There, a family can ______ a platform that a crane operator will lift up to the window of a loved one.

Eve Putseys came to see her 88-year-old aunt, who lives in La Cambre, a nursing home. Before she______ the platform, Putseys didn’t know what to expect. “It’s been seven long weeks that I haven’t been ______ to see her,” she said. But when Putseys returned to the ground, she was ______. “I finally got to see her. She looked very happy to see me,” she said.

Officials at La Cambre helped organize the crane-operated ______ . “It’s been hard work but quite ______ ,” director Thibaut Chevrier says. Bosch ______ that operating the machines costs his company money. But he has no ______ . “It’s a great honor to help people,” he says.