2 . On March 14, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic (新冠疫情) forced 57th Street Books, in Chicago, to close its doors. The store wouldn’t reopen for nearly a year and a half. During that time, director Jeff Deutsch was worried. Customers couldn’t come to the shop. His main advantage over online business had gone overnight.

Deutsch said he and his team were lucky. Customers stepped up. They offered gifts and support. “There was something very beautiful in the way our community came together,” he said. “We really supported one another’s businesses,”

Similar stories played out over the past two years in cities and towns around the country. Though independent bookstores were forced to close during the pandemic, many found ways to connect with and help their community.

Anne Holman is co-owner of the King’s English Bookshop. It’s in Salt Lake City, Utah. She said the store put books outside for reading and started doing a lot of events online. Other stores set up bookselling hotlines, and improved their tools for e-business.

Some bookstores did events that went more than bookselling. They offered COVID testing. They collected food for people in need. “Having an independent bookstore in your community is almost like a town square,” said Samira Ahmed, an author of books for young adults. “It’s an important place to build community.”

11-year-old Adele Sorkin, a fan of 57th Street Books, is on its Young Readers Advisory Board. Members receive early copies of books in exchange for writing reviews. “I think of the bookstore as a cookie jar (罐子),” Adele says. “It’s something special and fun that is always there for you.” Jeff Deutsch sees a bright future. “If we reimagine bookstores and do our best to support them,” he says, “then bookstores can thrive (兴盛).”

3 . Yesterday, after a day of Zoom (视频会议软件) meetings in my living room, I stepped out for a walk leaving my teen son bored on the couch. Bleecker Street, usually packed with people, was sprinkled with only the occasional pedestrians. Bars and restaurants lining the street were dark. Stores with bright neon lights, doors open, beckoned for the rare passers-by to enter. After just a week of the Covid-19 pandemic, an afternoon walk in Greenwich Village neighborhood felt surreal.

But then I noticed a row of daffodils(水仙)reaching for the sun in the small triangle-shaped park by Minetta Lane. On the windows of a locked restaurant, in bright yellow paint, were the words “We love you, West Village. Take care of each other. ” My phone buzzed—a colleague sent a picture of her newborn baby just home from the hospital. I arrived home to find my son animated on the couch playing a video game virtually with his friends. Life, love, play, and human connection persist, even though our world has been tuned upside down.

In my welcome note to the new students in the Fall, I wrote that this year is about our college’s core values of inclusion, innovation, and impact and emphasized the power of interconnection. Today, these core values persist, with interconnection taking on even greater significance. Our collaborative spirit has always given us an advantage—academically, creatively, culturally, and now, remotely.

A wise person once told me that getting through a crisis is like being given a new hand of cards in the middle of a game. We are halfway through the semester, with new hands to play, but the game hasn’t changed. We will find new ways to continue to work, teach, create and learn. Let’s also continue the informal interactions that make us a community—the study groups, coffee dates, drop-ins just to say hello. In doing so, we will remain connected.

We will come together, from spaces around the world, to meet this new reality. This is who we are. Nothing—not space, nor time—can keep us from moving forward, together.

Stephen Hawking’s family have contributed the ventilator (呼吸机)    1     (own)by Hawking to the Royal Papworth Hospital to help coronavirus(冠状病毒)patients.

After a check by the hospital’s engineering team,   the hospital    2     (happy)accepted the ventilator. The hospital has expanded to more than double its usual size as a result of the increasing number of coronavirus patients. The     3    (contribute)from the Hawking family was    4     great help to the hospital.

“After our father passed away, we returned all the medical equipment(医疗设备)to the National Health Service(NHS),” said Lucy Hawking,     5     is Stephen Hawking’s daughter. “Even some items that he bought for himself    6     (give)to the NHS to fight against coronavirus. The NHS has played a huge part    7     our lives over the years. We fully recognize the efforts of NHS to help those in need." Besides, Lucy Hawking encouraged people    8     (support)the NHS in any way and take social distancing measures seriously.

Since the news was announced, it    9     (attract)national attention. Many people were    10     (touch)and said that even if the great physicist became a star, he still gave off light.

9 . One of the luckiest things in life is that someone offers help when you are in need. Such warm stories happen these days in our city.

We’ve never depended on deliverymen for our daily needs so heavily as we do now, when we work from home to stop the spread of the COVID-19. Some of the deliverymen were afraid that they would not be able to come out to work the next day if they went home and found an overnight lockdown (封锁) in their communities. So they chose to sleep under overpasses (天桥) or on park benches. Photos of them sleeping in those outdoor places were put online. The next day, the government took action and offered them free places to live in either at hotels, at schools or at courier stations (快递站).

Another recent case that shows ordinary people are cared for was about a bun (面包) seller. The man left a message below a post on the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission (市健康委员会)’s WeChat account. He said he had trouble running his store because of the recent spread of the COVID-19. Community workers in his area paid him a visit to see what they could do to help. On the night of the same day, the man received an unexpected large order from his community.

There is a long list of such small acts of kindness in almost every corner of the city. It tells us love and care is powerful to help us overcome the difficulties.

10 . One 18-month-old welcomes her big brothers home from school in the most beautiful way possible.

Having spent most of her ________ in the COVID-19 pandemic, Emelia “Emmy” Muddamalle has grown used to always having her three ________ brothers- Liam, 10; Levi, 8; and Lucas, 6—around.

With the school year in Charlotte, North Carolina, now in full ________ her brothers are back in school for in-person learning, ________ Emmy at home with their parents.

“She never ________ her brothers gone,” said Emmy’s mother, Brittany Muddamalle.

“This is the ________ time. She’ll wake up from her nap (小睡) like, Where in the world are my brothers?’ and ________ them all day.”

In a video recently posted online, Brittany ________ her kids’ lovely reunion (团聚) one day after school. The video has since gone viral (走红), and has had over 4 million ________ and 75,000 comments.

The video shows Liam, Levi and Lucas on one side of a road and Emmy on the other as both run to ________ in the middle while ________ each other’s names. At the end, the boys ________ their schoolbags and give Emmy a group hug (拥抱).

“It’s such a ________ family moment,” Brittany said. “They just dote on (宠爱) her. They just do everything with her all day long, so when they were ________, she was like “What am I supposed to do?”

“One of the things in Indian culture is that________ is everything,” Brittany explained. “I’ve worked really hard at teaching our kids that kind of love.