3 . When other teenagers hang out with friends in the summer vacations. Erica doesn’t join. Instead, the 16-year-old senior high student is _______ in filling cake orders and updating her website. She _______ Kayke Bakery, a home-based business.

Erica started baking out of _______ in the year 2021. Her first _______ was a failure. Yet she made more cakes the next day and ________ her techniques through teaching videos on a daily basis. “I saw other people’s decorated cakes and was _______ to be a cake artist instead of just a baker,” Erica said. After due _______, she asked her parents about setting up her own business. “Seeing how _______ she was,” Erica’s mother recalled, “we _______ and began to help her cope with all the legalities for its opening.” Soon, she had _______ customers always coming to her for custom cakes. “_______, I came across tough occasions when dealing with both school and a business, but I managed to _______.” she said. “I’m glad to be able to do what I love.”

Always considered as a _______, Erica finished her senior year with almost full marks. She plans to _______ cake decorating after senior high. “I’m thinking about starting non-profit organizations.” In these years, besides learning various techniques, Erica has become more _______. “I realize I possess great potential and power.”

5 . Life is often marked by unexpected twists and tums. As Alice and Mike watched their son Allan ______ Cambridge University Law School last month, they thought back to the moment he was born. “I’m so sorry your baby is blind,” a nurse had said.

Even though Allan’s family were middle class and they lived a ______ life, as a blind child, Allan Hennessy’s future was poor. The local hospitals could not offer Allan hope of giving him ______ because there weren’t enough eye specialists. But when Allan was 6 months old, an opportunity came and Allan’s father ______ it. “My dad sold his car, belongings and some of his land to pay for my ______. We left our home country with very little.”

The opportunity was an operation in London which ______ the sight in Allan’s left eye. “My mom remembers the first time I looked at her; the first time we made eye ______. She burst into tears. But for the operation, I wouldn’t have ______ anything in life,” he. explained.

For Allan, life as an immigrant (移民) was ______. When he was ___into Cambridge University, Allan realized there were so many differences between him and his peers (同龄人) at Cambridge. “I felt ______ different,” he said. “When you’re a half-blind guy climbing the greasy pole, everyone can see that and they judge you, even though they are ______ it too.”

But spending three years in Cambridge was ______. Allan said, “I met the most amazing people from all over the world.” What would his life be like if he had stayed in his home country? “I wouldn’t have a Cambridge law ______; I wouldn’t even be sighted. My family there have faced terrible events. Perhaps I wouldn’t be alive.”

After graduating this summer, Allan is taking up a scholarship and ready for being a graduate school student. “If you’ve got a first-class law degree from Cambridge University, that should set you up for life,” he said. “But when you’re a half-blind immigrant living in Britain today, there is so much more you have to do. The ______ has only just begun.”

6 . When I was three, I had a very good friend named Gemma. She was fearless where I was anxious, rebellious where I was conservative, and _________ where I was awkward. She was also entirely imaginary. With Gemma’s support, I almost made it to the top shelf of the bookcase before my parents found me — and “Gemma said it was fine!” did not _________ me from a telling-off (责骂).

I cannot remember when or how I “met” Gemma, and, perhaps sadder still, I do not remember the _________ time I “saw” her. _________ my brain created her, she inspired me to go on adventures I would not have had the confidence to embark upon without her. It _________ me, then, that 72 percent of nursery workers believe children have fewer imaginary friends than they did five years ago, as is shown by a recent survey. This is believed to be a result of _________ screen time.

It is thought that 40 percent of us at one time or another had imaginary friends during our _________. In an essay for Aeon, writer Sophie Elmhirst found that 81 percent of those surveyed had “lost” their imaginary friends after they turned ten, but most of these friendships ended _________. Perhaps imaginary friends simply stay with us for as long as we need them. They move on when our lives become too _________ for our brains to make space to generate their own entertainment.

If you have enjoyed an imaginary friendship, I would guess that you did not __________ sit down to create a perfect pal. They probably arrived as an indication of the thoughts and ideas you never knew you had. In order to be a good __________ to an imaginary friend, you need to be able to make “what if?” into an exciting proposition. When we grow up, we are too quick to finish the sentence with “what if it goes wrong?”

Having grown up, we might not need our imaginary friends anymore, but we could still use a reminder that a little bit of boredom is good for us, and that our brains can create the best ideas when they are left to their own devices. If there are fewer imaginary friends __________ the worlds where our children live, that might lead to a future with fewer artists, writers and problem-solvers. This is a real cause for __________.

As an adult, I think of my fearless, invisible friend Gemma whenever I have to do something that __________ me — usually public speaking, rather than scaling a bookcase. However, whenever I __________ my own expectations and meet myself in a place that I did not think I could quite reach, I can hear my subconscious whispering, “Gemma made me do it.”

7 . My car slid easily into the school lane. I turned around and glanced at the backseat as my ten-year-old daughter _______. My daughter’s words started to spill. “Momma, Jenny _______ all the girls in the class to attend her birthday party except Heather and me. I _______ I was her friend too.” The air was filled with her _______

As tears ran down my little girl’s face, I felt _______. As an introvert (内向的人), I often breathe a sigh of _______ when I am not invited to a large social gathering. I prefer _______ with a few friends who get me. _______, I don’t extend my preferences to my daughter’s social life. Since the age of four, rather than _______ just a few, I’ve invited all of her classmates to her birthday parties, because I am ________ to the need for young girls and boys to feel ________ .

I understand that at some point all of us are excluded from something and that this is a ________ children will eventually learn. But why does it have to happen when they are so ________?

As soon as we got home, I hugged my still upset daughter and wiped away her tears. As I ________ her, I thought of her own approaching birthday party. The invitation would go out to ________ of her classmates.

9 . Passion, like life, is about the journey, not the destination. Kimberly and I have been planning a trip to Europe for a year. This was a _________ of ours. We took our friends Frantoise and Stein Eriksen with us.

The most exciting part of the journey started with a train ride that had some curveballs (不顺利). When we were trying to get on a _________ from Zurich to Croatia, we had gotten the departure time wrong and had to _________ around the station to make it in time. We had a tough time finding a taxi to make it to the ship. We finally found a taxi and arrived an hour late. _________, they waited for us.

Once we got onto the ship we _________ it was not like a large hotel with great service. It was a tight quarter. The bathroom was very _________. The shower was a spout (喷头) connected to the bathroom sink. You turned it on and sprayed (喷洒) yourself, along with the rest of the room.

The week-long ship ride was full of _________. There were people from different nationalities speaking different languages. We stopped on islands of all sizes. We bicycled 30-40 kilometers. Then there were high winds — so high that the buses couldn’t run because they might blow over. So we took an expensive taxi, and headed back to make our flight home.

While we loved the more predictable parts of the trip, our real passion was in the _________ — the missed rides, the _________ ship, the mixture of cultures, and even the __________.

Sometimes people are so __________ that it scares them to do something different. __________ when they do get out of their comfort zone, the different experiences they once thought were __________ are what stand out. Mixing things up, trying new things, seeing something through another person’s eyes, being __________ to adventures — this is how you create __________.