1 . In my first year as a junior doctor, I worked in a stroke department. There were rooms of the department which were _________ for special patients. Their strokes had been so _________ that there was no _________ of recovery. Outside of the rooms, I sometimes heard the doctors cruelly called these patients “the cabbage patch”, because they were considered little more than vegetables.

One such patient was Mr. Roberts. He was in his fifties and had been _________ to the hospital after a terrible stroke which had left him entirely paralyzed. He could not communicate at all. And the doctors thought he was _________ dead. They discussed the very poor disease with his wife over his motionless body, _________ he wasn’t there.

Later that day I returned to take some blood from his _________ arm. His head was on one side. As I knelt down, I met his gaze. There seemed to be some sort of _________. It was as if he was _________ me to do something. I instinctively held his hand and smiled as __________ as I could, though he made no response. I couldn’t forget what happened there even after I left the room. The idea that he was __________ there, a living hell on earth, troubled me until he died two weeks later.

This event __________ great changes in my life. When I take care of those __________ patients, I always introduce myself and explain what I am doing to them, just in case there is part of them that is still aware.

And years later, when my grandmother was lying dying, I still spoke to her and __________ her. In matters __________ this, you just never know.

2 . When I started learning German some time ago, I realized the power of stories and storytelling in my own life.

I was ________ memorizing my first few German words. And I quickly ________ that this time, my native Italian and the other languages I’d learned would not be of much ________ .

While it was quite ________ to memorize words similar to English, like gut, muss, Ende, and Freund, there were many words for which I had no reference to ________ . Among them were Schatz (treasure) and Insel (Island). And yet I learned these two words easily. How? The ________ is simple. Without even ________ it, I had already memorized these words through a story.

One day, when I was a kid, I was with my father at a flea market (跳蚤市场) and we ________ a beautifully illustrated (有插图的) children’ s book. The cover and pictures were so great that I almost ________ to notice that the ________ was not in Italian. “Luca, we can buy it, ________ the book is in German,” said my father. I read the title out loud, with some ________ : “Die Scha... tz... ins ... el.”

Once home, my father explained that it was a German translation of the famous book “Treasure Island” . He________me the Italian edition (版本) and suggested that I ________ it while turning over the pages of the illustrated one. Thanks to the story I read, I passively (被动地)________ two words in German (Schatz and Insel) which are usually quite difficult words to learn, at least for Italian speakers.

3 . I took my six-year-old son Robert to a restaurant to celebrate his birthday. We just left the shopping center and Robert _________ his new shoes with joy. We walked towards the counter (柜台), where Peter, the waiter, _________ us with noticeable warmth.

“Welcome,” he said. “Wow, you look happy, little boy.” “I got new shoes,” Robert said with _________. He then lifted (抬起) his right foot in the air. “Smell it,” Robert asked. “Robert,” I said, trying to stop his _________ request, while Peter brought his nose to the shoe. “It smells amazing,” Peter said gladly. “Thank you for sharing your _________ with me. Now what does the birthday boy want to drink? It’s _________ me.” Robert jumped in _________ since sweet drinks were not usually allowed in our home. He considered the many _________ and decided on soda at last. Then Peter followed us as my son spent a great amount of time _________ a perfect table. He __________ held our drink until we were seated. I was __________ that the man gave my son special care.

After that, I often visited the restaurant. I found that although Peter had a(n) __________ job, he served everyone he met with love. In life, we often __________ people by their jobs. However, personal __________ actually comes from how they __________ others.

4 . Sunlight shining from the windows, I_________my arms out with a big yawn. “Good morning, darling,” my husband Gary, 53, smiled. Although it was a dream come true to wake up next to my love each morning, I knew the day ahead would be a_________. Living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (强迫症), _________ thoughts drove me into repetitive_________. Day and night, I had a_________checklist with dozens of meaningless rituals. _________ my teeth up and down, then side to side, I’d do it in sets of four, over and over. That wasn’t right, I’ll do it again, I’d think, _________.

I_________that if I didn’t do everything exactly right, Gary or my lovely parents, John and Adrienne, would suffer illness or be_________. Certain outfits give off bad energy, so I’d have to change clothes. I knew it was absurd thinking, but the obsessive urges — and the terrible__________ I constantly imagined if I didn’t play them out — were so strong. I was only five years old when I began to__________ with obsessive thoughts. The doctor immediately diagnosed me with OCD, and prescribed me medicines to__________ my mental health.

At my six-month check-up in August, I reported my__________ . “I feel like a big load has been taken off my__________!” I told the doctors. I didn’t know life could be so good. Although my OCD is still here, it’s much easier to manage, and now I only feel the need to check the bathroom tap before I go to bed or leave the house. I’ve been given a second__________to enjoy life.

5 . Does life seem to be full of impossible problems? How many times do you find yourself saying things like “I really don’t understand this maths problem”? Maybe it’s time to introduce yourself to the _________ of yet. By adding this simple word, you can change everything, “I really don’t understand this maths problem yet.” Suddenly, the _________ becomes possible.

I read about a school that has _________ the way it _________ its students’ exams. The school recognized that the old pass/fail system wasn’t helping students’ _________. If you passed, then great, but those students who didn’t pass often felt like _________. So now students who don’t get the score they need to pass, don’t see a big red “F” for “fail” on their exam papers; _________ they see a “Not yet”. That way the students feel that they are on a journey. They haven’t reached the _________ , but they know that they are going the right way.

This kind of _________ is part of what experts call “having a growth mindset”. People with a growth mindset don’t __________ failure. They aren’t worried by not getting things right the first time and are __________ to keep trying until they do. They enjoy the __________ and believe they can change. __________ , people who just focus on failure have what the experts call “a fixed mindset”. These people are always worried about failure and are happy to __________ when things don’t go right. __________, it is better to have a growth mindset than a fixed mindset.

6 . During the initial stages of instructed L2 (the second language) acquisition students learn a couple thousand, mainly high frequency words. Functional language proficiency, however, _______mastery of a considerably large number of words. It is therefore _______ at the intermediate and advanced stages of language acquisition to learn a large vocabulary in a short period of time. There is not enough time to _______the natural (largely incidental) L1 (the first language) word acquisition process. Incidental acquisition of the words is only possible up to a point, _______, on account of their low frequency, they do not _______often enough in the L2 learning material.

Acquisition of new words from authentic L2 reading texts by means of strategies such as contextual deduction (演绎) is also not a _______for a number of reasons. There appears to be no _______to intentional learning of a great many new words in a relatively short period of time. The words to be learned may be _______in isolation or in context. Presentation in bilingual (双语的) word lists seems an _______shortcut because it takes less time than contextual presentation and yields excellent short term results. Long term memory, ________, is often disappointing so contextual presentation seems advisable.

Any suggestions on how to use this in educational contexts should be based on a systematic ________ of the two most important aspects of the L2 word learning problem, this is to say,   selecting the relevant vocabulary (which and how many words) and creating the best conditions for the acquisition process. This article sets out to ________a computer assisted word acquisition programme (CAVOCA) which tries to do exactly this: the programme operationalises current theoretical thinking about word acquisition, and its ________ are based on a systematic list of the vocabulary relevant for the target group. To ________its frequency, the programme was ________ in a number of experimental settings with a paired associated method of learning new words. The experimental results suggest that an approach combining the two methods is most advisable.

7 . As Gwen Erickson approached 97, she began raising one of America’s most popular, yet endangered butterflies—the monarch butterfly (帝王蝶). She managed to _________ 27 butterflies last year and this year the _________ has gone up to 61.

The whole process is a little _________, beginning with collecting eggs from the milkweed leaves that grow in her backyard. Four days after Erickson placed the eggs in jars on her living room table, the caterpillar (毛毛虫) appeared, and then, within several weeks, formed a chrysalis (蛹). Two weeks later the beautiful butterflies _________. Erickson then released the butterflies into the wild, but a couple seemed a little _________ to leave their loving home and _________ the senior by flying around the house.

Erickson remembered her first attempt to raise _________ and said she hoped it could enable her grandchildren to _________ an interest in these beautiful insects. However, it’s she who has found the _________ in raising butterflies in the end.

Erickson doesn’t like to talk about herself and what she does, but she does so this time as she wants to ____________ others to care for this endangered species. Happily, a friend and her son have joined her in her new-found ____________. Hopefully, we will see a(n) ____________ in those decreasing numbers.

This new ____________ is a fine example of people caring for the smaller things in life. It ____________ us that it’s never too late to be ____________ in life.

8 . Friday night meant a family dinner for me at home. There would be discussions and laughter. Even so, I______those moments.

Preparations for the dinner would begin______that day. As both my parents worked, sometimes I would be given instructions to______the chicken in the oven (烤箱) after school. I would repeat the______process like a cooking machine. The only______was my mother’s chicken soup. Once the dinner was cooking, the table would be_______ . A white lace cloth, the good china, napkins. Though I failed to see any______, I had to light the candles with my mom.

Years later, my father passed away, and then my mother insisted on going to live in a care home. I seemed to be totally______from the boring tradition, but I didn’t feel______ . I missed the chicken soup. Although I have her recipe, I’ve never actually______the soup myself. I missed the warm-lighted candles. Standing together, we’d make______with our hands around the lit candles, bringing the light into our hearts.

That’s why I accepted______when my husband advised to______the tradition “I can help with the soup.” If there’s one thing I’ve______, these family traditions are really worth cherishing before they______, from the chicken soup recipes to lighting candles.

9 . Last summer, my fiance Eugeniu and I decided to drive to Provence for a holiday. The weather was beautiful, but then, about 700km into the journey, it suddenly _______. I’d never seen the sky go so dark; the rain was heavy. We _______ a tunnel and when we came out onto a _______, the visibility was so bad that we could hardly see a meter in front of us.

_______, we had the odd sensation that the car was lifting at the front. The next second, we were _______ into nothing. On the way down, Icould hear rock pieces hitting the car and my heart pounding to my chest. After that, there was _______

Our car ended up landing on a road below the bridge. We were still _______, but I was in shock. I hadn’t _______ what was happening and was still thinking about my holiday. I had no idea the bridge had _______ — thought it might have been an earthquake.

At first we shouted, but then stopped because we didn’t want to lose ________ and pass out. We tried calling an ambulance, but there was no ________ under the rock pieces. My leg was bleeding and I was too tense — because of the ________ I didn’t feel pain. My fiancé had broken his neck. Rescue workers eventually found us while saving a man whose van was ________ from another section of the bridge above us. We’d been down there for four hours by the time we were pulled out.

It was only afterwards in the hospital that I realized the ________ of the tragedy — 43 people had died. Before, we had focused on earning money. When we went on this holiday, I had lovely clothes and shoes in my suitcase, and they were all buried under the ruin. Maybe that was a sign that these things don’t really ________.

10 . My sales career was almost cut short by my parents. I was 11, a member of the Girl Scouts, and preparing to sell our first Thin Mints. Our goal was to sell at least 50 boxes each, which would make us qualified for the _______. I considered knocking on strangers’ doors and hoping to win them over.

But when I_______ my parents the permission paper to do this, they_______handed it back unsigned. They thought it was _______ that their child would ask neighbors for _______. I defended my case: The _________want delicious cookies!

Finally, they _______, and I hit the streets. Door after door, I found that the _________ basically sold itself and all I had to do was adding some extra charm with my silk ribbon. The Girl Scouts_________ me with a cup that had a thumb printed yellow smiley face on it. I felt __________ .

I went on to have a long career in sales. Now when I__________ that first adventure, what I see is a young girl who instinctively__________the most important thing about selling. It’s about __________ a service—bringing them the things they want and need, so that, in the best of situations, any product__________ itself as well as the cookies did. That’s why I still have that cup, which I keep as a ____________