1 . I’d love to have been a journalist, but I wasn’t _________ enough. I was always able to write a good letter — I just couldn’t stare at a blank sheet of paper and _________ a story. But I went into advertising after university and _________ fell in love with it.

I always had the _________ of speech. I was schooled at the dinner table. My father used to _________ arguments, saying we needed to learn how to make our case. It could get pretty _________. At school I ended up being captain of lots of things, not because I was the best player but because I could _________ people to do things. I learnt that you don’t have to be the most academically _________, or even the most original thinker — _________ is a big part of the battle. No wonder I felt at home in advertising.

People ____________ to stay in one company almost for life; I was always looking for the next ____________ to learn. I got into the advertising industry at Ogilvy, then went to Grey to ____________ experience on the Procter & Gamble account, and to Y&R to get creative experience. It ____________ me new-business director. Later I started my own business, HHCL, which was an amazing ____________.

My next move will be to ____________ all my skills in pioneering work. I know there is no end to learning. I will live and learn.

2 . Last spring, when the first lock-down began, the task to check in daily on my elderly mother fell to me. Mum was 88 and lived on her own. At the very beginning, I wasn’t sure how the ______ would go. Mum and I agreed long ago that we have ______ personalities. Even as I crossed my fifties, our differences still present ______.

Initially, I ______ my visits to coincide with the Greek game shows she watches every afternoon on satellite TV. The ice-breaker worked: soon we found ourselves ______ the same contestants or comparing appeal of the various hosts. Mum became ______ with my ability to find out information almost instantly on my smart phone. What I ______ when we turned away from the TV, however, was that my mother knew things Google didn’t. Soon, I set aside my ______ and made mum my search engine. My mother ______ revealed family histories I wasn’t aware of. I was ______ and soon I was visiting twice a day.

When we weren’t addressing the long list of household ______, we planned the day’s menu and went for walks down the street. Sometimes, we continued our open-ended ______ until midnight. One night at bed time, she ______ me and said, “Now, I’ve learned your character.” I found myself struggling to keep from choking up.

With pandemic restrictions still in place, my sessions with mum have become the ______ of my day. Some days I drop by as many as three times. While Physical distancing may keep people away, it may also ______ those afar.

3 . Auri Katarina used to be a service manager at a cleaning company in Finland. In 2021, _________ to her family and friends, she quit her job. She decided to follow her unique passion.

Auri has always _________ cleaning things, and she began posting cleaning videos online two years ago. Then one day, a single mother asked her for help because she was _________ so much with three children always making a mess at home. Auri, who is “in heaven” whenever she is doing cleaning, was _________ to help. So she went on a weekend and _________ her home for two days. Auri didn’t ask for any _________ for her service; it was the _________ in the house and the family, which her work resulted in, that made her really happy.

Since then, Auri has gone as far as the USA and UK to help people in desperate need of cleaning. She gets _________ online but chooses only the _________ homes belonging to people most in need. For the first six months she __________ all travel and product expenses herself, about 300 euros per visit. __________ her popular videos of cleaning tips, a corporate sponsor has reached out to her. She still never __________ a penny.

Now, Auri goes to clean homes of __________ once a week, for two days, and creates __________ for her social media channels, including lists of some of her top tips. Her dream is to clean for free all over the world, helping people while doing something she absolutely __________.

4 . The walk I’d plotted was 22 miles to the coast. It is enough to get the legs _______ and the mind cleared. But the real _______ for me was walking to a definite point in our country’s outline.

I was wondering if I’d have the endurance (耐力) and determination to do it. I am, after all, in my late 40s. I _______   the coast at 7: 00 am. I was, for the day, an arrow. My line of flight was as straight and short as I could make it.

_______ the five-hour mark, I was in a good state of body and mind. The_________of the usual routine had been eased by daydreams. From this point on, the   _______ seemed to change. The banks on either side were larger, and the grasses longer, even though the sea was still miles off.

Things were getting _______. Despite feeling like I was nearly “there”, I still had four miles to go. I was hurting, my knees. I   _______ the painkillers down with my secret weapon: coffee. Studies have shown caffeine _______ endurance and it kept me going.

Try as I might, I still couldn’t see my walk’s end. I could even smell a(n)________ in the air, but the horizon remained ________ in salt marsh (盐沼地). Then, almost without realizing it, I was “there”.

Where I had hoped to see the________, I saw salt marsh, like the chocolate milkshake of the North Sea!

Feeling like a bit of a fool, I headed down into the nearest marsh and left my boot prints in the mud. The seven-and-a half-hour walk had hurt my ________ , but I’d acted on an old idea, done it, and ________ it off my list. I was now free to think of new ones and move on, in this dawn of possibilities we all face. Life is too short to let ideas stagnate (停滞); now’s the time to turn them to ________.

5 . Once a year, around the time when Christians celebrate Easter, Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Jews celebrate Passover, I often invite my 24-person team to a joyful and special dinner at my place. To _________ the needs of all my team members, I usually _________ different kinds of typical food from different religions.

I think this _________ reflects the wider philosophy(哲学) of my science lab: we aim to be a _________ yet united group of people working in a global scientific network. My lab _________ people with different _________. One of the most obvious _________ is our religions.

Yet when people _________ my lab, they gather together, first through their common _________ for science, and then as they get to know one another and enjoy spare time activities, we become a cohesive(有凝聚力的) team. I am ____________ this cohesion and the new friendships in my lab, and do my best to encourage them.

I’m also really ____________, while looking for new members. I interview many people before I ____________ the right ones for my lab. They must be ____________ capable(有能力的)of course, but it’s just as important that they’re friendly, interesting and interested in others. They should be prepared to ____________ various points of view and cultures.

As the person in charge of the lab, I see preserving a variety of cultural backgrounds as an important part of my job. Such an accessible, varied and supportive ____________ promotes new ideas and scientific breakthroughs.

6 . In the fall of 2008, I was looking to leave my current job in a doctor’s office to explore something more ________. So I started investigating the new world of travel nursing. With a bit of ________, I was connected to Carlyn.

At this time, I am working on all areas of my life...... in the ________of becoming a stronger, more confident person, and ________more about who I am. Without amazing, enthusiastic and supportive Carlyn, I wouldn’t be where I am today. For the past 2 years, Carlyn and I stayed in ________through email, facebook, and a periodic phone call, becoming friends…. I had a whole view of all the things she was ________in her life and it inspired me much.

I was anxious to ________Carlyn face-to-face for the first time. But, as soon as she ________in front of my house, it was like we had done it a million times before. This “my friends” is the ________ of the human connection that she talks about. It takes two people from ________to friends!

Now as fate would have it, Carlyn has ________my world. So now, I hope to repay her ________for all that she has helped me ________. I am fortunate to be part of a friendship that is a by-product of her ________. She continues to inspire me and I hope to learn and meet more through her _________.

7 . My first goal: try not to look so scared. It took quite a few tries before I could ________ from the mouth open, eyes wide ________ that being on roller skates gave me.

I took up roller skating at the end of 2021, as a way to ________ a difficult year spent in my house. In online skate class, they ________ me to wear protective equipment, to cheer and ________ when someone falls. Falling means you’re trying, and everyone ________ in skating, but having a positive ________ helps.

I learned how to move on wheels and danced alone at home, but the rink (滑冰场) was incredibly ________. Everything moves so fast, ________ in unpredictable directions. What ________ me about the rink is how people create their own sense of   ________ inside the circular movement, so that two awkward dancers might ________ past each other to avoid knocking into each other, all while on rhythm.

Now I’ve made much progress. The other day I skated past an older woman moving ________ in her knee pads (护膝). “My goal is to skate like you,” she said, almost under her breath. I tried ________ my ride. Keep at it! I yelled over my shoulder. Soon, I tripped, fell, quickly ________ myself up, and then kept at it.

8 . In the history of language, words rise and fall. We make and remake them; they make and remake us. The story of a word is as complex as a hurricane. It is ___________ to know for sure how it catches on, meets new needs, and acquires new meanings. It is impossible to ___________ the decline of one word on the rise of another.

But in the destinies of two pairs of words is a suggestion of a turning in American ___________. It is a turning away from an idea of the natural worth of things: from “pleasure”, with its sense of a (n) ___________ condition of mind, to “fun” , so closely affiliated with outward activities; from “excellence”, an inner trait whose attainment is its own reward, to “achievement”, which comes through hard work and ___________.

“Pleasure” speaks of a state of mind that comes organically, that need not be artificially induced. “Fun”, though almost the same as “pleasure” for contemporary speakers, often ___________artificial inducement(诱导). You don’t feel fun; you do a fun thing. And “fun” has no hint of elitism, while “pleasure” does.

If “pleasure” comes from being, “fun” comes from doing and, often, switching off the brain. The transition of American usage from “pleasure” to “fun” perhaps partly accounts for the American___________ on activities for all occasions, rather than trusting pleasure to develop on its own. In “Eat, Pray, Love”, the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, she concludes that “Americans have an ___________ to relax into pure pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not ___________ a pleasure-seeking one.” Italians, ____________, have mastered “bel far niente (the joy of doing nothing)”.

Then there is the ____________ from “excellence” to “achievement”. “Excellence” has a hint of virtue. Anyone can achieve, in garbage collection or neurosurgery, but how many can truly be ____________?

“Achievement”, like “fun”, is outward in nature. It comes in doing specific things. It is more about checking boxes than ____________ inner potentials. The achievement culture influences every aspect of life today. From elementary-school testing to the continual pressure to over-schedule as a university student, educational culture emphasizes the accumulation of achievements over intellectual sparkle. Wall Street stumbled(绊跌) in part because so many chased achiever bonuses while neglecting the ____________ of excellence in their vocation. An American culture of immediate celebrity teaches young people that fame is a(n) ____________ in itself rather than an incidental symptom of excellence in craft.

9 . Veteran (老兵) Willenbring has always been a fighter. She grew up with her parents on the West Coast during an adolescence she describes as sometimes _______. But the military struck Willenbring as a way to _______ the aggression she says built up during an unstable upbringing. In 1998, she joined the army and was _______ to a foreign country.

“We were actually part of the initial _______to go into the country,” she says. “And I can’t even describe the _______.” In the scenes of destruction, Willenbring recalled some ordinary sights that briefly woke her from the stress of the war every night. As her mission came to an end, her luck ran out. She ended up severely _______ and had to be taken away in an air ambulance.

She _______ returned to her home country, and spent three years living in her hometown, a city called Salem. She _______ to adjust to civilian life. Fireworks would _______ particularly difficult episodes. “I had PTSD (创伤后应激障碍) so badly that I could not ________ living in a city anymore,” she says.

Instead, in 2010 Willenbring ________ on a plot with sheep in rural Oregon. The sheep, she says, have helped her manage her trauma symptoms. She’s surrounded by animals that ________ her emotions and can tell her own mood.

The ________ rural life is an apparent contrast to the chaos of battle. Willenbring hasn’t had a major ________related to her PTSD for eight years. Farming has its dramas, she says, “but it is also something that is about creation, about ________ over death rather than death over life.”

10 . On Sept. 1, Paul Miller, a teacher in America, _________ a video on YouTube where he does his take on “I’ll Be There For You,” a song from Friends.

“No one told me school was gonna be this way," Miller sings in a classroom, in _________ to the pandemic and the nationwide _________ of in-person teaching. “I got my lessons ready but students are absent. Though they are _________, we can still have a great year. 'Cause I'll be here for you when you're learning at home."

“_________ our social distance, school will still be great.” Miller continues. Having _________ the reasons why online learning has its _________ Miller jumps into the chorus, telling his students what they can _________. “When back,” he sings. “You really start to shine. No matter what, I'm here for you.”

Miller's video has received over 25,000 views and lots of _________ comments. One wrote: "Teachers are __________ on earth in human form.”

In an __________ with WMTV Miller said he __________ starts off every school year with a song. This year, however, he had to be more creative. The teacher said he's been __________ by the positive responses he's gotten. “Really the __________ we are getting this year is completely beyond __________,” he said. “I have gotten messages from Arizona to India. Apparently, Friends is a very popular show. ”