1 . I spent my teenage life in Sichuan province. Outside, there was the Sino-Japanese war. However, it could not hold back my ________. What lay ________ the war? I was eager to explore.

I always lost myself in ________ thoughts by looking at maps with eyes ________ to countries with seacoasts and islands. I felt I could easily satisfy my thirst for the outside world by drinking the seawater on those islands, watching the river flow southward, I ________ when the water would carry me to the sea. ________ drawing maps was my favourite, I was recognized as a map-maniac of my class. My ________ even spread to the teachers. One would ________ turn around to check my response whenever he drew a map on the blackboard.

One winter afternoon when I was 14, attracted by a map of Turkey, I spent all my pocket money. I ________ it was a symbol of intelligence, a code of beauty and a cheque ________ by the wealth of the world. I wished I could explain the symbol, ________ the code, and restore the map to the magic lands it represented. Later, I went to America. Wherever I went, I only had highway maps to discuss my travel with. The relationship I felt towards them was not different from what I felt towards a/an ________. As my interest in traveling ________, the American maps in my collections slowly ________ those from various European countries. As if walking in my sleep, I entered another world I seemed to have come across long ago.

The map that I owned in youth did not lie to me. That beautiful cheque was finally ________ when I visited Europe.

2 . I was fifteen and a high school freshman when I started rapidly losing weight. I was about 130 pounds, and I was ________ ten pounds every couple of weeks. I couldn’t understand why I was always hungry, thirsty, and never ________.Every night I ________ five or six times, feeling like I had to go to the bathroom, but I never really had to. Finally, I decided to go to the hospital to ________ nothing bad was going on.

I remembered being ________ in the hospital, confused, hungry, and with an extremely ________ blood sugar level. The doctors and nurses thought I might pass out, so they injected me and told me the worst news I could have imagined— tests showed that I had Type 1 juvenile diabetes. I was so ________ that the only question I could think to ask was, “Am I going to die?” A nurse told me to go out, enjoy a meal with my family, and ________, because tomorrow my new, difficult life would begin.

I don’t remember what time I had to be at the hospital, ________ I know it was early. Three nurses, one dietician, and a doctor all trained me, over the course of two days, to ________ me. Every needle hurt, but in some way I began to feel ________ every time I was able to think about the needles without crying.

Now, nearly three years later, I still remember the ________ when the doctors told me I was a Type 1 diabetic. I’m ________ when I look back that I was able to be strong, and that my family and friends supported me. I’m now two months shy of eighteen. To this day, I have had 3,38 needle injections, but each of them helps me to remember I must be strong. ________, I am grateful for my disease—it has made me the person I am today, and I would never ________who I am.

3 . My life as a tax-paying employed person began in middle school, when, for three whole days, I worked in a baking factory.

My best friend Betsy’s father was a manager at Hough Bakeries, which, at Easter time, _________ little bunny (兔子) cakes for all its _________throughout Cleveland. It happened that the plant downtown needed eight kids for _________ help during our spring break, for which I had no_________ beyond listening to my favorite records. I’d _________ minimum wage. I’d see how a factory_________. My parents thought all of this was a grand idea and called Betsy’s dad with their _________.

Our_________in the factory were simple: Place cakes on a moving belt. Attach icing (糖霜) ears. Apply icing eyes and nose._________ bunny from the belt. This was ____________ than it sounds.____________ a bit and the cakes pile up. As I told my parents at dinner that first night, it was all a little more high-pressure than I’d   ____________ .

Dad __________. The son of a grocer, he’d spent the summers of his childhood____________ food in Benardsville, New Jersey. This was the sort of work that made you____________ the dollars you earned and respect those who did the work, he told me.

4 . 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. ”

5 . My two kids and I were at Dunkin' Donuts, meeting my grandfather for a cup of coffee. My boys were 2 and 4 then. When the naughty little kid ________ his ice cream in the middle of the store, I turned to my grandfather for ________. I was surprised to find him laughing. When I tried to talk to him about how ________ life with two young boys is, his reply was short, “Little kids，________ problems.”

At the time, I felt a little angry. The ________ of raising my two boys didn't feel little. I sometimes felt overwhelmed (不知所措的) by their problems and needs. Still, I knew how to ________ them. I could calm my elder son down with his favorite CD and smiled at him in the rear­view mirror (后视镜). Back then, “fixing their problems” seemed like my ________. I did it every day. And, in general, I could fix most things that annoy them.

Those boys are 24 and 22 now. And, ________ my grandfather said, their problems are bigger than they were 20 years ago. And one thing I'm ________ at this stage of parenting is how to be a mom who doesn't help them. Worried about my elder son recently, I repeated my ________ to him, but he told me to stop—told me that I wasn't being ________ and that I needed to let him be.

Honestly, I miss the days when I felt so helpful. But I also feel ________ that I've raised an adult healthy enough to ________ his own life. And so, in a ________ reversal(互换), it is my son who now calms me down，________ me and then smiles at me from his rear­view mirror.

6 . Vlogging is an increasingly popular activity. And it’s no wonder that with so many_________ vloggers sharing personal experiences in their countries online, young Chinese people have_________ to hear their stories. But what makes American Jerry Kowal_________ outstanding as such an influential vlogger?

In videos, Kowal offers his sincere_________ into current events to his over 53 million followers on video sharing platform Bilibili. _________ other vloggers who tend to focus on one topic, his videos_________ various issues, such as governance, pandemic and_________. After leaving Chengdu for New York in January, Kowal posted_________ America’s measures serve to face the COVID-19 outbreak, having visited local hospitals_________ at the risk of getting infected.

As a responsible citizen journalist, Kowal is deeply concerned about__________ issues. During the protests triggered by George Floyd, an innocent and__________ African American who died while in police custody(拘捕), Kowal__________ questions from his fans about his perspectives and attitude toward this situation. Kowal uploaded an informative video clip explaining that he believed this event was a__________ of racial bias and police violence.

“Vlogs help people learn the culture of other countries...”__________ by CCTV on June 10, he put, “the US, China and everything have all__________ my fancy, which inspires me to tell people what I have seen.”

7 . A woman is volunteering in ashelter. It all started because she missed her own _________ .

Sandy was at a loss when her beloved Angus died last year — terribly lonely, yet not quite______for a new dog in her life. ________, she decided to volunteer at the local animal shelter and spend some quality time with furry friends who, like her, were ________ their old buddies (伙伴).

Remembering that her dog had loved being read to, she brought along a ________   there.

It's now been 18 months sinceSandy first began ________ her chair beside the dog house. Shelter workers say it really calms down the dogs, but Sandy says it does more ________ to her than it does to the dogs.

Sandy was ________ that photos of her reading to dogs were spreading on the Internet until the media started calling. Kathleen, a fellow shelter volunteer was so touched by the sight of her     ____ to an old dog that she took a photo and posted it on the Internet. She was so ______ with the dogs — I watched her read to several — and they just loved being ________ by her, "Kathleen said.

Inspired by Sandy's style of _________, the shelter has announced that a reading marathon is being ________ for next September. The plan is to get kids in the neighborhood ______ in reading to the animals, with the added benefit of reading practice for the two-leggers, along with plenty of friendly _______ for the four-leggers.

8 . A scary new virus swept over the globe and the virus knocked on my door a few weeks ago when I was _______at the clinic where I work. Five days later, I got the first call from Public Health _______me know I was thought “low risk,” luckily, I could self-monitor and carry on as usual. What a _______!

But then I got the second call.…It came from Public Health revising my category to “exclusion”— a _______technical way of saying self-isolation, I felt that my _______ had been turned upside down. Everything took a _______- my family, the clinic and its patients, my income. Did Public Health _______make the right decision? After _______ the news to my family, I was greeted with love and encouragement. It was then that I lifted the weight _______my soul.

So I picked out __________ clothes from my closet, grabbed essential items and moved to the basement. I pieced together a desk to work on and I would only see my family when I went __________ to eat meals. __________meals, I sat at the far end of the dining table, at least two meters away. And my own family was __________at home as much as possible. In the basement, I used the isolation as a rare opportunity to __________many projects that I hadn’t had time for.

I had no doubt that this crisis will end, as all the crises happened before. And it was our choice on __________ it brought out good or bad results.

9 . When Amanda Moore noticed that the new student from Mexico always sat alone at lunch, she decided to befriend Rafael Anaya. She also noticed that he________ to understand English. Then she used the Google Translate app to hand-write a letter in Spanish asking him to________her for lunch. Her action________her the “Student of the Month” award for October at school.

Actually, Rafael always________ because he felt so lonely. “He always ate lunch alone and I felt ________ about that，” Amanda said. She knew he spoke Spanish and he seemed lonely. She spent the whole afternoon ________ writing the letter, using the app to help her.

The next day Amanda handed the letter to Rafael and waited for his________.It wasn’t until their math class that he said “yes”. The two had been________together for lunch ever since. The letter helped Rafael feel more comfortable and encouraged him to________his English harder. “I think for Rafael it made a huge________，”said their teacher. “He really wants to learn English to talk to Amanda. The two used hand gestures and Google Translate for ________now but they hoped it would become ________ when Rafael's English improved. And, Amanda was learning some________.

Amanda’s mother felt________moved by her daughter’s action. “It is just so sweet，”she said. I think this ________ is special.”

10 . He was no scholar, and his classmates teased him. Rather than read, the future director really preferred running around with an 8 mm camera, ______ homemade movies of his Lionel train set, which he showed to friends for a small fee.

After being denied ______ into a traditional filmmaking school, Steven Spielberg enrolled in California State College. Then in 1965, he ______, in one of those unexpected moments, his life took a complete ______. Visiting Universal Studios, he met Chuck Silvers, who was in charge of the editorial department. Silvers ______ the kid who made 8 mm films and invited him back sometime for a visit.

He ______ the next day. Without a job or security clearance (安全许可), Spielberg, dressed in a dark ______ and tie, walked ______ up to the guard at the gate of Universal and gave him a casual wave. The guard waved back. He was ______.

“For the entire summer,” Spielberg remembers, “I dressed in my suit and hung out with the directors and writers, including Silvers, who knew the kid wasn’t a studio ______, but winked at the deception (骗局). I even found an office that wasn’t being used, and ______ in. I bought some plastic tiles and put my ______ in the building directory (名录): Steven Spielberg, Room 23C.”

It ______ for everyone. Ten years later, the 28-year-old Spielberg ______ Jaws, which took in $470 million, then the ______ movies of all time. Dozens of films and awards have followed because Steven Spielberg knew what his teachers didn’t — talent is in the eyes of the filmmaker.