1 . Izzi Dymalovski is a young girl from Melbourne, Australia. At the early age of just eight, she asked her mother if she could use some of her skincare products to _______ makeup after her dance performance. Her mother said that the products were meant for adults _______ the chemicals they contained. They were not _______ for young girls who were still developing. Izzi’s mother _______ that she should use baby products in order to clean makeup. However, it was not satisfying to use baby products for young kids. Izzi was a bit _______.

Izzi’s mother gave a suggestion to her daughter: allow time and make a(n) _______ to create her own skincare products. The product formulas (配方) could be _______ using ingredients (成分) that were safe for kids.

Izzi immediately jumped into action and began working on the logo, brand, and even packaging _______. Then Izzi created a face wash, body wash and face moisturizer. At the age of thirteen, she _______ her own skincare line. Later, she became a young entrepreneur (企业家). By doing so, Izzi changed an unhappy experience into an amazing ________. At present, her ________ sell well online. Many teens want to ________ different jobs when possible. Instead of ________ the same summer job each year, try filling your time with other different work. If you’re really ________, try your hand at starting your own ________ and becoming a teen entrepreneur.

2 . Age is truly just a number if our hearts are young. Lee Minor, an 85-year-old retired psychologist, has________this by finishing his 600th marathon race with 32 members of his family by his side. “Runners don’t have a________line. We just keep going,” he toldGood Morning America. “I felt________running with my family.” Minor has been running three days a week since 1969, and his heart is filled with enthusiasm for running.

“I like to run in all kinds of________. It is so childish as the rain touches your face. And I love to come here after snow and you watch your________as you go along.” he concluded.

Minor’s enthusiasm for running is________. “It is my joy. And I want to live as long as I can. And I mean live, not________.” His words ring true for Ron Robert, a man diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who decided to ________ a three-year bachelor of artsprogram at King’s University College in London, Ontario. “I was always taught early in life that the brain is like the most ________instrument we have in our body,” said Robert.

Last fall, Robert graduated from the university, despite the challenges of his illness. “When I went across the stage, and as I’m getting my________, the kids all stood up andyelled and clapped,” he________. “I had to hold back the tears. It was something else, just wonderful.” He hopes that his story will give hope to others facing________difficulties. “There will come a time when I won’t be able to, and I fully________that. Butin the meantime, I’m living a full life.”

The stories of Minor and Robert are reminders that age and illness need not________us. We can choose to pursue our________and live life to the fullest, no matter whatchallenges we may face.

3 . Back in mid-2019 I wasn’t in a good place in life. I was getting out of a serious relationship, I was _________ at my job, I had problems within my family, and the ever- increasing sense of loneliness had thrown me into _________. During that time, I turned to the only _________ thing I had going on for myself, which was travel and blogging.

After some serious thinking, I decided to quit my job to _________. I had saved up enough money that would last me 8- 10 months so I didn’t give it much thought because I knew it was the only thing that would keep me from tipping over the edge.

The _________ thing I did right after leaving my job was to head for the Himalayas in India. I spent a _________ in the Kinnaur and Spiti valleys in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The Kinnaur district was a breath of fresh air. The snow-capped mountain range in the _________, the lush green vegetation all around, the sparse (稀少的) population and the friendly people spoke to my soul, and made the weeks’ stay worthwhile.

There was one village called Chitkul, which _________ on the Indo-Tibet border and has no cell connectivity, that helped _________ me the most. It was a ____________ village with a population of less than a thousand people and only a handful of ____________, with nothing around it for many miles.

I spent my days sitting quietly by the river, hiking cheerfully to the nearby hills and walking ____________ through meadows. Just being there surrounded by the Himalayas, without any social media due to lack of connectivity, and making real ____________ with other travelers and the villagers had some sort of ____________ effect on me. Not only did I have the best travel experience of my life, but the place also healed my mind. I came back happier than ever, with a renewed spirit, ready to enjoy everything that life had to ____________.

4 . In language learning, it is not easy to find a balance between accuracy and fluency. When I was in my early 20’s, I _________a job teaching English in Japan. Although I had never studied Japanese or lived in Japan, I did have _________learning other languages and living in other countries.

When I arrived in Kyoto, I _________two other English-teaching colleagues—also new to Japan. We soon realized that we needed to take language classes, so as summer break approached, we _________in intensive Japanese classes. It was very interesting to watch our different _________to learning and using our new language.

One weekend, we decided to take a day trip to Ryoanji, a famous rock garden, but from the train station we had to ask directions to the garden.

One friend was very _________about speaking correctly. She would spend several minutes quietly _________to herself, checking her dictionary, and planning how to ask the question. Five minutes passed before she would even open her _________!

Another friend was very outgoing and rather _________to language structures. She __________the first person she could find, and asked him for directions. The __________was that he had difficulty understanding what she was saying. When he finally understood, he __________the directions, but then she didn’t understand everything he said, so she asked again and again for him to repeat the directions. Several minutes passed and she was still not clear on the directions and he was trying to find a way to __________!

My approach was different. I considered what I was going to say, and then asked the nearest person for directions. __________my Japanese was only good enough to grab some information. But I followed the directions I heard and I simply asked a new person for the next set of __________. And so I continued until I finally made it to Ryoanji!

5 . My wife, Hannah, and I don’t usually keep houseplants. Anything in pots gets either overwatered or underwatered. But after my diagnosis with a brain cancer, with a forecast of merely a year to live, I loved the _________ of having something new and green around.

My friend Mitch gave me what he said was a _________ bamboo plant in a pottery bowl. We placed the plant in the living room window across from the couch where I _________ much of the day.

I told Hannah I wanted to care for the plant myself. Caring for the plant gave me a sense of _________ at a time when I sometimes felt useless. My cancer _________ my ability to walk, and the treatment left me exhausted. As a family physician, I was used to being the one who provided care, not the one who _________ it.

Since my diagnosis, far too often, I had to _________ help from other people. The enormous change left me feeling aimless and unsettled. Watering the plant, as small an act as it was,   _________ me to a central part of my old identity and taught me I could still be a caregiver. Soon, it had nearly doubled in height and its leaves were shiny and lush. Both the tree and I were _________.

Then, __________, it began to show signs of stress. I increased my watering, then decreased it. I fed it plant food. No matter what I did, the leaves kept browning and dropping to the floor. I grew more and more __________ and uneasy.

Hannah __________ me that we’d seen houseplants die before.

“If my lucky bamboo dies,” I blurted out, “I might die too!”

I couldn’t shake the feeling that the plant had become a(n) __________ of my health. __________ the tree was struggling, I felt increasingly fearful. Its drying leaves, I worried, might signal the end of my life.

Thanks to my wife’s constant comfort, my __________ lessened and I transplanted the bamboo to a larger pot as instructed. I am convinced that if the plant outlives me, it will comfort Hannah and remind her that our large community will continue to nurture her after I am gone.

6 . It was a snowy morning on January 29th when Casey Ryan from Eugene, Oregon, and his friend decided to travel up into the mountains of Willamette National Forest for a bit of hiking. Ryan was _________ with many of the roads in the area resulting from the time spent _________ on a roadside litter cleanup crew. He also frequently went into the mountains for his favorite _________: photographing the wilderness with his camera and his drone (无人机).

Despite the icy conditions that day, Ryan _________ everything was okay after seeing cars driving in the opposite direction. However, his optimism was _________ as he encountered a Mercedes van stuck in the snow, and when he volunteered to assist in _________ the vehicle, his car ended up _________ into a deep pile of snow. With the late afternoon setting in and temperatures dropping rapidly, they found themselves _________ the cold.

After discussing about their next _________, they decided to use his drone to fly above the tree line, where the phone could grab a __________ and get an SOS text away. It seemed to be the best __________, even though the drone was not designed to bear the weight of a heavy phone.

When the drone __________ and they checked to see if their text to Ryan’s wife had been sent, they were left in __________ when they saw that it had worked.

After a night in their cars, Lane County Sheriff’s Office arrived in the late morning to rescue them, Ryan’s wife having __________ them the night before. “I’ve been doing search and rescue since 2007,” said Jason Bowman, a search-and-rescue coordinator, “And this was by far the most __________ way I’ve ever seen somebody call for help.”

7 . I was talking to some friends while standing in line in the cafeteria at my middle school. As I started to share a funny story, my friend Elizabeth _______ me. “Coco! Coco!” she called out. Everyone laughed. This is so _______, I thought. I felt a little bit uncomfortable.

However, I never wanted to ask what “Coco” meant. I _______ it was a code word for a cute boy. Elizabeth was one of the girls that everyone wanted to be friends with. I felt _______ to be friends with her. Later, I noticed that Elizabeth often said bad things about other kids. I would have never said those things about someone, but to fit in, I _______ when Elizabeth said them.

One day, a classmate stopped by my locker and said to me, “‘Coco’ means Elizabeth thinks you’re being _______. It’s really mean.” My eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t _______ it.

The next day, at lunchtime, I sat beside Macy, who was sitting with another two girls and who had always seemed nice, _______ that she didn’t know about Coco. “You know Elizabeth is mean, right?” My heart _______. She knew. Before I could respond, Macy said, “You didn’t ________ to be treated that way, and nobody else does either.” I smiled and then talked to my new friends with ________. We laughed a lot, and no one interrupted with a mean code word.

Most adolescents are attempting to ________ who they are and who they want to be. The word Coco will always serve as a(n) ________ that I need to stay ________ to myself and never compromise my values to be friends with someone. Because with ________ friends, I won’t have to.

8 . The Messenger of Peace!!

A serious question was raised by a little girl. We met this little girl on our ________. She is very cute and ________. Her mother runs a tea shop and she also used to ________ her. We stopped at her shop for tea ________; she was very excited to see us and looked ________ So one of our journey mates called her and ________ tea with us. She smiled and sat with us and started asking questions. We were very surprised at ________ smart she was!

She ________ some good questions on peace & war. She said we all are human and we all have the ________ blood in our body so why do we fight? For a ________ we were silent. Because we didn’t have the right answer. But we had to give some answers. To know the answer, we are doing this journey. One of our journey mates said let’s come with us to know the answer ________ your questions. She said yes and started ________ on our cycle. We were very happy to see her enthusiasm and excitement. But we couldn’t take her with us. So we ________ her with a garland (花环) and peace doves. We also gave her some toffees (太妃糖) and peace pamphlets (小册子). She and her mother ________ were very happy and inspired. We were also very inspired by that girl. She gave us new ________ and thoughtfulness.

9 . Our son, Andrew, was always very active and loved playing sports. When he turned 10, I noticed he couldn’t run like he_________ . I took him to the doctor but she could not find anything physically_________.

Since then, we began a seven-year_________ for answers. We saw 13 different doctors, but were still left without _________. At the same time, Andrew’s situation was getting_________. He had to_________ the idea of ever playing sports again. Attending high school was even a_________ for him.

One day, we were referred to Dr. Delgado, a neurologist (神经学家), who gave Andrew a few different tests.

A week later, we_________ waited in the exam room, praying for an answer. Dr. Delgado walked in and said he _________ what was going on with Andrew—— I could hardly__________ those words! Andrew had a rare neurological disorder that could be easily__________. Andrew took his first pill that Friday and within 24 hours he was able to stand, walk and run like he had been able to eight years ago. He went to__________ the next Monday—— no one could believe the miraculous (不可思议的) __________ in Andrew!

Because of everything Dr. Delgado did for Andrew, I began volunteering in his clinic. I like to share Andrew’s__________ with the patients, telling them they are in an__________ place and are seeing the best doctor in the world.

10 . It was dark and I was standing in front of a _________ house in an unfamiliar street in Sydney’s northwest, rescue box in hand, leather gloves under my arm, my head full of instructions to _________. The little bird waiting inside the house would be my first _________ as a volunteer wildlife rescuer since I’d completed a two-day training course the previous month. A call had come through that afternoon asking for help _________ a bird of an unknown species was being attacked by two youngsters in his garden. He _________ the children and grabbed their victim.

I went inside to see my very first patient. I was _________, yet with the man watching on, I would have to look confident. With great care, I lifted the edge of the shoe box very _________ to see a tiny-looking bird standing to attention on very thin legs.

The bird was shivering, so I decided not to grab it by hand but just transfer the whole shoebox into my rescue box. I didn’t want to appear incompetent.

Back home, I couldn’t see any obvious _________ of injury. I hadn’t seen this species of bird before, so I googled for a _________ on the Internet. After a while, I came across something that looked like a match: a fantail, so called because of its __________ feathers that, when fully open, spread out into a neat little “fan”.

I phoned the bird specialist of my local rescue group. She told me this species hunts __________ on the wing, and I needed to release it the next day on the same street it came from.

I waited until evening the next day, which would provide the cover of __________, to release it. I was back on the street where I’d rescued it, gently holding the bird, and wondered what would be __________ for this delicate creature this time around. Nothing. It would have to take care of itself just as before, and be strong enough to catch some insects and recover its energy levels without delay.

I held the bird as __________ as I could to give it a good lift-off: the little bird __________ swiftly into the darkness without a pause. My first rescue had ended in a successful release.