1 . When my mother told me stories about Emily, her grandmother, who she admired, I was all ears. My mother drew a _______ between Emily and Jacqueline Kennedy, former US president’s wife. Mom described her _______ features: a long graceful neck and a tiny waist. “Emily was just like Jacqueline,” Mom said. “But their origins wouldn’t _______: Emily was graceful, soft-spoken, but possibly born a slave.”

Emily attracted me. Not until 2005 did my research on ancestry really start to _______ , for the reason that I was no longer _______. “When does your new job start?” asked my mother. “I refuse to take a job for at least a year,” I replied. My mother had no _______ with such words. “Anyway, you should have a job.” I remained _______ and didn’t explain it. But I felt I must _______ my job to collect more stories about my _______.

I ________ my mother’s line to a place called Cane River. I found the bill of shameful slave sale for my great-great-great grandmother, who was ________ in 1850 for $ 800. I had to write the stories. This time the novel Cane River was sold in a（n） ________ way.

One day, the phone rang, “Hello, this is Oprah Winfrey, the talk show hostess.” I couldn’t believe my ears. I responded in ________, “Hello, Ms Winfrey. What can I do for you today?” She told me she selected my novel for her book club, which ________ led to Cane River on The New York Times bestseller list and a ________ readership than I expected.

2 . On the first day of our science class, Mr. Whitson gave us a lecture about an animal called “Cattywampus”, an ill-adapted nocturnal (夜行的) animal that was ________ out during the Ice Age, and he passed around a skull（头骨）as he talked. We all took notes and later had a quiz.

When he returned our papers, we were shocked — a big red “x” ________ each of our answers. We had written down exactly what he had said. There must be some mistakes!

“Very simple,” Mr. Whitson explained, “I had ________ up the story about the Cattywampus. There had never been such an animal. The information in your notes was, ________, incorrect. Did you expect ________ for incorrect answers?”

Needless to say, we were annoyed.

“You should have ________ it out.” Mr. Whitson said. After all, at the very moment he was ________ around the skull (in truth, a cat's), hadn't he been telling us that no trace of the animal ________? He had described its amazing night vision and the ________ of its fur he couldn't have known. He had given the animal a ridiculous name, and we still hadn't been ________.

Every class was a/an ________ with Mr. Whitson. One day he told us that his car was a living organism（有机体). It took us two full days to ________ for our clarification(阐明). He didn't let us off the ________ until we had proved not only the reasonable statement of an organism but also that we had the courage to stand up for the truth.

We put our ________ skepticism(怀疑) into all our classes. Teachers and textbooks are not always right. In fact, no one is. Don't let your minds go to ________, instead, speak up if you ever thought the teacher or the textbook was wrong.

3 . One of my earliest childhood memories: I’m maybe six, and it is Easter Sunday morning. I wake up early and skip down the hall to my parents’ bedroom to wake them up so that we can get straight down to the _______hunt. My dad is still in bed _______; my mum is nowhere to be seen. After _______my dad with finger for a bit, I go over to windows _______ the garden. I draw back the curtain to see if I can find any chocolate eggs that may be _______, perhaps   even the Easter Bunny (复活节兔子) himself going about his work. _______ I see my mother with a little basket of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs in one hand, crouching (蹲) to_______them here and there among planters and flower beds. What I am _______ makes no sense at all. It _______ in the face of everything I know to be true. Yet here it is unthinkable, ________ right in front of me. Hurt by my own expanding comprehension of what is happening, I turn to my sleepy father. "Mummy is the Easter Bunny!" I say, and burst into ________.

As losses of ________ go, this thing fades away slowly. But in retrospect (回想), what upset me most about this ________was my understanding that a part of my childhood had been gone forever. I was ________ able to enjoy the innocence I ________so highly in the first place.

4 . Life became dull when social distancing began in March due to the coronavirus. The_________all faded (消逝) together into what felt like one unexplainable long day. Not only did I have no opportunity to_________with my friends, but as more time passed in solitude (独处), I lost any_________to be around people.

That is, until July, when one of my_________from another state asked me to go camping with her family. I agreed, although somewhat_________. Once you have forgotten the pure_________of being among friends, the idea of driving six hours to live in a tent in the middle of a bug-infested (虫子滋生的) forest doesn't hold much_________anymore.

I don't remember the drive there, and even the scenery slowly_________from my mind. What I do remember is the_________feeling of happiness that washed over me. Within seconds, I remembered what it was like to live each second to its__________. I slept under the stars,__________from cliffs (山崖) into the crystal-clear water and walked through a night so__________that I couldn't see 2 inches (5cm) in front of me. I made new friends that are among my closest friends to this day. I instantly fell__________in love with the liveness of life.

The coronavirus brought on the hardest couple of months of my life. But I wholeheartedly__________that it was worth it.__________the advantages of the past gives you a greater appreciation of them when they finally return. Those five days in New York will forever be among my happiest.

5 . I have been reading books for as long as I can remember. I have always loved to read and never thought_________about this hobby—until I heard that some people consider reading to be “nerdy”. When did having a_________for reading become associated with being a so-called nerd（书呆子）? People who_________others for their love of novels just don't understand what bookworms experience when reading stories. They don't_________the feeling of wonder and amazement that comes from these paper pages, the_________roller coaster the stories set us on.

Books are like loyal friends—always_________for the day you decide enough is enough in the real world. You take their hand and_________into a whole other universe with them. Throughout my life, I have managed to get through tough times by disappearing into a book, into the story of another_________. I envelop myself in the conflicts, crazy plot twists and small successes that_________these novels, and I forget about the__________moments in life temporarily. When I finish reading, I often say to myself, "If that character can__________in a situation like that, I can__________make it through this day."

Novels have inspired me and helped lead the way through__________toward the light. I'm just going to keep__________the pages of my life and maybe one day, I'll reach a happy ending that allows me to__________the book and, with a smile on my face, pass it on to the next bookworm to start a brand new story.

6 . There once was a very wealthy and curious king. This king had a huge rock _________in the middle of a road. Then he _________nearby to see if anyone would try to remove the gigantic rock from the road.

The first group of people to pass by were some of the _________merchants and the king's officials. Rather than moving it, they simply walked _________ it. Though they had made a tidy fortune, these _________merchants and officials never thought of making any contribution. A few even loudly_________the king for the inconvenience caused by not _________the roads. Not one of them tried to move the rock.

Finally, a peasant _________. His arms were full of vegetables and farm tools. When he got near the rock, rather than simply going around it, the peasant put down his _________and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. It took a lot of effort but he __________succeeded.

The peasant gathered up his load and was ready to go on his way when he saw a purse lying on the __________where the rock had been. The peasant __________the purse. The purse was stuffed full of gold coins and a note from the king. The king's note __________the gold was a __________for him, because he moved the rock from the road. Then, the king walked out from where he had hidden to meet the peasant.

The king__________the peasant what many of us never understand: every obstacle gives an opportunity to improve our condition.

7 . 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.

8 . 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.

9 . 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.

10 . 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.”