1 . “Are you ready for our walk?” Grandma asked the usual question every Friday evening. “Of course, we are!” We ________ excitedly. Growing up, my sisters and I always knew Grandma had heart problems and couldn’t do anything hard, but we did know she would do anything to spend more with us.

One day, we were told that Grandma only had 2% heart ________. Her heart was ________, but she found out that there was a way to live longer: a surgery.

The ________ of the surgery was rough for our family, as we woke up bright and early to ________to the hospital. That car ride left me with worried thoughts ________ through my mind: Will Grandma be okay? Will we ever take another walk?

When we arrived at the hospital, we knew exactly where to go, as we had been there many times before. After________ those familiar doors up the stairs, my mom and I walked up to the nurses’ desk and asked for Grandma.

“Oh, Mary?” A nurse answered. “She’s one of the nicest ________ we had.” Then she ________ us to the waiting room and told us that only two of us were permitted to go into the ward (病房) to say goodbye to Grandma before she went in for surgery.

When my turn came, I________ the chance. I ran forward and gave her the biggest hug with tearful eyes. Grandma, holding me tightly in her arms, said, “I know there’s a chance I won’t ________ it, but I love you forever.” I comforted her, “Don’t worry, honey. We are all waiting for you here.” Then she was ________, leaving us waiting and praying anxiously.

Finally, after the longest morning of my life, the doctor entered the waiting room smiling. “Mary is out of surgery. You’re allowed to visit her as long as you’re ________.” he said. ________swept over my body and tears began rolling down my face. Thank goodness, I had grandma back! Once we walked into the room, there lay Grandma, looking peaceful yet painful with so many tubes ________ to her. I felt so shocked but so happy.

2 . In 1997,I worked at a gas station with a Laundromat (自助衣店) and for $2 a bag we’d wash, dry and fold. One of the days that I provided this ________ changed my perspective on the people we randomly meet in life.

Early one morning, a tattooed (纹身的) giant truck driver ________ a bag of laundry, and I ________ it’d be ready for ________ by the end of the day. Then I threw the load in the washer and pressed start.

An hour later, I went to move the giant’s laundry into the dryer. Then I was ________ to find that every item I pulled from the machine turned pink. The tattooed giant was going to kill me. I would be fired because some red sock was left and because I hadn’t made sure that the machine was completely ________ before I threw in a new load. Just thinking about these, I could hardly ________.

The rest of the day passed in a blur (模糊) as I ________ what would happen when the giant came for his laundry. ________ , the giant returned. When he stepped inside, looking terrifying and stern (严厉的), I ________ . I burst into tears. I admitted my ________ and swore I’d pay for his clothes. But to my ________ , he exploded with ________ and told me that it was fine, no worries. I’d say the words did ________ me. I let out the world’s longest breath as he continued laughing all the way back to the truck.

That day I learned that no one and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Giants can be ________, and a little gas station can also be the unlikely birthplace of many a memorable story.

3 . I was ten when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Prior to that, she had been a(n) _______ woman, active to an extent most people found astonishing. As a child, I was amazed by her accomplishments. But at thirty-one, her life _______. And so did mine.

She could do anything, I _______. She won tennis tournaments. She took photographs and held her own exhibition. She _______ as a newspaper columnist, and she cooked Spanish dishes for the family.

Now, she faced her illness with the same _______. Words like “disabled” and “physical therapy” became part of a(n) _______ new world we entered together. _______, I began to help take care of her. And it became routine to _______ her into the kitchen, where she instructed me in the _______ of peeling carrots and potatoes and how to prepare a decent breakfast.

Every accomplishment was a ________ for us both: the electric typewriter, the car with power steering and brakes, her return to ________, where she earned a master’s degree in special education. She eventually founded an activist support group called The Handicappers. One day, without ________ much beforehand, she took me to a Handicappers meeting. I had never seen so many people with so many ________. I returned home, thinking how ________ we really were.

Because my mother accepted her condition with such optimism, I rarely felt sad or resentful about it. Instead, I viewed her drive to look forward to things I ________ as a great mystery and powerful inspiration in my life.

4 . History has not yet _______ what we will definitively call the postmillennial cohort (2000年后出生的人) that now _______ more than 60 million people in the U.S. These kids and _______ with no concept of life _______ the Internet have so far been called the App Generation and Generation Z. They’ve been referred to as Homelanders, having grown up under the ghost of terorism. They’ve also been _______ the Plurals, for their historic diversity, as well as the Founders, at least by MTV.

Whatever we _______ naming them, marketers and academies are turning their attention to this group, which has billions in _______ and is already shaping the culture. This generation is growing up “totally and utterly connected,” says California State University psychologist Larry Rosen. Experts like Rosen have concerns about these kids’ Google-inspired expectations that everything be _______. They worry about their inability to _______ even five seconds of boredom. And they worry about the demands that come with ________ several identities online, from Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat. “There’s so much pressure on young people, who are still ________ their identities, to present this crystallized, idealized identity online,” says the University of Washington’s Katie Davis.

Historian Neil Howe sees ________ with the Silent Generation, the spoilt, risk-avoiding, “nice” generation of kids who grew up during the Great Depression and World War II, although some marked differences are found. Today’s youths are also coming of age among geopolitical trouble and fears about the economy, he says, ________ schools emphasize an intense far-reaching sensitivity to other kids. He suspects this ________ will be known for being well behaved and perhaps boring the culture by playing it safe. “There are typical examples that occur repeatedly,” Howe says, “even if they go by different ________.”

5 . Fiona liked to sing at home. One summer day when she was singing, her father said upstairs, “Baby, I really need _________ , so I can take a rest.” Fiona felt upset and had to go_________ .

It was a _________ day, and many people were riding bikes and walking their dogs in the sun. Fiona went to a nearby park and sat on a bench. She looked around to make sure she wasn’t _________ anyone. Then she started to hum (哼) _________.     But soon humming turned to loud singing.

Feeling very hot, Fiona took off her _________, laid it on the sidewalk and kept singing. Just as she _________ one of her favorite songs, a man stopped in front of her and dropped a_________ into her hat. Before she could say anything, the man left. Looking at his _________, Fiona really wasn’t sure how to __________ the money, but she did want to __________ singing.   As a result, a __________ stream of sound rang in the park.

When she enjoyed herself and stopped to relax, Fiona’s hat was full, and some money fell to the floor because there was no __________ for it. At that time, Mrs Maudslay, her neighbor, suddenly passed by and saw Fiona, “Are you busking, Fiona?” Fiona asked, “What’s busking?” “Busking is when a street performer __________ a hat to collect money.   People drop some money to show that they like the performance,”Mrs Maudslay answered   It __________ on Fiona, and she eventually donated her windfall (意外之财) to charity with the advice of Mrs. Maudslay.

6 . One morning, Lindsey Sheely ordered delivery from her favorite restaurant. After _________ the food, her then two-year-old son, Cohen, ran out to say goodbye to the delivery man. The child was _________ a package of sauce with one hand while his other arm was outstretched (伸出) for a hug. The pizza guy _________ to lean into the boy’s hug and said. “Enjoy your _________!” The enthusiastic baby even tried to kiss the pizza guy, but his mom told him to just blow kisses.

The _________ interaction was captured on Sheely’s doorbell camera. The following day, she posted the interaction on the Internet. “We thought it was so _________ and funny,” she wrote. “I hope it gives you a(n) _________ and warms your heart like it did for us.”

Then, she received a _________ from a man named Ryan Catterson, who told her that he saw the video and that he was the one who handled their _________. He was the pizza delivery man. Catterson __________ his sadness that his 16-year-old daughter, Alyssa, __________ passed away just a week before.

“After losing my daughter this past week, Cohen’s gesture __________ me because it was like my daughter was there. It really just __________ a lot to me.” said Catterson. Just like that, the hug was the perfect timing. Catterson had been informing the whole family how much he needed hugs before they came. Luckily, that sweet little __________ gave him one. It was almost as if his daughter had known and __________ it to him.

7 . I am 49 now. Reader’s Digest has been a(n) _______ part of my family since even before I was born. My father, a planter who _______ a tea estate in Sri Lanka, has _______ Reader’s Digest since the late 1950s. And then he naturally changed from a tea merchant to a writer for it.

In an era with no television or the Internet, the evenings were spent _______ the magazine. By the time I became literate, there was a cupboard full of Reader’s Digest _______ by me, which my father bought for me. With its _______, my knowledge was gathered too. At first, it was the real stories that were most _______ for me, where I learned some life lessons.

I read through them all over my school holidays. One thing I learned from Reader’s Digest is how to reverse (倒车) a car, which still benefits me today. I _______ reading a small piece of news about the tips on _______ a car up to a space in a short time, and to date, I can make it with the ________ effort and the most relaxed mind than most people.

I’ve ________ had to spend much time getting trained how to reverse a car fast. Every time I need to do it in one ________ step, I thought of the textual ________ and the vivid diagram from the Reader’s Digest. Who would have thought Reader’s Digest could be a “________”? I hope that the next generations will continue to enjoy reading and gain something ________   like me.

8 . Dave Player is the founder and CEO of Team BRIT, a car racing team. He wants to_________his team in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance sports car race in 2024. He explains,   “If you're an endurance racer, you'll be_________to compete in the race. Attending this famous event is the_________of every racing driver.”

If the team gains_________to the world's most demanding endurance race , they’ll_________the history books as the first all disabled team to do so. Some drivers with_________have taken part in it, but_________as wild cards. “We don't want to   _________them, ”Dave insists. “We want to compete on a_________playing field like others, as a statement that even as disabled racing drivers we__________on the world stage.”

Dave set up the charity KartForce in 2010 as a way for__________retired soldiers to use motorsport for recovery. He went on to start Team BRIT in 2015. Team member Bobby Trundle,   who has__________himself to car racing for years, says,   “Car racing has__________my life. Mentally, it's like relaxation and also I develop deep__________for the excitement. When I'm behind the wheel, my autism (自闭症) doesn't__________me. In fact, I consider it to be a super power of mine.”

9 . In January 2022, when Luigi Quintos, 54, held his newborn grandson, Ayden, for the first time, the baby weighed just over a pound. Ayden had been born two________ premature, and doctors thought he might not________. Extremely shocked and sad, Luigi turned to art to________ himself. He had been drawing portraits of people________ since grade school.

This time, Luigi drew a graphite portrait of Ayden with his parents-Luigi’s son and daughter- in-law-________ down at him. “It was my way of making sure they’d________ be together,”he says

After five months in intensive care, Ayden ________. Buoyed by the good news, Luigi set up a Facebook page, Priceless lmages, where he offered to draw portraits of other kids who were sick or________.“I thought my work might offer ________,” he says.

Within days, requests filled his inbox. Often, parents e mail Luigi a photo of their child along with a(n) ________ of his or her illness or how the child died. Sometimes they request that the artist exclude oxygen tubes and wires that________ in the photo, and one family asked for their child’s eyes to be drawn________, an image they never got to see in real life.

Each drawing takes Luigi a few hours. When he’s________, he mails an 11-by-14 inch portrait to the parents and posts a(n) ________ of the drawing on his Facebook page.

To date, Luigi has completed 450 portraits, with another 350 on the waiting list. But Luigi doesn’t mind the hard work. “The drawings give families something they can________,” he says.

10 . As I held my boy in the arms to rock him to sleep, he had his arms wrapped around me and kissed me on the cheek. I could feel his _________ love and trust.

For many years my husband John and I dreamed and _________ about becoming parents someday. If I couldn’t have any children of my own, I would _________. One Sunday morning a lady _________ me and told she had a granddaughter planning to _________ her unborn baby. We met with the young birthmother and showed her a profile of our family, which included a resume and pictures.

Less than two months later we completed our home study and were _________ by the adoption agency just two days before the baby’s birth. One Sunday morning, we got the news and rushed _________ to the hospital. What a(n) _________ feeling it is to finally hold your newborn son for the first time! We named him Eric Daniel.

During his stay in hospital, we got to hold him and feed him, so we _________ instantly. On the fourth day, Eric was __________ from the hospital and went home with us. Staring at this __________ angel, I couldn’t believe after all these years that I was now the mother of this beautiful child.

It took 10 months for the adoption to become __________. On that day we stood before the Judge declaring Eric __________ ours. It has been over two years now since we were __________ with Eric and I truly have enjoyed every day that I spend as a mother. I no longer __________ any day for granted. Thank God for giving me the opportunity to take care of such a life.