1 . I grew up in a small town in Ohio, where everyone knew a man called Tom. Uneducated, he couldn’t talk plainly. And because he was _______ and not very smart, everyone teased him. I guess he was an easy mark.

One day, he came walking by. I was about 12 and thought it would make me feel grown-up to _______ him like the adults did.

He asked how I was doing. I told him my father was _______ , and that we lacked money. I could hear my friends _______ in the background so I went on with the lie. I had him _______ so completely that every time he inquired about the situation, I would make it seem increasingly worrying.

I knew he made a _______ by doing odd jobs (打零工), so it seemed _______ when he asked me if we needed anything. I told him that we didn’t know if we would starve (饿死) . He responded, “You poor thing. I will _______ for you. ”

That night I heard the _______ rattle (作响) softly. Thinking it was the wind beating against it, I ________ it. Later when I opened the door to go outside, I found a box of groceries. I knew who had given the food. I ________ the small box of canned food with tears in my eyes. I felt ________ , and wanted to return the groceries.

My father would not let me take the box ________ . He said it would hurt Tom. Each day when we were to have dinner, my father would ask, “What side dish are we having from the ________ box today?

It was ________ for me to eat the food. I knew Tom had given sacrificially. He gave the best he had, but I did not deserve the gift.

2 . Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren’t _______ but this was one of those celebrations that I didn’t mind. They are a bunch of young, single guys and I would have felt out of place.

What _______ me was the way they behaved. Ono of the young men came over _______ in the day to “warn” us of the upcoming event and said it would be over at about 11 p. m. That was the first step. Even more _______ was what they did next. “Here’s my _______”, offered our neighbor _______ “Text me if it’s too noisy.” That was a level of _______ I had never experienced in all my years of being a neighbor!

And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the _______ end time, even when the music reached high decibels(分贝), and even when we couldn’t get through to the phone number, we felt no _______. We knew they would stop and ________ to it eventually.

It takes such little effort to make people feel that they ________ and get people on your side. Everyone needs to ________ every now and then, especially in these uniquely tough times. But people who do it without disturbing others are few and far between. I hadn’t fully ________ my neighbors until this week. But now I see them in a new light and with greater ________ . They didn’t just bring the noise to the neighborhood; they showed us a good manner of ________ in life.

3 . Some people say he is a hero. Some people say he is stupid. Emmanuel Tulor thinks he did the _______ thing. The 18-year-old from Liberia found $50,000 on the highway. He gave it back to the _______ . Life in Liberia isn't _______ . The country went through 14 years of civil wars. Tulor dropped out of school in seventh grade and started driving a motorcycle taxi to _______ money. One day, he was _______ on the highway when he saw a bunch of money wrapped in a plastic bag. It had been _______ on the road unnoticed. There were thousands of dollars inside. “I was _______ because it was plenty.” he said, “and so I brought it home and gave it to my aunty to _______ until the owner could ask for it.”

That day, Musu Yancy, the businesswoman who had lost the money, went on the radio _______ for her money and appealing to anyone who found the money to return it. So he took it to her. Yancy gave him a(n) ________ of cash and some gifts, which was worth about $1, 500 in all. Yancy celebrated with Tulor.

Tulor said that while many Liberians are praising his actions, others couldn't ________ him. They said it might be a better ________ for him to save the money; they said Tulor should let the money help himself.”

Tulor ________ thinks he made the right choice. He thinks people should ________ lost things and the cash they find. Tulor planned to ________ the gifts with some people who were with him when he found the cash. “But the cash I got will be given to my grandma.” he said.

4 . In the middle of a hot July afternoon, I became a thief of some sort—a thief of music. For the first time, I created a(n) _________ piano arrangement of one of my favorite songs. Using only my ears and iPad, I _________ a mix of sounds and melodies into the tones of a single instrument; I created complex harmonies and voices into something I could _________ with only two hands. No help, no guide—I did it _________.

I’ve been a pianist since my hands grew big enough to touch the _________. For many years, my musical identity was _________ by the notes that others had written in the past centuries. I valued classical music, but I felt such performances were shallow (肤浅的). I had nothing of my own to _________ the great compositions (乐曲) of Bach. This was why, when I put the finishing touches to my piano version of a modern song, my _________ was glorious: this arrangement was mine. What I’d done seemed magical: an ability to take what had already existed—to “steal” a song from my favorite band—and to change it into something _________ all on my own.

In music, as in other aspects of life, I believe that true originality __________ exists. Almost everything has been done before. The most passionate romance novel may be a slightly __________ version of a play written by Shakespeare, which in turn was __________ from the writers of Ancient Gréece.

The gift of __________ is just like what I did on the piano: to find out something beautiful, to analyze and change it and __________ yourself in the mystery of its composition, and then to make it new. Such an act is not copying; it is finding __________ and use it as fuel for your own masterpiece.

5 . “A new student is waiting in your room.” My principal told me. “Name’s Mary. I’ll talk to you about her.” I nodded, some materials in my hands. “Fine,” I said. “We’re making valentine envelopes, a good way for her to get _________.”

She sat in the back of the room, her hands _________ in her lap (大腿). “Welcome, Mary. I’m glad you are in our room.” No _________. “Mary.” I said again, with a smile. She raised her head and looked into my eyes. The smile on my face _________. Dear God, I thought, what on earth happened to this little girl? The eyes in that face were unexpectedly empty as if her world were coming to an end.

The bell rang, little time to worry about Mary. After _________ Mary into her desk, I distributed materials and then hurried to the office. There I learned weeks ago, her mother _________ a serious illness, unconscious in bed. She had been _________ since. “What can I do?” I stammered. “I’ve never known a child like this before.” “Give her _________,” the principal suggested.

I returned and grabbed a chance to explain this to my students, urging them to be patient and kind towards her. “It may be a long time _________ she joins us, but you can do your bit.” How loving they could be once they understood. On Valentine’s Day, Mary’s envelopes overflowed. We expected her to cheer up a bit, but still she was silent without any facial __________.

Later on a March day, my children noticed the flowers __________ and advised making flower baskets! It was something to lift our __________. Remembering the valentine incident, I expected nothing from Mary; __________, I encouraged her to try. Soon, a boy exclaimed: “Look at Mary’s basket. So pretty!” I was dumbfounded at its beauty, asking how she managed it. She looked at me with the shining eyes of any __________ girl and replied “Mother loved flowers.”

“Thank you, God, you’ve given us a __________.” I knelt and put my arms around Mary. Ever since, I’ve kept the flowers in my desk just to remind me of Mary and of the lasting power of love.

6 . How do you pass the time during your subway commute(通勤)? Scrolling on your phone? Listening to music? Or just staring at the _______ ? Sabrina Bahsoon, a 22-year-old girl who now lives in London for her college education, turns the subway into her _______ .

Her self-shot videos of energetic dance routines _______ on London’s subways have quickly _______ TikTok, making her an overnight sensation(轰动). Her _______ has sparked a trend, inspiring others to be confident and do what they want regardless of what other people think of them.

_______ in Malaysia, Bahsoon developed a confident character. While listening to some music, she felt like making a short TikTok video on the subway on one typical commuting night. But with no _______ willing to help her, she finished the short film dancing to a joyful song, alone and _______ .

Inspired by Bahsoon, many viewers soon left friendly _______ to praise her bravery and confidence. Some also shared their own “Tube Girl” ________ on social media. This concept has gradually become a(an) “________” about embracing self-confidence.

However, some described her behavior as “________”. But these “haters” do not ________ Bahsoon at all. ________ , she thinks it is quite normal for girls to enjoy and ________ themselves on their values. “Just be yourself, ” Bahsoon told BBC News.

7 . There was once a lazy crow (乌鸦). He thought it was too much trouble to _______ food. “Caw! Caw!” he said. “If someone brought me my food every day, I’d be very _______ !”

One day, he saw a fat pigeon (鸽子) flying by. “How happy and _______ it looks,” the crow said to himself. So the crow _______ the pigeon until they came to a park. There were some other _______ there too.

Before long, an old man came along and brought them a large bag of food. When the man had gone, the crow flew over to the pigeons. “Caw! Caw!” said he. “Can I _______ you?”

“No, you can’t!” shouted the pigeons angrily. “We don’t know you. ”

The crow went home feeling _______. But he suddenly had a(n) _______. “I’ll paint my feathers gray, ”he said,“ and then the pigeons will _______ I am one of them.” After he finished the painting, he flew off to the park and was ________ by the pigeons. The crow was so hungry that he got very excited at the food. “Caw! Caw! Give lots to me!” he said loudly. ________ , the pigeons found he was a crow. They flew after him and made him leave.

Sadly, the crow flew to his own forest. But when his old friends, the other crows saw him, they asked him to ________. They did not know him because of his gray-painted feathers. So the crow felt ________ than before. His own ________ did not want him, and the pigeons wouldn’t let him into their group.

“What looks easier isn’t always so,” the crow said to himself. “ I ________ I had never painted my feathers gray!”

8 . Early on the morning of October 13, LaPierre was heading to the Chicago Marathon on the city’s Blue Line L. The ______ was full of energized marathoners. Before long, LaPierre noticed a man moving from passenger to passenger, asking for spare ______ . His behavior struck LaPierre as “really strange,” especially the way he stared down anyone he felt hadn’t ______ him enough.

At the Cumberland station, most of the passengers suddenly ______ the car, LaPierre rushed out to see what was going on, only to hear ______ people shouting that the man asking for money was, in fact, armed and ______ people.

As the armed man hopped onto the next train gar, LaPierre followed him. “I could not ______ knowing there were innocent children and people just trying to get to a ______ ,” he says.

The man turned and saw LaPierre, his head down, bull-rushing him. Although the man was far ______ and younger, LaPierre crashed into him and managed to press him ______ the closed door. “Once I got a few feet from him, I knew he wouldn’t be able to react fast enough to ______ me, ”he told the Chicago Sun-Times. The two men fought for the gun—and their ______ . The man tried pushing past him, but ______ , LaPierre grabbed the gun and handed it to a passenger. Then the police poured into the train, and LaPierre let them ______ . He had a marathon to run.

This was not the first time LaPierre had jumped into a(n) ______ . A few years back, he helped prevent a drugstore robbery. “I just happen to be at the right place at the right moment,” he says.

9 . When I was growing up, I had an old neighbour named Dr Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never _______ at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.

When Dr Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a _______.

The good doctor had some _______ theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional(传统的) wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants _______ them so that each following tree generation would grow _______. So you have to make things _______ for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on.

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots _______ water. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be _______.

Dr Gibbs _______ a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big since they have deep ________ now. However, the trees in my garden ________ in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.

It seemed that adversity benefited these trees in ways ________ never could. I stood there deep ________.

Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, ________ of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think it’s time to change my prayer because now I know my children are going to encounter ________.

10 . Temperatures in the Norwegian capital regularly drop to -10℃ during winter. _______ in the cold winter without wearing a coat, a boy wrapped his arms around himself on a bus stop bench.

It’s _______ scene, but the actions of the ordinary people who witnessed the dilemma of 11-year-old Johanne was both joyous and _______.

A young woman sitting next to the boy noticed him rubbing his arms. She immediately asked him, “Don’t you have a _______?” “No. Someone stole it,” he replied. She _______ and learned he was on a school trip and was told to meet his teacher at the bus stop. She asked him the name of his school and where he was from as she _______ draped (披上) her own coat around his shoulders.

Later, another woman gave him her scarf and then _______ him in her large overcoat. Throughout the day, more and more people _______ to give him gloves and even the coats off their backs as they waited for their bus.

_______, Johanne’s experience was an experiment by Norwegian charity SOS Children’s Villages. Carried out by a ________ camera, it was part of their winter campaign to gather ________ of much-needed coats and blankets to help Syrian children through the winter. Many of the refugees (难民) have left their homes ________ winter clothing.

“People should care as much about children in Syria as they are ________ about this boy,” Synne Ronning, the information head of SOS Children’s Villages Norway, told The Local. She also ________ that the child was a volunteer who was never in any danger during the ________.