1 . My daughter is only two years old and, like most girls, already has a nurturing spirit growing inside of her. She tries to _______ everything that she has. She already has favorite suits, favorite toys, and even a favorite blanket.

This blanket is a pink one that was purchased for her before she was born. It seems to be the one she _______ the closest. I always see her dragging that blanket around. She sits and eats with it, and even jumps right out of the bath to run to it. She won't turn it _______ ! It gets washed many times in the course of a week yet it is almost always _______ .

Normally I just laugh at the thing but recently my daughter has had a cold. Any parent will tell you that germs can get into the things the child _______ and cause them to stay sick instead of getting better. So, unwillingly, we _______ the blanket out of my daughter's daily life. Of course, she wasn't _______. It was something that she loved, _______ was hers, and had established familiarity with. However, since the blanket is gone, she has a better _______ of getting over her cold faster and not getting sick again. She doesn't know it but the blanket is part of what was keeping her trapped in a state of sickness. We, as ________, know a lot of things that are keeping us from our true purpose, or even, true happiness. But we won't let them ________ We have friends, habits, and guilty pleasures that keep us trapped in a state of sickness, disappointment, suffering or ________. We'd rather keep them ________ because they are familiar. But sometimes change is beautiful. ________ our security blankets is a tall order but a ________step for us to grow.

2 . I am a girl, but I was born to be a rebel (叛逆者). I like games that can be _____ Some of the sports I like, even boys won’t play!

Wrestling (摔跤) is _____ seen as a sport for men, but I _____ to see if I could do it.

Every Saturday morning, I got out of bed early to go and watch my brother _____.From morning to night, I would sit watching the _____ have all the fun. Since then, wrestling has been part of my _____.

For three years, I _____ all the boys and became the best player in the team. My _____ memory of wrestling is when a boy walked off _____ because he’d lost to a girl.

My last ______ was at this year’s Girls’ State Wrestling Championships.

I was so ______. I was sure I would win. My heart was beating hard when the match started. I could see ____but my competitor. When the final whistle blew, I had ______ by four points. The cameras and ______ all turned to me: I was the new wrestling champion. I felt so ______. But after a few minutes of enjoying being a champion, ______ began to run through my knee. Because I hurt my knee, my ______ of being a national champion ended. Even so, I won’t lose heart and still ______ to wrestle next year when I go to college. I have   ___ that you can do anything you want if you stay positive and put your ______ into it.

3 . A heavy snow hit my neighborhood the other day. I had recently agreed to be the house’s groundskeeper, which meant I was_______ with shoveling(铲)the inches of snow that covered the driveway.

I had to stay in the house during the _______,so I was actually pretty happy to head_______After shoveling for about an hour, muscles in my arms and legs which I _______ used due to my busy schedules started to burn. By the time I finished shoveling, I realized that I gained nearly the same amount of _______ that I can get from biking. Shoveling turned out to be pretty good exercise, so I actually felt _______ to finish shoveling.

A few days later, a few friends and I got into a casual _______ about how hard it is to spare time to exercise_______.There are lots of people who dislike gyms. Going to gyms   _______ them a lot. Less than 5%of adults are physically ________for half an hour a day, which is quite a big problem. Not exercising enough can ________diseases like heart disease, bone disease, and depression.

And yet, compared with going to gyms, shoveling snow was quite ________.Besides, it didn’t take too much willpower(意志力)and I just needed to ________ the driveway at my own pace. I can just do some daily tasks like shoveling for exercise in the neighborhood in my spare time   ________ driving to a gym.

People pay much money for gym memberships and classes to ________ extra energy . So why not ________paying the fitness industry to exercise and ________ physical fitness with such kind of daily chores? Surely, they’re better off ________ that money and putting the energy to practical use.

A neighborhood can have a Facebook group where people in need of help can ________ things on it. Then, people who want to exercise can help them out. It’s a win-win situation. In addition to helping people, this can also be shaped as a new________ to keep fit.

4 . He has been called the“missing link”．Half­man，half­beast.He is supposed to live in the highest mountain in the world—Mount Everest. He is known as the Abominable Snowman.The_______of Snowman has been around for_______．Climbers in the 1920s reported finding marks like those of human feet high up on the side of Mount Everest.The native people said they _______this creature and called it the“Yeti，”and they said that they had_______caught Yetis on two occasions though none has ever been produced an evidence.

Over the years，the story of the Yetis has_______．In 1951，Eric Shipton took photographs of a set of tracks in the snow of Everest.Shipton believed that they were not_______the tracks of a monkey or bear and felt that the Abominable Snowman might really_______.

Further efforts have been made to find out about Yetis.But the only things people have ever found were more footprints.Most believe the footprints are nothing more than ordinary animal tracks，_______，in 1964，a Russian scientist said that the Abominable Snowman was_______and was a remaining link with the prehistoric humans.But，________，no evidence has ever________been produced.

These days，only a few people continue to take the story of the Abominable Snowman________，but if they ever________catching one，they may face a real________：Would they put it in a________or give it a room in a hotel?

5 . My local supermarket is always busy. The first parking space I found was convenient, but I’d noticed a woman in a blue car _________ for a while. As I was _________, I let her have it. On the _________ of the car park I backed into the next available spot — it was a tight fit.

Pretty soon, I’d made my way through the supermarket and was back in the fresh air. Feeling good, I _________ my purse change into the hands of a homeless man and helped a _________ woman reverse park (倒车).

Just as I _________ my car, I saw the woman I’d let have my car space _________. She was giving a mean odd _________— half puzzled, half intent (热切的). I smiled and wished her a pleasant day. As I squeezed back into my car, I _________ the same lady looking in at me. “Hello,” she said, hesitantly. “This might sound crazy but I was on my way to ____________ some of my mother’s things off at the charity bins.” “You are just so much like her. You helped those people, I noticed, and you seemed so happy.” She looked at me meaningfully and passed a box in through the ____________, “I think she would like you to have it.” Shocked, I took it from her ____________. She smiled and walked away.

After a pause, I opened the box. ____________ was a beautiful gold necklace with a large grey pearl. It was the nicest gift I’d ever received, and it was from a complete ____________. The necklace was around my neck, a warm ____________ of human kindness.

6 . How Running Helped Me Turn My Life Around

I've never been an athlete. Aside from excelling at all academic disciplines at school, my main goal was to _______ PE at all costs. In my twenties, I went for an occasional yoga or Zumba class, but that was really the summary of all my athletic accomplishments.

That was until the end of 2016, when I was unexpectedly laid off. The _______ of getting a new job soon were not in my favor and _______ thoughts of not being good enough started to kick in. I was feeling quite depressed but pushed myself to go and _______ for the TCS NYC Marathon runners as the course was going through our neighborhood.

However, while being there, I got phenomenal _______ from all the runners, smiling, applauding and high-fiving constantly. Not a runner myself, I thought maybe I could give running a _______, just to try, to use my neglected gym membership and see where it _______ me. And so I tried. I went to my local gym the next morning and got on a treadmill （跑步机）.I was out of breath by minute five, but I _______ down, walked for a bit and then restarted. I came back the next day, hoping to _______ a few minutes longer. By the end of two weeks, I could run for 30 minutes, which was a huge ________.

While I saw my body starting to look more toned, I also noticed my negative thoughts didn't occur that ________ And it sparked a thought—what if I could set a running ________ and sign up for my first- ever race? I did and races sort of became a new hobby.

In the meantime, I was able to ________ a few freelance （自由职业的）projects. They offered me a good ________, and, most importantly, the time to work out for the big race. Also, when I was going for interviews, I started to feel very ________ in my abilities, experience and skills.

I got my full-time job ________ at my dream company just a couple of weeks before the halfmarathon. Although I got an ________ from overtraining right before the race, I still went for it and still finished within my ________ time.

I still have a long running ________ ahead of me—I'd love to work on my speed, my technique and I dream of running a marathon outside of the US. Running gives me ________ that I can do anything I set my mind to.

7 . As a young boy my family was very poor. I would often help do something for the neighbors to_______a little pocket money.

One day I_______at the door of an elderly woman and asked_______ she needed me to clean the yard. She asked why I was not in_______ and I showed her my worn _______ , which no longer kept me warm. She _______me to work in the yard. When I finished, she looked at me and said, “I suppose you want to be _______now.” She then_______a jar filled with dollar bills and said, “I’m glad you’ve done a _______job today but that is not something you should be doing again. I want you to ________new clothes and get back to school. I also want you to come back to ________me with your report card, and I will ________you when I see you have worked hard and got some good marks. Now________your little hands and take out as much________as you can.”

I put my hands in the jar and grabbed (抓住) so much money that it was ________for me to buy what I ________needed. Later, I returned several times to see the woman and she did just as she ________.She looked at my report card and gave me a handful of dollars and some delicious food every time I ________her that I had an “A”.

I was twelve years old when I moved from that neighborhood. I will never forget the big ________ this wonderful lady made to my life with her ________. This is something I hope to do myself in this lifetime over and over again.

8 . In France, a bookstore chain has put a special camera in its shops. The system feeds a video stream to software which_______shoppers’ movements and facial expressions for surprise, dissatisfaction, confusion or hesitation. When a shopper walks to the end of an aisle（货架通道） only to_______with a frown to a particular bookshelf, the software messages_______, who then go to help. For the eight months leading up to this April, sales rose_______a tenth.

The bookseller wants to keep its name_______for now. Similarly，other French clients of the Paris startup behind the technology, Angus.ai, are_______it in stores which are not open to the public. They_______ airport owner Aéroports de Paris, the luxury-goods giant LVMH, and Carrefour, the supermarkets chain.

Simple video produces a lot of insights, but there are far more complicated ways of learning about shoppers’_______. Thermal-imaging (热成像的) cameras_______detect heart rates. Wirelessly collected data from smartphone accelerometers (加速度传感器) can suggest when shoppers become fascinated (movement stops) or are unhappy about________(a phone is raised to search for cheaper products online). For even more insights, shoppers are sometimes asked to put on special equipment, typically in exchange for a ________or reward of another kind.

All of this could be a(n)________, some say, for sellers to enjoy the advantage that big data has long given online sellers. A race is________to work out how best to________and use emotional data, thus improving packaging, displays, music, or the content and timing of persuading customers into buying goods.

Using technology is much less________than old-fashioned interviewing. Nielson, a consumer-research giant, charges around $10,000 to interview 25 shoppers about three products. Angus. ai’ s service costs just $66 a month per camera. Sometimes,________market surveys may ask the wrong questions. What’s more, they can give misleading________. People typically change their responses intentionally to make themselves sound sensible,________purchases are often driven by subconscious (潜意识的) emotions.

One obvious________of shopping’s emotional side is the idea of “retail therapy” — consumers driven to spend when they are feeling blue. Whichever store is the first to spot mildly________customers could make a fortune!

9 . You just can’t imagine what a brave mother is like. She was a mother of three, who just _______ an earthquake, couldn’t tell if her children were _______ for help. Or what if you knew you couldn’t yell at her for help because she couldn’t _______ you? That was what happened to Connie and her three children _______ the 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Napa, California. Connie is _______ and communicates with her children using sign language.

At midnight, Connie and her three children were _______ on the first floor of their two-story home. She and her 16-year-old son, Juan, were shaken awake. Instantly, they realized there were no disaster supplies downstairs. Connie, also _______ one-month-old Raul and 8-year-old Adriana, called Juan to come close to her in the darkness and _______ for him to go upstairs to get a _______.

Juan slowly __________ the stairs. He heard a loud creak (嘎吱声). Arriving on the top floor, he moved quickly but __________ to get what he needed. Using the flashlight to guide his steps back __________ the stairs, the family was able to take a few items from the first floor and __________. Their home was almost in ruins.

Being deaf was not deterrent (妨碍物) for this __________ mother. The family made it to the __________ safely, which comforted everyone.

10 . When I first met Begay at Los Ninos Elementary on “King and Queen Day”, she was wearing a smile ear-to-ear.

This morning, though, Begay was______. The parent she had been trying to_____was a no-show again. Begay______needed to talk to her. Her boy was smart, but now about a year behind. She______there were problems at home. He was always late and had already missed too much school.

By 8 a.m. , kids were arriving, and Begay’s______quickly became a beehive（蜂窝）of activity. Forty-five minutes_______, the little boy finally walked in, shoulders sunk, head_______. Rather than______him in front of the class, Begay welcomed him warmly. He was testing Begay’s long-held_______that no child is a lost cause, no matter how______he seems. “It’s the unspoken       _____teachers start out with,” Begay said.

During lunch I sat down with Begay’s students and asked them what they liked about her.

“ She never gets angry, “ said one girl. A boy______:” She’s funny and likes telling jokes.”

Before we left the______, the shy, quiet girl next to me______,” She teaches me when I don’t want to learn.”

Her_______stayed with me. When I_______it with Begay, I told her that I felt it was a very       _____thing for a child to say. She agreed.

“They never______that to me.” said Begay, “But that’s what I_______. I want them to enjoy school. I want them to feel like someone_______them.”