1 . Members of the Huntington Station-based Girl Scout Troop 239 are working towards their goals. They are _________ hundreds of pounds of plastic caps and lids (盖子) to recycle and _________benches (长椅).

“What we really want to do is use this _________ as a vehicle for developing the girls’ team spirit and also educating the public about the importance of _________ ,”Christine Reilly, troop leader, said. “The message is that something that you might otherwise have _________ can be recycled into something that can have a(n) _________ effect.”

The troop has already gathered up 400 pounds. “Many families collected for us, _________several local businesses and schools,” said Reilly. “The support has been _________.”

Throughout the project, members of the troop sort through plastic caps and lids to make sure they are _________, clean them, and put them in bags to be __________ to Green Tree Plastics, where they are melted and transformed into benches.

The benches will be donated to local __________ to be used as friendship benches, where a student can sit if he has no __________ to play with to encourage other students to __________ him. “There are some kids that don’t seem to fit in, and the bench can be a helping hand for them,” Reilly said.

Each bench will be 6 feet long. A board will be put in front __________ that the bench is made from plastic caps and lids __________ by Girl Scout Troop 239.

3 . A 72-year-old resident from Georgia, Sam Kaplan, recently celebrated his college graduation in cinema studies. His ______ became even more special by the ______ of his 99-year-old mother.

Kaplan decided to ______   his educational journey at Georgia Gwinnett College in 2019; half a century after he had originally chosen not to receive higher ______ following his high school graduation in 1969. The ______ of going to college came when he heard a radio announcement about a degree program in cinema studies.

Kaplan was ______ down the highway when he heard about the degree program. Th next exit led to Collinsville, so he ______ exited, and within five minutes, he ______ the classes. He’s always been ______ in writing and storytelling. He longed to adapt his stories to screenplays, but he realized he ______ the basic knowledge to do so.

Kaplan admitted that the ______ was a mix of anxiety and excitement, but it proved to be very ______ . He graduated with honors, majoring in cinema and media arts. And he ______ to continue writing screenplays in the future.

On Kaplan’s graduation day, his mother, 99-year-old Virginia Kaplan, expressed her great ______ , saying, “My son faced numerous challenges but overcame them. I feel ______ and incredibly proud.”

4 . When the weather starts to warm up, we love heading to the beach for a few days. During one such trip, after a few days of being _________ on the beach and spending too much time walking the boardwalk, we decided to go for a _________.

We _________ a car for the day and drove to Key West. Our _________ was to enjoy a scenic drive on Highway 1 and maybe try some pie and head back, but the day _________ to be more memorable than that.

It was a breathtaking drive and we kept our eyes glued to the window. The scenery was _________ and felt like we were driving over water. When we were closer to Key West, _________ my husband-stopped the car, grabbed his camera, and ran out looking up at the sky—_________ me looking at him confused (困惑的).

After a few minutes of looking and pointing at a shiny object in the sky, he was pretty _________ to announce he’d spotted a UFO. I should __________ here that he loves sci-fi movies and UFO shows and strongly __________ we are not alone.

We eventually got back in the __________, stopped at a nearby store, and asked someone in the parking lot, “Do you see that shiny thing in the sky?” The man looked up and __________, “Do you mean that weather blimp (气象飞艇)?” The shiny object in the sky was not an unidentified flying object or alien craft but a weather blimp.

It is one of the short funny travel __________ that always come up when we talk about our __________. It starts with one of the kids saying “Remember the time when Dad thought he saw a UFO...?” and always makes us laugh.

8 . Are all inventors scientists? No. Anyone can make an invention if he or she has ideas and is _______ to try again and again until the invention works. That’s just _______ happened to James Murray Spangler in 1907.

Spangler was a cleaner at a department store. He started to work every night after the _______. He liked his job, but it was a lot of work to clean all that space. He was _______. He wished that here was a better way to clean the store’s floor.

Each night as he worked, he _______ about the problem. What kind of machine could he make? After a while, some _______ formed in his head. He fitted an old box, a tape, a pillowcase, an electric fan, a broom hand and a paint roller together. He tried it at home. It _______ ! At last, he decided to take his _______ to the store.

A police officer was walking down the street when he saw Spangler using his invention through the window. The officer went to tell the owner that Spangler was doing something with a (n) _______ machine that made a lot of noise. He thought Spangler had lost his ________.

The owner rushed to the store. He told Spangler that he was ________ for messing around instead of doing his job. Spangler told him that he was doing his job ________ than ever before. He asked the shop owner to let him ________ how his machine worked. ________, the man agreed. He was shocked when Spangler moved his machine over dirt and gum wrappers. They disappeared! Spangler had just built the first vacuum cleaner. The next year he ________ his invention to a firm named Hoover. Before long vacuum cleaners were as common as stoves in homes.

9 . Some years ago, when a factory with 75,000 workers closed in our city, there was a feeling of sadness. Higher gas prices and disastrous floods added to such _______.

Our church youth group _______ to bring our city back to life by doing something nice. One of our _______ was to buy $25 gas cards and bouquets (花束) of roses, and randomly give them out to people who might need some _______.

One day, one of our members and I watched a young woman in her mid-twenties _______ to the gas pump. She didn’t get out of her car. _______, she looked through her purse and then began to _______. We approached politely to knock on the window and _______ a free gas card to her.

Upon hearing the knock, the young lady wiped away her tears, tried to _______ herself and then rolled down the window. We said to her. “Here is a free twenty-five dollar gas card for you, and we just want to be helpful.” ________, she slowly reached out to take the gas card and then told us her story.

She had been ________ for a long time and was ________ to support herself. She had trouble making ends meet but was ________ about a job interview she would have that day. In fact, she was singing on her way to it when her gas gauge (仪表) showed “________”. She’d ________ she had one last ten-dollar bill in her purse, but she couldn’t find it. Thinking she would ________ her interview, she broke down and cried.

She ________ us and said. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me. Thank you so much!” We watched tears of ________ stream down her face as she began pumping her gas.

We’ve continued the ________ of handing out roses and gas cards over the past years. It has made a ________ in those receivers’ lives as well as ours.

10 . I don’t usually keep houseplants. They get either overwatered or underwatered. But after I got a terminal (晚期) brain cancer and needed a major operation, I ________ the idea of having something green around.

My friend gave me a lucky bamboo plant, which I told my wife I wanted to ________myself.

Caring for the plant gave me a sense of ________ when I felt useless. The disease ________my ability to walk. As a doctor, I was used to being the one who offered ________, not the one who received it. ________ the plant, as small an act as it was, connected me to a main part of my old identity.

Over the next few months, I recovered from my ________ and returned to work. And the plant had doubled in height and its leaves were ________ and healthy. Both the tree and I were thriving (旺盛). Then, ________, whatever I did, the leaves kept browning and dropping. I grew more and more ________.

“If my lucky bamboo dies, I might die too.” I couldn’t shake the feeling that the plant had become a(n) ________ of my health until I realized I had ________ connected my good care for the plant with my own survival. When my cancer unavoidably ________, I no longer thought it was any failure on my part. And as my anxiety ________, I began to learn how to better care for my plant. I put it to a larger pot (花盆), giving it ________ to grow. Gradually,we both began to thrive again.