1 . Ramu started a business with great enthusiasm but just after a few months, his business became bankrupt. After that, Ramu didn’t _________ any new work.

His teacher asked him, “Why don’t you start doing some other work?” Ramu _________, “I started a business and I worked 24 by 7 and yet that _________.” The teacher tried to _________ him saying, “But that’s life. Sometimes we get _________ at what we do and sometimes we don’t. This doesn’t _________ we stop working.”

“What’s the _________ of doing work when I can’t be sure of success?” Ramu asked. The teacher took Ramu to a room. Showing him a _________ tomato plant, he said, “Look at this. When I _________, it’s seed. I did everything right for it. I __________ it carefully but it still died. Doing work is the __________. No matter how hard you try, you cannot __________ what will happen in the end.” Ramu looked confused.

He then showed Ramu a pile of big red __________ lying in another room, saying, “They are the __________ of not giving up on growing plants even if there are failures before. I didn’t __________, and I again sowed seeds and took care of them and this time plants grew. __________, if you keep doing the right things consistently, your __________ of getting success are greatly increased. But if you __________ because of one or two failures, then life will not give you any __________.”

Ramu had now read the lesson of success. He __________ what he had to do and left with a renewed vigor (活力).

4 . A Florida man likes to shop at garage sales for old plaques(纪念匾)so he can reuse the wooden backs. Recently, he was looking through a___________he bought years ago when one _________a small ball caught his eye.

The man took a moment to___________what was written on the plaque and quickly realized there was a___________stone inside the ball-a piece of moon rock brought back on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The plaque and rock had been a___________to the state of Louisiana by then-President Richard Nixon but___________ended up in a garage sale for the man to find years later.

“I can’t even tell you how long I___________it for. I’m not even sure how much I___________for it. The wood in the plaques is such nice wood and that is what I___________them for," the man said. The man __________the Louisiana governor’s office, which____________him to the Louisiana State Museum. The man hand-delivered his____________to the Louisiana State Museum. He didn’t want to take a chance that something might happen to it during__________.The museum’s director is____________for his generosity and __________for reuniting the state with this priceless object. “It is an extraordinary piece of Louisiana history,” he said. “We’re____________to take possession of this piece and to share it with our audiences.”

After Apollo 17____________on Earth, Nixon____________379 pieces of the satellite stone to all the states as well as foreign nations. Over time, those gifts began to____________A 2002 search found that many were unaccounted for. To date, the fate(命运)of 171 rocks remains __________

5 . There is no way they just drove into that water, thought Corion Evans. The 16-year-old teenager was ___________ with friends near the Pascagoula River, when a car with three teenage girls inside accidentally_________ off the road into the river and started to___________ some 20 feet away from land.

It was around midnight in July. In the _________ , Evans and his friends could_________ figure out the girls holding on to the roof, the only part of the car still above water. But they could hear _________ for help.

Evans took off his shirt and shoes without ___________ , diving into the water. He helped the first girl he saw and led her to the shore. Then, he jumped back into the river to ___________ another of the girls. But halfway back to the bank, she was so_________ as to go underwater, pulling Evans down with her. Evans fought his way and pushed her to ______________.

There was still one girl in the water. Watson, 19, could not ____________. She was swallowing water, ____________ to stay afloat. And sacred. “I just knew my last breath was coming and I began to go under. Then, a shake. Evans ____________ me.” Watson said later.

The three girls were rushed to the hospital and well ____________. Evans risked his life to save them, but he said he had no other ____________

6 . In 1945，Sergeant (中士) John Gonsalves was sent to Germany soon after the Second World War ended, and he couldn’t wait to return home. In the meantime, he decided to send a letter to his _________, but the letter never arrived._________, it never arrived on time. Somehow, this lost letter from 1945 was_________in 2021._________workers did everything they could to deliver it to the _________of John’s family as soon as possible.

Although John_________in 2015 at the age of 92, he was_________by his wife, Angelina Gonsalves and their five sons.

“The mailman came and said, ‘Was your husband once in the_________?’ And I said, ‘Yes, he was,’ And he said, ‘Well, I think I have a letter for you,’” Angelina_________ . “I couldn’t believe it. And then I__________that it was his__________, you know? It was just so__________.”

In the two-page letter, John gave his mom a(n)__________on what life had been like at the station in Bad Orb, Germany. Most__________, though, John expressed his love for his__________, wishing them well and letting them know he was looking forward to returning home. He ended the letter with, “Love and__________, your son, John. I will be seeing you soon,I hope.”

Although the letter is 76 years late, it couldn’t have arrived at a__________time. It reached John’s family during the Christmas season, one of his favorite holidays.

“It was a joy to see her__________light up as she was reading his__________,” Brian Gonsalves, one of their sons, said. “He was a good man. He really was,” Angelina said, “Everybody loved him. That was__________. It seemed that he came back to me.”

7 . On a hot summer afternoon, Carl, a homeless man, visited the grocery. He was so _______ that he decided to treat himself with the money he _______ in the morning. Carl got himself a pack of _______ bis-cuits. Then he joined the line waiting for his turn to _______.

Suddenly, noises of two people arguing caught his _______. He glanced out of the line to see a(n) _______ man standing by the cashier. The elderly man was counting the _______ with his shaking hands. The cashier lost _______ while waiting for his payment. “Are you going to count those coins one by one? That will take you a century, man!” the cashier _______ at the elderly man and kept tapping on the counter to ________ him to speed up.

“I am a veteran (老兵), Miss. Don’t you think you can speak to me more respectfully?” the old man made an angry ________. Some people in line supported the cashier as they were ________ awaiting for their turns, and no one ________ the elderly veteran.

“I’ll help you, sir. . . ” Carl stepped in to his ________ “$52!” Carl finished counting. “And I have another $50. The total makes it $112, Miss. . . ” the old man said, ________ the coins neatly on her counter in two rows.

“And that’s $4 less!” the cashier shouted again, pointing to the bill.

Finally, Carl spoke up, “You should________to him! He is only old. Here’s your $4!”

He threw two $2 bills against the counter.

Seeing Carl’s ________ , the elderly man had tears in his eyes. Carl also ________ to carry his groceries outside. ________, before they left, Carl returned his things to the shelf because he knew he couldn’t ________ them anymore.

8 . Fiona Famous was a popular girl. She got on well with everyone and was so busy that she________spend time with individual friends. However, she felt________; no other girl had so many friends.

Everything________on National Friendship Day. Everyone had to make three________to give to their three best friends. Fiona enjoyed the task. When all the presents had been________, Fiona was the only one who had not________a present! She felt________and cried. How could it be possible?No one________her as their best friend? Everyone came and________her for a while. But all only________for a while.This was what Fiona had done so many times to others.

Arriving home, Fiona asked her mother where she could________true friends. “My dear,” answered her mother,“you cannot buy________with a smile or a few good words. If you really_________true friends, you will have to give them real time and________.You must be available in good and bad times.”

“But I want to be everybody’s friend! I need to share my________!” Fiona claimed.

“You can’t be a close friend to everybody. There isn’t enough time. It’s only________to have some true friends. Others will be playmates,” said her mother.

Hearing this, Fiona________she had not been a true friend. She had________to pay attention to everyone, but that was not enough. To be close friends, you need to be________, lander stand what others are________and support them.

9 . As is customary in many cultures around the world, when a Japanese couple ________ a baby into the world, relatives come to visit the family and ________. However, because of the pandemic and social distancing rules, that hasn’t been ________ lately. Dakigokochi—rice babies ________ in Japan have been around since the early 2000s, but their popularity has ________ once again because of COVID-19. With relatives unable to ________, baby-shaped rice bags have become a much-needed way of ________ the joy of having a baby with ________ ones. Rice babies are bags of rice that weigh ________ as much as the babies they are replacing, and that have photos of the ________printed on them. They are ________ to relatives so they can hug the “new human” while looking at a picture of the baby’s face.

Naruo Ono, the owner of a rice shop, ________ the idea for rice babies 14 years ago when his own son was born and he was thinking about what he could do for relatives who ________ far away and couldn’t come and see him. He decided to make rice bags that were the ________ shape and weight as the baby, and ________ a picture of him on them, so the relatives could see and feel him.

One day, someone saw Naruo’s rice baby in the window of his shop and ________ on how interesting it was. That’s when he ________ that there might be a ________ for his cute rice bags. He started making them for ________and has since been shipping them all over Japan. Since then, several companies have ________ his invention.