2 . After thinking it over for several weeks, I finally decide to say yes to a big life decision. The woman (me) who hasn’t _______ a bicycle even once in the past seven years is going to take on a challenge to _______ from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle.

Anyone who knows me will think this is just _______. I don’t enjoy sports challenges. As I am _______ my mid-40s, I am eager to prove my body is still useful and can _______ things. And I want to work towards something bigger _______ the daily travel to and from work.

I have _______ run marathons or done things alike. I just _______ friends on the sidelines when they ran the London Marathon. But in all _______, there has been an element of________ when I see their achievements. What I see on their faces when they cross the finish line are the joy and the sense of ________. They know that they have pushed themselves beyond their limits and done something ________. Now I am 43 and have a(n) ________ to know what that feels like.

Now it is the perfect time to ________ something more than the classes in the local gym, or a jog around the park and show what I can do. So I’m ________ to jump on a bike again as long before and take to the road.

4 . It was 3 am, a cold and wet night, on August 21, 2010. I had just left a local club to travel ten kilometers home when I lost ________ of my car on Grand Junction Road in Hope Valley.

I ________ into a still car that was parked in front of a house, and then hit a tree. I was badly injured! ________ still, I had no idea that a fire had started ________ the bonnet (引擎盖) of my car.

________ in the car behind me was a young man, who I later found out was called Jared. He saw the accident occur and ________ to help me out of the car. He put his own life in ________ when he got into the back seat trying to undo (解开) my seat belt.

With my seat belt undone, Jared then broke the driver’s window to drag me out. He ________ did this while my car was burning. ________ by the crash, the homeowners came out to investigate (调查) . Jared told them to ring emergency services ________ he continued to help me out of the car.

I owe my life to Jared and I consider him a good friend due to the ________ bond created on the night he dragged me to safety. I was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a serious condition, five bones broken.

I spent a few weeks in hospital, during which time Jared visited me to see how I was ________. He also continued to contact me after I returned home. He says he doesn’t believe that he did anything special. On that, I totally disagree with him and am very glad that he didn’t get hurt in the ________.

Today, nearly seven years later, Jared and I still ________ and often talk about the events of that night. Jared is my ________ and my friend.

5 . One day before the last Christmas, my wife, Charlotte, was busy decorating our Christmas tree. I reached for my _______ to capture (拍摄) the tree. After only a couple of minutes, I started complaining, “I can’t make the _______ right. I wish Sophie were here telling me what to do. I miss her.”

Several months before, my daughter, Sophie, had gone to New York. She was not here to give me _______. Charlotte was working in silence while I clicked and _______. I took quite a number of photos, but none of them was taken well, so I’d had enough, _______ my camera onto the sofa. Each Christmas light seemed to refuse to _______. Somehow, I found the tree didn’t look _______ without much colour.

“I think I did things differently this year,” Charlotte looked at me and added, “I think the tree looks great.” But I didn’t. I wanted a _______ tree. More importantly, I wanted Sophie to be _______ with us.

The morning after that day, I got up a little earlier. I plugged in (连接) the ________ and turned towards the tree and stood in silence. In the semidarkness, the Christmas tree was ________ like a diamond. At that time, I realized I was ________. My wife had decorated the tree ________. It was magical and came ________ in the morning light. The tree drew my eyes, reminding me to be grateful to those around me and look for the beauty ________ in life.

6 . Most of us associate learning with younger people — kids in school and college or recent graduates early in their careers. But at Udemy, an open university, offering online courses, Artist Anneke Camstra is engaged in the pursuit (追求) of lifelong learning and _______ her potential for teaching. She loves the _______ of gaining new knowledge and also loves _______ it with others.

She reaches countless people with her online courses and exposes them to what they can _______ on their own using animation software, such as Go Animate and PowToon. Her target for teaching on Udemy is “to get the _______ to the people.” She hopes people can go such a long way to make things that look _______ but still have their own voice.

Most of Anneke’s students start out thinking they’re not creative and can’t draw. Anneke understands how _______ can get in the way of so many things people dream of _______. With her five-day challenge courses, she helps them _______ the fear. Anneke loves the effect she has on her students. What makes her more ________ of them is that they have gone from their first animation to ________ their own works.

She encourages people of all ages, ________ older people, to develop their ________ for life. Grandparents, for example, can learn to use Go Animate and make animations together with their grandkids.

As an older woman, ________ and having fun learning again, Anneke wants others later in their ________ to catch up with her on this journey.

7 . When I was 16, I worked at a fast food restaurant. That was when I came across two new family ________.

One afternoon in the fall I happened to find a little cat crying outside. He got a little wet because of the morning rain. I picked him up into the kitchen, ________ him and fed him water and food. My boss was ________ when seeing a stray cat (流浪猫) in the kitchen and asked me to take him out immediately. I quickly got some towels and a box and made him a little ________ and put him in my car.

After work, I hurried to my car to ________ him. I found another cat scratching (抓擦) my car door to________her brother. So I picked her up too. I had to carry them into my house ________ because my mother didn’t ________ a cat. Our cat had died earlier that year and she was in ________ and determined that she would not keep any cats.

I ________ the two cats in my room for four days. One day my mother caught me feeding the cats. Seeing her, I was ________ but I told her I had no choice but to ________ them. I told her we could just keep the boy and find another ________ for the girl. She shouted at me that we couldn’t ________ them. I knew I had her ________.

My family had Penny and Rizzo for the next 15 years.

8 . As a general rule, all forms of activity lead to boredom when they are performed on a routine basis. As a matter of fact, we can see this ____ at work in people of all ages. For example, on Christmas morning, children are excited about playing with their new toys. But their ____ soon wears off and by January those ____ toys can be found put away in the basement. The world is full of ____ stamp albums and unfinished models, each standing as a monument to someone’s ____ interest. When parents bring home a pet, their child ____ bathes it and brushes its fur. Within a short time, however, the ____ of caring for the animal is handed over to the parents. Adolescents enter high school with great ____ but are soon looking forward to ____. The same is true of the young adults going to college. And then, how many adults, who now complain about the long drives to work, ____ drove for hours at a time when they first ____ their driver’s licences? Before people retire, they usually ____ to do a lot of great things, which they never had ____ to do while working. But ____ after retirement, the golfing, the fishing, the reading and all of the other pastimes become as boring as the jobs they ____. And, like the child in January, they go searching for new toys.