1 . At a cafe in scenic Augsburg, Paul Blachut, a waiter is busy at work. It’s a warm Sunday afternoon and many people have come here for __________ beside the Lech river.

The meltwater from the Alps means the water in the river is very __________ at this time of year, and it __________ quickly. Along the S-shaped shore, people are picnicking and children are playing. Among those are a mother and her two daughters. They’re standing on the __________ of the riverbank, playing with an inflatable (充气的) tube. Suddenly, the girls __________ balance and fall into the river. Worse still, the girls __________ hold on to the tube, which their mother is sitting in, __________ her into the river, too. Now all three are caught in the river's current.

Blachut __________ from his work when he hears someone shouting, “Three people are drowning in the Lech!” Blachut __________ the three women a short distance away, waving their arms and trying to grab anything they can. Having taken lifesaving training courses, he hurries to the riverbank and jumps into the river. Despite the cold, what he cares about is __________ saving lives.

As Blachut _________ them, he can tell the mother is in the most trouble. Blachut immediately dives under the drowning woman, lifts her upward and pushes her toward the shore. __________, an onlooker is close enough to __________ the woman’s hand, pulling her to shore. Without __________ Blachut jumps into the current again, saving the daughters in the same way he did their mother.

The mother expresses her __________ appreciation for Blachut, and he is happy to see they are safe and sound.

2 . When it comes to my fathering lessons, few adventures compare to the motorcycle trips I’ve shared with my daughter, Ewa.

Our first_______, in August 2017, was a winding (蜿蜒的) ride around the Catskills and Finger Lake districts of New York state. We _______ big highways and spent the week on_______ scenic back roads. At one point, I found myself _______along a Catskills meadow (草地) not far from Woodstock, keeping pace with a deer and shouting, “Go Bambi, go!”

On our second day, we _______ in a small town for ice cream. I asked the woman at the picnic table next to us: “What’s the_______ of this town?” “Interlaken,” she answered.“Where are you trying to get to?”

Me: “We don’t know. ”

It _______ to me then that I’d always wanted to do this no-schedule kind of trip, when you ride just for riding. Ask any middle-aged _______: We’ve all dreamed about doing the Easy Rider (逍遥骑士) thing, throwing our wristwatches into the ditch and heading toward the horizon without a_______. Now, travelling with no plan became a________ of my rides with Ewa.

Since we almost ________ knew where we were going, we were almost never ________ when we arrived, pulling ________ the road at the end of each day with satisfaction. The reason to celebrate? We________! The truth is that life on a motorbike is one close call (死里逃生) after another. On the way, riders must stay ________ 100 percent of the time. A tiny stone can be deadly. I used to be nervous, but Ewa had a different take: “To me, motorcycling is like meditation(冥想). ”

3 . It was the start of spring several years ago. I _________ my old lawn mower (割草机) to cut my grass. I pushed it over to my front _________. There mixed in with many grass species, and I saw something new. A single buttercup (金凤花) _________ its way through the soil. It was bright yellow with five pedals making a _________ shape. I smelt it and _________ at its sweet scent (香味). It looked too _________ to cut down so I mowed around it.

The next year when I once again pulled out the lawn mower, I saw that now there were several buttercups blooming where the first one had been. It _________ my day seeing how the beautiful little flower had increased so once again I _________ around it for as long as I could.

Now, several years later my front yard is _________ with buttercups. I also see buttercups everywhere blooming along the sides of the roads and on the grassy hills near my home. I wonder sometimes just how many of these lovely little creations came from that first __________ that I didn’t mow down.

It makes me think about all the things we can __________ through our lives. Every smile we share creates other __________ as well. Every act of kindness we do brings out the kindness in those around us. Every moment of love we create increases in all the hearts it __________. In the garden of __________ what we give is what we grow. May all of your days be as bright and __________ as a billion buttercups.

4 . Once there was a little girl who had many misfortunes in life and was struggling with problems. One day she felt so upset that she couldn’t help ________ to her father why her life was so ________.

Sensing her ________, her father, a chef, took her to their ________. He asked her to just ________ till he finished everything. He filled three small pots with water and placed each on a burner. Once the water began to ________, he placed a potato, an egg, and some ground coffee beans in each pot. Curious, though, she kept ________ as her father instructed her to do so.

About twenty minutes later, he turned off the ________. The chef turned towards his daughter and said, “See, the potato went in strong and hard but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was ________, but now the egg became hard. ________, the ground coffee beans were unique. After being ________ the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.”

Seeing the little girl was still confused, he then ________, “The potato, the egg and coffee beans had each faced the same ________-the boiling water. However, each reacted ________. When hardships come your way, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?” Hearing these words, the girl made her choice inside-she would be the ________, which could not only change the whole situation but also change in its own way. After all, life is 10% what happens to you and 90%how you react to it.

5 . Xu Zhuoyuan, a 16-year-old girl from Changsha, successfully reached the summit of Qomolangma. She became the youngest Chinese ________ to conquer the world’s highest peak from the south side.

Xu’s father was the first person from Hunan province to reach the summit of Qomolangma. ________ by her father, Xu has been ________ remote areas with him since she was very young. ________ her young age, Xu has already climbed five mountains over 5, 000 meters in China.

Although Xu has ________ climbing experience, she has been receiving professional training to ________ Qomolangma. Last year, she climbed Mount Muztagata, which ________ 7, 546 meters, laying the foundation for her expedition to climb Qomolangma.

At the age of 12, she declared her ________ to climb Mount Qomolangma. Four years later, she ________ her promise. She brought the gloves which her ________ used when he reached the summit with her as a form of inheritance (传承) and to witness her own dream_________.

“Standing in front of nature, we humans are ________ small. We should ________ nature and get closer to Qomolangma,” Xu said. Xu hopes to ________ climbing and achieve the highest ________ of “7+2”(seven summits and two poles) after graduating from college.

6 . Wang Pufang is an inheritor of the technique for making handmade colorful lanterns. She has devoted her whole life to _________ the traditional craft. “I have made lanterns for the past 70 years to carry forward the _________ and relive my childhood memories,” Wang said. She explained that when she was a(n)_________, the older generations in her family _________ lanterns during the Spring Festival for children to play with. On the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which _________ the end of the Spring Festival, the children’s lanterns were eventually _________ symbolizing prosperity for the year ahead.

Wang also makes lanterns for new_________ in her village. She says that it is a best _________ that they will soon have a baby and live happily. The big smiles on their faces make Wang believe her devotion is _________.

Wang explained that lanterns represent her __________memories. “When many __________ people came to buy lanterns, they recall their childhood memories and share __________ stories with me about their childhood,” she added. For Wang, lanterns are like a pen that __________the customs and what life was like during her childhood.

In order to make more people __________ the craft, Wang continues to sell traditional handmade lanterns and teaches students in schools how to make them, allowing them to feel the unique __________ of the traditional craft.

7 . Being in the right place at the right time can mean the difference between life and death. A ____ named Zhu Keming despite the bad weather pulled six runners to ____ in a 100-kilometer cross-country race in China’s Gansu Province.

The day of the race started with mild weather. Zhu was ____ his flock (羊群) as usual. Then in the space of a few moments, everything ____. As the temperature dropped quickly and freezing rain and snow began to pound the land, Zhu took ____ in a small cave he’d been using for years to ____ emergency supplies.

It was from this point that Zhu ____ that one of the runners appeared disoriented (迷失方向的) and in pain. Zhu brought the man back to the cave to ____ him up. After lighting a fire, Zhu returned to the mountainside, ____ five additional runners to the cave. There’s little ____ that he finally saved their lives. ____ for the sudden change in the weather, most racers were wearing lightweight clothing that was no ____ for the coldness. The threat of hypothermia (体温过低) was all too real.

“I want to say how ____ I am to the man who saved me,” runner Zhang Xiaotao posted on Sina Weibo. “Without him, I would have been ____ there.” While Zhu is being praised as a hero in his homeland, the ____ shepherd doesn’t see the reason for all the fuss. He says he’s just an ordinary person who did a very ordinary thing.

8 . Three men were _________ from a small, uninhabited Pacific island after writing a big SOS _________ in the sand.

The men had been _________ in the Micronesia archipelago (群岛) for nearly three days before their distress (遇险) signal was _________ on the Pikelot Island by searchers. SOS is an internationally recognized signal originally established for ships at sea to request _________.

Located in the western Pacific Ocean, the Federated States of Micronesia is _________ of more than 600 islands. Officials said that _________ the men aboard a seven-meter boat started off from Puluwat Atoll (环焦), _________ to travel about 43 kilometers to Pulp Atoll when they sailed off course and _________ fuel. They were reported missing after __________ to arrive at their destination.

__________, the men were found in good condition about 190 kilometers from where they originally __________. Helicopter landed on the beach and gave the men food and water before they were __________ and taken home by a Micronesian ship.

“I’m __________ of the response and professionalism of all on board as we perform our duty to __________ to the safety of life at sea wherever we are in the world,” said the commanding officer of one of the search ships.

9 . I got to know a homeless young man in Portland named Oscar through his Twitter posts two years ago. I _________ letters to him last spring to see if there was anything we could do to help. He has an autoimmune (自身免疫的) disease and lost his job and then _________ his home.

It took months but he finally answered my _________. He said in the hot summer he could use a fan. So we sent him one of those. Later he said he was _________ on the ground and he wanted a bed. So the next month we got him a _________. He later said how it is wet in Portland, so I found him a _________ of waterproof shoes. He said he felt like it was Christmas all summer.

Lately, he’s been helping a friend who is in a wheelchair and is also homeless. He asked if we could get a poncho (雨披) for his friend to cover the _________ and we’re shipping that out today.

My heart often breaks because of Oscar. I wish I could do more. I told _________ my son was lost and that my son would use the name Oscar sometimes in a game.

“I’m _________ what you’re suffering from,” he said. “What a pity! I’m not your __________.”

“I know. But I hope wherever my son is, if he is __________ too, someone is helping him.”

The other day I got a note from Oscar. “I was lying __________ my bed, which made me feel at home. I just wanted to __________ you and your husband for all your help.”

We helped nearly 1,000 persons to find homes over the years. I hope all the other homeless people in the world will find a __________ too. And we’ll do whatever we can to __________ them.

10 . On May 29, 2022, Rut Larsson, who was 103 at that time, became the oldest skydiver in the world. And yet she had just become the oldest parachutist (跳伞者) in the world. This Swedish grandmother turned her dream into ________ by jumping at Motala airfield, 240 km southwest of Stockholm.

When Rut Larsson was in her 90s, she became________ with flying and started experimenting with paragliding (滑翔伞运动) and ballooning as a way to enhance her physical ________. In 2019, she did her first parachute jump at 100 years old. But it was not a world ________. In the same year, American Kathryn Hodges had completed a ________ at 103.

Now Rut Larsson was going through the respectable ________. At 14 o’clock on Sunday, she was ready to ________ the world record, in the same place where she jumped three years ago, just outside Motala. Rut Larsson completed her world-record jump accompanied (陪同)by parachutist Joackim Johansson. Her family and friends were also there to ________ her accomplishment, along with a(n)________ from the Guinness Book of World Records.

With this jump, she became the oldest ________ in the world, at 103 years and 259 days, improving by 78 days the record ________ so far by an American of 103 years and 181 days.

“At first, slowly ________ and then jumping down from the top，I found that nice,” said the record holder. “An American broke the record. So I had to ________ his,” laughed Rut Larsson. “It was ________to do this. I had been thinking about it for a long time. It all went as ________.”