1 . When realizing the Internet was robbing me of too much time, I decided to have a(n) _______: doing Tech-Free Sundays.

On the night before my no-tech _______ starts, I told everyone who might get in touch with me that I wouldn’t be _______ until 9 pm on Sunday. Did this feel unpleasant? Yes. But it also felt _______: Everyone uses WeChat or the telephone to _______ others. If I am off the network, it seems my _______ to inform those who might need me.

The next day, I turned off my phone. I read. I thought. I used a _______ to make a grocery list on paper. I _______ my dog in the neighborhood, and then, because I had nothing else to do, I took her to the pet shop. “See how _______ I am! I can leave the Internet and live in the real world.” I thought.

But by 8 pm, I was ________ the minutes until the experiment ended. For better or worse, my ________ is online, and most of our work can’t leave the Internet. And I was anxious to order a hat online. Then the clock ________ struck 9.

Through this ________, I’ve realized there is so much time when you are disconnected from the Internet. I’ll ________ taking tech-free baby steps: turning off the phone; ________ intentional periods away from my computer; being present in real life.

2 . Life is a series of unexpected and unforeseen events. Some of them bring about welcome and pleasant consequences, while sometimes they do not _________ any joy. In fact, they can be destructive and unfortunate.

But during these trials and hardships, the love and kindness of others can make a world of _________. It can even save a life, as was the case for a paralyzed (瘫痪的) man in a wheelchair from Dallas, Texas.

Dennis Brown, who is _________ to a wheelchair, was in a rental car when the vehicle burst into _________ suddenly. When he looked up, he _________ the fire extending several feet from the front of the car, _________ him immediately and sending smoke high into the sky above.

_________, a complete stranger put her life at risk to rescue Dennis, who didn’t _________ to take action. The woman _________ Dennis out of the burning car, shifting him to __________. But before Dennis was able to show his __________, she had left quietly. Dennis said that he was eager to have the opportunity to say thanks to his rescuer.

But Dennis is not the only person grateful to the __________ woman. Dennis’ mother, Julia Brown, will forever ________ appreciation to the woman for her __________ deed. “I cannot thank her enough,” Julia said. “Because if she hadn’t __________ the assistance in time, I would have lost him. She was a hero!”

3 . That morning in September, at a five-kilometer race, I waited for my 11-year-old son at the finish line. He’d run 30:34 at another 5k in late spring, so I ________ he could run a 5k in about 30 minutes. When I didn’t see him at the 35-minute mark, I began to ________.

It’d already been an ________ morning. About an hour earlier, when we drove into town, my son noticed a lovely tiny green tree cricket in my car. It jumped onto my son’s hand where it stayed so long that we eventually gave it a name: Little Friend.

Minutes before the race, it jumped onto the sidewalk. Maybe it wanted to seek freedom, but this wasn’t a safe place due to the ________ pedestrian traffic. So my son knelt and ________ his hand. Little Friend came back. But I told him he would ________ it during the race.

I ran well and felt thrilled at the finish line. However, that ________ gave way to anxiety when my son didn’t show up. I ________ asking people if they’d seen him. No one had. So I returned to the race headquarters. In my confusion, I didn’t even see him ________ the finish line. But there he was, just ahead of the 45-minute mark, with Little Friend ________ on his right thumb.

My ________ were wrong. My son didn’t run fast, and he didn’t lose Little Friend. These two ________ seemed somehow related. He ________ a cold he was getting over, but I knew it was more than that.

Sometimes life gives you something beautiful, but fragile. There’s no need to ________ ahead. Treat it ________ and hold on when you can.

7 . On September 16, 2023, just weeks into the school year, two groups of boys fought across the courtyard at Southwood High School in Louisiana. In a _________two days, 23 students were in police station, one of whom was _________ with threatening an assistant principal.

When gang violence _______, concerned dads at this high school said “Not on our _______.”That’s how Dads on Duty was born and they began patrolling the campus every day.

Around 40 men organized into six-person _________. Some are fathers who sacrifice their own schedules and _________, while others are men who don’t have a _________but wants the youth to know they have an entire community behind them.

Now, anyone who wants to enter the school with rage (狂怒) and a closed _________ have to face tough papa bears. They are _________ Southwood, making sure every student feels as if someone __________a lot of time and energy in their safety and has an adult to turn to in times of crisis.

Besides, their presence is meant to be more __________ than reactionary. For instance, one day after school, Morgan noticed an odd student __________ outside without friends. Morgan suspected he was lying in wait for an attack so this cautious father got the student out of the area, likely avoiding a violent incident. It was a situation requiring more delicacy than law enforcement (执法部门) and security __________ have offered.

Since Dads on Duty arrived on campus, gang battles have stopped completely. The Louisiana dads have already __________ with fathers in other parts of the country, who have followed their example. They’d like to start new __________ of the campaign throughout the country.

8 . Chris, a 21-year-old young man from Maitland, Florida, completed an Ironman triathlon (铁人三项). An Ironman ________ a 112 mile cycle, a 2.4-mile swim and a 26.2-mile run. While this is an amazing ________ for any human being, it is especially ________ for Chris Nikic who has Down Syndrome. ________, Chris Nikic did the impossible!

His ________ to this amazing and inspiring accomplishment has been anything but ________. Chris had open-heart surgery when he was just five months old. He needed a ________ when he was three and did not even walk on his own until he was four years old. Throughout his childhood, he and his parents were told that he could not do many things that other kids could do. For years they got ________ to and accepted these limits.

Until in 2017, he sets his ________ on competing in triathlons. His training starts with one pushup as well as an amazing commitment he ________with his dad to get 1% better each day. ________, Chris trained four to eight hours each day for a whole year to prepare for the ________.

Chris’s amazing perseverance (毅力) is an example for not only children with Down Syndrome and other special ________ but to all kids around the world. Chris is now trying to ________ as many people as he can with his story which he is ________ through public speaking, presentations, and a book he is working with his father.

9 . My biggest challenge in the past year, when I moved into an apartment near Basel, Switzerland, took the form of a massive Bernese Mountain Dog. He ______ an elderly woman on her daily walk behind my home. Since I enjoy the same ______ almost every day, our encounters were ______. The dog walked closely by his partner like a ______.

I’d admired the beautiful Bernese ______. My policy is not to touch anyone’s dog without asking ______ or sensing a clear invitation to do so. This fellow’s owner would always ______ me a pleasant word or two in the local Swiss dialect, little of which I understood ______ at first. So we’d just smile and pass as the dog eyed me with ______, usually with a sharp warning bark.

As this ______ on week after week, I came at least to know their names: Etti and Rocky, ______ with a deeply rolled “R” and long “O”. You can’t force love. Sure enough, over time the sharp bark turned into an almost ______ woof (狗叫声), and the conversations with Etti ______ several sentences, mutually understood despite my ______ accent.

Finally, one day, Rocky presented his massive ______ below my hand, as if allowing me to bestow (授予) on him his entitled knighthood.

10 . May is a beautiful month full of sunshine and flowers. It is also the __________ when we show thanks to our mothers on Mother’s Day.

In my family, the celebration of Mother’s Day is __________ every year. Two years ago, I made a big __________ for my mom and she still remembers all the dishes I cooked that morning. Last year, I __________ some of my old books and I bought her a scarf with the money. She uses it all the time.

I wanted to do __________ special on Mother’s Day this year. In late April, I started to look for different gift __________ on the Internet. It took me about two weeks to get a final idea. __________ , I decided to make several (几个) cards by hand. And then I put the cards and a bag of colorful __________ in a box. Of course, I wrote some____________ on the cards. The words were all about __________ jobs I could help my mom do at home, like doing the dishes and cleaning the floor.

On the night before Mother’s Day, I went into my mom’s room __________ and put the gift on her bed when she was sleeping. When she __________ in the morning, she found the cards. She was very excited about my gift and __________ a lot of time looking at the cards and enjoyed the candies.

Mother’s Day is a happy moment (时光) for me to __________ my mom. I will try to show my love __________ she cares about me so much every day. Mother’s love is the best in my heart.