1 . In a world filled with misconceptions about happiness, I was one of those people who ________that happiness lay in big things, like a big house, a fancy car, a steady career and so on. But life had a ________ in store for me.

One weekend, my husband, Alex, ________ me to make some creme brulee (焦糖布丁). Excited by the idea, I________ and set out to create the delicious dessert. As we sat down for dinner, I ________ served the creamy masterpiece I had prepared. To my surprise, Alex reached into his pocket and magically ________ a delicate spoon with a small bear on it, which is my ________ decoration—I have a lot of bear things around the house. With a twinkle in his eyes, he handed the spoon to me. ________ it as my special spoon for creme brulee —just for me.

During the dinner, I was happy. And he, after ________ the creme brulee, was also happy. In that moment, I realized that the truest form of happiness lies in the ________ moments and contentment.

We started to appreciate the simple joys in life. We took ________ in parks, cooked meals together, and shared laughter in face of challenges. As time went on, the bear spoon became a ________ of our love. It reminded us to ________ the everyday moments and to appreciate the beauty of ________. True happiness isn’t a destination to be ________ but a state of mind to be cultivated.

3 . On a hot summer day when I was 13, I was bored in my attic (阁楼) bedroom. Thinking about how to _________ that boredom, I leaned (斜靠) sideways, and my hand landed on a floorboard, which _________ up and almost hit me in the head.

When I looked inside the open space _________, there was something like a book. I _________ it out. It was old and small: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. I wondered whom these quotations were supposed to be _________ to, because I’d never heard of this book. And _________ I was bored, I decided to see what was inside the book. I started to _________the pages, reading about different _________. I learned about comfort, hope, love and even loneliness.

I began spending all my free time reading Bartlett’s. It felt like a new world _________before me. I learned about different quotes and phrases, and I got to __________ how language could be used to __________ complex emotions. I also realized how those emotions I’d felt while reading Bartlett’s became __________ in the characters I encountered in novels.

When I went to college, Bartlett’s came with me. Over the years, I’ve kept my __________ copy, which I still often refer to. I’ve bought a few of the newer __________, but the first one is the one that __________ me, that helped me escape from the boredom, and see more than my young mind and heart could understand.

4 . One day during the 2007 — 2008 financial crisis, my dad took my brother and me to shop for school clothes. He had been _________ and was trying to find a job. My mom _________ a fast food restaurant, just enough to make a living. Even though I was _________, I realized that life was tough.

It seemed _________ to go shopping at that time, but we needed new _________ for the new school year. We each got two outfits and one pair of shoes. My brother wanted a pair of basketball shorts and my dad couldn’t say no, so he _________ them as well.

While we were _________, my dad seemed to be more and more _________ as the price went up on the register. Once everything was scanned, he realized he didn’t have enough money. He asked the cashier to take off the extra shorts_________ he still couldn’t afford it. He apologized to the man behind us while he tried to __________ what to take off. My dad was on the edge of __________.

Then, the man behind us gave the cashier a $100 bill to pay for us and told her to give the __________ to my dad. My dad tried to turn down but the man __________. My dad asked for his phone number so he could pay him back in the future, but the man told my dad to help someone else in need and that would be enough.

I, to this day, still remember __________ what he looked like. Whenever I see people __________, I remember his face and I try to help them as best I can.

5 . Hammond is the only wheelchair nurse in the UK with an assistance dog. Having disabilities most of her life, she was always ________ that nurses were caring, which motivated her to become a nurse to help people. It wouldn’t be easy. But nothing would ________ her passion.

She loves being able to ________ her clients to set achievable goals, helping them ________ the support in their changing lives. It’s really helpful to understand the ________ her clients may be having. She has been there: she ________ at home, she had to receive care. She used to be a dancer, so when she became a wheelchair user and people asked her what her ________ are, she would choke up because she didn’t have any more. Then it was lucky for her to find the love of dogs and her life got back on ________. She hopes she can use that to guide people to ________ themselves.

Her assistance dog, Ocho aids Hammond with her ________ difficulties, while he is also a therapy dog, comforting her clients. However, she completely understands that not everyone will want a dog in their home. Patients’ homes are ________. So before taking him to the first ________ she would call her clients and give them the ________ to accept or refuse him. Sometimes Hammond can do her job without him ________ if he is injured or sick.

Hammond would love to see more disabled doctors and nurses working in this field. Like her, they would bring their own ________ to improve patient care.

8 . Nancy Beiman was 65. When she was considering retirement from her job as a professor of animation, she had no _________ how she would fill her days. _________ this, she woke up one day with the idea for a comic strip (连环画).

Beiman had been doing her animation mostly on computers but for this new idea, she _________ to drawing characters on paper. The _________ was FurBabies, a series about a mixed family of dogs, a cat and a child who can all speak the same language.

Beiman wasn’t planning on _________ with the idea until she showed them to her friend, the cartoonist Lynn Johnston, who thought _________ of the drawings and gave her advice on how to develop little scripts (脚本).

Obviously, as a professional animator, Beiman was no _________ to working with larger-than-life characters. Even so, she says the _________ from animation to comics wasn’t as easy as it sounds. “Comic strips are about illustrating verbal humour while animation _________ moving images and does not depend on dialogue.”

Following her friend’s __________, she wrote 24 mini-scripts. A few months later, she __________ them to the website GoComics and successfully got __________.

One __________ of moving into comics, Beiman believes, is that it offers some protection from “incredibly ageist” animation studios which __________ to develop stories from younger people. __________, even at 90 you can still do comics. The great thing is, if you can keep drawing, you can keep going.

10 . Joe became interested in metal detecting when his parents gave him a metal detector as a child. He often went out ______ after storms. Over the years, he has found watches, Spanish relics, and even an eight-foot-tall ship anchor (锚).

One day, Joe’s metal detector ______ something was buried under the sand when he was scanning St. Augustine Beach ______ by Hurricane lan in late September 2022. He began digging, expecting he might ______ some coins or something of similar value.

But what he found was worth far more than a few cents! He ______ a beautiful, huge diamond ring which was about six inches under the ground. However, even though Joe knew it was a special ______, he initially had no idea how much the ring was worth until he visited a jewelry store to ______ it. When he learned that the ring he’d unearthed was worth $40,000, Joe wasted no time trying to ______ the rightful owner!

First, he made a(n) ______ on his social media channels, hoping the owner would see it. He then called and emailed jewelry stores all over Florida and beyond, sending photographs and a(n) ______ of the ring. And, when a jeweler asked him if he’d considered keeping the prize for himself, Joe ______ said, “not even for a minute.”

A couple of weeks passed, and Joe wondered if he’d ever get the ring returned home. Ultimately, he was ______ by a man who might be the owner. After ______ through photos that the diamond ring was indeed the one his wife had lost, he was ______ happy. His wife just said, “Oh my God, I can’t believe it,” and then started crying.

For Joe, though, it might be that the act of returning the treasures” to those who lost them brings him as much ______ as finding them in the first place!