2 . A fifth grader at Shreve Elementary in Ohio created a Kindness Closet to help students in need.

Anderson “Andi” Musser said a friend told her that she ________   she had some girls’ clothing to wear to school.“I went to my ________ and got the clothes and shoes that don’t ________ me,” Andi told The Daily Record. “I gave them to her at school the next day.And she was really happy.” 

After ________ clothes to her friend,Andi couldn’t help thinking about how great it felt to help someone in need. 

“She realized what a difference that ________ for her friend,” said Jessica Musser,Andi’s mother.“That was so ________ to do.She asked, “ Can we do this for more people? ” She took the initiative (倡议) at that ________.” 

So, Andi ________ her principal with her idea to ________ a Kindness Closet, a place where ________ students can visit during the school day to “shop” for a new coat or ________ worn garments.

She came to me, and having knowing what she thought, I said,“Great, let’s do it, ” Principal Adam Stein said.

________, Andi doesn’t have enough clothes.She came up with an idea and asked local stores for ________.

“It’s great for Andi to see her vision ________,” Principal Stein said.“It’s part of our ________ here at Shreve and Triway.It’s what every principal and parent would want for their kids to do — to put others first.”

4 . The universal use of technology has resulted in a constant current of information interrupting the “flow” of our life. This ________ pattern was initially marketed as “call-waiting” for our phones. But now our eyes, ears, and fingers are glued to our technology 24/7. We are ________ by emails, texts, or the news on our Facebook pages. My friend Ron refers to this technology as “weapons of mass distraction.”

But how is this mass distraction ________ us? According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation report, children from eight to eighteen spend an average of seven hours and thirty-eight minutes a day using entertainment media. In addition, a study found that exposure to ________ media was associated with attention problems in a sample of 210 college students.

The ________ is just part of the larger picture. Dealing with a crowd of daily text messages and emails makes it difficult for us to be by ourselves when all that activity stops. Although a sense of ________ is natural at times, our addiction to the nonstop interaction afforded by technology deepens that feeling when access to the technology is unexpectedly ________. Just think how you feel when you lack cell phone or web access. Is it possible that our obsession with continually checking our emails and text messages has contributed to our ________ to genuinely relate with others?

Apart from the effects of technology on our ________ and our ability to be at ease without technology, let’s examine how interacting with our devices ________ the development of our fundamental communication and social skills. Many researchers observe that everyday conversation between human beings is becoming increasingly ________.

Many of today’s children are growing up with a built-in dependence on devices, making it difficult for them to feel ________ in everyday social situations. Often they find it ________ to make eye contact or deal with even the simplest face-to-face interactions without the aid of technology as an intermediary (媒介).

Over time these children forget how to relate with each other because they have become habituated to using technology to ________ direct contact with others and life itself. ________, some neuroscientists believe that use of the internet actually rewires our brains.

5 . Bruno went into the kitchen and got the biggest surprise of his life. He could barely believe his eyes. “Shmuel!” he said. “What are you doing here in my kitchen?”

Shmuel looked up and his terrified face _________ a broad smile on seeing his friend. “Bruno!” he said. “They asked me to polish the glasses. They said they needed someone with tiny _________.”

He held his hand out and Bruno noticed that it was like the hand of the pretend skeleton. In reply, Bruno held his own hand out, which appeared _________ and full of life. The veins (血管) weren’t visible through the skin, the fingers weren’t little more than dying twigs (细枝). Shmuel’s hand, however, told a very _________ story.

“Shmuel! Here!” said Bruno, stepping forward and putting some slices of chicken in his friend’s hand. “Just eat them.” The boy stared at the food in his hand for a moment and then looked up at Bruno with wide and _________ but terrified eyes. He threw a _________ in the direction of the door and then thrust all the slices into his mouth in one go.

“Thank you, Bruno.” said Shmuel, giving a faint smile.

Bruno smiled back and was about to offer him more food, but just at that moment Lieutenant Kotler reappeared. Bruno stared at him, feeling the _________ grow heavy, sensing Shmuel’s shoulders sinking down.

_________ Bruno, Lieutenant Kotler marched over to Shmuel and glared at him. Shmuel looked up at Lieutenant Kotler, who frowned, leaning forward slightly as he examined the boy’s face. “You have been eating,” said Lieutenant Kotler. “Did you _________ something from that fridge?” Shmuel looked toward Bruno, his eyes pleading for __________.

“Answer me!” shouted Lieutenant Kotler.

“No, sir. He gave it to me,” said Shmuel, tears welling up in his eyes. “He’s my friend,” he added.

“Do you know this boy, Bruno?” he asked in a loud voice.

Bruno’s mouth __________ and he tried to say the word “yes”, but then he realized that he couldn’t because he was feeling just as __________ himself.

“Tell me, Bruno!” shouted Kotler, his face growing red. “I won’t ask you a third time.”

“I’ve __________ seen him before in my life,” said Bruno immediately, “I don’t know him.”

Hearing that, Shmuel wasn’t crying any more, merely staring at the floor and looking as if he was trying to __________ his soul not to live inside his tiny body any more, but to __________ away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it was far away.

6 . The past 10 months has been the most influential months of my life.

As a junior, I left my comfortable home in Illinois and ________going to the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. There I attended a local poorly­equipped school and ________ for an adventure. I experienced so many________ when I arrived, fighting each day to ________ in a new social environment—overcoming racial differences, handling social ________...

During the summer vacation I ________to be a counselor (顾问) at an Easter Seals camp for people with ________ needs who require assistance because of disabilities and improve their ability to do things alone. It was the most tiring work I'd ever experienced but the most________. I knew that I'd helped improve over 850 campers'________.

As the new school year began, our department had a renovation (翻新). I offered to help clean up all the ________books. Instead of recycling hundreds of those books, I________the department that the books could serve a higher ________. This simple act resulted in an all－out book drive benefiting the schools in Arizona.

The 10­month experience in Arizona________me greatly. It made me become a person with patience, appreciation, determination, and ________enthusiasm. I trust that it is through enthusiasm, ideas and action that all changes can ________.

7 . A brave ICU nurse, who suffered a breakdown after working through the COVID-19 pandemic, ran the London Marathon for charity on October 3, 2021, hoping to beat the Guinness World Records as the fastest man to run a marathon dressed in a pint of beer costume.

Joan Laplana, a dad of three kids, ______ running after he was diagnosed(诊断) with post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been a nurse for 23 years and was ______ as a lead nurse. His mental health suffered when he lost a patient, who was the same age as him, with daughters the same age as his and had no underlying(潜在的) health conditions. Despite suffering from ______ attacks and anxiety, Joan still wanted to ______ his work in ICU when the second wave ______ the country.

But he went to pieces during it and was diagnosed with PTSD. His mood would often change quickly and he couldn’t slept through the night. He started getting counselling. Since his new fitness plan, Joan said he wasn’t ______ medicine anymore, and for the first time in 18 months he had ______ slept through the night. He said, “In March I joined a running ______ and on days when I can’t motivate myself, my friends from the club will message me. I knew I had to get ______ about my running when I got an email saying I got a ______ for the London Marathon. I am very proud of myself after everything that I have been through. Running has ______ my mental health. It helped with my ______, reduced my panic attacks and improved my mood changes.”

In July 2021, Joan ______ to the top of Snowdon, a mountain in northern Wales, dressed in a pint of beer costume also for ______. Though his first attempt at beating the Guinness World Records at the London Marathon failed last year, Joan will once again try to ______ the record at the 2022 London Marathon.

8 . Every Saturday morning Phoenix Young would take piano lessons with a family friend when he was a child. “At that time we would_______around and take all morning just to have a lesson,” Phoenix_______. “And I loved it.”

But when Phoenix was 12, his teacher proposed that he need better_______.So his mother took him to a music school in the Bronx, and signed him up for classes with a teacher named Bade Simon, experienced bit known for being _______. And she quickly lived up to that _______.Phoenix found the stressful life was_______like his lighthearted Saturday mornings with his former teacher, so it wasn’t long before he_______that he would quit.

One day, however, Bade_______him and said something surprising: “I have_______in you. Keep going. Then the reluctant (不情愿的) student did something surprising ________: he said, “Okay.”

“It was as if all I wanted was just a________from her that she cared about me,” Phoenix said.

That moment________their relationship. Within a few weeks, they were having________during lessons. And within a few months, she was teaching him things about music that he’d never known before. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.

“I went into________and became a piano teacher, a career I have been doing for 50 years,” Phoenix said. “And I ________it all to that precious moment with my unsung hero, Bade Simon.”