4 . I would be regretful if I did not write about the incredible people we met in Thailand. The staff at the hotels we stayed in went out of their way to make us feel ______.It could be argued that they were just doing their______, but this is not how it felt to us.

At the IuDia Hotel in Ayutthaya the staff went above and______what we would have expected. The dining room was not open in the evening and when we asked where we could get a takeaway meal, the front desk clerk______us to the nearby restaurant. After we returned, the hotel staff______us with what we needed—plates and cutlery. Not only did they put our food in servicing bowls, but also they______the clean-up while we slept. We were______and deeply touched by their kindness and_______

On one of our walks my brother and I were offered bottles of freshwater by one of the locals. She felt that we needed it and did not want to take ______for the two bottles she offered. She ______agreed to take 10 Thai bahts; instead, we gave her 20. My brother______that her kindness deserved more than the 20 Thai bahts. We all laughed, sharing a moment of comradery that still______my heart.

Our experiences were a______to be open, willing to interact with______and to share parts of ourselves with them as well—a ______worth learning and remembering.

5 . Tidying your desk, watering your plants, folding clothes — these household chores are hardly the height of pleasure. Yet I often find myself _________ these little tasks.

If I’m stuck in writer’s block with a deadline _________, I’ll have to clear up the papers placed around my office — and it’s sometimes the most _________ I feel all day.

I’m not _________ in this. As we faced the stresses of the pandemic, many people reported finding renewed interest in _________ their homes as a way of coping with uncertainty.

Psychologists suggest there are many potential mechanisms (机制) that can explain the pleasure from these tasks and their benefits-these may well encourage you to _________ these odd jobs more often.

Little chores may be useful because they _________ the mind, leading us to devote fewer resources to the things that _________ us. Even if we struggle with activities that are meant to help us relax, we may find household tasks can help us appreciate the here and now. But this depends on where we place our _________.

In one of the few studies to examine the mental health benefits of washing the dishes, researchers at Florida State University divided 51 __________ into two groups. Half read a text that encouraged them to __________ focus their thoughts on the activity. “While washing the dishes, one should be completely __________ of the fact that one is washing the dishes,” they were told. The rest read factual instructions on how to do washing up without being encouraged to focus their awareness on the activity.

Afterwards, the participants were asked to take a questionnaire about their __________. Those who had fully engaged with the experience reported a significantly better mood. This included __________ nervousness and even a sense of “inspiration”, as if the simple activity had __________ their minds.

8 . I am a university professor. Last year, I took a(n) _________ step: I decided to sign up for an online course to learn Arabic, a very difficult language.

My teacher was a patient and _________ man from Cairo, who had been teaching here for years. He could _________ my awkwardness in class and would find ways to help me feel more comfortable. “You are intelligent today,” my teacher would often say when I _________ well in class. When I heard these words for the first time, I was filled with _________. A few words from an authority _________ had made my day. His praise truly _________ my confidence and I became more positive about my Arabic learning.

That was when I _________ how little I had praised my own students. Too much praise, I had thought, made students too _________, and even lazy. Now, as a student, I saw things __________. I had a change of heart. If I — a university professor with a PhD — felt __________ with a few words of encouragement, imagine what __________ my words could have on my students, sensitive young people who were looking to carve out a career in a __________ environment?

So now I praise as often and as sincerely as I can, knowing that even __________ words can mean a lot. They can save someone from a bad day, as my teacher’s __________ have done for me.

9 . Part of my youth remains in China, in the suburbs of Hangzhou where people lived a leisurely life. The roads were barely ______ enough for one car to pass through, not that very many people knew how to ______. My grandpa owned a bicycle to pedal me to wherever I wanted to go.

The bicycle only had room for one ______, so I walked with my grandparents whenever we three went downtown to buy our groceries in the ______. My grandparents only bought the ______ vegetables, especially so when it came to purple corn. They knew which corn was the most tender just by taking a ______ at the husks (壳).

Once back home, grandparents went to cook, and within half an hour, steaming purple corns were laid out on the table. I was not a(n) ______ granddaughter and often burned my fingers picking up the corn, but my ______ were forgotten after the first bite. The kernels (玉米粒) stuck to my teeth and filled my mouth with ______. I chewed the corn until my jaw ______ and my teeth were stained purple, leaving a sweet aftertaste on my ______.

Two years later, I flew back to America. The streets here were loud and dogs barked all day long. The corn in American grocery stores was pale yellow, small and watery. I didn’t ______ my fingers when I ate it, nor did I ______ it for very long.

My mother eventually found frozen purple corn at a Chinese supermarket. When ______, the corn softened to a chewy texture (口感), but I could no longer ______ Hangzhou summers in this purple corn.

10 . I had been skiing since childhood. I’d _________ fallen, I’d never crashed into anything, and I’d _________ mostly to the “blue” trails — the ones for intermediate (中级水平的) skiers. Therefore, for my first day on the mountain, I decided to _________ a blue run, one I had done many times before.

When I reached the top of the blue trails — only chairlift (缆椅), though, something in the atmosphere _________. Why was it so cold? Were the blue trails always this sharp? The rhythm of the chairlift started to sound less _________.

It _________ that simply having skied “many times before” didn’t mean I was getting better at it. There’s a large body of _________ showing that practice—or even just doing — doesn’t make us any better at the activity, so it is with skiing. The joy of getting better sometimes comes along with the _________ of getting worse.

One afternoon, I took a chairlift with a retired ski _________ named Bob. When I told him I was struggling, he __________ to watch me take an easy slope and assessed what I was doing wrong.

Bob __________ me that the learning process looks a lot like backsliding (倒退). When babies first learn to walk, they progress from __________ imitation. Sometimes it seems that we’re losing ground, but we’re actually __________ a new skill. An __________ attempt is often a sign that you’re learning.

“You’re skiing better already!” he shouted at me.

“Thank you!” I yelled back.

Then I skied a few more feet and __________.