1 . A few years ago, I was leaving the dog kennel(养狗场) where I worked only to find a baby goat at the end of the driveway. The kennel’s owners are known animal rescuers, and I _________ someone abandoned him over the fence. The kid was_________ nervous but stood perfectly still as I approached.

I’m an animal _________ and I’ve brought home dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and fish, but never a goat. The tiny kid was too_________ to resist. I named him Quincy, and with the help of some experienced friends, bottle-fed him in my bathroom.

Quincy proved to be quite_________. When he was about a week old, I _______ my fingers on the bathroom floor and said, “Lie down.” I was _________ when he dropped down. I was even more amazed when he did it three times___________.

A quick study, Quincy learned to lie down, bow, and turn in a circle in no time. I love to train animals and often take my dogs to shows where they can _________ their tricks. Quincy did his first show when he was just six weeks old. He knew only a few __________ then, but he did them   ____________ and never misbehaved or got nervous in front of the crowd.

Now he has a whole list: he’ll shake hooves(蹄), come when____________, wave, smile for the camera, and more. Quincy and my dogs perform regularly at schools, nursing homes, and charity events. Quincy can even “____________” his tricks off cue cards, which always earns the most____________.

It’s hard to believe that the goat kid nobody wanted__________ to be one of the smartest and most good-natured animals I’ve ever had. He’s by far the sharpest of my bunch—just don’t tell the dogs!

2 . I dropped a clay cooking pot on my feet. More accurately, I slipped down the back steps of my house on a rainy night, _______ the pot into the air. I managed to stay upright (挺直的) and _______ on my backside with my feet in front of me, but the pot also landed upright and on my feet, breaking in two. The hot juices I was trying to throw into the outdoor dustbin _______ in the air, and then rained down upon me. At the very moment, I could _______ the headline: “Woman Dies Doing the Dishes After Dinner”.

Life didn’t stop because I got _______. However, my daily routine slowed down. I _______ less urgent appointments. Though I hated the _______ in my plans, I soon realized it left me a gift: spare time. I rediscovered long-forgotten _________. I read a book just for pleasure. I caught up with friends and family members in e-mails and texts. I _______ with my watercolor set. And my ________ came alive again.

When I was forced to slow down, I realized how ________ my lifestyle used to be. So I decided something had to ________. Now I try to leave some ________ for activities and practices that bring me joy, like going for walks or enjoying a meal with friends.

Every time I cook in my new pot, I remember the ________ of slowing down. And I never ever walk down ________ stairs with a pot in my hands.

3 . As Norwood drove through St. Petersburg, Florida, the laughter from the four teenage girls inside her car suddenly gave way to _________. They were hit by another car and _________ into a tree.

Then smoke _________ from the car. A bystander shouted, “It’s about to _________! Get out!” Norwood immediately crawled out. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to _________ themselves, she ran for her _________.

But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back and found Simmons stuck in the back _________. “She wasn’t _________,” Norwood told Inside Edition. She _________ open the back door and pulled her friend out. She dragged Simmons a few feet to __________ and laid her on the ground. “I checked her pulse and put my __________ against her chest.” No sign of life. “That’s when I started CPR (心肺复苏术).”

Kneeling on the lawn and looking down at her __________ friend, Norwood started pumping Simmons’s chest. She breathed into her friend’s mouth in __________ of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. Fortunately, Simmons began coughing and breathing for __________.

Soon, paramedics (医务人员) arrived and rushed Simmons to hospital. When she heard how Norwood had saved her life, “I wasn’t __________,” Simmons said. “She always backs me up.”

7 . The plan for the annual Christmas Dinner for Those Alone and Homeless started between two church members who happened to share a plane ride back to Springfield.

Springfield physician H’Doubler Jr. told Gary Ellison he was_______about those who he knew were_______during the upcoming holidays. He wanted to help them. He said, “If you don’t have_______with you, the fact that everything, at Christmas is ‘family this and family that’ can be_______. Wouldn’t it be great_______our church could have a big Christmas dinner-free of_______?”

If they wanted the big dinner held in the church, admission of the preacher (牧师) was very necessary. Therefore, H’Doubler asked Ellison if he could_______the preacher to allow the dinner. H’Doubler would put up a sizable_______. “He imagined a nice event with no strings (附加条件) attached,” said Ellison.

With the physician_______the main course, other church members offered side dishes and desserts.

After a few years, the church picked up the expenses. “The first________may have drawn 200 people,” Ellison said, “but some years it may draw close to 700.”

In order that the church can________for the right size crowd, people who want to________are asked to call an answering service and select the time they will come in advance. Ellison said church members would do their best to make everyone feel________. Over the years he’s enjoyed seeing strangers socialize.

H’Doubler always smiled when he read or heard reports of the event’s________, his daughter Sarah Muegge said. “He was very________with the way it developed,” said Ellison. “It’s________the way H’Doubler expected it: no strings attached. Just fun and good________,” said Ellison.

H’Doubler preferred to keep secret his role in________he event, but he________recently at the age of 85. Ellison asked H’Doubler’s daughter if it was OK to tell people that it was H’Doubler’s________and money that started the tradition. And she said yes.

8 . UPS deliveryman Ryan Arens was making his rounds near a pond, when he heard a strange sound. It was December, and about 15 feet from the frozen bank was the _________ of that sound — a brown-and-white wire-haired hound（猎犬）had fallen through the thin layer of ice. An elderly man was already on the _________, determined to save her. He was trying to _________ the pond and was striking the ice with a rock to create a(n) _________ to the dog, but seemed to be struggling.

Arens, 44, thought he _________ a better chance. “Animals are my weakness,” he said, explaining _________ he chose to take off his overcoat, even though the temperature was minus 15 and _________ the rescue task.

After breaking the ice using the man’s rock, Arens jumped into the icy water. He surfaced in time to see the dog going under. Arens swam about five feet toward the dog, grabbed hold of her collar, and _________ her out of the water and onto the ice. He then put the dog into the boat and slid it back to the bank, where _________ bystanders carried the dog to the home of the rowboat’s owner, a retired vet. __________ in the house himself, Arens jumped into a warm shower with the dog. A few more minutes in the pond, the vet told Arens, and the dog would have likely __________.

The next day, Arens was again making his __________ in the neighborhood when the dog’s owner came __________ to thank him for saving Sadie. “Would you like to meet her?” he asked. Then he opened the door of his pickup, and Sadie jumped out. She went __________ toward Arens, leaping around him and kissing him. Arens said that special delivery was the __________ of his UPS career.

9 . Two big characters stand firmly on the cover of the book Xiangxin, with a phrase—”Even in failure, never ______“. That is how Cai Lei, former vice-president of a business giant, faces ALS,a terminal illness. The book tells vividly the story of his unique _______ with it.

In 2019, the muscle on his left arm had been in pain and he visited Fan Dongsheng, a leading ALS expert. The doctor______his two hands about 20 centimeters from each other,saying,”This was your______life expectancy.“Then his left hand quickly moved to wardsthe right one, almost______it, and he added,”Now this is how long it will be.“The world suddenly turned _______for Cai.

Cai decided to take matters into his own______. In 2019, he started his own medical technology company, and built his own research team. A(n) ______of his team is removing the data______between hospitals, which made it difficult for experts to efficiently monitor and ______patients’ situations. His team also built a big data platform that could collect the_______ of such patients and process it for research purposes. ______ by his example, nearly

”I won’t give up. I don’t consider work from the angle of difficulties or possibilities. I just ______whether it’s worth doing,“he says.”Now I have completely accepted death without any ______because I have tried my best.“