1 . One of the strangest experiences of my life involved taking a memory test while lying inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner. It was part of an experiment by University College London, to see whether the brains of memory champions like me were ________ anyone else’s.

When the test ________ were published, the findings were very ________. Expert memorizers didn’t have any physical differences between our ________. Instead, what set us apart was what we did when we were learning—especially the way we used pictures.

Any information can be ________ into pictures—switching on parts of the brain right away that create ________ and impressive memories.

________ it yourself. Here’s a list of words. But don’t just read the words. Picture them, as ________ as you can.

MOUNTAIN, RAINBOW, PEA, SOFA, SHEEP, SNOWMAN, WINDMILL, NEWSPAPER, PIANO, UMBRELLA.

________ your visual memory. Notice the relative sizes of the things on the list. Look out for any similarities or differences in ________ or colors. After a few minutes, cover the page and see how many words you ________. Then, start connecting images with ________ you want to remember: shopping lists, addresses, good ideas. By doing so, you’ll find that you soon become more observant, better with ________, and more confident about recalling the things that ________. So learn from the ________, and use pictures to help you to set some new “personal bests” for your own memory power!

2 . There is nothing more comforting than the sound of the Singer, a sewing (缝纫) machine. It ______so many memories of my grandmother and mother. The______of turning different materials into something fashionable always______me.

I began sewing as a child alongside my grandmother, a loving woman who taught me how to use a machine and how to sew my first______. It was a simple pullover blouse (衬衫) made from an old pink and white pillowcase. I wore that with such______because wearing something you______yourself just makes you smile. Then, one day I made a mistake, sewing the inside out, and had to start again. This taught me to be______and focused on details.

Later I received the old Singer from my mom, but it was left to gather dust in the corner.Once Covid-19______, I had too much time on my hands and in my head.I got the Singer ______ and began sewing again.

“Measure twice, cut once" is a Sewer’s proverb. We all hear it and I rarely use it, just like road maps, but it is______. It’s a way of life.

In a time when tomorrow is ______,I found a sense of hope and creativity through rediscovery. Relearning how to sew has______my boredom and made me more patient with myself. It also helps build an emotional______with my older generations through this one thing that we______.That brings me joy. And I’ll______that joy for as long as possible.

4 . I used to be a very self­centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed. I have started to think about other people _______ I think about myself. I am happy that I am becoming a _______ person.

I think my _______ started when I was at Palomar College. At first, I just wanted to get my degree and be left alone. I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so I hardly ever _______ to anyone in my classes. By the end of my first semester, I was really lonely. It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun. So I tried a(n) _______. I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble I _______ to help. That was really a big _______ for me. By the end of the year, I had several new friends, and two of them are still my best friends today.

A bigger cause of my new _______, however, came when I took a part­time job at a Vista Nursing Home. One old lady there who had Alzheimer’s disease became my friend. Every time I came into her room, she was so _______ because she thought I was her daughter. Her real daughter never ________ her, so I took her place. She let me ________ that making others feel good made me feel good, too, when she died, I was ________, but I was very grateful to her.

I think I am a much ________ person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not forget these experiences. They have   ________ me to care about other people more than about myself. I ________who I am today, and I could not say that a few years ago.

5 . Since the age of three, Chelsie Hill had dreamed of becoming a dancer. “The only thing that I ________ was dance,” she told CBS News. That ________ nearly ended one night. Hill, then a 17-year-old high school senior in Pacific Grove, California, was in a car accident that put her in the hospital for 51 days and left her ________ to move from the waist down. For most people, that would have ________ any hope of a dancing career. ________, for Hill. it was the beginning. ________ being an obstacle, her wheelchair made her more confident. “I wanted to prove to my community — and to myself — that I was still ‘________’,” she told Teen Vogue.

Being normal for her meant dancing, so Hill did it in her wheelchair, which ________ took a lot of learning and patience. After graduation, Hill wanted to expand her dance network to include women like her. She met people online who had the same sufferings and shared her de1termination, and she invited them to dance with her. ________ Hill hoped to reach more people in a larger city, she moved to Los Angeles four years later and ________ a team of dancers with ________, called the Rollettes. “I want to ________ the stereotype of wheelchair users and show that dance is dance, whether you’re walking or you’re ________,” she told CBS News.

Dancing on ________, the Rollettes discovered, can be just as fast-paced and artful as the foot based variety. In disabled dance competitions around the country, the six team members rocked their upper bodies, shook their heads to the beats, and ________ their wheelchairs in energetic and well ________ routines. They’re having fun, and as the audiences’ cheerful ________ indicate, the fun is ________.

Every year Hill holds a dance camp for wheelchair users of all generations and abilities, and last year, 173 ________ from ten countries attended. Hill has ________ what many of us never will: her childhood dream.

8 . I am a recovering perfectionist and learning to play again saved me. Like many children, I remember playing a lot when I was younger and being filled with a sense of openness,________ and joy. My natural state was to be present with myself, enjoying the ________ of play.

Unfortunately, my attitude began ________ from playfulness to perfectionism early on. Instead of being present and enjoying the process, I started ________ performance. The more I did this, the less open, curious and joyful I was. Instead, I grew anxious, critical and ________.

I first remember ________ perfectionist tendencies when I was taking piano lessons in school. I got the idea that I had to perform songs perfectly. I started hating piano and ________ quit. My perfectionism ________ into other areas of my life, too. In school, I pushed myself to get straight A’s, and if I earned anything less, I felt like a ________.

My perfectionism also negatively ________ my relationship with myself and other people. I felt like my life was spinning out of control and that all the rules that once worked no longer ________. I crashed emotionally. That was one of the darkest times of my life. I realized I needed a(n)________   way to approach life.

About this time, my friend Amy and I started taking fencing lessons together. I was quite bad at it, but it didn’t________. Because I had given up perfectionism, I didn’t care anymore about ________ people at fencing class or performing perfect moves.________, I cared about being present with myself in the process and staying open and curious.

I had a(n)________ feeling. I felt free and alive, and I ________ that I had been missing playfulness for many years. Fencing helped me rediscover play and leave perfectionism behind.

I am________ now to practicing playfulness every day and to help others do the same. Playfulness isn’t something we must ________ in childhood. When we practice playfulness, life becomes an adventure, and there is always something more to learn, explore and ________.

10 . I became a gardener when I was twelve. My early________of gardening may not have originated from my love for nature. It was to ________my parents.

At that time, we had a big yard in which a beautiful maple tree stood. But my mother often looked with ________at this work of natural art. Those golden leaves seemed like tons of rubbish to her, “something else to ________!”Seeing the neighbors busy with gardening, my father ever thought it a waste of time.

At that age, I always did something________to whatever my parents did! If gardening were something they found________, I would plant a garden!

I planted some lily (百合花)seeds in the yard. But they failed to ________. I continued to sunflower seeds and roses. Wild ________joy, I found the first rose bloom (开花). One by one, the flowers bloomed their heads off.________, I was touched by this land of wonder.

________, my parents showed no interest in my garden. My father even________at me because he found it was ________to move around my garden to the driveway. To my mother’s ________, I put her vase my real roses which, in her eyes, were simply weeds________flowers.

Regardless of their ________, I kept on planting my garden and ________to enjoy the pleasure gardening. Plants make such good companions: they breathe, they bloom, they________to care and love.

It has been many years since I made my first garden out of my desire to ________my parent. Today I become known as Mrs. Greenthumbs, teaching gardening and hosting a gardening show which makes my parents feel very________. And now I could say it is my affection for________that makes me a real gardener.