1 . About three years ago, a tornado attacked our town. My father and I _________ to visit my grandparents to make sure they were okay. Upon arrival, I took my regular seat and _________ with Grandma about what was on our mind to pass the time. _________, the power was out and it got dark in what seemed like a matter of minutes.

Then, Grandma turned to me and asked with _________ eyes that stared right past me, “Now you’re graduating this year, aren’t you?” As a freshman, I was _________, about this strange question. Actually, Grandma could exactly _________ you when every one of her grandchildren was born. _________, I assured her that I was not yet a(n) _________, and still had a few years until graduation.

Soon, my father asked if I was ready to go home. I silently _________ my head—yes. Into the car, I __________ and couldn’t stop weeping. My father asked me what was wrong. “Is Grandma going to __________ my graduation?” I asked.

It took him a long time to respond, “Yes. She may not know where she is, but she will be there, no matter what.” The rest of the car ride home was __________. When we eventually arrived home, I rushed to my room and cried for hours. That night, I could picture that Grandma’s __________ would be changed from the care giver to care receiver.

Ever since that talk with my Grandma, I have matured and __________. Her Alzheimer (阿尔茨海默症) has progressed to about stage 3 now. At my graduation, I was sitting on the stage seeing Grandma there sitting with the rest of my family. “She may not know where she is, but she will be there”. My father’s words __________ in my ears.

3 . Many people think that there should be some sort of universal service around cash, forcing banks to provide it and sellers to accept it. I disagree, but I do understand why they think that forcing the additional costs associated with cash on financial institutions and merchants seems appealing.

One of their arguments is that cash is a necessary fallback, the only payment method that society can depend on in the event of nuclear war or natural disaster and therefore businesses should be forced to keep the ability to distribute and collect notes and coins. They think that cash is the backup in a disaster. It really isn’t. When things go really wrong, it is the people who keep their money in cash who suffer the most.

Remember the Japanese disaster of a decade back, where following a severe earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan’s Honshu Island in 2011, a huge tsunami (海啸) towering a hundred feet above the ground went crashing into cities, towns and villages destroying more than 200 square miles. Since Japan remains a cash-based society and a great many people keep their savings in cash in their homes, the disaster led to the unusual phenomenon of safes and cash washing up on beaches. Yasuo Kimura, a former bank employee then aged 67, said that he had many friends who lost everything. “I had tried to convince them to put their money in a bank,” he said. “They always thought it was safer to keep it at home.”

Another argument they make is that electronic payment can be bad for privacy, making cash remain the best backup. They ask “How do you stop data thieves and data brokers from monitoring your buying history?” and suggest paying in cash is the answer. Personally, I think using privacy-enhancing (增强隐私的) technologies when making electronic payments is a better answer, but that’s a discussion for another day.

5 . Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi. One time, I was called at midnight to _________someone up. When I arrived, the building was completely dark except for one light in a window.

I walked to the door and _________. After a long wait, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.

“Would you carry my _________ out to the car?” she said. I took it and gave her my arm. We walked _________to the street. She thanked me for my _________ constantly. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “I try to _________ my passengers how I want my mother treated.”

6 . It is said that a doctor named Zhang Zhongjing ________ poor people suffering from frostbite, so he boiled a pot of mutton with medicinal ingredients, ________ them up and wrapped them in ear-shaped dough (面团). Those who ________ from frostbitten ears were give this “cold-dispelling” soup. This is the start of ________. Subsequently, people made dumplings in the same manner and ate them during the festival to ________ him.

8 . An e-mail request for a special dish came in to a restaurant in Baltimore on a Thursday afternoon in March. The sender didn't _________ want the food itself. He said that he was writing _________ his mother who loved the broccoli (西兰花) dish made by the restaurant. He went on to _________ that she was now in the final stage of lung cancer at her home in Vermont and that he was hoping to _________ the recipe to make it for her at home.

10 . One of life’s challenging aspects is being in need of assistance and having no one to turn to. For many of us, asking for help is_________. We may feel as if we are_________ a personal limitation that the world would not have known about. This is why I started the Helping Movement, a free online tool.

Just recently a local resident, Helen, was asked to_________ all of her collected life belongings from her basement by the end of March, or her landlord would have been_________ to deal with all the things due to fire code(消防规范)issues. These_________ mean the world to Helen and to_________ any of them would have been depressing.