4 . In January 2020, my life was like a perfect movie. I was the _________ in my amazing group of best friends. They were all a year older, but you would never have known. I was only a senior two student but had _________ to secure a spot on the swim team. Then my teammates and I traveled in Hawaii.

Little did we know we would _________ to chaos. Our school was _________ down for two weeks due to COVID-19. Although feeling unhappy, my best friends made promises about how we would stay close during the lockdown. Shortly into quarantine (隔离区), I _________ hobbies and did anything I could to keep myself busy.

Looking back, I felt like a fool for thinking that two weeks would be a _________ to a pandemic. Months went by and the new school year began. I couldn’t accept the _________ that training in the pool became impossible. The pain of missing my friends began to _________. I felt like I was drowning.

It occurred to me that my best friends, who were now _________, would leave me next fall anyway. That made me ____________, making November the ____________ month for me. I couldn’t describe the feeling of just lying on my bed with tears ____________ down my face.

Alice in Wonderland became my life as I kept falling down a never-ending hole. Still, all the same, I felt ever so ____________ to climb out of this darkness. As the winter holidays ____________, things started to pick up. I was ____________ by the Christmas spirit. Sure, it was ____________ this year but still, I looked forward to the ____________ activities: Christmas eve dinner, opening gifts with my family on Christmas Day.

I made a New Year’s resolution to become more ____________ to my studies. As I did that, I found the college conversation became less ____________. I thought about all the ____________, the passions I would pursue. I became more excited about the unknown.

5 . In search of a little quiet, I have spent some time wandering through the Australian town, Walhalla. If I had arrived about 150 years earlier, I would have found a(an) _______ goldfield town. “Around 1890, the main mine was the _______ gold producer in Victoria, ”explains the Walhalla Star Hotel’s owner, Michael Leaney. As we walk along the main road, green high hills rise on either side. We feel _______ .

When the gold ran out, most people _______ , and today only about twenty _______ residents are left in Walhalla. As the residents left, many buildings were _______ . When the 70s came, the town began to be transformed into a tourist _______ and some historic buildings have been rebuilt.

That night we have great dinner at Walhalla’s pub. We walk back in the dark. There are no street lights in the town so the stars _______ brightly against the night sky. Walhalla was the last town in Australia to get electricity. Leaney says _______ more development is to come：the Internet and mobile ________ will improve.

After a quick breakfast at the hotel the next morning, I walk down what was once a high street lined with ________ to the edge of the little town. Holiday homes and historic signs are ________   in the town. The walk takes me onto the tram (矿车) line. Alongside the mountain, it's the ________ where wood from the valley was once transported up to the mine. These days it’s ideal for views into the valley below. The mountain’s trees were ________ and now they are green again.

Leaney has invited me to ride an old-fashioned train that runs on the rebuilt train line from Walhalla to a nearby town. The views are ________ . Back in town, I leave Leaney for my next stop.

6 . When I was young, I heard stories about the Communist Party of China from my grandfather. But to be honest, only as I grew older did I begin to have a _______ understanding of the Party and its members.

My grandfather is a party member. He often talked about his _______ in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

When it _______ to the war, what hits me hardest is the guns and blood. I once asked Grandfather, “Were you _______?” He admitted that he was, but his _______ to defend the country helped him conquer (战胜) the fear. _______, he also wanted to reunite with my grandmother as soon as possible after the war _______.

Grandfather fought on the frontline. They _______ in the grass and behind sandbags. One day, Grandfather was carrying a gun while sheltering himself in a _______ safe place with other comrades. At a critical moment, a bullet __________ over the head of one of my grandfather’s comrades, and he __________ to the ground. Grandfather swiftly dragged him behind a sandbag and patted him on the shoulder, __________ him to stand up and continue fighting. When the war was over, countless scars were left on Grandfather’s arm and the experience was one that has carried much __________ throughout his life.

My grandfather often tells me that our happy life today is only possible due to the sacrifice and __________ of revolutionary martyrs (烈士). My generation should be __________ to the great Party.

7 . It was just the three of us—my parents and me. My dad is a truck driver, and was gone most of the time, ______ supplies around the Midwest. So my mother was always like a ______ mother. We moved there on my third birthday. My first memory is our next-door ______ Arlene and her husband Bill, to whom I was always talking. I think what drew me to Arlene and Bill is that they never ______ listening to me. I also think Arlene saw a lot of herself in me-we were both lonely, anxious kids. Bill too. And that may be ______ she always took the time to listen to me. It was a wonderful ______.

One day, my parents asked Bill and Arlene whether they’d ______ me while they went out on a date. This worked well, so it became a monthly ______ .When I was about five, I had an idea, “What if Bill and Arlene ______ me as their granddaughter?” The next day, I knocked on their door, sat down in their living room, and asked, “Will you guys be my grandparents?” They started crying and ______ accepted. Soon after they printed an adoption certificate, and ______ it on their living room wall from then on. I was surprised that they took my offer so ______. They could have ______ it off. Thinking of that moment still brings tears to my eyes. There is something truly ______ about a child offering up her love and adults being so excited to accept it.

Over the years, Bill and Arlene ______ me in all my dreams. They encouraged me to apply for college. And when I got accepted to Colorado State University, they presented me with a ______. They told me they’d been putting away money for me.

Since I’ve become an adult, I’ve learned more about my grandparents. Both of them grew up poor. Their lives weren’t as ______ as they appeared to be. But the two of them always seemed genuinely happy in each other’s ______ .

Arlene passed away in 2013. Bill gave me the ring he’d ______ to Arlene on their 25^th wedding anniversary which I wear on my ring finger as a ______ of the kind of love I wish to put into this world.

8 . Residents of Xiazhuang, Chongqing, used to risk their lives whenever they ventured out of the mountain village. Mao Xianglin, one leader of the village, ______ building a road.

Before the road was built, it usually took the villagers more than a full day to______ the outside world. Now it only needs a one-hour drive.

One resident recalled once when he stood on the edge of the cliff （悬崖）,he was so ______ that his legs were shaking, as stones fell off the mountain. They met masses of challenges in the course of the road ______. Mao asked the villagers whether they should ______ or not.

They all said yes. Mao was ______ and said even though it might take them several years to build, they must finish the road. It's more than a road, and it's a route to overcome _______

The villagers had been planting potatoes and com, earning ______ incomes. Mao introduced lacquer trees, but they died due to the ______ climate. He then tried ______ goats and silkworms, but they failed, too.

"I am not educated, and my ignorance ______ the village's economy,“ Mao said when ______his mistakes at a public meeting in the village. Later he invited ______ experts. About 100 migrant villagers came back to plant fruit, and young people returned to sell agricultural ______ through live-streaming.

In 2019, the per capita （人均） ______ of villagers reached 12,670 yuan （$1,960）, 40 times more than in the 1990s, the local government said.

Not believing in fate, he is the Foolish Old Man, who removed the mountains.