2 . It was a bright May afternoon. Jonathan Bauer, and his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, were driving home on a bridge, which crosses a deep river. ___________, the peace was broken by the scream of tires.

Not far away, a truck was sliding from one driveway to the other. Then, it ___________ a barrier, and came to rest hanging over the railing (栏杆) of the bridge. The driver’s door opened and a man climbed out. He ___________ to his feet, then staggered (蹒跚) to the railing anxiously. Stopping the car, Bauer ran to him. The man pointed down, saying something in Spanish. In the water was a girl, about two years old, floating on her back, screaming ___________.

Situation quickly went from bad to ___________, when she rolled over onto her stomach. Her father was frozen with shock as if rooted to the ground. Without hesitation, Bauer ___________ his shoes, climbed to the railing and dived into the ___________ water. Bauer ___________ to the little girl and with everyone’s assistance lifted her out of the water: eyes nearly closed, not breathing. He laid her ___________ his shoulder and slapped her back. Soon water came ____________ from her mouth. The girl’s ____________ opened then, focused on Bauer. He pulled her ____________, hugging her to protect her from cold. Everyone present were enveloped in ____________.

Ava Bauer was greatly ____________ by her father’s brave deed and determined to pay it forward. “That girl is going to live a whole life because of him,” she says. “It’s ____________.”

3 . Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive (欺骗)? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture. For example, some might say, “I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery. It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!” This guy’s a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought $200 worth of tickets, and only one was a winner. He’s really a big loser! He didn’t say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That’s called a half-truth.

Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest. Some politicians often use this trick. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents says, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state lost one million jobs!” That’s true. However, an honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”

Advertisers will sometimes use half-truths. It’s against the law to make false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, “Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache.” It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company. This kind of deception happens too often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

For thousands of years, the dragon     1     (regard) to be powerful and mysterious. Among the rich legacies of Chinese history, the dragon totems (图腾)     2     (be) undoubtedly a striking presence in the Forbidden City.

    3     (know) as the “treasure of China”, the Forbidden City is     4     fascinating architectural complex (建筑群). It stands as the world’s largest and most complete existing ancient wooden structure architectural complex     5     the royals once lived during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It’s     6     (general) assumed that the dragon is one of the most important cultural icons in China and always represents good fortune. In the Forbidden City, the dragons, whether flying in the sky, leaping between beams, or hidden in the details, all tell ancient stories     7     the visitors.

In each corner of the Forbidden City, lifelike dragons in     8     (vary) shapes can be seen, showing not only beautiful craftsmanship,     9     carrying deep historical and cultural meanings.

According to photographer Gu Caihua, those dragons sitting on the     10     (roof) seem to be guarding the ancient palaces, while those dragons decorated on beams appear to be telling the rise and fall of history. These dragons are not simple decorations but carry the essence of Chinese culture.

6 . A mom makes mini-me toys as unique as the children who embrace them.

Asa ________ worker using play therapy to help children through their cancer treatment, Amy wished she could ________ her patients with dolls that bore their all-too-familiar hair loss and surgery scars.

________ Amy left welfare work in 2011 to start a family, she still often thought of the kids. She said, “These kids need something that looks like they do.” This idea had always ________   in her mind.

Then in 2020, a mom whose daughter lost a leg to amputation (截肢) asked Amy, who was ________ with a sewing machine, if she could make a mini-me dol for the girl.

After Amy ________ a photo of the legless doll on Facebook,   ________ poured in for likeness with everything from albinism (白化病) to birthmarks. “ ________ make kids feel isolated and judged,” she says, “With the doll, a child sees ‘I am not the only one who looks this way and I’m also ________ enough to be a doll.’ ”

Amy _________ nearly 400 custom dolls at her dining-room table, with donors often covering the 100 cost through Amy’s nonprofit A Doll Like Me. The mom of three ________ making each doll herself with help from her mother and a friend.

For Keagan. 2, whose rare skin condition has ________ him in birthmarks, Amy matched the doll’s ________ exactly. “That was the most amazing thing,” says Keagan’s mom. A farther says, “I ________ like a baby when a doll came in the mail for my daughter, who was born without her lower left arm. Seeing my daughter with her doll, it makes me think about her future, not her ________ .”

9 . Curiosity is the driving force behind our development and even our success. But it can also be dangerous, leading to setbacks or even downfalls, so why are humans so curious? Do scientists even have a definition for this inborn drive?

Actually, there isn’t one set in the stone. Psychologists agree curiosity isn’t about satisfying an immediate need, like hunger or thirst; rather, it’s intrinsically (内在地) motivated. Curiosity covers such large set of bebaviors that there probably isn’t any single “curiosity gene” that makes humans wonder about and explore their environment. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity.

Regardless of their genetic makeup, infants have to learn an incredible amount of information in a short time, and curiosity is one of the tools humans have found to accomplish that huge task. In a classic study, a psychologist showed that infants between 2 months and 6 months old grew less and less interested in a complex visual pattern the more they looked at it. But curiosity often comes with a cost. In some situations, the risks are low and failure is a healthy part of growth. For instance, many babies are perfectly proficient crawlers, but they decide to try walking because there’s more to see and do when they stand upright. But this milestone comes at a small cost. A study of 12- to 19-month-olds learning how to walk documented that these children fell down a lot. Seventeen times per hour, to be exact. But walking is faster than crawling, so this motivates expert crawlers to transition to walking.

Sometimes, however, testing out a new idea can lead to disaster. For instance, the Inuit people of the Arctic regions have created incredible modes to deal with the challenges of living in northern r climates, but what we forget about are the tens of thousands of people that tried and failed to make it in those challenging landscapes.