1 . I’m not a musician. I haven’t been playing the same sport for 10 years, either. I grew up jumping from activity to activity, trying nearly every sport under the sun.

I would experience phases of being into something, whether it was magic tricks or _________ a new language, but it would always _________ as I moved onto a new interest. This left me with nothing to show for my sometimes years-long _________. Therefore, I always felt terrible about this. I never got the _________ to carve out skills in anything I took up. I felt like I _________ time and money on these short activities. _________, I stopped looking into new activities because what’s the point?

I now realize this is total nonsense. I did musical theater as a kid, but _________ after entering high school because I had too many other activities. However, those years that I spent learning how to project my voice _________ me to love public speaking. I then joined Model United Nations, which _________ me to take a political science course. I tried my __________ at nearly every style of dance. Because of my background in dance, I was able to learn the more __________ skills a little easier.

We love the activities we do because they are vehicles of self-expression. Our hobbies are a(n) __________ of who we are. Old flames can lead to new passions. __________ is never a waste of time, just because that something I like won’t __________ or obviously lead to money or fame doesn’t mean it’s not worth anything. It’s never too late to __________ something new if it makes your happier.

2 . Several high school football players made their hometown very proud when they rushed to help a woman trapped in her car after having an accident.

On a recent morning, Cesar, Treyvon, Antwion, Messiah, Tyson and Alto were on their way to school when they heard _______ from a crashed car. A woman, believed to be in her 50s, collided (碰撞) with another vehicle. The _______ made both her passenger’s and driver’s side doors shut.

Together, the young men worked to open the passenger door in a(n) _______ to save the woman trapped in the car. But they soon _______ they would also have to open the driver’s door in order to _______ the woman from her badly damaged car.

“We’re pretty big people. We’re _______ . We play football, so we lift weights a lot. We used all our muscles, but the door was just _______ bent and broke,” said Treyvon Adams.

As the players helped the woman out from her crashed car, Treyvon _______ the driver of the other vehicle to ensure his safety as well.

Meanwhile, inside the school, math teacher Luis Goya called 911 when he _______ the crash. Mr Goya later ________ with CNN, “We are very ________ of them. This is the kind of news that we ________. That is more positive.”

After the group of guys ________ in freeing the woman trapped in her car, they received significant ________ for their heroic act. But Treyvon said, “We’ve been ________ in a lot of different ways. We appreciate it, but I feel we just did the right thing.”

3 . I come from a long line of farmers. When my parents moved to Wisconsin, farming allowed them to _________ back to Laos, to the culture, and the land. Wisconsin’s cornfields _________ the rice fields of Laos. But for me as a child, farming was just a _________. I would be assigned (分配) a row of green beans. My mom _________ me a big basket and it was my _________ to fill it. That was how I spent my summer vacation _________ my friends were either at camp or doing other fun activities.

I didn’t _________ how farming brought hope to my parents until I was an adult. I am a _________ removed from Laos and I have found that farming allows me to _________ my parents’ story. It allows me to see a little bit into their story. What I’ve __________ from my mom is that you can grow just about anything. My mom wants to start growing __________ like she did back in Laos. With a snowy climate, it is something I never thought __________ here. To me, this shows resilience (适应力). Maybe it __________ and maybe it doesn’t. But there is __________ in that.

As a kid, I hated doing farm work and I never thought that someday I would say that I kind of __________ putting my feet in the mud and weeding (除草) the corn.

5 . I recently had a new workmate, who came to town from Colorado. She _______ with me her story.

Her family was in the process of _______ into their new home. During this time a lot of _______ was happening on their bank account. This sent a red flag to the bank. The bank _______ to call them but they were in the process of changing phones, so the bank put a stop on their account. My new workmate, not _______ this, went shopping.

After going to the register they were _______ to see their method of payment was stopped. No cash, and no _______to get cash, they were not sure what to do. At this time, without asking any questions, the lady in front of them placed her card in the machine and _______ their groceries. They tried to get her name to repay her. _______ , the lady just smiled, saying: “Don’t ________ it.” Then she wished them a nice day and ________ the store.

Two weeks later my new workmate ________ her little boy out for his birthday. They went to a Mexican ________ . After being seated, their waitress came up to their ________ . It was the kind smiling lady who had paid for their groceries! They all had a big ________ and for a tip? Yes — the amount of cash she paid for their groceries plus much more than her 20 per cent, a new friend!

6 . A world of pure thought

Stephen Hawking was one of the most famous and gifted ________ in physics. Most people are familiar with images of him ________ his wheelchair, unable to move and using a computer to talk. Since he came down with a disease which caused him to________ the use of most of his muscles, his world became one of abstract thought.

Hawking first achieved fame when he was still healthy enough to walk, __________ a graduate student in physics at Cambridge University in 1964. In general, there were two main ________on the origin of the universe. The first was the steady state theory, __________holds that the universe has no beginning or end. The other was the big bang theory, which holds that the universe began at a single point in time and ________. The biggest champion of the steady state concept was Fred Hoyle, a professor at Cambridge. During the question and answer period ________ one of Hoyle’s lectures, Hawking stood up and ________that Hoyle had made a mistake in his ________. Once the maths was corrected, it showed that the big bang theory — and not the steady state theory — was __________. Hawking’s own work on the big bang theory was soon proven by astronomers with telescopes.

A star was born. So, what made Stephen Hawking a genius? _________being brilliant, he was brave, though sometimes careless in what he said or did. He was ________to say what others were afraid to say, and to dream of what others were afraid to dream about. ________, he was quite determined. This had helped him as a scientist, and had helped him even more in his fight ________ his disease. Above all, Hawking was willing to admit his faults. This odd combination of characteristics had made him one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

8 . Today’s birthday gift was to my friend Oscar in Portland who is unhoused. I got him a $50 Kroger _______ so that he can buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Oscar and I have been talking a lot about his health and how important _______ is. It’s really _______ for Oscar to get good food. Most of what is _______ to him are not fresh foods. As he has an immune (免疫的) disease, these kinds of foods are really making it _______. Now that spring is here, _______, he can get fresher produce.

I _______ him to the book called Fiber Fueled. After reading it, I started learning to make meals just from plants. The more I learn about plant-fueled eating, the better I feel about this decision. And this book is specifically about _______ the body’s capacity to cure itself. So my friend _______ the book from the library and it will come in soon. He wants to learn about this too since he has serious immune issues. That’s how he lost his job and then his ________.

I want him to ________, and find a job and a home again. And I won’t stop helping him until that ________. Once my social security checks come in, I plan to make sure he gets Kroger cards every time I get paid so that he has plenty of fresh produce.

Oscar’s page on Twitter is @MyHomelessMeals. More than anything, he shows ________ for every single person who helps him on a daily ________. He always shares what we send if he can, too. He recently joined Service Space because he said their mission statement is ________ with his values. He’s quite an exceptional young man.

9 . For the first fourteen years of my life, I thought science was boring. As far as I could tell, science was a process of memorizing _______ : the order of the planets, the names of clouds, etc. So instead I spent all my spare time reading and writing, and decided to be a _______ when I grew up.

This all _______ in my first year of secondary school, when I met the periodic table(元素周期表) that I found amazing. In the next year, maths also became _______ . So now I had a _______ . I wasn't so interested in being a writer any more, and I _______ liked maths and science. However, in my school, all the best maths and science students _______ to be doctors; but I wasn't so excited about _______ things.

During this inner _______ , something else was going on: I was becoming interested in the ________ . This was mostly a ________ of peer (同辈) pressure. There was a cool group of students, who'd started an environmental club. Once a week, I ________ with them at club meetings, where we had long discussions.

I ________ to wonder if there was a career path which ________ the environment with maths and science. Then, one day I was chosen to ________ a climate change conference. The first ________ was called "The Science of Climate Change". The speaker talked about many different things and all of them were ________ . It slowly occurred to me that the job called "scientist" basically ________ you could study whatever you found interesting, and get paid to do so. "Right then." I thought. "I'll be a scientist."

Eleven years later. 1 ended up studying a part of the climate system. ________ is full of creativity and solving mysteries. My work is always changing and ________ . and I never get bored.

10 . During a term of online learning, teachers in America had done their best to keep students motivated during the COVID-19 pandemic. And students are now_______the favor by surprising teachers with messages of gratitude(感谢).

“I wanted my professors to know they were_______for all the hard work they do and all the _______ words they say,” Faith Williams, a student at a university said. “This teacher-appreciation action kept _______on my TikTok, and in each video teachers broke down in front of their students, which was really _______,” she said. Williams’s own video surprised her professor Michael Rapp, gained immediate_______from viewers and received numerous comments. “Rapp really touches his students’ lives and has great _______across campus. You can tell by the_______on my TikTok that many students love the caring and warm professor,” she added.

Williams explained that she organized her surprise via a mass email to her classmates,_______them to make their own signs and________them when to show them off. As seen in the video, it was________timed with the professor saying goodbye to the class as the academic term________.

“You’ll always be able to find me and I’ll always be there if________. Good luck with everything in your life,” Rapp said________,before going speechless at the________of the signs. “Thank you, ” he said with tears in his eyes. “Sorry if I got a little________right there, but thank you so much. I hope I had as much of________on you as you just did right here for me...That’s something that I will definitely________forever.”

Numerous educators________these teacher-appreciation videos displayed the same________as Rapp. “I will never forget this. It was so comforting,” one educator said.