1 . Pets are always part of a family. Pets and kids who grow up together have very close _________. This is especially true in the case of 9-year-old Milly Kukuczka, whose beloved dog Bella _________ shortly before Christmas in 2022. The girl was _________ but she turned her sadness into a labor of love for _________ animals.

This year, when Milly’s parents asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she went to her room to prepare her _________. To her parents’ surprise, _________ toys for herself, Milly gave her parents a flier (小广告传单) she made for a pet drive to collect toys and treats for pets without forever _________. All she wanted was to hold a pet drive, so all pets could have a toy for Christmas.

The Kukuczka family _________ Bella before Milly was born. The dog was Milly’s _________ and her best friend. Milly’s mom said that they were always side by side, and she wanted to do everything with Bella. But Bella was diagnosed with cancer around a year before she died. It was difficult for the entire family, especially for Milly. Now, this young girl wants to keep her love for Bella __________ by helping other pets.

Milly’s parents were all onboard to help their daughter organize the pet drive. They __________ out to the Dumb Friends League in Denver where the family chose their cats and __________ the pet drive on social media. The response was very __________. There are 50 toys there already and they have boxes of treats and cat scratchers (抓扒工具).

Milly is __________ the pet Father Christmas and she will deliver the __________ to shelter animals at the Dumb Friends League just in time for Christmas.

2 . Once there lived a farmer in a small town. He made a living by ______ butter. Every day, his neighbour, a baker (糕点师), would buy a pound (磅) of butter. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see ______ he was getting a pound. After the baker weighed it, he found that he wasn’t. ______ the baker took the farmer to the judge. The judge asked the ______ if he had any way to weigh the butter. The farmer ______, “I am so poor that I do not have enough money to buy ______ to weigh it, but I do have a kind of scale (天平) .” The judge asked, “Then ______ do you weigh the butter?” The farmer answered, “______ the baker started buying butter from me. I had bought a pound of ______ from him. So now every time I bring home the bread from the baker, I put it ______ the scale and give him the butter of the______ weight.”

Dishonesty can become a bad habit. Some people who are not ______ can lie without a red face. Those ______ lie so much do not even know what the truth is any more. But who is it bad for? As a matter of fact, they will hurt themselves by ______ own dishonest behaviour.

We ______ what we give to others in life. Whenever you take action, ask yourself this question, “Am I honest?”

3 . My father once told me some advice. “The advice,” he said, “was that if after the first 50 pages of a book you don’t get _________, you’re allowed to cease reading and _________ again later when you feel ready for it.”

A reader, he suggested, needs a little _________ to adapt to a book’s _________ tone, rhythm and voice. But at the same time, this advice gives a person permission to _________ reading. Nobody needs to _________ themselves to finish reading a book they’re not interested in. I _________ like the gentle suggestion to return to a book “when you feel ready for it”. It’s a(n) _________ that reading is a kind of relationship with yourself and that this relationship is not _________.

I like to think my father’s readerly advice can be __________ in life more generally. Give things a fair __________; don’t judge too hurriedly. It’s helped me when confronted with common landscapes, unanticipated __________ and awkward social situations. Resisting the __________ to escape or to complain, has meant I’ve come to __________ the particular charm of a wide variety of places and personalities. Besides, when something doesn’t feel right, don’t be afraid to quit it, __________ for the time being.

4 . I came to the sport of triathlons late in life. I spent years accompanying my super-fit brother to triathlons and waiting for him on the hot sidelines while he swam, biked and ran for hours. Then a light bulb turned on in my brain. I could _________, too, instead of suffering intense _______.

Starting with what I knew best, I began swimming. I swam up and down, _________ my54-year-old body that my skills haven’t _________. Thankfully, muscle memory was _________, leaving me confident for the first session. For the bike part, cycling wasn’t as enjoyable as I remembered, but I didn’t _________. Tough as it was, all I cared about was finishing the ride. To exercise for the run, I joined a running group. In the beginning, I could merely run 3 miles, but I kept moving forward. I could _________ achieve the goal in a couple of months. Still, I remained rather _________. How would I swim 1.2miles, bike 56 miles and then run 13.1 miles in one day?

When I carefully _________ my crazy idea to my brother, he jumped on board immediately. The final __________ was painful and the big day eventually arrived this summer. At first, I finished swimming a few minutes ahead of my brother. However, I __________ during the bike ride. After about 22 miles, I stopped, got off my bike and __________, “I think I’m going to quit.”

“You know you won’t let yourself do that”, he replied. __________, I got back and slowly pedaled (蹬车) to the end. The run was more like a walk. My brother chose to stay with me. The sun burning, we talked, laughed and waved to the __________. We crossed the finish line together, and a great cheer went up from the crowd. It was a (n) __________ experience for me.

7 . I was driving down the highway, enjoying the freedom of the open road when suddenly, I heard a loud noise. My car shook _______, and I knew something was wrong.

I carefully _______ to the side of the road, as far away from the traffic as possible. I got out of the car and looked at the damage, with a rising sense of fear. The tire(轮胎) was completely flat, and I had no _______. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no one to help.

I tried to flag down passing cars, but no one seemed to notice me. They drove past me at high speed, as if I were _______. I began to feel frustrated and _______.

As the sun started to set, my _______ turned to despair. I felt like I was stranded(滞留) in the middle of nowhere, with no hope of _______. I thought about how long it would take for someone to notice me, and how dangerous it was to be stranded on the side of the road at night. I felt _______ forcing their way out of the corners of my eyes, but I tried my best to hold them back.

Just when I was about to give up, I heard a car _______. I tried to flag it down, but it seemed to be about to speed past me. I felt my heart ________, but to my surprise, the car slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. A tall man got out of the car, and I felt a sense of ________ wash over me.

As expected, the man helped ________ the flat tire with his spare one. Before I expressed my gratitude, he ________ into the night. What a silent but warm-hearted ________. The road might be challenging, but the ________ of the stranger lit it up.

9 . When she first encountered it, it seemed more like a Western-style dragon than a Chinese one, a(n) ________ to run away from rather than a friend to be embraced. That dragon was the Chinese language, and the person staring into its ________ eyes was a young Uzbek woman, Dilsora. It was 2005 and Dilsora was studying in Tashkent. Her ________ was journalism and Chinese, a language stream her teacher had strongly ________ to her.

Before heading off to college, Dilsora caught an interview on TV ________ an Uzbek student who had studied in China. “At the time I couldn’t figure out how one could ________ such a difficult language. Little did I know that this language would be my future major in college.” she recalled. “Then, when I started studying it I found it ________ difficult, ________ of considering throwing it away and studying another language.”

However, as with many a dragon story, there is a ________ in the tail, and Dilsora’s despair ________ noble principles. As time passed by, Dilsora’s sense of devotion has paid off for her in astonishing ways. Since then Dilsora has ________ master’s and doctoral degrees at Chinese University and is now a teacher at Minzu University of China in Beijing, teaching Uzbek to Chinese students. ________, Dilsora has answered another high calling: ________ Chinese works into Uzbek, including books the Chinese president has written. The Uzbek edition of Xi’s book on poverty ________, Up and Out of Poverty, published last year, was translated by Dilsora. This book reflects Xi’s ________ for the people and the lofty (崇高的) pursuits of the Communist Party of China, she said.