2 . In the dining room of my grandfather’s house stood a large clock. When I was a child, the old clock interested me very much. I was surprised at how the clock would chime (敲响) three times, six times or more, with a wonderful _______sound. I often _______ it instead of the _______ when I had meals. And always the clock stood like an old family _______, watching the family. I found the clock comforting and _________. Year after year, the clock became a part of my _______.

It was even more wonderful to me when my grandfather carefully wound that clock with a special key each day. The key was magic to me. It kept the clock running. It kept the clock chiming. How did it do that? I watched as my grandfather took the key from his pocket and opened the door in the old clock and used the key to wind it. He never let that clock wind down and stop. When I got a little older, he _______me how to open the door, and let me wind the clock myself. I remember the first time I did, I felt so _______.

After my grandfather passed away, every time I saw the clock, I couldn’t help _______. Never could I see ________again. The hands on the clock were ________. It stopped. I took the key with my shaking hand and opened the door. All of a sudden, I was a child again, ________my grandfather. He was there,________me. I stood there, lost in the memories. Then ________ and carefully, I wound the clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock… The dining room and the ________ seemed to be filled with life. In the image of the clock, my grandfather also lived again.

4 . A few years ago, I walked into Panera and placed my order. After I paid and filled my plastic cup with water, I walked further into the cafe. As I sat down, I ________ an older man eating his soup alone. The chair in his front was ________: he wasn’t saving the seat. He was genuinely eating all alone. As this fact settled in, a feeling of sadness began to ________ me. Why was he eating alone? Was he lonely?

This wasn’t the first time I’d felt ________ when spotting someone eating alone. I ________ assume they’re lonely and need someone to be there for them. For some reason, eating with others is the ________. Modern society has evolved to the point ________ most people do almost every activity together. If we’re getting lunch after class, we’d rather ________ to see if someone will come with us. But is it possible we just don’t want to appear lonely?

Many people are always ________ someone else, and that may make people think we always need someone with us to feel ________ about ourselves. But that’s not true. We can enjoy being alone— not everyone needs to be ________ surrounded by friends to be happy. And we shouldn’t be ________ to eat alone if that’s what we want to do.

I don’t think I’ll ever not get sad if I see someone eating alone, but I’ll ________ in mind that maybe they just want a ________ from the world, or maybe they prefer it that way. It’s important to ________ seeing someone doing something alone doesn’t always mean they’re lonely.

5 . In February 2020, Max’s friend Rick was diagnosed with cancer. Max _________ Rick during the last month of his life, thus becoming _________ of the care provided to his friend by North Devon Hospice. “The hospital took such good care of him that I wanted to do something to show my _________,” says Max.

Max _________ a fundraising mission in March 2020. When Max first put up a tent in the yard of his house, he was 10 years old and had just _________ his friend Rick. “Before my friend died of cancer, he gave me a tent and told me to ‘have an adventure’,” says Max.

Through a years-long campaign, he became known as “The Boy in the Tent” and _________ more than £700,000 in 2023. Such a _________ allowed the hospital to _________ around 500 patients in their own homes, helping them face the _________ of an illness like cancer.

When he recalls his __________ experiences. Max says that he won’t __________ a single thing about the past three years. It’s easy to imagine, however, the past years weren’t free of __________ for Max: from collapsed tents to keeping warm throughout storms and snowy nights.

Max faced everything with his positive attitude and goal-driven mind. “One time my tent collapsed in the wind and rain at about 10:00 pm and I __________ to put it up again,” he says. “Despite all, I never regret it. I __________ love my one-of-a-kind adventure and I believe Rick would enjoy it as well if he were __________.”

6 . The rangoli (印度传统地画艺术) was a giant good-luck charm. Grandma used to make one for the start of the new year. First, she would draw on the floor with chalk. Then, she would fill the drawing with uncooked _________ rice.

This year, Manju was old enough to help. He _________ paper into a cone (圆锥体) and filled it with rice. Side by side, he placed rice across the drawing together with Grandma. Sometimes his rice skittered (轻快地跑跳) outside the drawing; sometimes he used the   _________ color. And sometimes he rubbed away the _______, so Grandma had to redraw it. But _________, the bright swirls of rice were transformed into a beautiful peacock. When Manju admired the peacock, he _______ a small piece of tile(瓷砖) peeking through on Grandma’s side.

A _________? But Grandma was away to answer the telephone. Should he fix it?

“I’ll surprise Grandma!” He decided. He _________ across, trying to reach the gap. Almost. His left leg inched up. There! Suddenly, Manju began to _________. His proud smile vanished. “No!” He crashed down on to the rangoli, scattering rice ____________.

Manju rose to his feet and pushed the rice back. But the colors were __________.When Grandma came back, Manju   __________. He said, “I’m sorry. I should have waited for you.” Grandma shook her head. “You saw a __________ and tried to fix it. I’m proud of you.” They picked up the rice, __________ each grain by color.

Just before nightfall, they finished fixing the rangoli.

Grandma lit candles around the rangoli. In the flickering light, the peacock seemed __________ with mystical powers. Manju smiled. The new year felt full of good luck, thanks to Grandma and him.

7 . When I was 19, I was in a really bad car accident. I woke up with a severe _________ injury and I learned that my IQ had dropped. Worse still, I had to _________ from college, and people said to me, “You’re not going to finish college. There are other things for you to do, but that’s not going to work out for you.” I had identified with being smart, and had been called _________ as a child. Having my _________ taken from me, I felt entirely _________.

I worked and worked, and _________ graduated from college, which took me four years longer than others. After that, I applied to a graduate program and _________ someone, my advisor Susan to take me on, and so I _________ at Princeton. I still felt I was not supposed to be there. The night before my first-year _________ I was so afraid that I called her and said, “I’m __________.” She said, “You’re going to stay, and this is what you’re going to do. You are going to __________ it and do every lecture that you ever get asked to do, even if you’re __________ until you have this moment where you say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m doing it. I have become this.’”

So that’s what I did. I spent five years in graduate school and got my __________. Now I am a public speaker. I realized that I had not just faked it till I made it, I had faked it till I became it. Our __________ can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our __________.

9 . High school students have a lot more power than they may realize.

Belscher saw a dollar on the floor when having his English class. When the school day_______,Belscher walked back to the classroom. He could easily have_______it, for the wrinkled (皱巴巴的) bill was still there._________, he brought the old bill to his English teacher — Mattison.

Mattison was a little_______he'd turned in the dollar, knowing a lot of people would have just kept it. She_______that Belscher taped (贴) it to the whiteboard, where she always put lost things.

A day or two later, the school close down for the Easter_______. Neither the teacher nor her students thought twice about the dollar. After school, a boy named Tom noticed the dollar on the whiteboard. "There was a_______to it," Tom said. He asked Mattison why it was there. She replied, “I don't know." Then Tom_______a second dollar.

The_______of the two dollar bills side by side triggered (触发) something in Mattison's students.They started asking about the purpose of the money, to which Mattison always gave the________answer: She didn't know.

However, the students, among themselves, decided and understood Mattison had some good________final plan and goal. So, they wanted to be part of whatever this was. They dug into their savings (动用储蓄) and the amount continued to grow. As for the________dollar, the person who lost it never came looking for it.

That left Mattison to make the best decision. She thought of her brother-in-law, Jack Hains, who had died of ALS, a ________and deadly disease. His sister died of the same condition. Mattison asked the teens whether they________if they donated (捐赠) the money. Their answer was that they definitely didn't. Then, they________peeled (剥开)the cash off the board and made the donation to the ALS Institute established to find a cure for the disease.