1 . Standing in front of the bike shop, Dave stared at the shiny red bicycle in the window. He could _______ himself riding the bike in Saturday’s race and winning the first-place medal and prize money. “With that bike, I could even beat Adam,” Dave thought.

He rode on and stopped at Peck’s clothing store. The coat he planned to buy his mother for her birthday was still on sale. Dave knew she would _______ buy it for herself. She worked hard just to make _______ meet. But the prize money would be enough for him to buy that coat and surprise her.

Dave looked at his old bike. Two years ago, he found some old bicycles at the _______ and used the parts to make one bike. He called it his recycled bike. “I’ll never _______ the race on this old bike,” Dave sighed.

As Dave passed the junkyard, he noticed a newer-looking bike tire. He started _______ the huge junk pile. Finally, he found what he was looking for. “These two tires and the handgrips (手把) are just _______ for my bike.”

Arriving home, Dave put the used tires and the handgrips on his _______ bike, and oiled the chained. He stood back and admired the _______ he had made. “I might win that race after all,” he said to himself.

The next morning, when Dave and his mom got to the park, about thirty kids had already __________. Dave headed for the start line __________ Mom found a seat at the finish line.

Bang! The riders rushed off. Dave __________ Adam, who was in the lead. He __________ to pass one rider after another and was approaching Adam. Leaning forward, Dave pedaled harder and faster. __________ he sped by Adam and crossed the finish line.

As the announcer awarded Dave the medal and the check for fifty dollars, he asked, “What are you going to do with the prize money, Dave?”

“It’s a __________ ,” Dave said and waved to his mom.

5 . A young man was walking by the lakeside when he suddenly saw a piece of gold glittering in the lake. He was so happy that he jumped into the _________ to look for it. But he couldn’t _________ it however hard he tried. Being wet, dirty and tired, he had to go ashore (上岸) for a _________.

Unexpectedly, after the water became _________, the gold appeared again.

He jumped into it again,_________ once again the gold disappeared. So he had to go ashore again to sit beside the _________. He thought, “Where on earth is the gold coin in the water? I have seen it _________, but how come it is that all the attempts were made without any success?” Driven by the _________ to get the gold, he searched the water again and again, but _________, which made him really unwilling to ______________.

At that moment, his father came to ______________ him. Seeing his son wet and dirty, he asked, “What ______________? Why do you look so ______________?”

His son answered, “I see a piece of gold coin in the water clearly, but I can't get it ______________!”

His father looked into the water and it seemed that a gold coin was on the peaceful water. Then he looked up at the tree nearby and said to his son, “You are ______________. Look! It's not a gold coin but the reflection of the metal ______________ on the tree.”

Ordinary people are always busy ______________ illusory (虚幻的) things and all these just result from hoping for ______________, which weakens our ability to ______________ right from wrong. So we should choose the right ______________ of life and learn to understand and thank everything, which will help us live a happy life.

7 . A friend of mine was sitting in the living room one day when his cat dragged in a little “gift” in its mouth — a dead animal of some sort. Taking a closer look, he was surprised to _______ it as the bunny that _______ Mary, the young daughter of the family next door. My friend felt _______, believing his cat had killed Mary’s bunny.

My quick-thinking friend came up with a plan. _______   from the cat’s mouth the dead animal, which by now was a _______   mess, he put it in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to _______ the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer and blow-dried the bunny _______ it looked pretty good.

Finally, under the cover of darkness, he crept into the next-door garden and placed it _______   in the cage. He managed to make the bunny look very _______   there in his little box.

The next morning, my friend looked out of the window and noticed a crowd of people ________ around the rabbit hutch. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. My friend ________ to go over and act like any normal ________ neighbor and find out what was going on.

When he got there, Mary’s mother said to my friend, “You won’t believe this! It’s a(n) ________ thing! Mary’s bunny ________   a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there...”

Have you ever tried to cover up one wrongdoing with another? Covering up only makes matters ________ .

When we get caught doing something ________ , for example, we may ________ to cover it up with a lie. But just like Mary’s bunny, the result is ________ what we expected. We ________ looking foolish. We would have been better off admitting we were wrong and accepting the ________ . What do you think of it?

8 . A little boy named Harry became very ill. He had to lie in bed all day, unable to move. He spent his days feeling _________ and blue.

There wasn’t much he could do except look out of the _________. Time passed, and his illness frustrated him. Until one day he saw a strange _________ in the window. It was a penguin eating a sausage sandwich. The penguin got in _________ the open window, and said “good afternoon” to Harry, turned around, and _________ quickly.   

Of course, Harry was very _________. He was still trying to work out what had happened. Outside his window he saw a monkey busy blowing up a balloon. At first Harry asked himself _________ that could possibly be, but after a while, as more and more crazy-looking _________ appeared outside the window, he couldn’t help_________ and found it hard to stop.

An elephant jumped on a stone, or a dog wore a pair of glasses and acted in a __________way. The little boy didn’t tell anyone about this. Those strange characters ended up putting joy back in his heart, and in his body. Before long, his health had __________ so much that he was able to go back to school again.

There he told his classmates all that he had __________. While he was talking to his best friend, he saw __________ coming out of his friend’s school bag. Harry asked his friend what it was, and he was so insistent (坚持) that __________ his friend had to show him what was in the bag.

There, inside, were all the things that his best friend had been using to try to __________ the little boy!

And from that day on, Harry always did his best to make sure that no one felt sad and alone.

9 . Have you seen people who take pictures of food for more than 10 minutes before eating? My friend Stella is such an example. Every time we went to a restaurant she would not take a bite until all the dishes we ________ were on the table. Then she would spend five minutes in ________ the dishes in a seemingly random but in fact ________ order. Then the most important part: taking pictures. After that, she would choose one of the ________ and click in the filter app. The food eventually looked 10 times more delicious than it really was, but we had no ________ to really enjoy it—it all went cold, actually Stella’s real life is much less elegant. For example, she hates to wash the dishes, so she leaves them in the sink for days.

Many people care too much about others’ opinions and try too hard to ________ others. They find it hard to be ________ and to accept themselves, and thus they are afraid to show their ________ life on social media. What they are trying to prove is ________ what they lack in reality. But this will not bring any ________ to reality, as they still ________ the same old pattern of life.

If they really want an elegant life, they should put more ________ into achieving it ________ fabricating it. Being more confident, ________ themselves and trying their best to be better are much more meaningful than ________ their life on social media.

10 . Daniel lived on top of the hill. From his house, he could see the sea and the _________ below. One day, the villagers _________ something different about the sea. The sea seemed to be moving from the land. _________ of the villagers knew what was happening.

Daniel understood what was going on. He had seen such a(n) _________ when he was young. A tsunami (海啸) was approaching and the villagers had to be _________, but there was no time to send a message to the whole village.

“Jack!” he _________ to his grandson. “ _________ a torch quickly!” The boy did what he was told. Daniel took the torch and set his _________ on fire. Immediately, red _________ shot upwards and thick smoke rose into the sky.

Jack cried out, “Grandfather! Why are you setting our house on fire?” Daniel did not answer. __________, he stood quietly and watched the village. Suddenly, some villagers noticed the __________ and shouted at everyone to run up the hill to help put out the fire. When Daniel saw everyone running towards him, he was so __________. The villagers did their best but they __________ to control the fire. Daniel’s house was completely burned down but he stood on the hill __________. They thought Daniel had gone __________. They stared at him in disbelief.

Finally, Daniel said, “__________ towards the sea.” The villagers turned and saw a huge __________ of water rushing towards the village. They were __________ to see the water swallowing the whole village and __________ everything in its path.

Nothing was left of their homes __________ everyone was safe on the hill. The villagers realized why Daniel had set fire to his house.