1 . Adam Wolfers believes that his son’s autism (自闭症) has a positive impact on his hobby of photography. 10-­year­-old Morgan has always possessed a _________ eye for capturing the world around him through his camera. Diagnosed (被诊断) with autism at the age of 3, Morgan has had a hard time _________ with others.

_________ these difficulties, he has shown an exceptional talent for noticing details that _________ others. Morgan has found clarity and focus in nature, particularly in the vivid colors and shapes of plants, leading him to _________ the art of nature photography.

Not _________ with merely capturing pictures, Morgan has even established his own photography business, becoming one of the top sellers in a local shop. _________, he donates ten percent of his _________ to support autistic artists through the Blue Ribbon Arts Initiative.

However, his motivation for photography _________ financial gain, as he simply wants to share the beauty he __________ with others. His work has gained __________, with one of his photos picked by National Geographic for __________ in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

His parents teared up as they told what his photography means. Morgan’s photography has become his saving grace (体面) because it gets people to look __________ his issues. “He’s going to make his __________,” his mother said.

Morgan advises all of us to try new things and explore our __________ and what we want to do. In other words, don’t be afraid to see things differently.

2 . It was snowing hard. Gus Kiebel, a county wildlife officer, was driving home from work when he ________ the pair in the flash of his headlights. The father-to-be scanned the roadside so that his struggling ________ might rest safely for the night. He looked over at her ________. They needed a warm ________ from the bitter wind.

Gus parked his truck and ________ the animals. He stretched out his hands to the beagles (比格犬), which made no effort to ________. Then he dialed the number from the dogs’ tags (标牌). A man answered and immediately grew ________ when Gus told him why he was calling. “I gave those dogs away,” the man said. “They’re not mine anymore.” Then he hung up.

Obviously, these beagles were ________. Then he brought the tired beagles home. As a boy, owning beagles had been his ________, but keeping this pair was out of the question now—the Kiebels already had a family dog. So he ________ the League for Animal Welfare to drop them off—on one ________. “I’m not signing the dogs over to you if you’re going to ________ them,” he said. The shelter workers promised him they’d keep the couple together.

In the following days, Gus phoned the shelter ________ to check up on them. Soon, the beagles were adopted as a pair, to a loving family. It’s a simple story, but it ________ the best of our nature. And when kindness weighs more than ________, it becomes the greatest miracle of all.

3 . On a fresh May morning, with my guitar in tow, I ventured down the road to a busy restaurant. I was about to _______ the fear that had held me hostage for 35 years.

As I reflect upon my childhood, I’m _______ of a kind, sensitive kid with long-term struggles. But there was one bright spot in my life: I loved singing and playing the guitar. It was my grandmother, Peg, who _______ a flame within me, kindling an unyielding love for _______ in me. But then, in the blink of an eye that joy was _______.

I was 10 years old and our entire fourth grade was in _______ for our annual choir concert. The substitute choir teacher had _______ me with a solo in the concert’s finale (终曲): “76 Trombones” from The Music Man. But each time my solo _______ , terror kept a firm hold of my voice. The teacher rushed to me, “You’re wasting all of our time. Let someone else sing.” Since then I hadn’t sung in _______ again for 35 years.

The broad road in front of the busy restaurant was filled with people. I pulled out my guitar. As I ________ the first chord, I heard a voice in my head: “You are going to ________ yourself like never before.” But I gathered the courage, and ________ a cascade (瀑布) of songs that had built up inside of me for 35 years. ________ my voice wasn’t beautiful, my passion and excitement won over the crowd. Afterward, I felt a wave of pride, ________, and happiness coursing through my veins (静脉). Eventually, I ________ myself from the clutches of fear and reclaimed the stolen joy.

4 . After my mother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease(阿尔茨海默病), the plants in our house began to die. In years past, I remember the deep, earthy smell that would ________ in our house after my mother had made her weekly watering rounds. Back then, I never connected it with the care that was at the ________ of everything she did.

But now, leaves were ________ , some dry and edged with brown, and many of the stems(茎) bare. It was a mark of how my mother can no longer attend to all the things that she lovingly cared for. I was so focused on the increasing ________ of her own care that her beloved plants had escaped my ________ .

I began her old rounds, pouring water into the thirsty soil, and soon the plants ________ . That’s the thing about houseplants: They demand nothing. They wait quietly, no matter how ________ they are. But even after my best ________, some of the plants couldn’t survive. My mother’s kind caregivers have since brought new ones to add to her ________ , and my father buys fresh flowers every week.

Though Alzheimer’s disease ________ so much of her memory, her desire to care is still there. I would guide her down the steps to water the plants herself. I watched as her shaking hands picked the brown leaves. Each time, she smiled up at me with ________ satisfaction because being able to ________ something is still, what brings her the greatest joy.

I look at plants ________ these days. I see them as my mother does:________ reminders of the need for kindness toward all living things. It is clear to me that the things we spend a lifetime ________ are never truly lost and the love she has planted in me still blooms(开花).

5 . This world is not really peaceful. The heartbroken scenes in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine are _________ day by day. I cannot help thinking about my unique family situation. I am the father of two adopted boys, one from Russia and the other from Ukraine, and I _________ them when they were very little.

Young men now, each _________ his way in life, but they still carry a strong _________ of their origins, although Alyosha less so than Anton. While Alyosha does not often _________ the land of his Russian birth, Anton’s feelings for Ukraine run deep: When Crimea (克里米亚)joined Russia in 2014, Anton was 17．

I’m grateful that _________ the conflict, they behave as if their _________ is one of blood.

In addition to _________, another word comes to mind: absence. I often see crowded _______ of mothers and children everywhere, huddled (蜷缩)in dark and __________ spaces on the news now. But my boys aren’t there. I also often see children crying as they hug tightly fathers who must __________ themselves to wars. But my sons are here, and I am available to them.

Especially, in these __________ times, when it is easy to draw battle lines and take __________, events have, instead, pushed my sons __________ together. Staring at them, I realize that I am not looking at a Russian and a Ukrainian; I am looking at two people who love each other so much that doing the other __________ is unthinkable.

6 . A happy-sad state can be as confusing to people as to psychologists. This is not about “smiling depression” where someone feels emotional pain, but_________those feelings with a happy face. Rather, it’s _________ experiencing those two _________ emotions at once.

When Jeff Larsen, a psychology professor, simply asks people if it’s_________to feel such mixed emotions, most people immediately say “yes” showing how_________the experience is. But Larsen takes a more_________approach.In his experiments, he asked people to watch a clip (电影片段) from a bittersweet movie and press one button if they felt_________another if they felt happy,or_________at the same time if they felt both emotions at once.It_________about half pressed both happy and sad buttons at once, __________not for very long.Larsen__________the experience is rare, but possible.

Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos__________it’s possible for people to feel both positive and negative emotions at once. Situations that often__________a happy-sad state include bittersweet events like__________or a move to a new city for a job--situations when you’re sad about__________, but happy about new opportunities, she noted. Endings that are also beginnings make these emotionally-rich events, Larsen added.

7 . At 95, Brigid Kavanagh finally realized her longtime dream. Yet, her path to having her words put into ________ wasn’t easy, and required belief in the ability that her teachers had first ________ tens of years before.

Kavanagh’s sons ________ Kavanagh to publish her book. They were doing a clear-up and ________ to find many poems and stories written by their mother. They collected them in a book and had 500 copies of it printed.

Kavanagh ________ to get some work published in her 80s. However, the publication this time is a great success. “I’m ________. I just can’t believe it. After my failure in the 80s, I thought I was ________,” she said.

The senior shared with the media that she’s always found it ________ to express herself on paper — a gift that got ________ in her schooldays. “When I was in primary school, my teachers would speak highly of my ________…I think it would be great if they could see my ________.” While they may no longer be there to see what became of their former ________, the book, which is made up of Kavanagh’s rich memoirs (回忆录), will let the readers know what she ________.

While there are only a limited number of ________, the real success of the publication is seeing a family coming together to help their mother, and an elderly woman’s satisfaction in seeing her words ________ in print for all to enjoy.

8 . Today I am working with Simon for starting a mobile repairing shop. His _______ made me think of the day he joined us as a participant under Naya Savera, a skill-building program for different _______ .

My _______ stretches back very easily. When I first looked at him during selection interview we conducted for _______ the participants, I wondered how I was going to _______ this person who could not even walk on his feet.

Simon has a serious problem in both his legs and to reach from one place to another he has to depend on a wheelchair. I didn’t take him _______ at first, but something changed when we started _______ with him.

He made us laugh with all his funny stories, and made us cry by sharing his _______ to live normally. It is a _______ that people underestimate him and look down on his ________ to become a successful person. By the time interview was over, we were all looking at him with ________ and wondered who interviewed whom as most of the time he was the one ________ questions.

Needless to say he was ________ for the training program and also completed the program with ease. He was one of the participants who never missed even a single day of ________. He was one of the highest scorers in exams held on completion of the training program. He ________ everyone with his positivity and attitude.

9 . It was 1:20 a.m. I had just gone to bed, a bit _________ after celebrating my 31^st birthday. Before dinner, I’d placed _________ outside my garden door and prepared the cell phone just _________. After all, it had been _________ that week, resulting in flood warnings.

I was awakened by the _________ of rushing water. When I swung my legs off the bed, I was shocked to feel cold water already up to my knees and _________ fast.

Shaking in darkness, I _________ my phone and turned on its flashlight. Then by the light I could _________ water was from the garden door. It must have breached (在……上打开缺口) the sandbags. The river, usually such a quiet, slow moving river in my region, had _________ burst its banks. And now I had to __________!

I took __________ action. Any effects of the alcohol before sleep were gone; __________ sobers (使清醒) me up. After I went outside, I learned the river had flooded the neighbourhood. Therefore, if I had woken up just a few minutes later, I would have drowned.

In the end, I think the experience made me __________ and determined to live each day to its fullest. I came very close to drowning that day. But rather than dwell on (沉湎于) what happened, I prefer to __________ what my mother told me afterwards, “Don’t remember the day when you lost everything. Remember the day you __________. That day marked the beginning of a new chapter in your life.”

10 . As a child, I’d spent entire afternoons _______ new worlds in my mind and giving life to _______ in my stories I wished could be my friends. I’d written myself into my favorite stories so I could be part of them. Writing was a part of me; it was who I was.

However, in high school I _______ with writer’s block. By the time I was in college, I’d stopped writing entirely, _______ the dream remained. I wanted to ___________ a novel one day. It was then that I read an interview with the Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb. She said she’d go crazy if she didn’ t write; she needed to do it to stay _______. Her words made me feel _______. She was telling me that I wasn’t really a writer.

Or so I thought. I tried again, and it was like feeling the sun on my skin, or hearing snow lightly fall. I hadn’t realized it, but I hadn’t really been happy until I     _______ my pen again. Writing was in my blood after all.

Finally, half-hours _______ to writing stretched into hours. Before, I had been upset all the time because I didn’t advance my writing projects. Now, every day was a step forward, and I was ________ with it.

One day, I was reading a story in a library. ________, an idea hit me that I wanted to submit (提交) a few stories. I didn’t do it in the hopes they would get published.

And then, something ________ happened. The first story I submitted was chosen for publication! When I got the e-mail, I was wild with joy and ________ around my kitchen table.

That moment ________ me that I must keep writing — not because I’ll go ________，but because I want to keep being crazily happy like that.