1 . One Saturday morning my brother and I went to play tennis near a school building. Actually, we played very well and we were ______ the ball higher and faster each time.

Suddenly, something ______ happened — the ball got out of ______ and went crashing through one of the upstairs windows. We looked around and no one was in ______.

I asked my brother ______, “ Now what should we do?” “ Well,” my brother ______, “no one will know whose ball it is and no one saw us. Let’s go home.” I ______ after a brief hesitation.

As soon as we arrived home, we told our father what had happened. We thought we were lucky and wise. However, his response was ______ to our expectation. “ Well, I will go to the school janitor (门卫) and see what we need to do.” And then he left immediately.

We were waiting at home, ______ and uneasy. About an hour later, our father ______. “ Well, I talked to the school janitor and he was ______ when I told him what had happened. He said many windows had been broken, but we were the first ones to ______ that we were responsible. He said the school budget ______ window repair, so we will not have to pay for the window.”

He could see our relief as he continued, “ I am proud of your kids for having the ______ to tell me what happened.”

From this incident, we discovered that admitting our mistakes and taking the ______ is always the right choice.

2 . My parents have a boxer dog called Boris which is as badly behaved as his name might suggest. He is known to ________ on a chair at the kitchen table expecting full ________. Whenever the dishwasher is being stacked, he likes to add a personal prewash to the ________.

Even my mother might ________ that Boris is the worst-behaved dog she has ever had, but on the plus side, he is very ________.

The sofas and chairs in their sitting room are covered in books-not because my parents love to read, but in an attempt to ________ the dog climbing on the furniture. ________, any human who wants to sit on a sofa has to ________ a library of books. I’ve suggested a removable cover would be more attractive, or training, but it’s too late for that.

The story between my parents and Boris is repeated across our community. Usually, our gang of dogs gathered almost daily, ________ did we. A group of folks of different ages, backgrounds and interests—all ________ by our dogs. Friends are therefore made through dogs, creating a ________ that lasts far beyond the lifespan of our canine(犬的)family. Sunny, Jess and Archie have all ________ now, but the friendship between us humans remains.

I have met so many people whose daily ________ with their group of dog have been their mainstay and helped them deal with ________. They are medicine for the_________. Dogs are actually man’s best friends.

3 . I was born in a small town in Montana, from the ages of four to fourteen, my years were spent hiking the beautiful Glacier National Park on weekends, and _______ the deer that would visit my backyard from time to time.

Though I loved my hometown, I wanted to _______ other places and experience what it’s like to live somewhere other than Montana. Usually people in a small town don’t want to _______, but not me. Therefore, the idea of moving away didn’t _______ me as it did others. It would be part of my “growing up” process. I was okay with it. _______ I thought I was.

I just had no idea it would be so soon. I would _______ moving nearly 2000 miles south to Texas to attend a new high school, where everything was _______ At the time, it felt like the   _______ thing I had ever done. I remembered sobbing to my parents that I didn’t want to leave Montana. I spent my whole life building up _______ but now I had to say goodbye. I had no idea how to ________ again. Finally came the day. It felt like we packed our entire life into our car,   ________ all the luggage into the car. We ________ our cat on our knees all the way ________ we reached Texas. ________ to this new environment was just as hard as I had imagined. I missed the quiet nights of my small town during many ________ nights. Montana occupied a ________ position in my heart for a long time. But ________, I loosened my tight grip (牵绊) on the place I used to call home. I realized that I needed to ________ in order to love and accept the new city I lived in.

The hard ________ has taught me that the pain of missing home will go away one day. We learn to meet different people and make different memories. To all those adjusting to a ________ environment, my message is-it will be okay.

4 . Mrs. June P. Garrett was my seventh-grade English teacher. Back in 1968, she had a major_________ on my life.

When I was in seventh grade, my father _________ me to play sports. Unfortunately, I did not have any of what might be called “_________ talent.” But I wanted to make my father _________, if not proud. So, I _________ the junior high school football team.

In the meantime, I _________ a post on the junior high school newspaper. I even created a parody (拙劣的模仿) advice column called “Dear Gertrude.”Mrs. Garrett, also the advisor for the newspaper, _________ my unconventional (非常规的) writing. One day, while grading a homework assignment, she wrote this short but _________ note: “You will make a living as a writer someday.”

From that point on, I _________ what I wanted to do with my life. In fact, in 8th grade, when it came time to write that “What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?” essay, I no longer wanted to be a doctor (which is what my four brothers all became). __________. I wrote these words:

Now my mind wanders to a __________ thought. To be a writer is my search.

I got a B+ on that paper, and my path in life was __________.

Soon I ________ playing football in 8th grade and focused the rest of my school years on __________ !

We all have talents. Fortunately, I had just the right teacher at just the right time to help me __________mine.

5 . It was a sunny afternoon in June of 2022 when Perry stepped off the train at Chicago’s station. Perry, who worked in a grocery store, was on his way to look at a _________ he was thinking about buying.

On the platform, two men were fighting. Then an _________ scene happened: A man fell onto the rail, hit by the electricity wire that powers Chicago’s trains and the other man _________. As Perry and other horrified onlookers watched, the man _________ as the current shot through his body, his head moving up and down.

“Help him!” a woman cried. “Please, someone!”

Perry couldn’t just stand there and watch. The guy looked _________. The train he’d just gotten off was idling (低速运转). Would it start up again? Putting his _________ in God, Perry reached down and grasped the victim’s wrist. _________, he felt a wave of electric shock shoot through his body, only to jump back. He reached down a second time and was shocked again. But the third time he _________ the man’s wrist, pulled quickly and _________ it.

The man was breathing weakly. __________ a professional, he had to work on the man’s heart until the victim came to life. Then medical workers and firefighters arrived. Perry let them __________. As planned, he went to look at the car he wanted to buy, but it had been sold.

The evening news reported the incident, praising an __________ hero for saving the victim’s life. After a friend outed him to the __________, Perry became famous. Just days after the incident, a local philanthropist (慈善家) __________ him with a car. Perry was then employed by the Chicago Fire Department.

Out of all the people on the platform that day, why was Perry the only one to help? As he saw it, he alone was not thinking about what harm might happen to him. “The word I’ll use is __________,” he said. “Belief over fear.”

6 . Yue–Sai Kan’ s autobiography, Be a Pioneer, was released after three years’making. Her father ever told her that she should always aim to be the ______ to walk on the moon ______ no one remembers the second. That has been a driving inspiration for her over the years.

In 1968, while studying at the Hawaii campus, Kan got a ______ to travel around the world. The life-changing experience marked the ______ of her career in fashion, beauty and cultural exchange. Since then, Kan has been ______ to bridging the cultural gap between East and West. In 1972, she moved to New York and ______ the weekly television series Looking East, the first of its kind to introduce Asian ______ to a growing US audience. It won dozens of ______ , making her one of the first TV journalists to ______ East and West. In 1986, Kan ______ China, producing and hosting the television series One World. It gives ______ a transformative glimpse of the outside world through her journeys to every corner of the globe. Her projects ______   the ABC documentary China: Walls and Bridges, earning her Emmy Award.

“I worked in China for almost 40 years. I was there to ______ and contribute to the country’s breakneck pace of change. This ______ experience has given me a unique vision, I believe what I do will ______ the world. ” says Kan.

7 . Andrew Powell was pulling envelopes from the large mailbox outside his contemporary house when he noticed something ______: A tiny doll couple were sitting on a love seat inside the mailbox. A small note was attached.

“We’ve decided to live here,” the ______ read. It was signed from Mary and Shelley. Andrew initially figured that somebody must have left them there ______ . So he asked the neighbors whether anybody had left ______ in his mailbox, and everyone said no. Soon, Andrew and his wife discovered that the small couple had ______ a tea table, a pretty carpet and a pillow.

Over the next few months, additional items mysteriously ______: a bed, a painting and a wood-burning stove, to name a few. For Christmas 2022, a decorated tree was left with tiny presents. But the gifts were taken back right after Christmas ______ Andrew could open the boxes to see if anything was inside.

More than a year later, Mary and Shelley are still living rent-free in the mailbox, to the delight of the neighbors who now ______ Andrew’s updates on the village’s website to check the ______. Andrew first posted about the tiny dolls on Aug. 21, 2022, hoping his fellow villagers might help solve the ______.

“It’s just somebody out there who is having some fun, giving us all a little community ______. But whoever is doing this is obviously very ______ and clever,” says Andrew’s next-door neighbor.

Andrew says he now doesn’t want to know who is ______ for the mail-box affair because he’s hoping it will continue. “Also, people in the neighborhood are ______ it and some ask if I’ve thought about installing an outdoor ______ , but personally, I like the mystery of it.”

8 . I used to procrastinate (拖延). Like many others, when developing and getting used to such a habit, I never realized how it had been _________ my life.

Several years ago, a neighbor kid kicked a football and broke a small basement window. I _________ it up then for lack of money, thinking I’d get to it someday.

Over the years, I had meant to upgrade (升级，改造) to _________ windows for the whole house, $15,000. It was simply _________ reach. In the meantime, the boarded window let in bugs but not light.

Honestly, the thought of that window _________ me for years. I knew I needed to fix it, but I had built up the process and the price so much in my mind that I was _________.

Then my wife had a job change, and we needed to move. I knew that it was impossible to find a _________ buyer if there was a broken window. So I pulled off the boards, took the window out and had it _________ downtown. It was a $12 fix. I could have _________ the problem for $12 the same day it happened. But I let it bother me for five years.

Actually, this isn’t really about my window. Many of us, especially those with ____________ or depression, tend to live with broken windows of one type or another for years. They are things that seriously affect our ____________ of life. If you ____________ yours, don’t hesitate to mend it. It may turn out to be ____________ than expected.

After I posted this story on Twitter, many ____________ their stories with me. One responded, “This reminded me of a statement, ‘We suffer more in imagination than in ____________’.”

Step forward and you’ll find a solution.

9 . Have you ever heard of and seen Canadian geese? Do you know that they __ fresh grass and seeds?

Canadian geese have a good __ for their politeness. They always bow down to you whenever you walk by. However, I have recently found that they can sometimes be __ to their peers, especially on occasions when they quarrel for food——yes, these __ gentlemen do quarrel, just for something to eat

Yesterday I witnessed two Canadian Geese arguing __ for a clump(草丛) of beautiful fresh grass. The clump was __ right in the middle of them, while the two were shouting noisily, stretching their necks as long as they could to look aggressively at each other. It’s __ to witness the “impolite” side of Canadian geese. Hence, I couldn’t help __ my morning walk, standing still to watch these “gentlemen” quarreling. Interestingly, after a short while, a truck roared past their feast, disturbing their __ conversation. The two geese were equally __ by the massive “monster”, thus giving up their conversation.

Would they start quarreling again? I stood still, __ the ridiculous question and waited. Beyond my expectation, right after the truck’s passing by, the two geese immediately lost their ___for quarreling as if they had forgotten all about what had happened. Even the two turned around and left the __ in opposite directions as if nothing had happened. They left only me there, imagining what might have happened without the __.

They got along harmoniously again. Sometimes it’s not that bad to be __.

10 . It was a very exciting day for us-the championship Little League game of the season. Two teams would be _________ it out one more time for the championship.

Ben, my husband, who had to stay in _________ for a grave disease, had coached the Little League team for the past two years. He had coached _________ undergoing many doses of chemotherapy (化疗) and many stays in the hospital, along with daily trips to the hospital for _________. Despite being worried and _________, he had continued to coach.

He taught the teams how to play the game and about good _________, fair play and physical fitness. He also taught his family and a _________ community how to fight a terrible disease with faith, _________, courage and dignity. He gave us all the courage to hope when all hope was lost. One famous _________ he loved was by Winston Churchill: “Never, never, never, never __________.”

Today, one __________ father, whose son was new to the team, came to the game with twenty five paper cups on which he had written different baseball __________: “Get a base hit”, “Catch that fly __________”, “Pop-Up”, “Bunt”. What fun it would be for each __________ to read a message on his cup after drinking his water.

The score was close; it was a(n) __________ game. In the fourth inning (回合), our son, Jared, also a player, pulled a cup out for his drink of water. __________ he ran from the bench over to me with the cup. Written on his cup were the words, “Never, never give up.” The news __________ fast among the players. Ben was there, __________ in spirit only. Needless to say, we won the game, and the very __________ now sits on a shelf next to Ben’s bed, who is recovering from his __________ day by day.