1 . While I was riding a bike, I noticed a man about half a mile in front of me. He was traveling at a lower speed, so I decided to _________ him. I had about a mile to go on the road before turning off.

So I started _________ faster and faster. And every block, I was gaining on him just a little bit but just within minutes I was about 50 meters behind him. Finally, I _________ him and passed him by. I felt like a _________, while he seemed unaware that we were even in a _________.

After passing him, I realized that I had been so _________ to compete against him that I had _________ my turn, had gone nearly six blocks past it and had to turn around.

Isn’t that what _________ in life? We spend most of our time _________ with neighbors, friends and family, trying to ____________ them, or trying to be in front of them – while we are ____________ in the race with them.

We use most of our time and energy in competitions, where we miss out on our own paths to our destination as a result. Unhealthy competition is a continuous process, a ____________ cycle. No matter what you do, there will be someone ____________ you: someone with a better job, a nicer car and more money.

So just feel grateful for what life has offered you. Stay concentrated on your ____________, and live a healthy life. There’s no competition in destiny. ____________ your own race and wish others well!

2 . The four people have persuaded companies to give them £250,000 worth of toys and food — for nothing. And next Monday, they are going to _________ them to every house across north London. David Goodfellow and his three friends, Benny Crane, James Hunter and Callum Teach, call themselves “The Kindness Offensive”. They specialize in _________ random acts of kindness for total _________.

According to them, it is remarkably easy to get toys and food to _________, if you persist. “You simply phone _________ manufacturers to see if they are willing to donate something,” Mr. Goodfellow explains. “Our phone bills are enormous, but _________ you meet someone kind and nice.”

The four friends _________ their work together a year ago. “At first, most people deeply doubted it,” said Mr. Crane, a musician. “They didn’t think we’d _________ our promises.” But the group soon learned how to do it properly and convince people of their good _________.

Their first successful “kindness act” was to help __________ a boy’s dream of watching a football match and, last October, they gave free food to __________ seekers. “We’ve met people struggling just to live,” said Mr. Hunter. “They __________ want to contribute to society but they can’t work and they don’t find it easy even to buy food.”

The Kindness Offensive tries to __________ media exposure (接触媒体) but they would like to see more people performing kind deeds for one another. “What I’ve learnt is that __________ is influential,” David’s father said, “__________ you do good deeds, you’ll get a lot out of it and others will follow.”

6 . A beautiful mistake made six years ago has turned into a family’s holiday tradition. A grandmother mistakenly ______ a stranger to attend the family's Thanksgiving dinner and ended up making a ______ . Now the two people have ______ the holiday together every year since. This year is no exception.

In 2018, Wanda Dench tried to text her grandson about the family’s Thanksgiving dinner plans, but she added a stranger to the message ______ . Jamal Hinton received the holiday text and jokingly accepted her ______ .

“You’re not my grandma,” Hinton wrote back, including a selfie (自拍照) to ______ he was not her grandson. “Can I still get a plate though?”

Dench, the ever ______ grandmother, answered, “Of course you can. That’s what Grandmas always do— ______ everyone.” Hinton posted about the funny mix-up and it went viral (疯传) . And on Thanksgiving day, he ______ drove from New York to Washington to ______ the Dench family for the holiday. And every year since, Hinton and Dench have got together for the holiday.

In 2022, he informed followers of some sad news that Dench’s husband, Lonnie, had died from COVID-19. So last Thanksgiving, ______ . Lonnie, the family had a small ______ the day after the holiday. They were keeping the ______ alive .

This year, Hinton tweeted, “We are all set for year six!” ______ a screenshot (截图) of their text exchange as usual. Dench’s name is saved in his phone as “Grandma Wanda”. The story of ______ went viral again—spreading some holiday cheer on social media.

7 . In Europe, men do not usually wear skirts. But the Scottish national costume for men is a kind of skirt. It is called a kilt. The Scottish like to be _________. They are proud of their country and its _________ as it is part of the history. That’s why the men still wear kilts at old-style dances and on national holidays. They believe they are wearing the same clothes as Scottish men always used to wear.

That’s what they believe. _________, kilts are not really so old. Before 1730, Scottish men wore a long shirt and a _________ around their shoulders. These clothes got _________ the way when the men started to work in _________. So, in 1730 a factory owner changed the blanket into a skirt: the kilt. That’s how the first kilt was made.

Then, in the late 1700s Scottish soldiers in the _________ Army began to wear kilts to be different from the English soldiers. The Scottish soldiers _________ very hard and became famous. The kilt was part of that fame, and in the early 1800s men all round Scotland began to wear kilts.

These kilts had colorful and _________ stripes (条纹) going up and down and across. In the 1700s and early1800s, the colour of the stripes had no __________ meaning. But later the colours became important to the Scottish families. Most families had their own colours for their kilts. __________, each family just chose the __________ they liked best.

This is not the __________ you will hear today if you are in Scotland. Most Scottish people still __________ that kilts are as old as Scotland and that the colours are also as old as the Scottish families. Sometimes feelings are stronger than __________!

8 . On a cold December morning, my mother and I were walking home from a pizza store. We were dressed warmly and equipped with the video we had been dying to watch. I was feeling a little _________, as I was carrying our shopping bags of snacks and the video.

They were so heavy that I decided to _________ some things. So I started to walk towards the garbage can when I noticed a poor man walking his bike out of the restaurant in front of us. Holding a paper bag in his dirty hand, he _________ over to another nearby garbage can and started _________ it.

I suddenly felt very _________. I knew this man would take all he could get, _________ I walked up to him and _________ the drink and some snacks over to him. The man, with lines on his face and wrinkles on his forehead, looked up in _________ and took what I gave him.

A huge smile _________ across his face and this caused me to feel indescribable __________. I felt like I couldn’t be happier with myself, but then he said, “Wow, first someone gives me this sandwich, then this drink, and now some __________ food; this is my daughter’s lucky day!”

He thanked me happily and started off on his bike. I __________ heard him whistling a song as he rode away.

I now understand what is meant by the saying “giving is getting”. Everyone in the world needs help, everyone can __________ help and everyone will be helped by others’ __________.

The image of that man’s happiness caused by my small gift appears in mind every time I have the __________ to do something nice.

9 . It was a Saturday night. I circled the neighborhood a few times, looking for a place to ________ my car. Finally, I found one, which was behind a late-model Jeep. I tried to back into the space, but ________ see the angles ________. I heard it before I felt it, the sound of plastic on plastic. I got out of my car to ________ the damage. My car was ________. However, there were two distinct ________ on the Jeep.

Then I noticed a woman, walking her dog, who was now ________ me with her phone. “Hope you’re no planning to drive away,” she said quietly. Until then, I was annoyed with myself for having been careless, but now I was ________ with her for taking my picture. How dare she, I thought. She had no respect for my ________. And how dare she assume I would do the wrong thing? But soon I calmed down because I knew she wasn’t entirely ________. I made no decision to drive away without leaving a note, but that idea did flash across my mind. It was dark, and ________ her no one was watching. It happens all the time—the hit-and-run in the parking lot.

We all have those ________ to behave selfishly. It is not the thought but what we do with it that ________. It is the commitment to take ________. to care for one another, and to think about the greater good that makes this world a better place to stay. Eventually, I left a/an ________ with my name and phone number under the wiper blade of the Jeep.

10 . When 29-year-old artist Sophia recalls (回忆) her mother, Marilyn, she remembers her singing. “She loved karaoke and funny 80s’ _________,” Sophia says. “She sang all the time.” In late 2017, before cancer _________ Sophia’s mom of her voice, she _________ a message in English and _________ it inside a teddy bear: “You make Mommy so proud. No matter where you are, a part of me will always be with you. I love you forever.”

After her mother’s death in 2019 at age 53, that teddy bear became Sophia’s most priceless _________. Therefore, when the backpack holding it was _________ in the mess of moving, Sophia was _________. She spent that night crazily _________ dustbins (垃圾箱) in downtown Vancouver. When her _________ proved fruitless, she took her hunt to the Internet, __________ photos of her lost Mamabear and the security video. A local CBC reporter __________ the story, and the news made it all the way to an actor, who encouraged his 17 million followers to help Sophia, __________ a £ 5,000 reward for the bear’s safe return.

__________, Mamabear made it back to Sophia’s arms four days later, thanks to some good-hearted people, who __________ the thief from the security video Sophia had shared on social media. Sophia was excited: I feel like losing that bear and __________ it was just my mom telling me, “The world is okay, kid. You’re going to be fine. I will always be with you.”