1 . During my teens, I was the champion of the sports day every single year, and my mother won the moms’ trophy (奖杯) every single year. Why? Because she was always chasing me to _______ me for various “crimes” I had committed, and I was running _______ not to get my ass kicked.

We had a very Tom and Jerry relationship. She was the strict disciplinarian; I was the _______ boy in the whole neighborhood. She would send me out to buy _______ , and I wouldn’t come right home because I’d be using the _______ from milk to play video games at the supermarket. Lost in the games, time would _______ away until a sudden jolt (震惊) of reality arrived in the form of my mother’s belt-wielding (挥舞) presence. Thus began our _______ race.

When I was little, she always caught me, but as I got older and faster, and when speed _______ her she’d use her wits. If I was about to get _______, she would turn to the ________ weapon, the two magical words “Stop! Thief!”. In my birthplace, nobody gets ________ in other people’s business-unless it’s public safety incident, and then everybody ________. So with her yelling “thief”, even strangers would instantly join the ________, mistaking me for a genuine thief.

Reflecting on those exciting days two decades later, I’ve come to understand that amid the ________ of our wild chases, amid laughter and shouts, my mother and I were deeply ________ by our unique, unforgettable game.

2 . Tobias, a 35-year-old Belgian musician, has become popular on social media for his excellent grasp of the Shanghai dialect. He has been sharing his everyday experiences, which he _______ in Shanghai dialect, on video-sharing and lifestyle _______ Douyin and Xiaohongshu, winning thousands of followers and millions of _______

In the videos, he speaks_______ Shanghai dialect, which many non-locals believe is as difficult to learn and _______ as a foreign language. He talks about walking on the city’s streets, enjoying the food and music, and _______ his daily life in the city. Tobias started shooting and _______ these short videos for his own practice purposes. He didn’t expect so many people would be watching them, following him and sending him _______ and encouragement.

Tobias did not bury his nose in textbooks or _______ intensive study to learn Shanghainese. He said his learning __________ involved getting immersed (沉浸) in a language environment, having a positive attitude, and speaking __________ “without being afraid to make mistakes” . He was not thinking too much when he started learning the Shanghai dialect — it was just for __________.

Tobias said he did not expect he would __________ the promotion of the Shanghai dialect, but it would be an __________ and pleasure if his posts encouraged his followers to learn and pass on the dialect. “I believe a dialect is the heart of a local __________” said the musician.

3 . British rower Helen Glover is preparing for her fourth Olympic Games, pushing herself to the limit. Despite enduring bloodied and blistered hands and pale skin, Glover knows that physical ________ are just one aspect of the intense training required for the Olympics.

For Glover, the real challenge ________ the day-to-day exhaustion and the constant ________ of waking up and training. With two gold medals from the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, her fourth-place finish in Tokyo was remarkable considering her ________ preparation. Just a year after giving birth to twins and four years after ________, Glover made the bold decision to ________ in the Olympics with only six months of serious training. Juggling (尽量兼顾) childcare with her ________ schedule, she managed to reach the starting line and ________ miss out on a medal.

After Tokyo, Glover initially ________ her retirement but later changed her mind and decided to compete in the coxless four (四人单桨无舵手艇) at Paris 2024. This time, her preparation is more straightforward, and her racing experience gives her an ________.

________ on her journey, Glover acknowledges that in the past, her happiness seemed dependent on results and success. However, becoming a ________ has shifted her perspective. Now, even on ________ training days, as long as her children are happy, she finds contentment.

Glover understands that her decision to continue rowing is a personal ________. Her growing success does not ________ her whole life, but she is determined to excel in the sport she loves and give her best.

4 . Carman Kelly, 82, needed a walking stick to push shopping carts (购物车) back to a certain area daily at an Arizona supermarket. Elizabeth Rizzo, a customer, wondered why the lady was still______at such an old age. She didn’t know that days later she would help change the lady’s______.

After______that the Walmart employee (雇员) was doing the job to clear about $10.000 of medical debt (债务), Rizzo made a TikTok video about her______

The video has been widely______and been viewed more than 15 million times. Through GoFundMe, a popular crowdfunding(众筹) website, Rizzo and her_______raised more than $129,000 for Kelly.

“I was______the amount (金额) we were able to collect,” Rizzo says. “I believe in the   _____of people and I believe if you______their heart, they’ll come together.”

Kelly doesn’t know how to_______Rizzo and the TikTok community. “There aren’t enough words to tell you how I feel,” she tells Rizzo.

Rizzo says she has a______grandmother. “My grandma_______when I was 15,” she says. “I always wished I had her in my adulthood. Now I’ve got my grandma back.”

She______walking down the streets as a young girl. Her grandmother told her to move any rock she saw to the side of the street so people wouldn’t______it. And her grandmother taught her to be kind to others. And it’s those lessons of ______that encouraged her to help Kelly.

5 . At 20 years old, I was a confident and handsome student at the University of California at Berkey.

But that year, I ________ a bump (肿块) in my right nostril (鼻孔), and when it didn’t go away, I made an ________ with a doctor. It turned out to be a tumor (肿瘤). Then I underwent surgery. Fortunately, the procedure was ________, and I returned to classes soon.

But six months later, a new bump appeared. Numerous ________ confirmed it had reproduced a horrible, life—threatening tumor. I was advised to have another operation and ________ that I might lose part of my nose. I was too young to think about death then, but the thought of disfigurement (毁容) made me feel ________.

I awoke from the surgery with a scarred, disfigured face. As I re-entered the real world, I noticed adults ________ and children pointing—and sometimes laughing—at me. The occasional and ________ negative reactions from my friends also hurt me. My self-respect sank increasingly lower, and I constantly asked others, “Do my looks ________ you?”

Five years and 20 reconstructive surgeries later, I ________ a man receiving treatment. After hearing my question, he criticized me. My problem, he ________ me, was not my physical appearance, but my emotional insecurity. His ________ helped me realize my mental scars were far more disfiguring than my physical ones.

I began examining myself from the inside out. Later, I volunteered at a cancer support organization to offer inspiration and hope to those ________ cancer

Now, I am ________ for who I am—a much stronger person than before. To you, I offer this message: Avoid making judgements about people at ________.

6 . After the doctor’s examination, little Lucy was diagnosed (诊断) with a serious disease. Doctors had to perform an operation on her to save her life. Facing a year of treatment, Lucy ________ her mother for a puppy (小狗). Then, the lovely puppy Lucy named Bobby ________ left her side, keeping her company and sitting beside her as she ________ her life after the operation. “I get along well with Bobby, which ________ me that animals can think, feel and suffer as much as we do,” says Lucy.

In 1994, Lucy graduated from college and began a ________ in film. During her free time, she ________ as a photographer for animal rights groups in 2002.

A year later she ________ her film career. Then she worked full-time as an animal caregiver at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York. “Farm ________ are typically very shy,” says Lucy. “But in a loving environment, you begin to see how ________ and lovely they are.”

Lucy learned farm life and with her partner, Doug Abel, a film editor, set up the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization aimed at ________ farm animals. Through their website, they ________ the backstory and personality of each of the more than 350 animals living at the farm, ________ them and protected them from being sold.

To help more animals, Lucy and Doug ________ the sanctuary to a 150-acre farm in High Falls, New York, which has a fully equipped kitchen and a dining hall in addition to a barn. The new space has ________ their team of 17 members, to host meaningful classes and a kids’ camp.

“People who came here ________ spending time with the animals. It’s therapy (治疗) for them,” says Lucy.

7 . I got a degree in education and had an internship (实习) in a primary school. So I thought I was ________ to be a teacher, and I felt I was ready for my first real job—teaching pupils.

In the beginning, I ________ my lesson objectives and plans. Then I broke down ________ ideas into simple concepts that pupils could understand. But it turned out to be a ________ when I went into the classroom. I couldn’t keep the class ________. Some students spoke loudly and others ran around. All students rushed out of the door immediately the bell rang. I ________ my students didn’t like me. I even thought I didn’t have the ________ to do the job.

However, I had no regrets and complaints. I decided to improve my teaching ability. I should learn from the most ________ teacher I knew-Alice. She was so special that her students loved her very much. She was energetic and bright like ________ in their lives. They would ________ her in the hall, giving her hugs and bows.

One day, I was lucky to listen and ________ for a while in Alice’s class. I was watching her carefully. What a ________!I spent almost the whole class teaching, while she set aside more time for her students to participate in the class.

“Students’ interest ________ most. Their active participation in classroom activities is the key,” Alice said. “If they are not learning, we are not teaching,” she ________ explained. Since then, I’ve been adopting the model of student-centered teaching. Now, my students gradually like my class, and I also begin to ________ it every day.

8 . Being in the right place at the right time can mean the difference between life and death. A ____ named Zhu Keming despite the bad weather pulled six runners to ____ in a 100-kilometer cross-country race in China’s Gansu Province.

The day of the race started with mild weather. Zhu was ____ his flock (羊群) as usual. Then in the space of a few moments, everything ____. As the temperature dropped quickly and freezing rain and snow began to pound the land, Zhu took ____ in a small cave he’d been using for years to ____ emergency supplies.

It was from this point that Zhu ____ that one of the runners appeared disoriented (迷失方向的) and in pain. Zhu brought the man back to the cave to ____ him up. After lighting a fire, Zhu returned to the mountainside, ____ five additional runners to the cave. There’s little ____ that he finally saved their lives. ____ for the sudden change in the weather, most racers were wearing lightweight clothing that was no ____ for the coldness. The threat of hypothermia (体温过低) was all too real.

“I want to say how ____ I am to the man who saved me,” runner Zhang Xiaotao posted on Sina Weibo. “Without him, I would have been ____ there.” While Zhu is being praised as a hero in his homeland, the ____ shepherd doesn’t see the reason for all the fuss. He says he’s just an ordinary person who did a very ordinary thing.

9 . Remote learning (远程学习) was challenging for us, especially for a teacher like me. I do not like to ________ in the school building. We are often looking for field ________ or any reason to get out of the building, whether that’s a community walk or going through the ________ in D. C. So one thing that I wanted to ________ was experiential learning opportunities. That’s ________ through a virtual setting, but I thought of a way to solve it. I started to ________ museums myself and take pictures. One day I walked around the museum with my laptop and ________ students to see where we would go if we were in-person through live streaming. You’d be surprised — they were rather ________.

A lot of my students’ parents were first ________ or were on the front lines, so my students’ siblings (兄弟姐妹) were also watching and trying to get their own ________. Therefore, I’d be talking to my students and their younger siblings in the background. I learned all their names and their ________ names. I’d call attendance (考勤) and ________ all of them — snakes, dogs, cats, everybody — were there. And they were so excited, ________ the ones that didn’t turn on their ________ at first. They’d say, “Ah, Mr. Dias, you didn’t say hi to Pinky, my dog who’s right here.” We did anything and everything to keep them ________ for those entire eight hours of the day.

10 . At an early age, Penny suffered from brain cancer. But Penny ________ to live in darkness. In fact, she chose to spread ________ to everyone around her.

Penny created a series of small gatherings called Adventure Camps for the kids in the ________. It was Penny’s way of enhancing connections among her neighbors. For those who couldn’t attend, she made funny ________ and shared her artwork on the social media. She loved to use her creativity to make ordinary things beautiful.

When it was time for another surgery — she had 15 in all — Penny would go about it with failure. No complaining, no crying, she just got through it and got back to living. Her mother ________, “Somebody said Penny was an actress and the world was her ________. She was a representative of joy.”

Her teachers remembered her as a(n) ________ girl everyone wanted to be around. She was happy and beautiful and gifted in art. And she used those ________ to lift others. Her father remembered, “She taught us how to ________ other people.”

Sometimes a very special person comes into this life to ________ all of us what we should really do. We should make time to ________ beauty and to share it. Penny’s artwork made people happy. Her videos made people ________ hard things and focus on good things. Her friendship brought a sense of hope to everyone who wanted to be ________ to her.

Penny passed away at the age of 16. “She made a choice to live her life with joy and optimism,” said her father. That optimism continued to burn bright. Her family launched Penny’s Flight, a foundation committed to ________ others to live life as she did. The foundation ________ money for cancer research and also celebrated life by sharing the message: Spread your wings. Shine your light.