1 . When Shao Tianshuai was 14, her dance teacher told her she had expressive eyes and an oval face, which were best suited for Kunqu Opera. She didn’t pay much ________to the comment until her mother __________ her to give the opera a try.

In 2001, Shao _________ for the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater in Beijing and came out with flying colors. The theater company is the only ________ platform in northern China devoted to Kunqu, an existing form of Chinese opera with a history of around 600 years.

Kunqu Opera, like many traditional Chinese operas, is _______ from one generation to another through singing demonstrations. It takes years to ________ basic skills, only after which performers can try and build their own _________.

“This type of opera was on the edge of decline (衰退) and the theater only had a dozen performances a year before I applied there,” says Shao. “However, the UNESCO tag gave the art a ________ life. The opera received government support and attracted the attention of young audiences.”

Usually, she performs her regular shows. ________, she arranges training for young performers and ______ on creating new pieces. She notes that two-thirds of the performers in the company are young, which injects energy to the theater founded over six decades ago.

Now, at 36, she is one of the leading ________ of Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and gives ________ 100 performances a year. Shao says, “In order to build up a young fan base, we use social media platforms and create original Kunqu Opera pieces, which ________   young people without changing the __________ of the art.”

“The heartwarming part is that so many young people like Kunqu Opera performances, whether online or offline. They are ________ to learn and explore, and as actors we cannot ask for more,” says Shao.

2 . The train had been long delayed. Running out of _________, Andy put down his book and looked out. He found the_________at once: it was raining hard.

He lay down and fell asleep but was soon woken up by a woman. She handed him his bag and _________ that it had slipped to the floor. He gratefully took it back and opened it,_________ to see his mother’s scarf and some sandwiches inside.

Andy’s thoughts drifted(飘)to when he was _________. His mother had insisted on putting her scarf in. “If it rains, it may get cold.” He remembered feeling_________and had taken it out. But it was still here.

_________ Andy realized he was burning with fever. Feeling helpless, he called his mum. “Take a _________I have put in medicine, just_________,” she suggested. Touched by his mother’s__________he took the medicine and soon fell deep asleep in the__________of the scarf.

Andy woke up later feeling much better. Then he noticed the woman,who’d__________him earlier, __________ holding a baby in her arms, both shaking. Their clothes did little against the cold wind.

Without thinking twice, Andy wrapped his mother’s scarf around the baby. To his __________, the child soon fell asleep in the love of not one, but two__________.

3 . When 72-year-old Randy Long was cleaning out his garage not long ago, he came across some practice baseballs he used to throw around with his son and grandson.

Thinking some kids might get ________ of them, he took them to a local baseball cage, where he ________ them along with a touching note that might just bring even the strongest men to tears:

“Hope someone can use these baseballs. I found them when ________ my garage. I pitched (投球) them to my son and grandson for countless ________ . My son is now 46 years old and my grandson is 23 years old. I am 72. They have both ________ away. If you are a father, ________these times. You won’t believe how quickly they will be gone.”

________, Long’s grandson, Ethan Anderson, tweeted about his grandpa’s generous gesture. He never expected the post to go viral. The impact of the story finally hit home when the family ________ by the media, but Anderson says while his grandfather is amazed by all the attention he’s getting, he really doesn’t have much use for social media.

Anderson may be grown-up, but he fondly remembers his grandpa as a thoughtful coach who helped him ________ his true athletic potential. “When I was a kid, we would usually go a few times a week to practice in the cages,” he recalled. “Many times, I didn’t even want to go, but he always wanted me to be the best ________ I could be.”

After the story was shown on the news, Anderson was nearly swept away by the wave of ________ feedback. There are a lot of kids younger than me telling me they’ll cherish the times they have with their dads or granddads,” he told CNN, “And they won’t ________ it for granted anymore.”

“I get to go back and ________ every now and then,” he said. “I just didn’t realize that he missed ________ in the cages. Although he’s moved to Birmingham, about a two-hour drive from Long, Anderson has decided it’s time to team back up with his grandpa on a more ________ basis.

4 . Anger is the most destructive (破坏性的) emotion. When you are ___, you make hurried decisions that you will probably regret. You will also regret careless language ____ without thought. What can be done to control anger and prevent it ruining our lives? Here are five ways that you can fight the cause of anger.

Firstly, you need to change your attitude to the way the world ____. You have to admit that sometimes things do go wrong and that people are always lovely. Try to ____ that ____ people do behave in ways that will make you both frustrated and angry. Secondly, don’t regard anger as a bad emotion. There are occasions ____ anger can be directed in such a way as to achieve great things. Thirdly, it is beneficial to stop trying to manage your anger. A good way of ____ anger is to identify (识别) the root cause. Taking ____ steps towards solving the underlying (根本的) problem will help you overcome feelings of anger. Fourthly, reacting angrily is a hard habit to break. But it is a habit, and habits can be ____. You need to learn not to respond at all. This way, your anger will not get the emotional ____ it needs to survive. Fifthly, don’t take the easy way when you get angry. You might say you feel better after an angry outburst, ____ that   is just the after-effect of the adrenalin (肾上腺素) your body released while you were angry. If so, it is much harder to stay calm, to walk away from conflict (冲突), or to take a deep breath and act ____. That, however, is ____ you must do if you are to stop anger from becoming your master.

____, you must recognize that anger is ____ you can control. Make changes to your lifestyle and attitudes, and you will find that you will turn angry much less often, if at all.

5 . Newcomers always have a good time during Spring Festival.

Huda Mohammed, a doctoral student is looking forward to ________ her third Spring Festival in China. Her favorite part of Lunar New Year is the ________. She went out with her friends to the street at 11 pm on New Year’s Eve in 2021 to see the fireworks. Her friends even searched online to ________ locations where fireworks could be seen, and visited them to ________ the displays. After the eye-catching fireworks, they returned to the ________ and had some dumplings. She also had ________ with the online red envelope games on WeChat. People can give and ________ digital red envelopes, or hongbao, ________ real money.

The best thing about spending Spring Festival in Beijing is the lack of passengers on public transportation. For foreigners, it’s a good time to ________ around and enjoy the city. Many people leave the city and it’s really easy to get around. Bill Siggins, 60, an editor from Canada, loves to go to Miaohui — a type of fair (集市，集会) ________ during Spring Festival — to enjoy traditional food and ________ shows in public parks and buy a Chinese New Year symbol to ________ on the door. He often travels to his wife’s hometown, Xi’an, to spend the festival with her ________. “It’s always good to see my mother and father-in-law. We eat too much food, have too much fun ________ the TV gala (盛会，演出) on New Year’s Eve,” he said. This year, he ________ to drive to Xi’an for the coming holiday.

Lunar New Year becomes increasingly recognized across the world.

6 . In traditional Chinese culture, fish has rich meanings. It ______ wealth. Fish also stands for harmony and happy marriages ______ they multiply rapidly and some times swim in pairs. Fish is an important ______ in traditional values and are among the signs showing that something is ______ to be successful. The most popular fish theme found in Chinese art and ______ is that of the carp (鲤鱼). The ______ of “boneless” techniques makes the swimming fish more real and convincing. Known to most Westerners as koi fish (锦鲤), the Chinese carp has ______ symbolic values within Chinese culture. The carp is a powerful symbol of ______. The scales and whisker (须) of the carp is ______ to that of a dragon, a great symbol of power in China. During the Spring Festival “lucky money” is ______ in red envelopes decorated with a carp and symbols of long life ______ peaches and pine trees. There are many different ______ of the carp, with the major ones being black, white, red and yellow.

“You are not ______, so how would you know the happiness of fish? ” Chuang Tsu created this famous saying when he ______ an issue with Hui Tsu. The message of the story is that someone has his own enjoyment while others can ______ appreciate that.

7 . The idea of holidays to the moon was once a concept of science fiction. However, several companies are racing to make it a ________. To prepare for these holidays, Horizon Studios has ________ the world’s first luggage for space travel.

The suitcase was co-designed by Alyssa Carson, who wanted to be one of the ________ on board NASA’s first manned mission on Mars in 2033.

The suitcase, called Horizon ONE, is built from a special material, making it very strong and ________. It is estimated that the case weighs no more than 900 grams!

The base of the bag is electromagnetic (电磁的), ________ it to guide to the floor or walls even in zero ________ environments. Meanwhile, the suitcase is ________ with a lot of electronics, including Graphene supercapacitors (石墨烯超级电容器) and a charging field for wireless charging, an in-built smart screen, and fingerprint________. However, the suitcase has an eye-watering price that is likely to________many customers. It is currently priced at $40,000.

Stefan Holwe, founder of Horizon Studios, said, “As a ________ travel brand, it is our job to enable ________ minds to go further, so this project lies very close to our hearts. We are happy to work with Alyssa, who ________ represents space travel for the next generation.”

Space is seen as the final frontier, and Horizon ONE brings us one step closer. It shows how far smart travel technology has come, and how far it can ________.

Sadly, the suitcase is still a ________ and Horizon Studio expects the first space range to ________ in 2030.

8 . For my daughter's 19th birthday, we bought her tickets to go and see Linkin Park, as they were playing in our city. We didn't really have the ________ but we knew how much this band meant to her.

The night before she was like a ________ at Christmas. Every so often she got up and came to ________ with us, because she couldn't ________ . On the night of the concert it was good to see her so ________ and excited, as she and her boyfriend set off.

Needless to say when they ________ after midnight, with T-shirts and lots of pictures of the band, ________ her telling about how fantastic they had been, we knew the money had been well ________ . This will be a memory she would never forget, and nor would we.

________ full of excitement from the night before, the following day they ________ to go shopping on the other side of the city. My husband and I laughed, loving the fact that she had not ________   that quality as she grew up.

Later that day they returned, with faces full of happiness and warmth. They presented my husband and me with a ________ each. On each present were the words "Because you are the ________ mum/dad in the world. "When we expressed our thanks and told her she didn't have to, we asked her why she had bought us gifts. Her answer was simply "Just because I love you."

This wasn't something ________ from our daughter; she had always given us gifts when she wanted to express her ________ , and each gift was always a welcome surprise. It could have been anything, it wouldn't have mattered, and it was the act itself and the feelings behind it.

9 . Troy Kotsur is the second deaf actor to be nominated (提名) for an Academy Award. In his Oscar-nominated performance in Child Of Deaf Adults, Kotsur ________ just one word using sign language.

The movie star, Emilia Jones, acts as the only hearing ________ of a deaf family. To encourage Emilia acting as his daughter to go after her ________ of singing and attending college, Kotsur says, “Go!” “I hope that young people who ________ to be deaf or hard of hearing can get an increased ________,” Kotsur said. “I want those kids to trust themselves more.” The movie has made Kotsur ________ and made history for the deaf community. Kotsur is also the first deaf ________ ever nominated individually for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Kotsur’s road to the Oscars ________ in school. As a child, Kotsur loved cartoons like Tom and Jerry. He would_ ________ the stories for his deaf ________ on the school bus. He later ________ acting at Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf in Washington, D.C. After graduating, he performed with the National Theatre of the Deaf. With few roles in film ________ for deaf actors, Kotsur had to find ________ in stage acting. Beginning with Of Mice and Men in 1994, Kotsur has acted in twenty productions in Los Angeles.

Kotsur wants ________ to change their wrong ideas about what deaf people are like after seeing the film, “We’ve been waiting for so long to recognize deaf actors and it is our hope that deaf actors will not have to ________ so long to be recognized on this level,” he said.

10 . I started skiing when I was three years old. My mom worked as a ski instructor as she also loved the snow. While the other ______ in my group were whining(哭闹) and complaining, I was busy learning skiing. And at the age of four, I was ______ through the snow with my mom. I remember falling once and realizing that the ______ was taller than I was.

When I was seven, I decided I wanted to take my skiing to the next level and join a ______. There were two options: racing, a popular event for girls, and free skiing, an event mainly for ______. Siding the chairlift(登山吊椅) with my mother, I would see free skiers flying and spinning through the air. I ______ knew which team I wanted to join: free skiing.

As soon as I joined the team, I was placed in a low level. ______, I soon climbed the rankings until I came to the ______ group. At that point, I was the only girl on my team. Although being a girl in a male-dominated sport can be difficult, I’m actually thankful that I’ve had the ______ that I never had.

Life is not going to be a smooth road for all of us, and building ______ early on is important. My experiences have made me tougher and have ______ me to meet my setbacks with open arms. In fact, after this encounter, I’ve become a better skier. However, there is no way that I could have done it without my supportive ______ always behind me and my ______ coach always, always behind me as well.

I encourage you all to ______ your comfort zone to show the boys that girls are just as ______ as they are.