1 . My mother took an annual vacation all by herself. It was just two ________ visiting an out-of-town family and perhaps a little sightseeing on the way. It ________ when I was thirteen and old enough to look after my younger brother.

Why couldn’t we ________? I couldn’t get across the idea. My mother’s answer was always frank and to the point: “I need a ________ from you guys for a couple of days.” I couldn’t ________ that reasoning until twenty-five years later.

I am ________, responsible for most of the household tasks. I also hold a job and ________ my family and old parents. My husband asks about the vacation this year. I look up at the bathroom sink, ________ again. “Anywhere,” I answer, “as long as it’s ________.” He doesn’t understand, looking ________.

But now I do. I understand the need for every solo (个人的) vacation my mother ever took. My first ________ was to Bermuda. For five days, there were no blocked sinks, grocery lists, work deadlines, or ________ family members. Instead, there was only peace and the opportunity to do ________ what I wanted to do. It was amazing. I ________ three pounds and came home with perfect dark skin and renewed ________. I decide in the future whenever I feel overwhelmed (不堪重负) or like I need a break, I take one.

2 . In 1985, Vanessa Foster and her husband hopped on a flight to Alaska without any plan. When they _________, they used the last of their money to buy an old _________ and started wandering across the state. A little while into their drive, they saw a hitchhiker (搭便车的人) on the side of the road, and her husband decided to give him a _________. A few hours later, they _________ at a rest stop.

“I hopped out and _________ to the ladies’ room. When I came out a few minutes later, my husband was exiting the men’s room,” Foster remembered. “We _________ around the parking lot, and the hitchhiker and our car were gone. So we _________ the hitchhikers,” Foster said.

As they walked down the _________, none of the cars slowed down to _________ them up. __________, an El Camino stopped. Sitting in the driver’s seat was a middle-aged man with bright __________ eyes. He told them to hop in.

“When he heard we were __________ and lost everything, he offered us summer jobs and a place to stay on his farm near Homer, Alaska,” Foster said.

The __________ impacted them to such a degree that Vanesa Foster wrote about it in a book titled More Than Everything. Looking back on that time in her life, all these years later, she says she’ll never __________ that man with the bright blue eyes.

“I really appreciate his kindness toward a couple of __________ on that Alaskan highway,” she says.

3 . I once worked on a farm. One day, a powerful wind slammed (猛推) me against a post. My left arm got totally _________, and it was later cut off.

Back home after an operation, I found everything a(n) _________. My husband tried to help me, but I wanted to be _________. I called my left arm “Stumpy” and tried to _________. I learned to squeeze toothpaste; I developed a technique for pulling the toilet paper.

“Mom can do anything,” my daughter said _________. The one thing I really wanted to do, though, was get back into _________. First, I tried to swim. When I swam with Stumpy, there was no forward motion. _________, I kept going and finished the lane at last. Then I tried the triathlon (铁人三项). I _________ how to balance the bike with one arm and start running. Within a year, I became an _________ athlete, winning a silver medal at the Paratriathlon World Cup.

In 2020, I decided to do New Zealand’s __________ event. Competitors have to run for 36 km, cycle for 140 km, and kayak (皮划艇) for 70 km. I __________ hard over the next six months. Then the big day came. After kayaking for a long time, my legs felt like jelly. “Don’t __________,” I told myself. In the last few kilometers, I heard loud __________. Many people came to support me.

Life in __________ for me, but I choose to change it. “Just because you’ve got only half a wing doesn’t mean you can’t __________ to achieve your dreams,” I said to myself.

4 . When I was 10 years old, my aunt and uncle lived far away from my parents.

Suffering from a severe disease _______ my uncle to walk with a stick. Back in the 1950s, he was _______ unable to work, so my aunt worked full-time to support the family. _______, she was responsible for her elderly mother who lived with them, too. As an innocent kid, I didn’t know that their _______ situation was not stable.

One day, my father and I went to see them, and my aunt asked me to get a _______, so she could pour me some milk. When I _______ the cupboard for a glass, I found that one of the drinking glasses on the shelf held a $10 bill. I felt so _______. At the time, $10 was a respectable _______ of money. Later, I asked my father why they kept money in a glass. It wasn’t until then that I _______ it was my father who’d __________ the money there. My father wanted to help his brother secretly, but didn’t want to make him __________ by handing him cash, which his brother surely would have __________. Dad knew the money would be discovered after our __________, thus avoiding any rejection and face-to-face __________ to keep the cash.

I learned a lot from my father about __________, pride, and how people help one another out while leaving their dignity unhurt.

5 . One day, my children and I found a homeless, small cat trapped in a burning box. She was _________ injured, with most hairs burned. We rescued her and named her Smoky. Back at our ranch (牧场) we _________ her.

Weeks later, Smoky looked better, but was completely _________ due to medicine on her skin. She looked so ugly but we adored her. My husband, Bill, didn’t. Smoky _________ him, too. Why? He was a pipe smoker _________ matches and lighters that _________ and burned. Every time he lit up the pipe, Smoky panicked, _________ his coffee cup before fleeing.

“Can’t I have any _________ here?” he’d complain, instead of quitting smoking though it harmed his health. _________, Smoky became more __________ of the pipe and its owner. She’d lie on the sofa and look at Bill as he smoked. One day he laughed, “Oh, the cat makes me feel __________.” Slowly, Bill __________ smoked in the house, and one night, surprisingly, I found Smoky lying on his lap. Bill started liking her.

During Smoky’s second year, she began growing fur. Tiny white hairs gradually grew long. Bill continued to enjoy her __________, driving around with Smoky. When he got out of the truck to check the __________ on the ranch, he left the cat __________, letting her enjoy the air conditioning.

6 . As the sun sinks towards the horizon, casting long shadows across the dusty football pitch (足球场) in Kakuma refugee camp in north-western Kenya, one player — Abdirahman —   _______ not just for his skills but because most of the other players tower over him.

“When I play with kids my age, I don’t feel _______. However, I gain a lot of skills playing with older players,” _______ Abdirahman.

At just 14 years old, Abdirahman’s _______ to compete against older boys_______ his ambition and passion for the beautiful game. With incomparable skills, his feet move _______ across the dry, uneven ground, and _______ defenders, leaving clouds of dust behind. His coach proudly gives him a(n) _________.

Abdirahman was born in Kakuma in 2010, just two years after his parents and older siblings _______ the border into Kenya ________ conflict in Somalia.

“In Kakuma, we all have ________: some want to be great footballers and relocate to other places; some want to be great musicians,” he said. ________, they do not get the opportunity to ________ their talents.

Football has become an important part of Abdirahman’s life and a(n) ________ force among the diverse communities in the camp where he lives, bringing together players from different cultures and backgrounds.

“When I play football, I feel ________, I feel famous, and I feel like I’m the best in the game.”

7 . For Evan Harrison, a wildlife photographer, there was never any doubt about what she would do for a living.

“I am ________ about animals and the environment,” says Harrison. “Being able to ________ animals and their world is not only about educating people, but also about ________ that animals need to have their world intact (完好无损的) to survive.”

Harrison studied photography in school, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Photographers need to know more than just how to take a picture, ________ Harrison also took courses to learn how to use software.

“________ how to use software to edit your picture is important,” she says. “You could have the million-dollar shot; but if you do not know how to edit it ________, it will make no difference how ________ it is, if it does not look good.”

Harrison also stresses that ________ school can provide the foundation, becoming a professional photographer is also about learning on the job.

“My first job was with a nature conservation group that ________ to document the wildlife in a marsh (沼泽) area. I had to quickly ________ not only the equipment and proper clothing I needed, but also gain an understanding of the environment I was about to ________ in.”

Some of Harrison’s jobs take her to different parts of the world, which ________ she must educate herself about the people and the culture to make ________ easier. “Communicating with people is very important; it can often mean the ________ between getting a good shot and a great shot of an area,” she ________.

8 . A group of high school and college students from Connecticut have come together to build something extraordinary: fully-functioning electric carts (电动车) for families who may be unable to afford adaptive wheelchairs. They are part of the local “Go Baby Go”, a(n) ________ that helps kids with ________ receive access to self-governed mobility.

“What this is designed to do is maybe for an hour every day let the kid take ________ of their own mobility,” Connor Boman, one of the students who ________ during the build said.

Go Baby Go volunteers learn how to build special electric cart shaped like cars. Local kids in need are then given the carts ________ for each build being usually funded entirely by voluntary ________. The Go Baby Go in Connecticut finished building custom carts for seven-year-old Kelicia and eight-year-old Mosiah. The day the students completed the carts, Kelicia and Mosiah’s families went to New Britain High School to ________ them out for the first time. When each child got into their brand new cart, their faces ________— it’s the single moment the builders look forward to the most.

Mosiah was shaking his head in ________ at first that he was driving, but he got the hang of it very quickly. He made driving the red jeep look so enjoyable that his older brother wanted to try it out. The students who built the cart let him have a try, ________ the cart was specially made for Mosiah, who is unable to walk on his own.

It took some ________ for the other cart recipient, Kelicia, to get used to the driving, but once she did, she couldn’t stop — and her mom, Kechisa Mathis, couldn’t stop ________. As she ran alongside her daughter, someone was considerate to run up to Mathis with a big box of ________. Onlookers laughed kindly as Mathis kept on ________ for Kelicia through her tears.

They may look like cool, red electric cars, but they’re much more than that — they give disabled kids a way to move around ________ with a huge smile on their face.

9 . In May 1869, John Wesley Powell, a former Union Army major who had lost most of his right _________ in the Battle of Shiloh, led 10 _________ in launching four heavy wooden boats loaded to the gunwales with 10 months of supplies.

Three of the boats were made of oak, more suitable for cruising lakes than busting through rapids (急流). None of the men were _________ boatmen. The one-armed captain of the crew had maps with gaps in them. _________, it was the grandest expedition (探险) since Lewis and Clark. Over 500 rapids and 1,000 miles of _________ currents awaited them.

Though Powell had boats custom-made for the _________, they were heavy. He recruited men who knew how to _________ in the wilderness but had never navigated (横越) a river. He packed so much food that it _________ sank the boats from the start.

Much of the journey was spent _________ boats damaged while portaging around rapids and carving new oars out of driftwood. Food was lost or spoiled, game was scarce, and Powell went inland to __________with the Indians for food. The expedition spent days in __________ water and 115-degree heat. Three men deserted the cause along the way. The crew slept on boulders and __________ wet clothing the next morning. And most of the time, they had no idea what lay ahead. But at the end of the arduous journey, they had successfully __________ the challenges and mapped a wilderness previously labeled as “territory unknown.” As the West expanded, Powell’s maps would be __________.

Beauty is in the living of life, in looking beyond the challenges to the __________ of the small moments we achieve — sometimes against all odds.

10 . Most people as they get older start to take life a little slower and enjoy a leisurely pace. But it is not for Kerry, who ________ pole dancing in her 50s, has no ________ of slowing down any time soon. She’s even ________ her life “began at 50”.

The super fit gran ________ an eating disorder from a young age. Now in the best ________ of her life, she looked back on her youth and claimed she was once told she was “too fat to be a dancer”, sparking an eating disorder and being ________ conscious of her weight. After taking up dancing she felt ________ in her new lease of life.

“At the age of 47 I made a list of things I wanted to ________ and I’ve always wanted to do dancing, but I was worried I was too ________. It was so late in life,” said Kerry. ________ planning on doing one class to ________ it off her list, she found a passion and love for the sport and made a living from it, even participating in ________ too. “I feel like fate really put this in my ________, not only to recover my body but to get rid of the ________ that comes with it,” she explained. Now, she’s on a mission to ________ women that their age doesn’t have to hold them back.