1 . On March 18, 2018, I was alone at home in San José, Costa Rica, drinking a cup of tea, unaware that my life was about to change. I ______ an e-mail with the subject “scholarship selection result”.

My heartbeat ______ as I read through it. I had been chosen to receive a full scholarship for a master’s degree in ______ at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Finally, I would be able to ______ the ancient tales of dragons and the old legends (传说) of China, which had always ______ me.

Five months later, I arrived in Shanghai, ______ an entirely new world. At the airport, two of my Costa Rican friends were waiting for me and ______ me to the dormitory.

I remember ______ when I approached the dorm building, I was drawn by the sweet melody (旋律) of a dizi (Chinese flute), which was totally ______ from all that I used to hear in my country.

In Costa Rica, I learned the conducting ______ well. However, it was my Chinese professor, Cao Tongyi, who guided me in ______ my skills. Studying in China and immersing (使浸入) myself in its music has been a wonderful ______ , introducing me to diverse sounds produced by Chinese musical ______ .

My mission is to ______ this amazing musical experience worldwide. I hope to spread the ______ of music far and wide.

2 . The 13-year-old girl Anna Grace is a volleyball manager, a basketball manager, and a theater volunteer, but perhaps her greatest_________is the fact that she has beaten cancer twice.

Anna was first diagnosed（诊断）with a rare type of_________in December of 2019. A softball player at the time, she told her parents she was experiencing muscle _________ in her left arm, only lifting it about eye-level. She had to_________ surgery on her left arm.

For the following weekends after the surgery, doctors scanned her_________to make sure she was cancer-free and then in August of 2023, doctors_________a spot on her lungs. She had another_________on September to remove it. Anna said later the first time with cancer, it felt like a learning stage. The second time around, it was a little _________to accept the news.

And throughout all of this, Anna has had to_________school work and hospital life. Her sufferings with cancer forced her to really__________herself because she was out of school for quite a while. Now she has__________and has straight As. Anna’s father, Eric Bartel, said her journey has inspired him to __________ every moment, enjoying time with his loving daughter.

Anna is doing well these days though. She’s__________in theater and is a coach’s assistant. “When you’re on__________you have to keep fighting, ”Anna said. “Always live life to the fullest each day. You’re loved. Your life   __________ .”

3 . After thinking it over for several weeks, I finally decide to say yes to a big life decision. The woman (me) who hasn’t _________ a bicycle even once in the past seven years is going to take on a challenge to _________ from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle.

Anyone who knows me will think this is just _________ . I don’t enjoy sports challenges. As I am _________ my mid-40s, I am eager to prove my body is still useful and can _________ things. And I want to work towards something bigger _________ the daily travel to and from work.

I have _________ run marathons or done things alike. I just _________ friends on the sidelines when they ran the London Marathon. But in all _________ , there has been an element of __________ when I see their achievements. What I see on their faces when they cross the finish line are the joy and the sense of __________ . They know that they have pushed themselves beyond their limits and done something __________ . Now I am 43 and have a(n) __________ to know what that feels like.

Now it is the perfect time to __________ something more than the classes in the local gym, or a jog around the park and show what I can do. So I’m __________ to jump on a bike again as long before and take to the road.

4 . I was then in my early twenties. Even though I was armed with a degree in Education, finding a ______ teaching job was not easy. I had to try some temporary ones.

This year, when a golden opportunity ______ to teach 5th grade students in a local school. I ______ it and took things seriously. I ______ myself with lesson plans, taught with enthusiasm, and stayed ______ with the students. I had no hesitation in ______ the kids when they got the answer right, and encouraged them if they didn’t.

One day when the kids were _______, a girl approached and handed me a ______ before she went home. On it was a lovely drawing full of childlike wonder, ______ by the words, “You are the best teacher I have ever had!” It really amazed me that one of my kind comments had ______ that girl’s heart greatly. I took that note home and ______ put it in a folder, looking on it as a ______ because it was very important. Anytime I was feeling down I would look at it and it proved to be a ______ .

That experience showed me the ______ of just a single kind word. It encouraged me to continue to try my best each day to ______ love and kindness through my words and actions. Wish the same for others.

5 . Every Friday night the Chevron gas station food mart offers a discount on the leftover food. To ensure the best selection, my mother and I pile into our old car and _________ in front of the mart at five p. m. sharp, ready to get our _________.

Chevron shopping _________ like this: One day my mother suddenly realized that she had maxed out (透支) almost every credit card except the Chevron card and we needed groceries for the week. Since our first _________ there, I’ve learned to believe in flexibility. In my life, it has become necessary to _________ the idea of grocery shopping. My mother and I can no longer shop at real grocery stores, _________ we still get the necessities.

Grocery shopping at Chevron has its _________. The worst is when we have so many items that it takes the cashier what seems like hours to ring up everything. A line of _________ customers formed behind us. It’s that line that _________ the most-the way they look at us. My mother never notices — or maybe she __________ not to.

I’m __________ to shop there, and I’m afraid of running into someone I know. I once expressed my fear of being seen shopping at Chevron to my mother, and her eyes shone with disappointment. I know that I hurt her feelings when I try to __________ our weekly shopping trips.

And that is why I hold on to the idea of __________ so tightly. Whenever I feel the __________ rise to my face, I remind myself at this point in my life I am struggling does not mean that I will always struggle. I know that whatever happens, we will always __________ a way to survive.

6 . Smith brought his three-month-old son out for breakfast one day. He was playing with his son and tending to him while eating, and just doing his _________ thing.

But then he noticed a _________ staring at him. He was _________. “What is going on?” “They kept _________ at me,” he wrote in a post.

As it _________, the strangers were just happy to see a dad spending time with his son, and they felt inspired while watching the _________. Smith had no way of knowing that until he paid for his meal. He was given by the waiter a _________ from the couple, saying what a great father he was and that they would like to leave some _________ for his meal.

“Today your meal is on my wife and me,” it read. “_________ that baby as long as possible. The Masons.”

For Smith, it was a happy moment of reassurance (认可) and feeling __________. He was touched by the generosity and noted that he didn’t have a father figure growing up, so spending this time with his son is super __________ to him.

He wrote that he’ll share this __________ with his son when he’s older and that he wants to teach him kindness and about the __________ of giving back.

“I make sure I’m __________,” Smith wrapped. “I get blessed — I want to __________ someone else.”

7 . Isabella Springmuhl Tejada is one of the first professional fashion designers with Down Syndrome (唐氏综合征).

Her path to success wasn’t ________.Although she showed her________.for design in childhood, when she would spend hours designing paper dresses for her dolls, she was________from several fashion schools due to her disease. She had no________but to seek other ways. She________for a sewing course, where she was________to sew clothing for finger-sized traditional Guatemalan (危地马拉的) dolls, which she________happily. Meanwhile, she also made a(n)________in designing dolls, creating some life-sized dolls and dressing them in the colorful traditional embroidered jackets she’s now famous for.

This design experience helped Tejada develop her own design style,________traditional Guatemalan patterns, colors, and materials in her culture. She also created her own brand Down To Xjabelle,________for people with Down Syndrome, knowing how difficult it was for people like her to find________! clothes. The new brand ________right away, making it all the way to London Fashion Week, proving fashion can________all barriers and borders.

And the ________designer talks about her plans for the future as well, “I want to export my brand all over the world and________that people with Down Syndrome can do what they set out to do.”

8 . I was heading home after giving my colleague a lift. I took a _______ as the snowstorm was approaching.

Then the snow started and was coming down _______. Within minutes I was in a whiteout.The windows were _______ and getting covered with snow, so I slowed down and rolled down my driver's side window, thinking I could better _______ the road edge and keep to a straight line. But really, I had no _______ where I was. I stopped and kept the car running to stay_______. I called 911.The operator told me to wait things out for the night.

The call left me in _______. Breathe, I told myself. An idea occurred to me. I _______ my location online and explained what I was _______, wishing for anyone to come to my rescue. Soon enough, people started chiming in on my post. I got a ________ from someone who was going to put me in touch with people nearby. I had never been more ________.

Then I saw a big ________ in the dark. He had walked about 500 metres to get me, ________ the wind and snow each step of the way. “You’ll be OK. Follow me.” He turned around and started to trudge through the snow, sure of the ________. I drove slowly behind him. When we reached his house,I burst into tears of ________.

9 . The doorbell rang one mid-December evening. I frequently had unexpected visitors in those early days after my husband’s ________. But when my 6-year-old son opened the door, nobody was there. ________, on the doormat was a box, tied with a silver ________ and a note that said “On the First Day of Christmas...” A mystery.

Sam had died that fall, ________ me the single parent of our two boys, 6 and 8. My sons and I had already ________ to deal with Halloween, and Thanksgiving without Daddy. Still, I was afraid of Christmas. How could December have ________ without my husband?

The next night, the doorbell rang again. Another ________ came, decorated with the same silver ribbon (带子) and ________ the same card reading “On the Second Day of Christmas...”

For the next couple of nights, my boys waited near the front door to see who was leaving the gifts, but the bearer would always choose the moment they left to ________.

I didn’t know who the secret Santa was. But there was one thing I did know. In those dark days of ________, somebody was shining a light our way with a simple but ________ message: “You are loved.” It was such a strange feeling, to be left in darkness on the one hand and drawn so firmly toward ________ on the other. I believe hope will make a(n) ________.

After 11 days of offerings, we weren’t sure what to ________ when we approached home on that 12th night. I trusted there would be ________.

10 . By the time he was 24 years old, Imran Nuri quit his job in a bold move, and emptied his savings account to carry out an ambitious ________ he’d been bearing in mind. Nuri would drive his car to every state on a 100-day trip to find 1,000 ________ and ask them to share one thing they wish they’d ________ when they were younger. Nuri was hoping for answers that might help him ________ the rest of his life.

He ________. But to his shock, he chose a ________ person for the first time. He met a man, who had a dark look at Nuri. Nuri thought the man was going to ________ him. Then, doing the most ________ thing he’d done, he introduced himself, “I’m ________ around the country to talk to 1,000 unfamiliar people. I’m asking them for pieces of life advice about things they wish they knew ________.” The man remained silent for a minute or so and ________ said, “We should spend more time with our family.”

In Colorado Springs, Colorado, a man in his 50s who had stage 4 terminal cancer told Nuri, “Life is about the human ________. There would be no life without social interactions.”

In Tillamook, Oregon, a waitress-a college student told him, “whether it’s changing your major or changing your whole life path, you don’t have to ________ yourself for taking a step back and reevaluating your past choices. Just do what you think to be right.”

Nuri found beauty in every place as well as ________ from the people he met. Those people taught a lot. Now he always puts himself in other people’s shoes even when a person sees the world ________.