1 . An old man lived in a nice village with a large garden. People often saw him looking after his _________ all the time. One day, a young painter passed by this garden. He was deeply _________ by the beautiful flowers. Then, to his surprise, he found the old gardener was _________. The painter asked _________, “Why are you busy looking after these flowers which you can’t see?” The gardener _________, “I can tell you the reasons. First, I was a _________ when I was young, and I like this job. Second, although I can’t see these flowers, I can _________ them. Third, I can smell the _________ of them. As to the last one, it’s you.”

“Me? But you don’t know me.”

“Yeah, it’s true that I don’t know you. I _________ many people who love life would stop by, and the beauty of my garden will get them into a good __________. At the same time, it also gives me a chance to have a word with them here, and to __________ the happiness these flowers have brought us.”

“I believe every flower has eyes with which they can see the __________ of the old man’s heart. He __________ flowers in his heart. Although he can’t see the beauty of flowers, he   __________ can hear the voice of them,” the painter picked up his pen and wrote. “This is the most __________ picture in the world!”

2 . Isabella’s life was totally in trouble in 2021. Her relationship with her partner ended. Several months later, her father contracted a rare form of cancer, and she was feeling increasingly ______ in her job.

To distract herself from her troubles, Isabella liked to find and take ______of bugs. Sometimes, if she found a beetle or a bee that she particularly liked, she’d ______ it on Facebook. Those posts attracted the attention of a woman named Madeline, who studies ______ at the local natural history museum. After seeing Isabella’s pictures, Madeline ______to see if she wanted a tour of the museum’s insectary.

When Isabella arrived at the museum, Madeline ______ her and handed her a lab coat. She then led her through various exhibits.“I remember she opened up this freezer, like, ‘Come check this out,’ and it was full of dead bugs. ... And I just remember how ______ I was about everything.” Isabella said.

For the first time in ages, Isabella felt herself light up. Madeline noticed her ______ and suggested Isabella volunteer at the museum for a few hours every week.

Despite her doubts, Isabella decided to ______. Every Wednesday, she’d arrive at the museum. And with each volunteer ______, she felt a little bit better.“It gave me this sense of purpose. It helped me reconnect with my love of ______ and nature that I’d always had,” Isabella said.

Soon, Isabella ______ her job and started working in science media. She now is the creator and host of a podcast called Ologies. Isabella had Madeline on the show as her first ______.

“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t take her up on her ______. What would my life have been like? It’s not a nice thought. Who would I be? You know, Madeline, in one instant, ______ my whole life,” said Isabella.

3 . I had reached the age of twenty-eight. Still, I _________ whether the letter from my past would make it to me, all these years later. It sounded ridiculous, but it was a _______ writing task when I was eighteen. The teacher collected our letters to our future selves in self-addressed envelopes with stamps and promised to _______ them ten years later. But since so much time had passed, would he even _________?

Thinking back on the _______ I recalled giving my future self some advice. When you’re eighteen years old, twenty-eight seems like a   _______ age, but I wasn’t feeling as mature as I believed my younger self had _______ me to be.

When the letter finally reached me, I opened it _______ . It began, How much do you bet this letter will never get to you? It continued to greet me casually as if we were having an IM (instant messaging) chat. As a senior in high school, facing the _______important exams and college application, my eighteen-year-old self was so ________! She was apparently not quite happy and hoped I wouldn’t worry so much in the future, and that I would live in the present and __________ my life!

________ to my belief, my eighteen-year-old self did not have any demands on me, expectations I might have failed to meet. Instead, she wrote, “I’ll ________ whatever you do. Even if you are not the one I’m imagining now, I’ll support you, because maybe who I’m imagining is someone else, but you’re not someone else — you’re me.”

I was touched, and tears came to my eyes at this ________ time. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best version of myself that I could be. ________, I came to realize what I would have accomplished in ten years would pale in comparison to how feel and who I’d be.

4 . Afraid to have a start, I was walking slowly into my first school in America. I had ______ a long way from India in order to join my parents. My father decided that I would go to school here, so I ______ a local high school in my new town.

With ______ and fear, I arrived at the classroom. Everyone’s eyes were on me as I entered the classroom. I went straight to the ______ and asked him if it was the right class. With a ______ voice, he answered, “Yes.” His voice comforted me a little. Then he asked me to ______ where I would sit. I chose the ______ closest to the door. I spent the rest of the class taking notes from the ______ produced by the overhead projector (投影仪).

______ it was my first day, I was confused about which hallway to use, but I ______ to get to my classroom without asking anyone. I wasn’t quite sure when I would have ______. It was noon when I went to my next class and the bell rang as I entered. I went through the ______ process of asking the teacher if I was in the right class. Feeling surprised, she said, “That is the lunch bell.” I felt a little ______. Without another word, I headed for the cafeteria.

I realized that all the confusion on my first day was like the difficulty I had to ______to reach my goal. When I got on my bus and sat down inside ______, I said to myself, “Today isn’t so bad.”

5 . Michelle couldn’t have been better prepared for the speech, her first presentation as a college student. She had learned her speech ________ The day before the talk, alone in her room. Michelle felt ________. But as soon as she was invited to the stage, she was full of fear she had ________ too many times before-the fear of getting ________ because of her stutter(口吃).

It began when she was a child. She felt ashamed and ________ as little as possible at school. She put a lot of ________ into math and science. In these subjects, she could ________ her teachers with written exams and reports rather than spoken ones.

But by the time Michelle got to middle school, her stutter had made her a ________ for bullying(欺凌), which hurt her academic performance. ________, she went to a cooking school, where she hoped her cooking would speak for itself.

Michelle saw her future as a ________ until a nutrition class, when the teacher’s lecture ________ her of her love of science. She found that her thirst for learning more biology was ________ than her fear of stuttering during oral exams. She started to work in a research lab and tried speech therapy(治疗). With the help of her therapist, she ________ realized the real problem was not the stutter itself; it was her fear of stuttering. It took her about a year to _________ during one weekly meeting that she loved herself as she was.

Now, instead of ________ public speeches, she actively seeks opportunities to be on the stage. And if she happens to stutter along the way, so be it.

6 . At the age of 13, Giorgia began to suffer a severe skin disorder, which started out on her arms and face and continued to _________. Soon the angry, red rash (皮疹) covered nearly 97% of her body at times and could be extremely uncomfortable.

But for Giorgia, the most pain was _________ she was treated by others simply because of her physical appearance. People would stop and stare at her in the street, because they thought she was _________. She knew the condition was _________ her life.

That seems not _________ enough on its own. Unexpectedly, Giorgia also lost her father. She felt like her world went to _________. They were so close when she was growing up, and she couldn’t _________ losing him.

Fortunately, Giorgia had a strong and beautiful spirit inside. She realized she had a(n) _________. She could shrink back from what she received or she could find the _________ to love herself and the way she was made. Giorgia __________ her body and decided she’d no longer try to __________ her skin. It was part of who she was. She started a photo series __________ displaying her natural self, hoping that others struggling with their body images will gain __________ and inspiration from the pictures she shares.

“We might have __________ that make us look different from other women, but we are still beautiful. I know my dad would be proud of me for my __________. Now I’ve come to terms with my disease, and I want to help others do the same,” says Giorgia.