1 . Naomi Harper,23, runs a café in London where lonely and unhappy people can come and talk. It opened a few months ago and has now got ______. So many people come here.

She first got the ______ when a homeless man turned to her for help in the street one night. There was no place to ______ him, talk properly and give comfort. She always feels moved by the people who open ______ or make donations.

The café was ______ a disused shop, owned by a local church. Naomi rented it and has hired a group of people to ______. It is called the Open Door.

When Naomi was at college, she used to work with her father in the afternoons. Her father is always ______ to help others. He is an eye doctor who sets up camps and performs operations in poor areas of the world. Naomi was ______ by her father and hopes to ______ helping those in need. “I ______ a sense of achievement from the work I do, though tired. My greatest ______ is when I see somebody happy,” she said.

In November, Naomi made worldwide headlines when she ______ the café with her father’s help while running a charity event to ______ money for a local children’s hospital. Naomi devotes all her energy to ______ and doesn’t have much time for other activities. ______, she obtains much pleasure from her work.

2 . I just returned from India. While driving home from the airport, I was amazed by how everything in American streets ________ those in Delhi, a city in northern India. “You can eat off the street here!” I said. My family looked at me ________ I had gotten off a spaceship rather than a plane.

During the two years I was away, my friends and family ________ sending texts to each other by phone. After I came back, my phone was no longer ________ as before, just lighting up with the “ding” sound of a text, and I felt very ________. I chose to talk to my friends instead of texting them. I asked my friends for their ________ as I made an effort to ________ with them and rebuild our friendships.

While I was on my ________ trips, most of my friends had moved on with their ________. We felt disconnected from each other’s experiences. Just as ________ would always be part of my life, I understood that raising a family would always be part of theirs. I told them sometimes I felt ________ because I had been away and wasn’t there for their ________ events.

Expats (侨民) in Laos say that sometimes, if you stay abroad too long, you become a permanent ________, never quite making it as a local, and never feeling ________ in your home country. I ________. If you always travel with a heart beating for your beloved ones, no matter how long you have been abroad, you will find satisfaction at home.

3 . My mom loved to pass her wisdom to me: ”Nothing beats a good bite that bites back.” She was referring to her bitter-taste foods like dill pickles and rhubarb (大黄叶). But I was not a big fan.

Three years ago, I finally decided to ask if I could ________ out her rhubarb while weeding the garden. “________ not!” Mom gasped, throwing me a(n) ________ look. Clearly, I had underestimated her________ for it. However, as I continued ________, I thought about how rhubarb is one of the first to appear in spring. It ________ the snowy ground before the arrival of other plants. How can anyone fail to ________ it? When those first sprouts (嫩芽) appeared, Mom would count them like a ________ counting a newborn’s fingers and toes.

When I was a kid and my mom gave me that pie, it made me ________ to try. In my teens, it made me complain about the bitterness. Even ice cream or candies did not ________ the deal for my young taste buds (味蕾). Rhubarb was something to be ________ at all costs.

Then, last summer, I came across the ________ for her rhubarb pie in an old drawer. So I decided to give it a ________. A few attempts later, I served rhubarb pie to family and guests. All agreed, including me, that it tasted incredible.

Since then I’ve come to a ________ about rhubarb. Rhubarb’s taste may be lost on children, but adults can________ it. Like my wise mother, I now understand that “Nothing beats a good bite that bites back.”

4 . Jenny lived in a small village. When she was a child, what she liked to do most was to watch the blue sky and enjoy birds flying freely in the sky. She always ______that some day she could also fly like a bird.

When Jenny was in the fourth grade, her teacher asked them to write a passage about their ______. In it, she wrote that she wanted to become an airplane pilot in the future. However, to her surprise, her paper came back with an “F” on it. The teacher told her it was nothing but fairy tale which could never become true. Jenny felt ______and sad. In her heart, she didn’t want to ______her teacher’s opinion. Why was it impossible? But the people______Jenny didn’t   support her and told her over and over again, “Girls can’t become pilots; never have, and never will. You’re______.” Finally, Jenny felt hopeless and ______her dream.

Jenny was in the senior high school several ______later. One day her English teacher, Mrs. Slaton, gave the class a ______about what they would be doing in the future. Jenny thought hard about it, “Pilot? No way! Artist? No talent! Waitress? I can do it.”_______she wrote it down. What Jenny wrote surprised Mrs.Slaton, “Is that what you are really interested in? I think you will be ______to do something full of more challenges.” Jenny felt excited, but she was still ______that she would be laughed at again. The teacher continued, “Everyone has their own talent. If you don’t go for your dream,______will do it for you.” Hearing that, with great courage she wrote down her old dream.

Mrs.Slaton’s words ______Jenny a lot. After ten years of hard work, Jenny’s dream came true. She became one of the first three women ______in the world. Stick to your dream if it’s what you really want!

5 . As we all know, swimming is great fun. But it often comes with _________. Drowning (溺水)is a real possibility even for the most _________ swimmers. However, this dangerous situation can be changed with watchful eyes. This summer in Florida, two young men helped to _________ one drowning death.

Griffin Emerson, a 6-year-old child, swam in an apartment block’s pool. He enjoyed the pool’s _________ area. But he began to _________ toward the deeper part slowly, struggling to keep his head above water.

All that came about as no one else, including his mother, seemed to _________ him. Griffin’s frightening _________ in the water happened over the course of a full minute, ending up with the child going down to the _________ of the pool.

However, one young man, Noah, did find Griffin in the pool. He told his friend Weston to call 911 at once. And Noah _________ to jump into the pool to ____________ the 6-year-old.

Noah made it to Griffin, caught him and ____________ him to the surface and then to the side of the pool. Before the emergency services’ arrival, Noah and Weston tried their best to ____________ life-saving steps. ____________, a few minutes later, Griffin recovered his breath.

Griffin’s mother was ____________ to Noah and Weston for their heroic actions. But the two young men thought it was no big deal and hoped that this act of kindness would be ____________.

6 . Young Emily, aged four, is deaf and uses British Sign Language to communicate. Her mother, Tanya Andrews, took her and her six-year-old brother Hugo to ________ Santa ahead of the Christmas holiday when an elf (精灵) made a ________impression on the family.

The family ________ the sweet story of how Melanie Boyeson, playing Holly the Elf, helped Emily tell Santa what she ________ for Christmas. Tanya took her ________ to the Airmyn Park Primary School for the outing, in which the school’s head teacher, Natalie Dodds, said that the elf was hired (雇用) ________ for Emily.

Tanya said the ________ was magical, as she had taken her daughter to four different Santa meetings over the years and been falsely promised a Santa who ________ sign language.

“Emily being able to ________ freely with the elf and tell Santa what she wanted was just________,” Tanya said. “Seeing what was in front of me, I was in tears. It was so amazing to see Emily’s face ________.” Emily was a little ________ at first, as she had never interacted with Santa before, but Holly the Elf ________ her to speak with Santa.

Tanya was so glad that her daughter’s dream ________ and hoped it would be a(n) ________for others to enjoy experiences similar to theirs with Santa. “I hope the barriers (障碍) for the deaf community will be removed one day,” she said.

7 . Mark and his friends decided to visit Mount Matterhorn, a beautiful mountain in Europe this year. It can not only be _________ from countless viewpoints, but also offered a pyramid-shaped peak.

Since it was a very hard climb to the top, they _________ to make camp at the last possible spot with one of the most extraordinary views, and decided to _________ the next day, not intending to finish the whole climb.

While Mark was _________ how a handful of people were making their way to the _________, he changed his mind and invited his friends to join him. _________, no one was willing because it was too dangerous, and they were _________ with where they were. Luckily, there was a group of climbers who were just _________ past and were on their way to the top. Mark quickly asked them if he could join them, and he was _________.

When they eventually reached the top, Mark was __________ as it’s so beautiful and it’s not at all that __________ as told. A climber next to him, pointing his finger at the __________ where Mark and his friends and many others had set their camps, smiled and explained. “You see, most people in the crowd right there end up satisfied in the __________ of their journey.” continued the man. “Many of them never think that they have the potential to achieve more, so they remain part of the crowd their whole life.”

Hearing that, Mark __________ how many times he was like those who have a(n)__________ they want to reach but not follow through till the end.

8 . I was once a painfully insecure teenage girl. I felt ________ all day, and rejected by my classmates. My ________ comfort was to be the stage assistant at our school’s theater.

One day, to my ________, actors from the great Oregon Shakespeare Festival came to perform for the school. One of them was Barry Kraft, who was a ________ leading actor. As I ran around backstage ________ him, he treated me with the casual ________ that he would show for friends in his living room. I ________ thought he was just making small talk to ________ the time before the performance.

That summer, I traveled to ________ Kraft’s performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. During one performance, I gathered my ________ and dropped him a note at intermission (中场休息), saying that if he ________ he could see me in the 15th row. Almost immediately I ________ sending the note, thinking he was too busy to see me.

After the ________, surprisingly, he was waiting for me! He smiled broadly, saying, “Would you like to visit backstage?” And off we went. Every time we ________ someone, he introduced me and said, “She helped me a lot.” I found him ________ sincere with people. It was then that I ________ I’d been wrong about him that day.

My ________ just increased 800%. After all, a well-known man like Kraft was willing to take the ________ to communicate with me, which ________ I mustn’t be so bad. From then on, I felt like a different person. ________, I successfully entered my dream university.

9 . A preschool teacher decided to add a very special person to her list of students: Her beloved dad!

When teaching kids how to read and write, Lucy Floreshas has given more _______ about the fact that her dad never even had the _______ to learn how to write his own name. For this reason, she decided she could be the _______ teacher for him!

Lucy says her Spanish-speaking dad, Luciano, was a little _______ at first. His desire to learn, _______, was greater than anything and so the _______ began! Lucy posted a TikTok video of her dad where he was _______ how to write his name, which now has more than two million _______-and counting! She also posted a video where she _______ a little bit about her father’s background.

Her dad was born in Mexico and had a ________ childhood. Because of poverty, he had to drop out of school after first grade so that he could work to help ________ his family. At 15, he moved to the States. Ever since then, he’s been working in ________. Because it’s not something where he has to write frequently.

“Overall, I’m so excited that he chose to ________ to learn.” said Lucy.

Lucy gives her dad writing lessons three days a week for two hours, and the hard work has ________ Luciano can now write his name and is even starting to read books! His story has ________ touched thousands of hearts and proves that it is never too late to learn.

10 . In Connecticut, &teacher made a big decision that would change the course of her life and her new student’s.

Jenna Riccio, a busy elementary school teacher, encountered a _________ that would test her pity and kindness. In 2019, Jenna _________ her new student, Nate, fell ill and needed emergency surgery. Unfortunately, the blood infection _________ the amputation (截肢) of his loge and left arm. When Jenna _________ everything and went to see Nate at the hospital, she found him alone. She decided to bring him _________ by being there for him. However, her _________ was not just an act of kindness. Jenna learned Nate had been _________.

Concerned for his well-being, Jenna _________ his social worker to apply to adopt Nate. Feeling _________ the worker agreed to help. __________, when she told her decision to her then-boyfriend, Tim who’s __________, too, he readily agreed.

Two years later, things __________ for Jenna in her love life. She and Tim got married, and disabled Nate was the ring bearer. However, their family didn’t become __________ until 2022 when Nate became their legally adopted son __________. Today, he’s in the 5th grade, growing healthy.

“Every night I go to sleep, thinking, ‘I’m very __________. I’ll repay them for their love,’”Nate says. __________, Jenna and Tim are overjoyed to have Nate in their lives. They can never __________ life without him.

Jenna’s decision to adopt Nate shows the __________ of sympathy and the __________ impact it has on someone’s life. The love and care she showed Nate __________ his life, and their journey as a family is the proof of their love and care.