1 . 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.

2 . My car suddenly broke down on a highway when going to a wedding with my daughter.

People shouted _______ at me and flashed their lights as they _______ away.

You cannot believe how _______ it is on the highway flowing at 120 km. When you’re _______ , you are a part of the flow and you don’t feel the speed. When you _______ , you suddenly realize how dangerous you are. As a 16-wheel truck _______ my car’s back window, I found the truck stopped in order not to _______ me. Cars piled up behind me and tried to miss one another and _______ hitting me. We felt terribly _______ for them.

I called Discovery Insure to assist. When we were waiting, I saw the truck ________ behind us and a man ran up quickly. I said I couldn’t pay him and my insurance service was on the way. He said, “I don’t want money. Someone will probably hit you. You aren’t ________ here.” Then I knew his name, Godfrey.

Godfrey placed a warning ________ behind my car. He took us to his truck, ________ to pull my car onto his truck, and drove us to safety. I was ________ , saying he was so kind, and the world needs more people like him. Godfrey waited until Discovery Insure came. Knowing we were OK, Godfrey drove off as ________ as he appeared! He was gone, but I will never forget his kindness!

3 . In 2020, Daya Brown was just in her second year of high school and was taking classes online. So she didn’t have much to do and had_______time to research which universities and colleges she might like to attend after _______ from Westlake High School in Atlanta,Georgia._______ , she came up with a list of about 70 schools.

When it was time to _______college, she spent three hours a day over four months filling out applications. When her email box filled up with_______, she was very surprised. She was _______ by 54 of 70 schools. What’s more, she _______ more than $1.3 million in scholarship (奖学金).

“It was a great _______, because I put in a lot of hard work,” said Brown. She was then a senior at Westlake, where she was the Student Union president.

Brown finished high school on May 17,2021. She had another _______ before she went to Duke University. She wanted to tell other teens how she did it. Her ________ for students was to start early. They should focus on schools with top programs for what they want to ________ and apply for many scholarships, even small ones. “There are no shortcuts to doing the work, so spend time________what’s out there,“ she said.

“But most importantly,” she said, “students should ________colleges with a good idea of who they are.” For Brown, she ________ her poetry, her stage performances and her leadership, which________ her to create a production company and a podcast (播客) for teens.

4 . My childhood is closely associated with the Yellow River. My father ______ to take me with him on his trips to Longyangxia Reservoir. At Longyangxia, I was ______ by the beauty of nature and as a child, I wanted to stay there and ______ up with the Yellow River. Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, praised the ______ water of the Yellow River. He saw it as coming down from heaven and ______ the people living on the banks of the river. However, in 1997, for about 330 days, not a single ______ of water from the Yellow River went into the sea. ______ are not the only punishments given by nature. A friend of my father, a university professor, is doing ______ on the Yellow River. According to him, since there is no longer enough water to ______ the mud, the river may soon change its course ______ we allow this situation to continue. This is the ______ of unbalanced growth. If we’d taken care of the vegetation in the upper and middle ______ of the river, we would still be able to ______ it as Li Bai described it.

In fact, people have begun to ______ the problem. I have seen farmers _______ trees on mountain slopes in Shanxi province. I have seen them ______ up the hillsides carrying heavy buckets of water collected several kilometers away down in the valley to ______ around the trees. These farmers are ______ helping our Yellow River, just as the river has helped them. These unsung heroes gave me the confidence that with hard work of us all, we and nature will grow together, and ______ in the future, we will be able to drink the ______ water from the Yellow River-our mother river.

5 . Brenda Reyes was honored as the Texas Business Woman of the Year. It is a great honor________by the Texas Association of Commerce (德克萨斯商会) where there are 9,000 members. This honor is given to the businesswoman who is the most________among them. So every businesswoman in Texas admires the________. In 1993 Ms Reyes was________into the University of New Orleans, and when________university she decided to join the army. She________a lot in the army from 1997 to 1999.________the experience she got in the army, her tour to New York gave her the________to search for and make use of her strengths. After leaving the army, she________her talent and knowledge for computers, so in her spare time she________computer programs for her friends and they all liked what she programmed. At first she________to help others, but soon she realized she could turn her knowledge into a(n)________. She opened her first software development business in 2001 in her hometown of New Orleans and later________her company to Dallas. Though she faced some________situations, she kept pace with all of the technological changes. She achieved great________and expanded her business. The result is________by her recognition as Texas Business Woman of the Year. Brenda Reyes has set a good________and given all of us a lesson in using our own________skills and interests.

Experts on business believe that it takes seven years of using your strengths________you can make money with a new business. If you work hard as________as Brenda Reyes did, success will come to you. In fact, as an important expression goes, “The major key to a better future is YOU.”

6 . Brendon Birt accidentally took a wrong turn down a street in Red Oak, Iowa. But it turned out it was exactly where he was _________! As he drove down the road, he saw heavy smoke from a family’s home. He knew the home was on fire. Without thinking, he stopped his car, called 911 and ran towards the _________ Brendon ran up and saw most of the downstairs was already full of _________. “I just believed there had to be someone _________ inside the house because it was so late at night,” Brendon said. “I knew I had to act _________. Every second that was going by was just getting worse.” He _________ to the side of the home and started pounding on the windows with _________, calling for the people to get out.

The homeowner, Tender Lehman, was _________ that night but her three younger children ages 8, 14, and 17 were inside being looked after by her _________ son, Bryce Harrison, 22. No smoke alarms __________, so if it weren’t for Brendon’s warning, they might not have ever __________ Brendon was relieved (放心) when he saw the four children run out of the __________ to safety. Days later, Tender came home and went to see the man who __________ all four of her children. “I’m so __________,” Tender said. “My kids wouldn’t have __________ it, without your kind action.”

7 . I’ve had some pretty serious issues with some people in my community recently. As a result. I stopped away from them and did my best to _______ them. But the emotions that I felt from those events continued to _______ me and it began destroying the relationships in other parts of my life. I ended up making the _______ with people I really cared about.

Yesterday, I was _______ to attend a conference of community because of a major work event. 1 was _______ about this event for days and it was pretty _______ when I first saw the people I _______ with at the conference.

_______ all of this, the strangest yet most _______ thing happened to me: there were no ________ or drama with anyone. Some of the people didn’t even know who I was and it was ________ that a lot of people have moved on from the events. There wasn’t anything to worry about anymore. No one was holding ________ against me. I looked at them during the ________ and apologized in my head and ________ them. After doing this, I felt ________ in myself.

Through my recent practice in compassion, I ________ that when you forgive others, you ________yourself as well. This important ________ on forgiveness helps me to ________ things from a bigger view. I know people still ________ me during that time. I wish them the best life that they can have. And then, I move on.

8 . Fritz Sam was driving his Uber car when he picked up Jemimah Wei, who was on her way to LaGuardia Airport. ____Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, Fritz saw a building on fire.

He asked Jemimah if she’d mind him pulling over to check it out. With Jemimah’s____, he went out to help.

Outside of the building a crowd had ____, and Fritz joined them in calling for the people inside to come out. And when someone said two people were ____inside, he was faced with the ____ of   staying safe out on the sidewalk or running into the ____ building to help those that remained.

Fritz chose the latter. He ____entered the smoke-filled building and went up the stairs. Then, he met one man who said he would ____the instant he picked up something ____ . So Fritz made a mental note that he’d ____the man before heading out of the building. Going up another set of stairs, he ____a woman who was too____ to move. He hurried forward to ____her and headed downstairs. Before heading out himself, Fritz listened for the man he’d ____seen. When he heard movement down the stairs, he ran back and rushed the man to the ____Back inside the car, Fritz got Jemimah to the ____ , and all in time to catch her flight. When landing, she ____photos of the burning building on a social networking website to ____her Uber hero. Jemimah’s thread caught the ____ of millions, making him so popular. Because of his ____Uber has decided to cover his vehicle rental fees for a year.

9 . An old woman had been blind for years. One day she called in a doctor to try to _________ her eyes, and made an agreement _________ him. If he could cure her blindness, he would _________ a large quantity of money from her, but _________ her eyes were still blind, she would give him nothing.

After this _________ was made, the doctor went to treat her _________, time after time. But on every _________ he took something away from her house, _________ all her things, little by little. And when he had _________ everything she had, he cured her and asked her to give him the money she had __________.

When the old woman could see again, she __________ that none of her things were left in her __________, so she decided to give him nothing. As she __________ to give him any money, the doctor took her to a judge. The old woman, __________ before the judge, said, “This man here speaks the __________. I did promise to __________ him money if I could see again. __________ if I continued to be blind, I would give him __________. Now he thinks that I am cured. But I have to say that I am still __________, because before I was blind, I saw many things in my house, but now, I am not __________ to see a single thing in it.” At last, the doctor got nothing.

10 . Extremely tired from work, I finally made it back home at 1 a.m., to find my husband drinking whiskey with a stranger in our lounge. What an unusual _________!

Out of _________, I had to stay up and _________ them. “Hello!” I said, waiting for some kind of introduction or _________. They said nothing, just smiling at me.

“So? What’s going on then?” I asked. My husband replied, “I _________ a new friend at the pub. It’s Andre Agassi, the world No. 1 tennis player.”

I was now _________. It was late and this was no time for childish _________.

“Agassi” _________ into his back pocket and _________ in it for something. Then he pulled out a photo.

“I’m not Andre Agassi, but you do __________ me. The last time you saw me, I looked like this.” He __________ a passport photo of my cousin, Ali, at age 5. I had not __________ him since my childhood.

At the age of 12, I was brought to America, leaving all my family behind. It was __________ and I missed them all terribly at first. But __________, they all became a distant memory.

Ali, a child then, once had a passport photo taken. He looked so __________ in it! This photo became a favorite within our entire family. Everyone got a __________.

And now, here was this __________ man, sitting on my sofa. I buried my face in my hands and just __________. Ali and that little photo __________ my childhood life, my entire family, my history! Suddenly they were all __________agai, no longer a vague memory.