1 . Julian is a 26-year-old grassroots artist. With a bold and humorous style, his creations have earned more than 6 million ________ on several social media platforms and sold more than 60,000 pieces on the video platform.

However, Julian’s ________ to art was not easy. He was born in a poor village. At the age of 6, Julian began to teach himself to ________ by using waste bricks to practice on walls due to the unaffordability of art supplies. Despite facing ________, including the disability caused by an injury at the age of 11, drawing remained Julian’s passion.

________ the increased popularity of short videos, he could ________ his works online, gradually gaining success. Julian's life also got improved by selling paintings. His dreams, however, are even ________. “My goal is to share my work with more people and I also want to ________ and motivate them with humor,” Julian said. Many of his paintings reflect his journey of ________ obstacles. For Julian, it seems that the inspiration for creation is ________. In his eyes, any scene or word can be a source of inspiration.

Some media called Julian as “the Grassroots Picasso”, but he modestly rejected the ________, saying he is just a “painting hobbyist”.

Julian hopes to engage in more exciting adventures, including organizing exhibitions at home and abroad to encourage more young people to ________ their dreams. “I always believe that it is ________ to learn to persevere. If you love something, then put in more ________. The experiences we have are ________ the foundation for the future, and we will always leave our mark.” Julian said.

2 . “All my children show concern for people,” says Mary Killough, director of the Illinois Department on Aging. Once when they _______ someone with a serious disability in the shopping mall, they asked me, “Mommy, is that person OK? What happened? ”They even told me they were _______to help him if necessary.

Knowing that children constantly (不断地) learn everything from their parents, Killough always _______ positivity and kindness at home. She tries to make lessons in compassion (同情) heartfelt and _______.She often tells her boys, “we all need _______at some point in our lives, and there are times when you need to lend a hand. The _______ have become part of their life.”

One evening at the gas station, Killough and the boys saw an older woman who was _______ as she tried to find out where she was and drive home. It was starting to get dark, and they tried to give her _______, but she couldn’t understand. The Killoughs led her all the way to her _______. “Although it took an hour or more, no one ________. There’s nothing we’re doing that’ s more ________ than helping each other,” she told them.

DiAnne Crown, now an author on Illinois Times, also ________ compassion at home as a young child. Her parents would take her to ________ events at KumlerFood Pantry where local hungry families can receive food. There was ________ money on the counter for a family in need. “My son and I have ________ the same kindness toward families in need many times since,” DiAnne says.

3 . For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of exploring diverse cultures is observing how ordinary and sometimes even insignificant things can ________ from place to place. The coffee culture is a great example. I love sharing with people how Shanghai is a perfect ________ for me for many reasons, and coffee is one of them.

After I returned to China in September 2022 to study at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, I soon developed a(n) ________ with two other international students. During the lunch break, we would have a cup of coffee at the campus cafe every day. What we ________ was that people did not work during that coffee break; instead, they ________ savored (享受) their conversations over coffee. So, for us too, it felt wrong to continue our studies at the coffee shop and thereby disrupt the ________.

Perhaps drawn by this ________ energy, more students joined us day by day, and our group of three became a big party. Coffee ________ us as we greeted newcomers and got familiar with other local students. I feel this is how the coffee culture ________ here — to make people a little bit happier, and to ________ you up when you feel cold.

That’s why I always prefer to get my coffee ________ instead of ordering online — for the sake of ________ the general mood of the place. It is not something ________; it’s a feeling in the air that makes you want to come, ________ it in, and be nourished by the good energy. It’s like an upbeat song from your childhood — once you ________ it, you start smiling.

4 . Monique Marshall knew she had to do something for her mother after her stepfather passed away. Monique’s mother, Karin, who is 84 years old, was living in her apartment in New York City ________, about 2,500 miles away from Monique in Los Angeles.

Monique ________ she had to do something for her mother. ________, Monique’s husband, Demille, was all on board, willing to do anything to ________ Karin in her advanced age. That’s when Monique and Demille brainstormed with their friends and neighbors, Pierre and Carmen, who happened to be ________.

After much thought and planning, they ________ a solution of a “glam garage (豪华车库)”. Monique and Demille decided to turn their old and drafty ________ into an apartment space for Karin. But as is always the case with any construction project, they encountered ________. However, it was nothing too big that kept them from completing the ________. And the results are ________!

Karin is in love with her new living space and new city. When Karin first ________ into her glam garage apartment in Los Angeles, she couldn’t ________ her eyes.

“It was overwhelming,” said Karin. “I was so ________. Monique had done all the furniture. I didn’t have to do anything.”

What a wonderful and ________ solution that came about because of love, care and ________.

5 . With more free time after completing her examinations, Rachel, a 16-year-old student of the School of Science and Technology, Singapore, decided to bake for friends and family. She was surprised when they came back with a lot of positive ________.

Then she read some ________ stories of people who stepped forward to help others with whatever talents they had. And that ________ her to use her baking skill to help the less fortunate.

Last year, she started making and selling the Bear Cookie and gave most of the ________ to Global Village for Hope, which is a local non-profit organization that has set up more than 100 community ________ in villages in Thailand. These projects help to ________ the less fortunate with money for food, better education and drinkable water.

So far, Rachel has ________ almost $6,000 from her bake sales.

“It can be really ________ at times but I find it all really worth it when my ________ tell me that they really enjoy my cookies. To my surprise, many customers ________ extra money on top of what they paid for the ________. This was really heart-warming as I never knew that I could use my cookies to ________ someone’s heart and inspire them to donate too,” Rachel said. “Growing up here, many young Singaporeans can ________ a good education, something—that not every person can get. I ________ believe that every child deserves a proper education. I feel that at 16, I should also do my best to give back to ________. If I have the ability to help others, why not?”

6 . I stood at the departure gate in Boston, preparing to cross the Atlantic. Although I had made the journey countless times before, it never really got much _________ to leave my home and family. I looked at my mother, our eyes full of _________ and as we wondered when we would see each other again she handed me a _________, saying it might help me feel better. Little did I know that it would not only help me feel better, but would also teach me one of life’s greatest lessons.

Now, back in Switzerland, I opened my mother’s package. It was a book of recipes; I laughed out loud as I _________ through it. All the sections were _________ but the one section on _________ was full. Here were handwritten cards _________ things like “Double Chocolate Fudge,” many of which were created by my mother. Then my heart _________ as I noticed what she had written:

Make some desserts. Remember all the wonderful times we have had together, and have them now with your family.

She was telling me: we must grow up and _________ our own lives, even when it sometimes __________. But there was more to be enjoyed. Recipes in hand, I remembered Christmases of joy and __________ homemade treats. Now, years later, Mom was telling me about what really __________ in life: the only real gifts we can __________ for our children are the beautiful memories of our time together. It is never too late or too early to create beautiful memories and it is now my __________ to give them to my children.

I hope that my girls will marry the boy next door. But wherever they may be, I hope that they will one day open my mother’s recipes. And like me, they will find a recipe for __________.

7 . With ADD (注意缺陷障碍), I could look straight into your eyes and not hear a word you’re saying. I could _________ to be listening to you but my mind was somewhere miles away.

In middle school, I took Language Arts with Mrs. Smith. That first day, she told us her rules. Then I knew I had better “_________” myself. So I told her I might need to take home some reading assignments because my _________ is better in a quiet setting and asked her if I could use my word processor at home to do written assignments because my “fine motor skill (精细动作技能)” problems made my _________ look messy. However, she refused, saying it was _________ for my classmates. The result was that each paper came back with Mrs. Smith’s flaming red X’s.

One day, again I asked her for _________ to complete the written assignment at home. But she still refused my _________. Therefore, to prove to her, or rather to myself, that I could do the work under the right conditions, I took the assignment home __________

That night, the story, which had seemed so _________ in class, became quite clear to me in the __________ of my room. It was about Louis Braille, a __________ boy. During his time, society prevented the blind having much of an education, but Louis Braille “defended” himself. He developed a reading system of raised dots for the blind, __________ him to read like his peers.   I was like Louis in my class. I was made to learn like the other students.

I used my word processor to set down my thoughts and explain myself __________Louis and many other famous people different in their learning styles and abilities, hoping Mrs. Smith would finally understand me.

As Mrs. Smith handed my paper back, I found an A instead of her usual X. Below were her __________ red penned words, “See what you can do when you __________ yourself?”

8 . Mauro Prosperi is a police officer who gained worldwide fame after getting lost in the Sahara Desert in 1994. Mauro ______ the 1994 Marathon of the Sands in Morocco, a six-day-long race in one of the ______ environments on the planet.

During the ______, a sandstorm caused Prosperi, then 39 years old to lose his _____ at last. One day after going off track, he found himself in an abandoned house in Algeria. In order to ______, he killed and at e bats. To make himself not thirsty, he was ______ to drink his own urine (尿), and lick dew (露水) off rocks.

______ he would never be found, he cut his wrists with a pen knife from his supplies. ______, it was such a dry heat that the ______ clotted (凝结) and he would go back into the desert and ______ to find help. For nine days he ______ through the desert and ate insects. Finally, he found a small village. From there he was flown to a ______ , where doctors said his liver (肝脏) had almost completely failed.

Having traveled 180 miles ______, Prosperi lost 35 pounds in body weight during his race in the ______; it took several months before he could eat solid food again. But he has remained a(n) ______ runner and even returned and completed the race in 2012.

9 . Chris Turnbull, 39, finished the touching 3,856 km run on September 16, in the Sydney suburb of Manly, becoming the quickest runner from Perth to Sydney. He _________ the current record holder Achim Heukemes, who completed the distance in 43 days in 2005. To _________ the new world record, he was wholeheartedly _________ to preparing himself.

Mr Turnbull had a(n) _________ for running at a young age. He ran his first half marathon at 9 and since then he had been _________ at plenty of ultra marathons at different times in his life.

Mr Turnbull had run every single day from his beachside home in the Sydney suburb of Clontarf to his _________ on work days. The daily cross country run _________ him to see the sights of Australia, meet amazing people and most importantly, _________ himself physically and mentally.

With his 40th birthday _________ next year, to see what was his physical and mental limit, he wanted to __________ himself to the new record.

To make it in record time, Mr Turnbull was running between 100 km and 105 km daily.He had to __________ huge trucks rushing past him on major highways, blisters(水泡), aching muscles, and being __________ of sleeping well due to the pain his body was feeling

Mr Turnbull’s wife, along with their two kids, had been tracking his __________   on a map from their home as he made his way across the continent. They were __________ waiting there at the finish line in Manly for Mr Turnbull’s falling into their arms for a loving post- run __________.

10 . The title of “Aaron’s younger brother” was earned when I had won the second place in my first tennis tournament at the age of six. Whenever I ________ onto a tennis court, it was as though a gluey name label, which had been ________ stuck onto me.

I wanted to ________ Aaron, my older brother, whose fame had reduced me to a ________ tennis player. Then came a big tennis match against Aaron. As I shook Aaron’s hand at the start of the match, I stared at him and focused on how this match was going to ________ everything.

The tennis court seemed to stretch out further than usual, but I could still ________ the confident look on Aaron’s face. He knew that my honor ________ in comparison to his. Finally, we were down to the last set, neck and neck in points. That was when the setting sun cast his figure over me, ________ me that I would always be walking in his ________ if I did not prove myself.

I prepared myself for the finishing blow, ________ of Aaron’s past matches flooding through my mind as I ________ the weakness of his smash (扣球) the ball would always fly towards the left of the court. I extended my arm to the left in anticipation of where the ball was going to land. The ball made ________ with my racket and was lobbed over Aaron’s head successfully. He could do nothing but ________ his undefeated status as champion being removed by his younger brother.

While I was still enjoying the unfamiliar feeling of ________ minutes after the match was over, a man, whom I vaguely recognized from a ________ tennis club, approached me. “What is your name, son?” he asked. A smile spread across my face.