1 . A homeless man hung out in front of my barbershop. He _________ people now and then, “Hello, my friend!” However, he didn’t ask for _________ though he desperately needed it to purchase goods. My shop assistant showed much _________ to the homeless man, too. The next day, she called me for a _________ —$2 and promised to repay it the next month. I saw her _________ it to him. I walked over and_________ him in for a rest. He looked much _________ after we washed his dirty face and cut his messy hair. We _________ him warmly, so he left with his stomach full.

He _________ my assistant back when he got his social security check. That’s when we knew his name was Jack. “I sometimes lose it when I have money on me,” he said. So eventually I became his “bank” for his check and __________ it as needed. In the __________ of items, we became friends.

One __________ evening, I found Jack lying on the ice outside. He had a fever. I quickly sent him to the hospital. His doctor thought of me as his relative and took my number. __________, I became his emergency contact. He __________ under the care of my assistant and me. __________ my kindness, he offered to help me with the chores in the shop. Meanwhile, I taught him how to cut hair. He was a (n) __________ learner. As was expected, he became my competent assistant soon.

Business in my barbershop was so booming that we were __________ in working every day. A few years later, we had __________, and we each had to manage a shop. Now we have the __________ power to do charity work. We believe with good thoughts, __________ things will come.

2 . From a young age, Allison Gilbert loved to write-and now the award-winning _________is telling the story of a trailblazer (先驱者) whose ambitions were similar to hers. Gilberts___________ book is Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson:___________America’s Most-Read Woman. It is the first biography ever written___________Elsie Robinson, one of the most influential news___________in US history.

Gilbert, 52, got ___________in journalism by writing for her high school and college newspapers and went on to ___________major stories for The New-York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and other news outlets. She ___________The Week Junior that she discovered Elsie Robinson while___________her mother’s belongings after she died. When she found a____________attributed to Elsie Robinson and did some____________about her, Gilbert learned that Robinson was a great journalist in the 1900s. She was the highest-paid female writer at the Hearst media____________and the nation’s most-read columnist.

Gilbert was ____________by Robinson’s story. “She had no money, no resources, no connections, yet she had a ____________,” Gilbert said. “And through her own determination and hard work, she ____________it.” Gilbert wrote Listen, World!____________others could learn about Robinson and she would not be ____________ to history.

The advice for aspiring writers Gilbert____________with The Week Junior comes from Robinson. “Elsie would say that nobody is anointed (选定) a writer-you are a writer____________you say you are,” Gilbert said. “She would also say that writers____________, so just begin.”

3 . Games and sports teach people a lot of useful skills, as well as helping them to ____ fit and healthy.

Lots of people love team sports. They enjoy being a member of a team so they have the chance to ____ the matches and events. They also enjoy sharing the ____, or failure, with others. While playing, people have to ____ each other, otherwise they can never win. At the same time, it is important to respect rules, because no game will work ____ everyone plays according to them. Team games also teach you that ____ is not the end of the world. You will always have another opportunity (机会) and you will be more successful against your competitors next time.

_____, there are many people who just don’t like team sports. They have to find other ______ to exercise. Perhaps they had a bad ____ with a kind of sport when they were younger. Maybe they feel embarrassed (尴尬的) because they think they’re not very ____ at a sport. They worry about disappointing (使失望) the rest of the team if they ____ badly. Team sports are ______ about competitions, and for some people, this is too ____. So individual (个人的) activities are more suitable for them. ____, during the COVID-19, many people exercise in their houses by following work-out (锻炼) videos posted online. Hundreds of free workouts are produced online every day, so you can have your own personal ____ without leaving your own house.

Whether team sports or individual activities, always lead positive lives!

4 . We’ve all had a wrong number text before, but how often do they lead to years-long friendships? For Jamal and Wanda, a _______ text has resulted in seven years of shared Thanksgiving dinners!

In 2016, the 17-year-old Jamal received a text, _______ from his grandma, asking if he would _______ it to Thanksgiving that year. After exchanging a few _______ , it soon became clear that the text’s sender, Wanda, _______ , was not his grandma. She invited Jamal to the _______ though, and after Jamal _______ the exchange on the Internet, the pair went viral.

Spending Thanksgiving together has become an _______ thing for Jamal and Wanda. The year of 2023 will _______ the tradition’s eighth anniversary. Their friendship has gone from strength to strength, even through ________ like the passing of Wanda’s husband, Lonnie.

Wanda said, “Jamal ________ me that age made absolutely no difference. When Jamal came along, my husband and I and Jamal and his girlfriend, we would go out eating dinner through-out the year together and we would just lose all track of ________ . One time, we were at a restaurant for three or four hours and I couldn’t ________ we were there that long. We kept talking! It was just such a ________ conversation.”

Thanks to the wrong number text, the two have developed a deep friendship. The pair have even gone into ________ together, launching a water company.

5 . Hardly had I finished my work and left my office building at 9 p. m. on a Saturday when it rained cats and dogs. I noticed a man wandering around my car the moment I _______ the parking lot.

He was alone, _______ with cold, and he was looking around every few seconds. It was then that it _______ me that I had forgotten to roll the car window up and that was _______ where I left my wallet.

I ran and called out to the man, _______ he didn’t take the money and make a run with it. I was too tired to _______ him.

“Are you the _______ of this car?” the man asked, raindrops on the roof of my car making his voice _______.

“Yes, I am. And who the hell are you?” I replied with an unfriendly _______.

The man went on to tell me that he was a ________ nearby and familiar with every face and every car here. “This morning, several young men walked up ________ to take the money in your car. I would not let that happen. I came over and frightened them away, ________ to call the police. The young men ran away immediately. I was waiting for you here so that the car and your money would be ________,” he said.

When the man gave a clear ________ of what had happened earlier, I ate my words out of________ I knew I wronged him.

“Why didn’t you take the money?” I asked him.

“I beg, sir. But I don’t steal!” He replied determinedly and left hurriedly.

6 . Joshua “JJ” Rowland, a 2-year-old boy, had been missing for 24 hours. It was believed that he left his home while his mom was_________. When his mother woke up, he was missing.

Over 500 volunteers helped in_________the baby. Nearly 24 hours passed._________, they could find the baby nowhere. “That long period-everybody starts_________the worst, and it’s hard not to. How can all these people search all this and not_________a clue (线索)?” Roy Link, one of the_________, said. He decided to start searching on his own.

When he came to an open field, he was met with a(n)_________—two wooded areas with an open space in between. He_________the forest on his left and heard the first cry. As it got louder, he_________JJ. He could sense that the boy was__________. The 2- year-old held onto him closely and wouldn’t go to any place without him. “He had scratches (划痕) all over his arms and legs, but he really looked in good__________. You know all the bad things start going through your mind, but then finding him healthy and alive, it’s just ... wow,” Link said. “And I was__________that he managed to survive a day in the wild. Some adults wouldn’t have made it that long either.”

Online commenters__________Link for saving the 2-year-old and named him the “Man of the Year”. Link was__________about such a big title. “How could you not go when you heard that there was a need for volunteers to search for a 2-year-old child?” Link said. “I was just doing the__________thing.”

7 . When I was a child, I loved skateboarding. It brought me endless ______ . But after graduating from college and entering the workforce, the pressures of my job gradually led me to ______ this pastime. Several years later, while walking around in a park, I ______ a group of children skateboarding. It was like a clear ______ of my own childhood passion.

As I watched those kids ______ glide (滑行) on their skateboards, it was as though the wheels of time were turning backward. The ______ of the wind in my hair, the sense of freedom, and the excited feeling of skateboarding came rushing back. I longed to ______ those moments.

______ by the young skaters, I made a life-changing decision. I dusted off (拂去尘土) my skateboard, which had been quietly ______ in my store room for years, and took it to the local skate park. It was a bit ______ at first. But with each passing day, I ______ my balance, and the pure (纯粹的) joy of skateboarding returned.

Skateboarding became my ______ from the stress of work. It reminded me of the beauty of life’s simple ______ and how important it is to hold onto the things that make us ______ happy. My rediscovered love for skateboarding was a powerful ______ in treasuring the wonderful moments life has to offer.

8 . A group of students from Merchant Taylors’ School recently wrote sweet letters to homeless people. Their sweet _________ were attached to scarves and hung around the city _________ people in need would know they’re _________, said Michelle Langan, who started the _________.

About 150 kids between ages 8 and 9 _________ the project. Langan said that she was inspired to create the project after hearing about a _________ concept in Canada. She began _________ scarves with the help of donations, buying others from charity shops. Then, she _________ to get kids involved to educate them on the subject of homelessness, as well as add an additional element of _________. She visited their school to __________ awareness around the subject and then__________ them to write the “love” letters. It was clear from the start that the students were committed to __________.

“The kids really took the project to heart, and thought __________ about how their messages could raise someone’s __________,” Langan said. “They asked a lot of questions about homelessness, and were very __________ about what they could do to help.”

While the scarves would help keep those in need __________, the messages, Langan explained, would __________ help uplift them.

The notes certainly did not __________. Langan said that when she went to distribute the scarves around the area, she was met with __________.

“One homeless man put on the scarf __________ and carefully put the card in his pocket,” she noted. “He said it meant a lot to know that people cared.”

9 . Life, as I know, has changed. My beloved nanny, a stand-in parent in the absence of my father, had cancer. It was terminal.

As she watched Getaway on television, she talked to me that she’d never_________Australia and that she would never later. I_________the sadness, tears streaming down my face. Overwhelmed with much grief, I_________the power of Facebook and the collective strength of human empathy. I raced from work to_________strangers on the internet. “My nanny was ill and she will never see the world. Please send her postcards so she can see the world from her armchair. I can offer nothing but_________.”

Surprisingly, one afternoon, a postcard from the United States arrived in our letterbox. That simple postcard was to me a beacon of light in a lonely and_________chapter. I held it in my hands, read and re-read the words, feeling something I hadn’t felt in a while—_________. From that day, our letterbox became the_________for postcards from all over the world. Tears of happiness mixed with_________fell onto those postcards.

My dream of armchair travels became a__________. We travelled the world together. Her living room became a departure hall. Her bed became an airport lounge and our flights__________daily. Whatever she shared became__________. Our very last flight departed on a warm morning in early August in 2018. My dearest travel companion__________on in another time and place.

Among the hushed memories, the__________, over 100 of them, made their final journey to Nanny’s farewell. My nanny, a woman who worried she would never see the world, but did it without regret.

I have recovered from great loss knowing that life consists of first greetings and final partings. Flights arrive and then depart. People are__________to us, and taken away.

10 . I grew up around books. I remember opening my parents’ _______ book Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce and thinking: They might have never opened the _______ from the sign of the dust (灰尘), and with so many obscure words in it, why did they _______ it? In spite of this, I could sense the magic of buying it, and I carried that sense of _______ into my life.

In the past, I had hundreds of books in the house. They _______ my bookshelves, and the books got in the way sometimes. They gathered around the chair where I _______ on to watch TV. They _______ the space on my ottoman (凳子) where my feet were _______ to go. I thought I needed more _______ for my books. Since my work is to write about books, I have some forms of ________. But there’s more to it than that. That is I always had the ________ of holding a book, reading a book, and buying a book.

Though many books I ________ may haven’t been read, nothing can stop me from buying them. ________, with many books around me, there will always be an opportunity (机会) for me to pick up a book ________, and it takes me back to ________ times.