1 . My dad screamed, “Walk the dog. son!” So I also_______, “Emily! Come on girl, time to _______!”As she bounded (跳跃) towards me, I smiled slightly at the way she _______since her legs were too small to keep balance, I _______ down to greet her, giving her head a gentle kiss before we went out. I walked down the block, Emily bounding quickly ahead of me, _______to reach the park. We arrived at the end of the street, stopping just across from the _______and waiting for the light to change, Emily bounding in _______. I took a deep breath, but it seemed those several seconds were too long for the happy puppy at my feet. Emily suddenly got free from my_______and dashed towards the pavement.

I moved to run after her, but a car was shooting fast in front of me. By the time it had left my _______, so had Emily. I crossed the street after her, calling, “Emily! Emily! Come here, girl!” but she________. I could feel the ________enveloping me as I found her gone.

But when I came back home, I was________out. I walked to the front door to ring the doorbell but no one answered. I sat down on the front steps, tears in my eyes and I________in the cold, pulling my coat tighter.________, I was unsure of what to do next when suddenly I realized the meaning of ________since I felt lonely without the company of my dog.

2 . Emily loved reading. She used to be very shy. She _________ talking to others. So she turned to _________. In 2019 her dad got sick. It was very serious. Books became an even bigger comfort for _________.

Emily’s dad got better. And she came up with a plan to _________ others.

Emily started a book drive in her hometown. She _________ books. She took them to _________ being cared for in hospitals. _________, she has collected more than 10,000 books.

Emily and her father are very close. When her father learned of her plans for the book drive, he wasn’t surprised. “She was always interested in books,” he says. “_________ she always wanted to do things for the neighborhood.” Emily runs the book drive herself, but she gets some help from her _________. “We do the driving,” her dad says.

Emily still runs the book drive. The memory of meeting the children she helps sticks with her. “It was the ____________ day of my life,” she says. “I realized I wanted to do this type of work forever.”

3 . Cats bring bad luck. Cats cannot be trusted. This is what I was taught when I was growing up. I ______ cats.

And then I married a woman who was brought up with cats. So it was unavoidable that she would want us to ______ one. My parents-in-law lived with Maggie, a big cat that made me quite ______. When we used to take our baby daughter to their home, I watched Maggie ______. Whenever she went near my daughter, I ran to ensure that Maggie did not ______ her. My wife always laughed and told me Maggie wouldn’t hurt our daughter.

______ from my wife to get a cat became greater after we had two more children. Under pressure, I finally gave in and ______. And then Masala came to our home. Our children loved the new “ ______”. They played with Masala and slept with her. At first, I was a bit ______. I was not sure what would happen next. But slowly I started liking that small animal.

We were happy with life. But then, something ______ happened, and my wife got lung cancer. This terrible time was also when I came to really ______ the cat. Masala provided my wife with good ______ . She stayed by my wife’s bedside around the clock. My wife fought the disease bravely but didn’t ______ at last. After my wife died, Masala also ______ me during my darkest days. Her warm welcome after I came home meant a lot to me. Masala helped me ______my prejudices (偏见) against cats. She really taught me a lesson.

4 . We have an English corner in our classroom. Every morning many of my classmates come to the corner. My teacher Miss Zhang comes here, too. At the corner, we all speak English.

The corner started last year. At first, there were only _________ students because many were _________ to speak English. After several weeks, more and more students came here. At first, some students just _________ to the other students. I was one of them. I was afraid to speak English. I thought someone would _________ me, but I wanted to speak. I always spoke English in my heart. My teacher went on saying, “Don’t be afraid. Open your mouth.” I tried and tried to open my mouth. At last, I said, “Hello!” to the teacher. The teacher was very _________. She said “Hello!” to me at once. From _________ on, I began to speak English. I work hard at English and I try my best _________ more. I learn _________ my teacher and my classmates at the corner. Now I can speak a little English. Every Sunday morning, I come to the corner _________.

It’s a good __________ to speak English. Please join us.

5 . It was a sunny weekend. I had planned to go mountain climbing in the suburbs with Daniel. However, a sudden heavy rain that morning disrupted my plan. Looking out of the window, I couldn’t help feeling a little ________ as the rain poured down.

However, Daniel ________ , “Since we can’t go mountain climbing, why don’t we go to an old ________ in the city? I heard there are many interesting shops and delicious food there.” I thought it was a good idea and _________. We braved the heavy rain and arrived at the old neighborhood. Although the sky was still ________ , the old buildings and unique atmosphere of the neighborhood attracted us.

We walked through the narrow streets and admired the ________ shops on both sides. A retro-style coffee shop caught our attention and we decided to go in and rest. In the coffee shop, we tasted the delicious coffee and talked about our daily lives. ________ , a strange figure walked into the coffee shop. He looked ________ and lost. His eyes fell on us casually and seemed to be looking for something. Out of ________ , we took the ________ to talk to him. It turned out that he was a photographer and he had just lost an important memory card which contained his works of many years. He had been searching for it in the neighborhood for a long time, but still couldn’t find it.

After hearing ________ his troubles, we decided to help him search for it. We searched around the neighborhood and asked many people, but couldn’t find the memory card. Just when we were about to give up, a little kid ________ to us with a memory card and said he had found it by the roadside. We excitedly took the memory card and after checking it was ________ , we gave it back to the photographer. The photographer looked at us gratefully with tears in his eyes. He said, “Thank you very much. This memory card means a lot to me.” We felt happy that we could help him and it added more meaning ________ this unexpected trip.

This experience made me realize that life always has unexpected surprises and twists. Sometimes, ________ your plan is not a bad thing and it may bring you a more wonderful experience.

6 . My first job was at a fast-food restaurant called Carroll’s in my hometown. One spring day my next-door neighbor _________ me to apply for work with her there, and I agreed to have a try.

One little _________ was that I wasn’t 16 yet, so I just changed my birth date on the application from July to _________. Luckily, they didn’t ask for any ID to prove my _________, because there were few applicants for the job. Both of us were _________.

The pay was _________, only $1.60/hour with no tips. I worked at the _________ and only boys were allowed to work in the kitchen. I got a chance to make milkshakes, though, which I considered kind of fun. I also _________ the relationships with all the other workers, who were mostly easy-going teenagers.

It was great to _________ different diners. The restaurant was located on a __________ entryway into town, so all kinds of people came in. One day a man in plain clothes __________ but ordered many signature dishes. When he came to my counter to check out, I was __________ to find he was my idol.

Besides __________ about my age, I also failed to inform the manager that I was leaving in June to attend summer camp, so my first job only lasted a few __________. It has been long gone, but the __________ in the restaurant remains a sweet memory of my life.

7 . Sammie Vance, 14, knows there’s nothing worse than feeling left out. For years, she’s been helping those kids make friends. What she has been doing is ______ the Buddy Bench program. Originally, the idea was that anyone at school who was feeling ______ could sit on the “buddy bench”. That let other kids know someone needed a friend. The idea quickly ______.

Sammie got the idea for the ______ at summer camp in 2017. She thought it would be ______ to have a buddy bench in her school, so when she got back, she ______ the idea to her headmaster, teachers and her parents.

Getting ______ for the project was just the first step. “There have been a lot of small ______, like money,” Sammie says. To reduce costs and be ______, Sammie decided to make the bench out of recycled material. So she rallied（号召）her ______ to gather bottle caps.

Word of the project got out, and soon Sammie was getting ______ from people in broader regions — all 50 states, and in the end she ______ more than 1,200 pounds. A company called GreenTree Plastics was able to ______ these into three benches.

______, Sammie helped other schools acquire benches. She has   ______ more than 20 benches to schools and parks by now. Her ______ of kindness continues to spread far and wide. ______ all the kids her project has helped, Sammie benefits from it, feeling grateful for how it gave her ______ in so many different aspects of life.

“______ as some acts of kindness can be, they can make a significant difference and lead to a chain reaction,” she says. “You never ______. Just be kind, in general.”

8 . I knew that my first day of senior high school would be challenging. I was _______ that I would spend my first day in senior high school.

On Monday I was _______ for my first day of senior high school. My backpack was _______ with materials I needed, such as pencils, notebooks and so on. I hoped the first day of senior high school would go _______. Finally the first day of school _______. As I walked into the classroom, I saw my first class was _______. I didn’t do well in math. Doing math at first in the morning could be _______. I was surprised at what the math teacher said, “_______ wherever you’d like. There are no fixed seats in math class.” My math teacher was _______ very nice, and I like her from the start. My next class was English. My English teacher was Ms Popstar. She was so knowledgeable that we ________ her. After lunch I had a biology class, I figured the day was closing out and I didn’t feel too ________ about senior high school.

I knew this year was going to be a ________ because I started to realize that I was growing up to be an adult. I would ________ my classes. There were many fun and unknown things for me to ________ in senior high school. I ________ some new friends and new teachers that were so nice and welcoming on the first day.

9 . Once there was a boy in Toronto. His name was Jimmy. He started drawing when he was three years old, and when he was five he was already very ________at it. He drew many beautiful interesting pictures, and many people _______ his pictures. They thought this boy was going to be ________when he was a little older, and then they were going to________ these pictures for a lot of money.

Jimmy's pictures were quite different from other _______ because he never drew on all of the paper. He drew on ______ of it, and the other half was always_______.

“That's very clever,” everybody said. “_______other people have ever done that before.”

One day somebody asked him, “Please tell me, Jimmy. Why do you draw on the bottom half of your pictures, ______ not on the top half?”

“Because I'm small,” Jimmy said, “and my brushes can't _______very high.”

10 . Labor is important and necessary for everyone. I am glad that I learned the_______of work when I was a child.

I grew up on a farm. We had to care for such _______as cows and sheep from morning till evening, seven days a week. _______during school vacations and on weekends we still had_______work to do. I was paid for my work. From the age of 10, my parents_______me $1 an hour. Because of this, I learned how to_______money. When I was only 11, I saved enough to buy a ten-speed bicycle. In high school, I_______a job in a nearby town during the summer to save money_______college. I learned how to manage money at an _______age.

I also learned the satisfaction of work well done. The young animals were my responsibility. Most________often had problems with their young cows getting sick. I was proud that my young cows were usually ________. I loved it when the whole family ________together to get in hay (干草) before a rainstorm. It was exciting when we jumped out of bed in the middle of the night to________the cows in the field after they had escaped through a broken fence. Doing hard work at an early age________me how valuable it can be. And from these________I learned to be confident and self-disciplined (自律的).