1 . Holly Cooke wasu't a fan of weekends. Whenever Friday rolled around, she felt ________. She had no one to spend her spare time with.

She moved to London a few years ago and ________ to make new friends. Despite having high hopes of going to restaurants and the theater, she didn’t want to do those ________ alone. Cooke was especially longing for ________.

She finally found herself searching online: “How to make friends in London?” The _____proved mostly useless. Actually, Cooke found a few other women in London who were sharing the same ______. She created a Facebook group called “The London Lonely Girls Club” and invited those women to join, hoping to ________ the situation. She then encouraged them to meet for lunch.

At first, Cooke was afraid that no one would _______, as saying that you don’t have people around was really scary. ________, all five women showed up and got along well. It was a _____, and Cooke realized she wasn’t the only one experiencing ________ and she could help others in her position. After that, Cooke ________ scheduling meet-ups, and word slowly spread about the _______.

The London Lonely Girls Club has attracted a lot of people to its events, and Cooke said she lost count of how many women have established ________ through it. “It’s the reason why I’ve carried on,” Cooke said. “We won’t ________. As long as there is a need, we will be here.”

2 . Sarah sat in her office, carefully reviewing the financial (财务) records of her small company. She suddenly discovered a hidden ________ in the invoice (费用清单) from one of her suppliers. The supplier had mistakenly ________ her for a substantial order of goods, which would result in a significant financial gain for Sarah if left unnoticed.

Sarah found herself faced with a difficult ________. The extra funds could provide a much-needed boost to her ________ business. However, deep down, she knew she would think ________ of herself if keeping it a secret or pretending not to know it. She couldn’t live with a(an) ________ self and she had to make the right decision even if it ________ the loss of a chance for her depressing company to grow.

Thinking of this, Sarah picked up the phone and called the supplier, politely ________ him of the mistake and offering to pay the ________ amount. The supplier, ________ by her frankness, agreed to renew the invoice.

Word of Sarah’s ________ spread rapidly and she earned ________ of the business community. Soon her business began to take off.

The incident served as a constant ________ to Sarah of the importance of moral conduct in face of setbacks. It facilitated her belief in the power of honesty to build ________ relationships in a competitive business environment. Honesty is not only a virtue but a(an) ________ of a just and trustworthy society.

4 . I grew up in a small town near the South Dakota border. There was no Internet, and the television signals coming from Minneapolis were ________ received. It would have been a(n) ________ childhood if it were not for one of the most memorable characters of my life and the small library.

Miss Grove, the ________, was a “queen” and the library was her “realm (领域)”. She ________ no loud behavior in her library She was serious and ________, just sitting at the top of her staircase. “Reading is the way the soul breathes” was one of the few sentences she ever said. Other than that, she seldom broke the ________ in her library.

My most ________ memory of Miss Grove was the time when I forgot to ________ an overdue (逾期的) book. When I finally put it on her desk, she informed me that I had to ________ the library thirty-three cents. “I forgot,” I replied. She gave me a reprieve (延缓) and said I could keep my library card ________ I paid her in installments (分期付) of three cents a week. I left the library immediately to ________ empty pop bottles in trash cans to earn money. A few weeks later, when I ________ several pennies on her desk, she said, “Dennis, you’re still 15 cents short but I think you’ve learned the ________.” She slipped me the pennies I had just given her and said, “You can keep these.”

Miss Grove was a small-town character, but she played a ________ role in helping children fall in love with reading, especially those with ________ reading resources in the town, just like me.

6 . I’ve always wanted to attend a music festival. But as a person with autism (自闭症), the _________ of being forced into a loud group of thousands of people has always _________ me. For years I avoided them. _________, after gradually developing an attitude of trying new things, I decided to go to this year’s Reading Festival with my _________.

We arrived at the festival last Thursday afternoon only to be faced with a(n) _________ check-in line. Thankfully, we could skip it and enter at a welcome _________ for disabled guests. Soon a warm-hearted volunteer _________ us to a camping area for the disabled. Noticing me struggling with my _________, he kindly offered to carry them. He even offered to help me put up my tent. I _________ with a grateful smile, saying my friend was __________ to offer much needed help.

The next afternoon, volunteers guided us to a disabled viewing stand. It was a(n) __________ atmosphere with a sea of people from around the world dancing and singing along to their favorite __________, who all gave excellent performances.

I was surprised to see how the power of music could __________ people from different ages, backgrounds, and cultures. __________ soon became friends because we all had a shared language — music.

All in all, I __________my first music festival, which opened my eyes to a whole new world. I greatly respect the volunteers who gave up their time to help disabled people.

7 . It was January 2016, when dark clouds hid the day. Jeremy and his girlfriend, Molei Wright, were _________ for a weekend of fun with friends on the slopes in Breckenridge, Colorado. They were two _________ Colorado natives: ambitious and _________, both lovers of books, music, the outdoors. They’d been together for less than a year, but it had taken only a few dates to realise that they could be well _________. As the car began the winding climb toward the destination, the snow came earlier than they’d _________, but Jeremy wasn’t worried. He’d driven this route a thousand times, and he knew exactly what to do. However, a truck _________ them. One minute, Jeremy’s car was _________ smoothly through the falling snow; the next, he found himself pinned to his seat by the wheel and he _________ with pain. To his right he saw Molei, who was injured seriously, without motion and reaction. Jeremy fell into _________.

Henry, an officer on holiday trained in emergency medicine, was driving on the same road not far behind Jeremy and __________ instantly when he saw the wreck. While his wife calmed the trapped and __________ Jeremy, Henry worked __________. Protecting Molei’s head and neck, he carefully pulled her out of the wreckage (残骸) and __________ her chest to bring her heart back to life. Meanwhile, Henry’s wife called the emergency center, and soon an ambulance arrived and rushed Molei to a hospital, where she was treated __________. If it hadn’t been Henry’s professional first aid, Molie couldn’t have made it to hospital alive. It was really a __________.

9 . Tony, a teenager from India, is a lover of robotics. Recently, he has _______ a smart spoon, which can aid people with Parkinson’s disease to _______ by themselves. The spoon has won many _______ worldwide.

However, Tony’s original _______ of doing this was not for awards. _______ , his idea for this spoon came from his grandpa, who suffers from Parkinson. He often found his grandpa _______ to feed himself. His hands kept shaking and food kept falling off the spoon and flowing out of his mouth. Whenever he saw this, Tony’s heart _______ and he was determined to do something.

The development of the spoon did not go _______ For example, he failed to find some special electronic parts in his country and had to _______ them from other countries. Despite all the difficulties, Tony ________ in making the first model. Now the first ________ has gone through a few ________ based on the users’ feedback (反馈) . “The spoon has been ________ to be waterproof (防水的) so that it can be washed. And it needs to be deeper to hold more food,” Tony said.

Although there exist similar products in the market, they are not ________ for most people. Tony’s spoon solved the problem with its lower cost. He wished that everyone with Parkinson’s could eat without ________ on others.

10 . I grew up in Kazakhstan. Before I moved to America, I never expected that I would experience a culture shock.

The first thing that ________ me was how Americans tend to be very ________. They will start a ________ with passengers on the bus and say hello to strangers on the street. Americans become friends first and build up ________ later. However, for Kazakhs, they have to ________ that someone is good and honest before having a harmonious ________. That’s why at first we may appear ________ because we have to know someone in order to ________ them, but once we do, we are very warm people.

Another aspect of American culture that I found different from my culture was a sense of ________ and personal space. Americans feel ________ when others stand too close. In America when friends greet, they shake hands or give a short hug and immediately step aside to have some ________ for conversation. Also, Americans do not ________ to be asked their age, weight, or personal matters. In Kazakhstan we greet each other with a hug and a kiss and personal space is not a ________. Kazakhs would rather speak sitting or walking quite close to each other. Moreover, it is ________ to ask about someone’s age or weight.

Part of the excitement of living in a new culture is knowing how it differs from your own culture. By learning to ________ the culture of another country, we become more open-minded.