2 . How long have you been going to the same hairdresser or barber? It’s a question that gets us thinking about the unique friendship we _______ with our stylists over the years.

You have confidence in each other. You have a laugh together and regularly _______ each other’s news. Plus they try to make you look and feel your best. That’s a(n) _______ not only for a great friendship, but also for the perfect relationship with your hairdresser. When you find a good barber, it’s something to _______.

Many people have _______ experiences with their hairdressers. I’ve had my hair cut by Claire Miller for more than 15 years. She’s taken me through all kinds of _______, and she’s helped me find a totally new look now during the post-chemotherapy (化疗后) period with dyed blonde hair! _______ hairstyles, there have been communications about the joys and trials of motherhood, the _______ of health problems and changes in our careers and lives — the stuff of 15 years that we have _______ in the three salons Claire has worked in.

While she cut my hair recently, we chatted about that special __________ that forms between hairdressers and their clients. “You hear so many stories from them, and sometimes you feel like a counselor __________ a hairdresser. You assess their needs, and you know how to react to them,”says Claire.

For Claire, the customer interaction is something she loves about the job and that she has __________ developed throughout her working life. “It’s about being human and __________ about people. A lot of my clients are my friends and like family now. It’s my __________ to cut their hair, making them look and feel good, but I also want them to feel __________ by the experience,” laughs Claire.

3 . A passion for sewing has been in my family for several generations, and with a few lessons from my grandma and brother, I became pretty _________ about it. So I decided to give scrunchies (布发箍) a try! My first _________ was a disaster, but I kept on trying until I eventually _________ the art of scrunchie-making.

When I was first _________, I would sit at the machine for hours on end, just managing to _________ an item I was eager to sell. I didn’t get bored or _________; I was just so determined to complete and _________ get it on the market.

I began selling my items to my friends, and now I’m selling dresses as well! My _________ have won me a reputation, for each item was _________ with great love and care.

My family and friends have offered me their constant __________ and feedback (反馈). They helped me learn how to run, __________ and plan a whole business. Most of the time, their feedback is __________, but they’re not afraid to tell me if I could have done something better. I’ve also had to __________ negative feedback, which cables me to be more __________ when something doesn’t work out the way as I planned.

My advice for anyone looking to start up their very own __________, would be to start small and build yourself up. Enjoy, and trust in the journey!

4 . Deliverance(解救) for Delivery Drivers?

ZOOOOOOOOM!!! A gust of air, the hum of spinning wheels, and a flash of color whizzing past. I’m sure that we have all stepped into the crosswalk, at one time or another, and experienced this sudden, heart-stopping ______. I am, of course, referring to delivery drivers ______ through crossroads to deliver takeaway food.

Over the past few years, delivery drivers have been criticized, fined, and even ______ for breaking traffic laws across China. Delivery drivers often ______ red lights, disregard speed limits, and pay little attention to pedestrian crossings. But they also often pay the ______ price — each year, it seems like fatal injuries involving delivery drivers are increasing. ______, since delivery drivers are usually poorly paid, how much blame do they really deserve for running against the clock?

Well, it ______ to be a complicated issue. Recently an article titled “Delivery Drivers, Stuck in the System” was shared widely on social media. According to the article, ______ between delivery services Ele.me and Meituan has caused each app to take increasingly extreme measures to out-do(超过) the other. This has included the shortening of delivery time windows. It has been ______, in part, through a combination of rewards for early delivery and severe punishments for late delivery. Over time, the platforms have only increased these ______ on drivers. As a result, drivers find themselves in a dilemma(左右两难的困境)：break traffic laws or, in some cases, lose hundreds of yuan in earnings for late deliveries.

According to surveys and reactions online, ______ care much whether their deliveries are a few minutes late, while most believe that it is not worth risking someone’s life for. In response, Ele.me and Meituan have added a combination of features to ______ delivery times for slow elevators or bad weather conditions.

Although these new ______ cannot solve the underlying problems of intense competition or the inherent dangers of driving, they should, in some measure, start reducing some of the pressure on drivers. In the meantime, as ______, we can help to make life for delivery riders safer and easier. ______, be a considerate person and don’t leave them waiting for too long. If you see a food delivery guy rushing toward you on an escalator or into a door, consider standing back and letting him go first. After all, they are putting their lives on the line just to deliver our food.

5 . I have to admit I’m an old-school reader. Put simply, I   _______old books.

Alone in a new city to _______my first daily newspaper job, I was feeling vaguely anxious as I dipped into a used   bookstore to_______my   mind. The   shelves, full of the smell of the past, quickly_______me. One of the occupational hazards (职业病) of journalism, my chosen_______, is a desire to stay on top of the Next Big Thing. With their cracked spines (书脊) and yellowed_______, the titles in the shop usefully pointed me toward the longer view. “No_______to get too worked up over today’s headline,” they seemed to say. “ There is not much _______ under the sun.”

Francis Bacon’s essays are always a ready antidote (解药). “Prosperity (繁荣) is not without many___ and dislikes,” Bacon wrote, and“___ is not without comforts and hopes.” For me, that comfort and hope often come from a second-hand____.

Reading deeply from the   past can be   at   least as______ as   following the day’s   news. Don’t _____     missing out on the___ gossip. All matters of fact, which a man did not___ before, are news to him.

6 . Human beings have somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat ( 壮 举 ) of damming a river. Its benefits come with_________ — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design. _________ lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have_________. Wherever man-made light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life-migration, reproduction, feeding-is affected.

For most human history, the phrase “light pollution” would have_________. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth’s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, _________ candles, torches and lanterns, as they always had. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to_________ London than to see its dim collective glow.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were a(n) _________ country. As a matter of fact, among mammals (哺乳动物) alone, the number of species active at night is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being_________ by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop.

It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need a_________ view of the night sky for our work. __________, like most other creatures, we do need darkness. __________ darkness is pointless. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as__________ itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn’t operate as it should, causing various physical discomforts. So fundamental are the regular rhythms of waking and sleep to our being that__________ them is similar to altering our center of gravity.

In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to__________ our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best__________ against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.

10 . When studying at the University of Pittsburgh, I went home to Virginia to see my family one weekend. “Look, I got a best sportsman’s jacket!” I said. Dad _________ took his eyes off the TV. I had wanted Dad to _________ me all my life, but nothing ever seemed _________ enough. I shook off my _________ and went back to Pitt. A month later, Mom called and said that Dad’s diabetes (糖尿病) had gotten worse. “I’m coming home,” I said. “You’re going to need help.”

I _________ a college near home. Every Sunday, I went home and helped Dad. To my sadness, he _________ everything I did. “It’s not you,” Mom explained to me. “What _________ him makes him feel bad about himself. His anger was _________ his frustration (挫败).” I was so surprised to hear that. Now I saw his pain went beyond the _________ pain, and that made me try harder to ________________ him.

One day we were watching a football game. “I’ll bet you $2 million that Dallas wins,” I said: Dad looked at me. “You don’t have $2 million,” he ________________. After that, every time we watched the game, we made ________________ bets. Dad laughed more easily and he was more willing to accept my help. Our relationship was ________________.

That spring, a week before the National Football League draft (选拔), we had a party at our house. After everyone had gone, Dad and I were sitting in the living room. He caught my eye. “It doesn’t ________________ if you make it or not,” he said. “I’m proud of you.” Maybe our relationship would never be perfect, but I would never ________________ that he wanted the best for me.