2 . Ashoka advocates a world where everyone is a change-maker. The ability to adapt to and _________ change is essential for everyone to live well in a changing world. At the _________ of the Everyone a Change-maker movement is a _________ to transform the way children and young people grow up so everyone has the power to create change for the _________ of all.

Rebecca’s family keep cattle, sheep and goats and depend on farming the land for food. At school, Rebecca’s teacher says, “We have had many days _________ rain. Without plants to eat and water to drink, our animals die.” Everyone in the class is _________. They are worried for their families, their animals, and their _________.

At the school library, Rebecca searches for information about rain. She learns a new _________: “Climate Change.” What can just one girl do to help the whole world? “It is a big problem for the earth,” her teacher explains. “But there are some things we can do to help, like planting trees to make _________ stronger.” As Rebecca walks home, it is hot and she can’t stop thinking about the__________ of rain. Then she has an idea!

“Let’s write a letter to the President of Kenya,” Rebecca says. Rebecca takes the letter and shares it with her classmates. They each ask their families to __________their name at the bottom to show their __________.

Rebecca and her classmates share the __________ of protecting the environment and practical steps to take __________. Working hard for a better world, Rebecca says, “If I do succeed in my project, the world will be beautiful. The cattle will be fat, the children __________ well. Everyone can be a change-maker.” Rebecca is now thinking about what to do next for nature and her community.

3 . As a child I found comfort and joy in being creative, so I knew fairly early on in life that I wanted to do something art-related. Later, I knew about a ______ who was trained at City & Guilds Art School. I was in total awe of her talent and it really encouraged me to see her breathtakingly ______ pieces of art. With that, I visited C & G and ______ a woodcarving course.

Because I only started carving, I didn’ t ______ lots of pieces. One of my favourites was my seahorse in oak (橡树) it was my second ______ project. It was my first experience with oak and I ______ how hard the wood might be. I knew that it was going to really ______ me. It took me a good week to ______ it but I gave up halfway. When I looked at my unfinished piece, I started to feel ______ with it as it just looked so ugly.

As my ______ came to an end for the Christmas break, I took it home and I probably wouldn’t even ______ it. Because of Covid I ended up spending Christmas in my own flat, so I decided to take out the seahorse and ______ to work on it.

Slowly it began to ______ and take shape. The end piece was far from a ______ example of carving skills, but it taught me a most valuable lesson—not to give up and to keep my ______ in control.

4 . The military dad, Fred Grooms Jr, was fortunate enough to be present in all of his son’s important events except for this year. Thankfully, he was given a ________ to go home earlier than scheduled.

Today, it was one of the most ________ football games for Fred Grooms III and his team. He was standing side by side with his teammates as they shook hands with their ________. Then the head referee (裁判) gave them last—minute ________. He was listening carefully to the head referee but was a bit ________ when they were asked to pay attention to the ________ of all referees. “I felt somewhat strange that we were told to look at... to ________ and memorize their faces,” he said.

He looked carefully at each one and was ________ to see that the man across him was not just a(n) ________, but his dad! The two immediately shook hands and ________ each other. The other players and referees were ________ and cheering as the heartwarming reunion was taking place.

Grooms Jr. was excited and at the same time ________ when he saw his son walking toward him. He had not ________ him for almost a year now. He said, “when I left, he was three inches shorter than me, when I came back, he was two inches taller than me.” Grooms III’s team was ________ for the playoffs (季后赛) and his dad would surely be ________ his every game in the stands.

5 . For most birds, eyes are essential to life on the fly. _________ when studying how birds might adapt to our quickly changing world, ornithologists (鸟类学家) have largely overlooked eye size in favor of traits such as wing length and beak shape. Now, though, a lost “treasure trove” (宝库) of avian (鸟的) eyeball measurements offers a new view.

In 1982 University of Chicago graduate student Stanley Ritland carefully _________ the eyeballs of nearly 2,800 species. He never published his data, but Ian Ausprey, a graduate student at University of Florida, has just given it a second look. His analysis _________ previous work in Peru showing that smaller-eyed birds adapt better to changing habitats.

“We’re able to show strong correlations between eye size, the type of _________ the birds use, as well as their food-searching behavior,” Ausprey says. Ritland’s measurements indicated an inverse relation between eye and _________ size. Birds with smaller eyes tended to be _________, traveling across many habitats; larger-eyed species had _________ ranges, concentrated around the equator (赤道) and often covered by dense forest shade. The study suggests that smaller-eyed birds can _________ handle varying light levels as they travel, whereas larger-eyed birds struggle with bright light outside of their dim woodlands.

Ausprey had already seen this _________ in Peru’s mountainous cloud forests. In these biodiversity hotspots, he says, “eye size is __________ related to how birds respond to agricultural disturbance.” Larger-eyed birds tend to __________ from brightly-lit agricultural and deforested landscapes; smaller-eyed birds adapt. The new study __________ Ausprey’s Peru observations to a wider variety of birds elsewhere, including parrots and woodpeckers.

Allison Shultz, an ornithologist involved in the research, praises it for highlighting the importance of birds’ light __________. Her own work has found a link between bird coloration and environmental light, and she looks forward to future research exploring how light pollution and deforestation might further shape bird eyes. “I’d be very curious if we’re actually seeing eyes __________ to better match newer light environments,” Shultz adds.

Ausprey says the study underscores the importance of __________ habitats across the light-availability spectrum (光谱), especially areas of dense rain forests, to protect birds with eyes of all sizes from habitat loss.

6 . At 111, Dr Edith Kaufmann was the second oldest person in the UK. I met her when I ________ at a care home for the elderly in London six years ago. I didn’t realize it would be the start of a close ________, where the age gap spanned eight decade.

At first sight, I was ________ by her self-confidence. Her doctorate (博士学位) told me she was intelligent and ________. From the beginning, I never felt as if Edith and I ________ conversation. Edith could have a full conversation with me about anything, and that her memory stretched back so easily, ________ even small things which took place 100 years ago.

She was also ________. She loved dancing as a child and I recall, only a few weeks before her death, ________ she smiled when I played the waltz and we ________ hands and danced along to the music. Although towards her later years she was ________ to a wheelchair, she still participated in the exercise classes.

As I ________ Edith each week, I realized that I was going as much for me as I was for her. I learnt to take the words of ________ when I could get them. When I have ________ over the years, and small decisions have weighed on my mind, I have ________ nothing more than the opportunity to regain my perspective (视角) on life and what actually ________.

9 . It was Wednesday afternoon and Jennifer McCarthy had a lot of questions. Her college freshman son had just _______ home. The reason was that Vanderbilt University would move _______ online because of the coronavirus (新冠病毒). His return is not just a fun homecoming. It’s _______ and confusing for everyone, _______ for her.

_______ thousands of parents of college students across the country, McCarthy isn’t sure what comes next. Does she make sure her son is out of _______ before 11:30 in the morning, his typical spring-break rising time? Does she adopt a study rule or class time, _______ online classes have started? College students don’t _______ to be told what to do, but there have to be some rules.

For many parents, this sudden return isn’t just _______ their young adult’s life; it’s changing theirs. The quiet ________ they had gotten used to is back to chaos. And for people like McCarthy, whose 83-year-old father lives with them, this ________ comes with new rules that will be hard for a college freshman to observe or even fully ________, such as no parties and no sports.

This isn’t the natural ________ of things. Babies are born and they grow into children who are taught how to be ________, they move out and on and it’s back to a quiet house. There is________ normal about this time we’re living in. But if everyone stays healthy, this is all temporary.

10 . In the Orient young bulls are tested for the fight arena (竞技场) in a certain manner. Each is brought to the ring and ________ to attack a fighter who sticks them with a sword. The bravery of each bull is then   ________   with care according to the number of times he shows his willingness to charge in spite of the sharpness of this sword. From now on, I will recognize that each day I am ________ by life in this manner. If I persist, if I continue to try, if I continue to ________forward, I will succeed.

I will persist until I succeed.

I was not delivered to this world in defeat, nor does failure exist in my vocabulary. I am not a sheep waiting to be killed by my shepherd. I am a lion and I _________ to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. I will not hear those who weep (哭泣) and ______, for their disease is infective. Let them join the sheep. The slaughter house (屠宰场) of failure is not my _______.

I will persist until I succeed.

The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the ________; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are ________ in order to reach my goal. Failure I may still   ________ at a thousand step, yet ________ hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it ________ until I turn the corner.

Always will I take another step. If that is of no use, I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.

I will persist until I succeed.

From now on, I will consider each day’s ________ as one cut of my knife against a big tree. The first cut may cause not a shake in the wood, nor the second, nor the third. Each cut, of itself, may be tiny, and seem of no ________. Yet, from childish cuts the tree will ________ fall. So it will be with my efforts of today.