1 . Do you find yourself pulling away from others, especially if you’ve experienced a deep disappointment? Maybe the most ______ thing most of us can do is to be with people when we don’t feel like being around anybody.

A man who lost his wife to cancer found himself wanting to be ______ . He dropped out of his community and ______ all of the activities he and his wife were used to for year. He ______ socializing at work and returned ______ home to an empty house after work. He turned down ______ from friends and co-workers.

His friends became ______ . One came by to visit and invite him over for supper the next evening. The two old friends sat in comfortable chairs by a ______ . The visitor extended the dinner invitation and ______ him to come, “You may need to ______ others to share your pain.”

The man responded that he felt better ______ staying with other people. “And ______ ,” he said, “it’s just too difficult to get out anymore.”

They sat in ______ for a while, watching the wood burn in the fireplace. Then the visitor did a(n) ______ thing. He took tongs (火钳) by the fireplace, reached into the fire, pulled out a ______ coal and laid down by itself on the earth. “That’s you,” he said.

The man sat in silence, ______ the red-hot ember. Neither man looked ______ as the once hot coal gradually transformed into a black lump. After some moments, the man said, “I get the ______ , my friend. I’ll be over tomorrow evening.”

We cannot ______ in any healthy way by ourselves. The leaf needs the branch. The branch needs the trunk. The trunk needs the roots. And the roots need the rest of the tree. We are ______ . And in that connection life and vitality (活力) are found.

2 . In the early 1990s, Eric Domb, a highly successful lawyer, came up with the idea of building a bird park. His father-in-law ________ the idea in the beginning, but when the ________ started to make shape he backed out. Domb thus had to ________ money from former clients, his two brothers and father as well as a bank to build a zoological park known as Pairi Daiza.

After the park opened in 1994, his inexperience led to many ________, but he pushed on with his venture (冒险). By 2000, the park was turning a profit, and Domb’s ambitions were ________. The park needed more than birds, he believed, and other creatures and cultural gardens would help turn it into something ________.

Since his childhood he has been fascinated by Chinese ________. In 2006, he built the first Chinese garden, Dream of Han Wu Di in his zoo. It was said to be the largest Chinese garden in Europe. Domb kept ________ new elements. It finally took more than six years to complete the project.

Domb felt ________ by the joint panda breeding program. Domb and his people spent the following months ________ building giant panda houses with no guarantee that Pairi Daiza would be fortunate enough to ________ giant pandas. The huge enclosure built includes a pool, cave and ________ plantation.

Now, Domb is eager to tell how he ________ a pair of giant pandas, Xing Hui and Hao Hao in February 2014. The sense of ________ is all the more profound in that Pairi Daiza is one of the few private zoos outside China to ________ giant pandas.

3 . Bob Charland used to work as a nightclub security guard. He was beaten so severely in the_________ twice by people he’d kicked out of the bar, most recently in 2015, and it _________ his and severe headaches. “My doctor said my brain looked as though it _________ to a 70-year-old man,” said Charland.

There was no way to _______ he disease, the doctor said. _________ it would take his life. He thought about contacting Death With Dignity. He didn’t want to be a _________ to anybody, he said.

But then, he received a call from an advisor at an underprivileged (社会底层的) school wondering if he had some extra bikes he could _________. He, in fact, did have some extra bikes. “That _________ my thought,” said Charland. Some people with a _________ disease set out to __________ and see the world. Charland decided to devote whatever time he had __________ to giving bikes to underprivileged children.

Since the spring of 2017, Charland has spent more than $ 1, 000 of his own money __________about 1,000 bikes for __________. He works with police officers to help deliver the bikes and __________ to local schools, adjust seats and handlebars and give children bicycle safety lessons.

Many of the children he brings bikes to live in high-crime neighborhoods, and their only previous experiences with police have been __________, he said. He often takes extra time to connect with them and is now known in some neighborhoods as “Bob the Bike Guy”.

“To spend time with these kids and see their smiles is an amazing feeling,” said Chardland, “Sometimes, for the first time in a long time, they see that somebody __________”

He devotes every Tuesday night to turning shabby into functioning, pretty noes. Chardland said he thinks he chose bikes as a way to help kids because the years he’d spent riding a bicycle as a boy in his hometown of Alplaus, NY, were among the __________ of his life. He was raised by his stepfather who “worked many extra hours in construction to __________that bike,” Chardland said, “Every kid should have one.”

“My brain will continue to get __________ and at some point, I will die,” he said, “But I’m not there yet. Why not __________ doing what I love?”

4 . Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008) is a science-fiction writer. His fictional HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-wrote, _______ many of today’s fears about artificial intelligence. I have a copy of a long-forgotten 1987 book of him July20, 2019: Life in the 21st century. I did not plan on mentioning it until the 50^th anniversary of the first moon landings, which its title reflects. But I am _______ my own word because re-reading it has given me new insight.

Till now, the book is _______ in almost every detail. Clarke suggests, for example, “amplifiers(放大器)” to make us more intelligent, but makes no _______ of the Internet, which was in development at the time and was _______ 15 years earlier by Joseph Licklider of MIT, when he was working at the US defence department.

Being wrong is just one problem I have with Clarke’s book. Like most future-gazing, it sees tomorrow _______ in terms of technology. He viewed technology as humanity’s saviour(救世主). Technology is marvellous, but it has had little or nothing to do with the best things about the world, and it will play a _______ role in casting out humanity’s worst things: poverty, ignorance and madness. What do I mean by the best things? The outlawing of racism; rights for disabled people; liberation for women; the rise of _______ but the fall of superstition(迷信); social security, animal rights and greater life expectancy.

I love what technology is doing for the developing world, where electric lighting, washing machines and the Internet have _______ progress. But even better for that world will be universal education, the elimination of corruption(腐败), the rule of law, and democracy. Technology will play its part, but it will not be ________.

Mare Demarest, an Oregon-based digital thinker and author, believes technology tells us truths regardless of our nasty tendency to get distracted, to miss the moment, and to ________ data to make it mean what we want it to mean. “Gathering data is mostly done to ________ the human lot one way or another. Making sense of data, ________, will remain a human activity,” he says. “We are better at ________ than any machine we will be able to make for a very long time to come.”

We’re not progressing humanity or changing the world. That’s what ideas do, and machines don’t have ideas. Technology is only the ________ of our desires. It isn’t the future; we are the future. It’s funny that even Clarke stopped short of predicting machines with imaginations.

5 . With the pandemic under control, China’s film industry is thriving. And it’s doing so without any help from Hollywood.

The country’s box office _________ $775 million over the lasts Lunar New Year weekend - its most ever for a single weekend. Much of that was due to Detective Chinatown 3, a heist comedy made in China, which grossed $424 million _________. That was the biggest opening of all time for a film in a _________ market. Avengers: Endgame only made $357 million during its opening weekend in the US in April 2019.

These massive figures prove the movie business in China is well on its way to _________. Since China began allowing foreign films into the country in 1994, films produced outside of China routinely accounted for more than 40% of the _________ of the Chinese box office. Hollywood is _________ for about a third of the highest-grossing films in China of all time.

But, even before the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s homegrown film industry was growing and depending less and less on Hollywood movies.

As recently as 2017, films produced outside China _________ 46% of the country’s box office revenue. In 2020, with Hollywood all but shutdown, foreign films accounted for just 16% of Chinese box office revenue.

The first few months of 2021 suggest that _________ could continue. Most big-budget Hollywood films have been _________ until later this year - and yet China’s theaters clearly don’t need any of them to have their own success. China’s huge weekend at the box office came even though most of its theaters are still operating at 75% _________. Its impressive totals, _________, may have been helped by the country’s travel restrictions, which kept consumers at home over the holiday.

China first accepted Hollywood films into its country to boost its own film ambitions, hoping the rising _________ created by the US film industry’s funding and expertise could lift all boats. Chinese consumers responded in kind, turning out in droves for films from blockbuster Hollywood franchises like Fast & Furious.

In 2012, China expanded the quota of foreign films allowed into the country to 34 per year. That agreement expired in 2017, and still hasn’t been renewed. With relations between the US and China _________ - and China improving its own ability to produce blockbuster films - China is in no rush to codify a new pact.

If the recent box-office returns are any _________, Chinese audiences are increasingly becoming accustomed to a movie selection that is entirely Chinese. That China’s box office recovered from the pandemic is a _________ sign for the US when its theaters return to some semblance of normal operation later this year. But that China’s box office did this without Hollywood’s assistance is a far more ominous sign for the long term future of the US film industry.

6 . Madhavan stood proudly next to a young mahogany (红木) tree. It’s one of 100 he planted on his _________ in Meenangadi. His two _________ of land in the village are used to plant _________ crops—coffee, black pepper and betel nut, but the worsening environment has _________ his production.

Now the mahogany _________ is one of his only reliable sources of income, _________ him up to 5,000 rupees (卢比) a year—and all he has to do is to keep the _________ standing.

The 84-year-old _________ is being paid to plant and _________ trees through a “tree banking” program, which __________ to create India’s first carbon-neutral (碳中和) village by 2025.

Madhavan got his saplings (树苗) __________ from the village council (村委会)，which will lend him 50 rupees per __________ for every year if he does not __________ it down until 2031. At that point, the loan is written off (一笔勾销) and he can do what he likes with the trees without __________ back, including cutting them to __________ and make money.

“Every morning, I spend some time __________ these trees. I am really happy to say that except for three which died __________, all are steadfastly growing,” Madhavan said, “Sooner or later, my farm will become a small __________ filled with greenery.”

The tree-banking project gives farmers an ongoing __________ to protect trees so as to make the climate better, said Jayakumar, director of the carbon-neutral program. “The message here is that climate __________ is being linked with climate justice (气候正义), he said.

7 . I longed to visit my mom, 2, 000 miles from where I lived. Since Mom was 80 and suffered from Alzheimer’s, I realized how _________ it was to see her again soon.

In nursing home, Mom spent most of her day doing _________things — walking around and   staring out of the window. She seemed to be “all right, considering that dementia (失忆症) had_________. When hugged and greeted her, she didn’t know who was! Not _________ that her son was with her almost broke down. _________, I spent several hours trying everything to _________ with Mom, but nothing worked. _________ aware that Alzheimer’s is incurable, I still hoped for a “miracle”. Back to my hotel, I spent hours _________and wondering what else could   _________ Mom around.

The next morning, something occurred to me that might recall her __________. So took Mom to a cafe. After we were seated, Sandy the __________ asked for our order. Mom looking at the menu, I took Sandy aside, __________ told her of my plan and Mom’s __________, and ordered two strawberry milkshakes. When Sandy__________ them, Mom took one sip (一小口) looking me in the eye. “This is good Bobby.” She __________ me at last, calling me Bobby!

There’s a simple __________ for Mom’s recollection. When I was little, Mom and Dad and us Kids often __________ into the car, drove around town, and __________ stopped for milkshakes — Mom’s favourite. I’d hit upon Mom’s memory. The accidental __________ allowed me to bond.

With Mom again and I __________to do it — thanks to the milkshake.

8 . COVID-19 entered my life in the form of an e-mail. My friends and I were in a small café as I read that our university had been ______ down for the following week.

It was three days later when the ______ hit. I watched my friend throw all her ______ into a suitcase and take the next flight out of the country. Her ______ words: ‘‘better locked out of Venice than locked in’’ caused fear and ______ inside me. I wondered: ‘‘Will I be able to graduate from school?” and “What if everyone leaves and I am alone and ______ in Venice?’’

I turned to my roommate and the ______ and rational (理性的) voices of my parents. I decided to ______. We all thought it would be two weeks, maybe three and then life would return to ______ and our semester (学期) would go on as planned.

Things changed so fast, I felt like a ______ out of water, turning between thoughts and ideas every time I read another news ______. Every day my phone ______ new information that made me uneasy. Life was ______, but life was continuing.

Then Italy went into a full lockdown and I was restricted to Venice. Two days later, I joined the few ______ exchange students for pizza but we were told we must only ______ two at a time and stand a metre away from each other.

I am taking ______ of this time to do yoga on the roof, take Italian lessons on YouTube with my roommate, cook on our hotplate and ______ afternoons studying and writing on my balcony.

I have learned things that I could have ______ learned in a lecture hall. I have learned how to step back and let go of ______ my semester abroad could have been and instead ______ the small things that fill me with happiness.

9 . In February 1970, a group of activists gathered in Vancouver, Canada to discuss a planned nuclear test on the Alaskan island of Amchitka. They eventually agreed to sail to the test site and _________ against the explosion in person. At the end of the meeting, the chairman raised two fingers to the room and shouted “Peace!”. After a brief pause, one young attendee _________ with a monumental line: “Let’s make that a green peace”. The group were so _________ the phrase that they named their first boat the Green Peace.

Over the last 50 years, the _________ movement has become so closely associated with the colour green that it’s almost impossible to see a green poster, label or recycling bag without thinking about our planet’s future. But though that connection is the product of a very recent crisis, its _________ go back some way. We have _________ green with nature and its processes for thousands of years. Indeed, the very word “green” comes from the ancient Proto-Indo-European word ghre, meaning “grow”.

The human species, which emerged in the green forests and grasslands of Africa about 300, 000 years ago, has a special _________ link with green. Our eyes might even have _________ specifically to see the green in plants. Unlike most animals, who are red-green colour blind, we humans developed a third cone cell, an additional photoreceptor enabling our _________ to spot ripe red and yellow fruits against a backdrop of green leaf, and to distinguish different green leaves from each other. In daylight conditions, human eyes are more ____________ to green than any other colour.

With the rise of farming, we started to use green as a(n) ____________ for nature and its processes. Archaeologists have recently found an extraordinary store of green jewels in the Levant, ____________ some 10, 000 years. The researchers believe that these objects, many of which had come from hundreds of miles away at great cost, were chosen because they ____________ young leaves and might have been used by early farmers to pray for rainfall or fertilise crops.

The ancient Egyptians, who were farming the banks of the Nile from about 8000 B.C., ____________ use green as identification for their crops. Egyptian painters often represented their god of ____________, Osiris — who was responsible for flooding the Nile’s banks, filling the soil with nutrients and pushing the first green shoots up through the fields — as a bright green being.

10 . At our residence, we made sure a small lawn (草坪) space remained green by watering regularly. I live in an area _________ by a fairly large garden. There are a number of fruit trees _________ here along with many plants and lots of grass. That _________ the flying beauties — the birds visiting the space regularly. At first sight, the garden appears very _________ but actually many birds live in it or visit it _________ . Some people keep birds in _________ to listen to their songs. I say it is _________ better for the birds to live freely.

Every morning I am awakened by the shrill _________ of a magpie-robin. The sound is so sweet and I just lie in bed listening to the songs _________ the bird flies away. Small plants and bushes provide good __________ for insects and very small birds, while larger trees will attract visits __________ more birds and mammals. They come to sing, __________ a bit or look for food. So it is always a(n) __________ to see them. I just sit quietly and they __________ their business undisturbed.

It’s easy to attract birds to your __________   however small and close it is to a city. I have seen the spotted-dove, pigeon and various other little birds which I cannot __________. They sing, dance and __________ their beautiful colors. It is quite a(n) __________. On the other hand there are those annoying little sparrows that come into the house to __________ food.

__________ to say, the surrounding area is being developed and the wildlife is being chased away or destroyed.