2 . Yesterday, my kids and I were in the costume store, getting ready for Halloween, and they saw a Donald Trump mask. “Is he a good guy or a bad guy?” they asked.

I knew they were _______ of the most negative character — Will Ferrell in the film “Batman”, who starts good but becomes _______ over the course of the plot, so I said something about how all people have a little good and a   little bad in them. Of course, I wanted to say: “Son, that man is not_______ a bad guy, but one of the worst men our species has ever_______. He had every privilege, every_______ to do good, but he chose_______.”

We have the opportunity to make this_______, every day.

Maybe Grandpa Milt was really such a_______. Decades ago, his mother, on her way home from a late-night meeting of her Jewish charity organization, disappeared. She was_______ by workmen in an abandoned lot the following morning, her clothes__________, her skull (头骨) broken. Alive but__________, she was brought to Lincoln Hospital and__________ six hours later. This tragedy left him an orphan(孤儿).

__________, grandpa didn’t seek revenge (复仇). It’s not his__________. He was the kind of guy who found a way to make a(n)__________ for himself — through excellence. Milt was hardworking, handsome, kind, and all of this made him known. He__________ from New York University with a degree and became a teacher, finally a billionaire.

Most likely, he __________ the heartbreak but toughed his way through it, charged forward, __________ a life worth living, and found peace. There is a superpower worth remembering — __________ a wrong can create positive changes in our world today.

Sometimes,__________ is the best revenge.

3 . Brenda Bongos was a girl with one big ambition to play the drums in a band. But a(n)________lay in her way. To be good enough to play in a______, Brenda had to practice a lot, but she lived next-door to lots of_______people in a care home. The sound of beating drums would really annoy them.

Brenda was________. She always tried to find a way of practicing her drums without ________other people. But without success. However,________to practice as much as she could. Brenda________all kinds of ways.

One day, while watching a science documentary, she heard that________cannot travel in space without air. At that moment, Brenda bongos decided to become a________astronaut.

So Brenda built a space________connected with a machine, which drew out all air.Inside was a________of drums. Once inside, Brenda________the machine and played like mad!

It wasn't long before she had become________. Many people came to see her play in her space bubble.________ -afterwards she started giving________out of the bubble.________ Brenda became a real musical astronaut as the government asked her to be part of a space journey, and had gone far beyond her first________of playing drums in a band.

When asked how she had________all this, she said, "If those old people next-door hadn't________so much to me, I wouldn’t have gone to such ________to find a solution, and none of this would have ever happened.

4 . Heimaey is a small island off the southern coast of Iceland of just 4,200 people. But with its neighboring islands, there ______ the world’s largest puffin colony (海鹦群). Each spring, puffins go to the islands to breed. Around August, baby puffins ______ their way to the ocean. That’s when the ______ begins.

Baby puffins leave at night by instinct (本能) and follow the light of the ______ to the sea. But they are   ______ by bright lights. Every year, a large number ______ lost. Worse still, the lost birds are ______ hit by cars or eaten by cats.

Each breeding season, the ______ of Heimaey start their own midnight ______, which is called the Puffling Patrol. They ______ to form search parties. “When you see a bird, you try to ______ it and guide it into the box,” Eldur Hansen, a 14-year-old boy said.

The next morning, they take the birds to the beach for ______. Over the years, kids have even developed a ______ method. “You do not throw them like a baseball,” Eldur says. “You hold them in both hands. Then ______ your arms out in front of you and let go.” Before being set ______, the birds are ______and tagged(附上标签) for tracking purposes.

“Thanks to kids’ help, we scientists have learned that baby puffins now weigh less. That means they have a ______ chance of survival,” says Erpur Hansen, Eldur’s dad, a researcher in the Southeast Iceland Nature Research Center.

Scientists worry puffins will ______ completely. But the kids give ______ to Erpur Hansen. “The ______ is that people can make a difference,” he says. “Each time these kids help a bird get back to the ocean, they show us that.”

5 . Ecology is a complicated thing. Given the facts that elephant damage often kills trees and bush fires often kill trees, it would be________to assume that a combination of the two would make things worse. Contrary to this assumption, ________, as the recently-published research by Benjamin Wigley shows, if a tree has already been damaged, fire can________help to make things better.

One common way in which elephants harm trees is by stripping(剥) them of their bark(树皮). Dr Wigley, who did indeed start from the obvious________, set off to find out how much worse bush fires would make the effects of this bark stripping. To serve this purpose, he set up a study in the Kruger National Park. Since 1954, the Kruger has been the site of experiments in which plots of land have been burned________, to understand the effects of fire on plain ecology. In these experiments, Dr Wigley looked at trees in three different zones, in one of which, the trees were burned every year; in the second, they were burned every other year, while the third zone, by contrast, was actively________fire. To keep things consistent, he looked at the fate of the same tree species, the marula(马鲁拉树), in all three zones. He picked marulas because they are particular________of elephant activity. Their fruit are delicious, and prized by elephants and people alike. But elephants also seem to enjoy eating their bark. In July 2016 he and his colleagues identified 20 marulas in every zone and used special tools to________from each of them a circular section of bark 5 cm in diameter. Having imposed this damage, they________the wounds over the course of the following two years, to see what would happen. To their________, they discovered that the wounds of trees in fire zones recovered far better than those of trees that had seen no fires at all. Wounded trees in the annual burn zone re-grew 98% of their lost________during the two years of the study. Those living in the biennial(两年一次的) burn zone re-grew 92% of it. But those in the zone where fires were________re-grew only 72%.

The researchers also found something else when they were measuring the trees’ wounds: ants. Ten of the 20 trees in the fire-prevention zone developed ant colonies in their wounds. The ants in question were a species that is known to damage trees and is supposed to________tissue healing. By contrast, only five trees in the biennial burn zone and three in the annual zone developed ants’ nests in their wounds. It looks, therefore, as if bush fires are treating trees’ wounds by killing ants that might________colonize and damage them. Though such fires are surely harmful to healthy trees, it seems, in an example of two negatives making a positive, as if they are actually________to sick ones.

6 . I don’t know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the ____ at a young age. Sometime in the middle of the fourth grade, I ____ trying. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I was lazy, difficult, ____.

It wasn’t long after that I dropped out of school. Hard physical labor was the ____ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was ____ lost, and using drugs as a way to ____ the fact that I had no education and was ____ in a dead-end job carrying heavy construction materials up a ladder all day. ____, now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any ____ in your life, if you have the right ____. Mine came from a surprising source.

It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It’s funny that after a life of ___ responsibility, now I was in charge of something so ____. Over the years, as I grew into the ____ of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. ____, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son’s books.Over and over, I practised reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role ____, so after a-year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I ____ my GED test on my son’s fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I’m surely not trying to get ____ for doing something that should have been done in the first place , but all things considered it was one of the best days in my life. Today, I’m a full-time college student, ____ to become sociologist.

It’s funny, growing up I always heard these great ____ stories of triumph(胜利) over shortcomings. But I never thought they ____ to me. Now I believe it’s a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.

7 . A cliché is a phrase that has been used so many times that it comes out of the mouth or the computer without stirring up a wave in the mind of the speaker, the typist, the listener or the reader. The word was part of the technical term of the French printing trade in the 19th century, the name for a plate used in the printing process, and it is still used with that meaning in English and other languages. By the middle of the same century, the word was being used in French, shortly followed by English, as a simile (比喻) for ____ used expressions.

Clichés can be ____ according to whether they were originally idioms, similes and proverbs, expressions from trades or ____ phrases.

Many idioms have been so universally overused that they have been ____ — phrases like far and wide, by leaps and bounds or safe and sound. Our second category could be similes and proverbs that now fall off the ____ with little meaning, similes like as cool as a cucumber, which ____ around 400 years.

A large category is ____ from the terms of trades and professions, sports and games, and other national concerns. Many are ____ clichés, as is fitting for the British, as an island nation, with examples like to leave a sinking ship, to know the ropes, to stick to one’s guns.

Our last broad category of cliché might be phrases which were ____ when they were first coined, but have become ineffective through constant use. When a football manager, asked how he felt about the____ of his team, said that he was as sick as a parrot. Since then, it has been so overused that it has lost its ____. To explore every avenue and to leave no stone unturned are two political clichés of this class. No politician with any sensitivity for language could use either of those phrases ____, yet you hear them still, all the time.

No doubt we could specify the classes of clichés into further subdivisions until the cows come home. But there is no need to. We all agree that clichés are to be ____ by careful writers and speakers at all times, don’t we? Well, actually, no, not I. Life, and language, are so full of clichés that silence will hold the position if you ____ us the use of cliché. So many millions of people have spoken and written clichés so ____ that it is almost impossible to find ideas and phrases that have not been used many times before.

8 . As the train picked up its speed, the passengers slowly settled down on their seats, I _________ the lower berth(铺位), so that I could enjoy the _________ of outside from the moving train. I don’t know why I always preferred to get the _________ seat. An elderly lady _________ the front seat of mine. I looked at her. She must be in her eighties, I guessed. At one point, we met our _________. She smiled at me and I gave her a response. Both of us were _________. By that time, the train was in its full speed.

It was 4:50 pm, evening time. So, _________ time was still in a long way, I couldn’t _________ myself any longer and asked, “Auntie! Where are you going?”

She looked at me and friendly said, “_________ camp, dear.”

Suddenly my enthusiasm __________ to know the reason. I politely said. “Auntie, you are __________ someone?”

She smiled and said, “Yes!”

Just to continue the conversation, I talked to her in a very cheerful __________. “Auntie, you must be feeling so __________ to see your child and your grandchildren.”

________, this question hurt her a little but boldly (大胆地) she answered, “Oh, dear! You are so sweet! Anyway, I had only one son who was __________ and was killed in a battle just a few days before. I bought so many new clothes for him. So, I thought why not __________ my son’s clothes for some other soldiers, so that I would control my __________ and would be happy thinking that my own son has __________ it.”

I was shocked hearing her heartbreaking story! But I __________ the old lady from the core of my heart, I was thinking of her __________ heart!

9 . I am often asked why reading is so important. I couldn't help but quote（引用）Tyrion Lannister from the book Game of thrones' written by George R R Martin. This conversation follows when Tyrion was asked why he reads so much：

“I have a realistic grasp of my own_______and weaknesses. My mind is my_______. My brother has his sword，King Robert has his war hammer（战锤）、and I have my mind. …and a mind needs books_______a sword needs a whetstone（磨石），if it is to keep the sword_______. ” Tyrion tapped the leather cover of the book. "That's why I read so _______，Jon Snow. ”

To quote George R R Martin. "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only _______.”

An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson.   Each morning Grandpa was up early siting_______the kitchen table reading his book. One day the grandson asked," Grandpa! I try to read the book just like you but I don't _______ it, and what I do understand I forget_______I close the book. What good does reading the book do?"

The grandfather quietly________ and replied, "Take that coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of ________. ”

The boy did as he was told，but all the water________before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said，"You'll have to move a little faster next time," and________him to the river with the basket to try again This time the boy ran faster，but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of________，he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket and he went to get a bucket________. The old man said，"I don`t want a bucket of water：I want a basket of water. You`re just not trying hard enough." and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point，the boy knew it was________, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fasts as he could，the water would leak out before he got back to the house. The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard，but when he ________his grandfather the basket was again empty.   He said, "See Grandpa,   it`s________！”

"So you think it is useless?" the old man said, "Look at the basket." The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was________.   It had been changed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out!

Son, that`s what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or-remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and________!

10 . My grandfather came from Hungary and was the only one in his family who _______down in the United States. The_______ of his family remained in Europe. When World War I _______ he seemed to have become another man，downhearted. He was very much afraid that if his only _______ my uncle，had to go to war，it would be cousin _______against cousin.

One day in 1918, my Uncle Milton received the _______ for army service. My grandparents were very_______.But my mother，at the age of 10, was on _______ of the world about her soldier brother going off to war. Realizing how he was _______by his little sister and all of her friends, my uncle bought them all service pins,which __________that they had a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted.

The moment__________ when my uncle and the other soldiers, without any training but all in uniforms,boarded the__________. The band played and the crowd cheered.Although no one noticed,I’m sure my grandmother had a __________ in her eye for the only son.The train slowly pulled out,but not about a thousand yards __________it suddenly paused. Everyone stared in __________as the train slowly returned to the station.There was a dead silence because the doors __________ and the man started to step out.Someone shouted,“The war is __________ !”For a moment, moved, but then the people __________someone bark orders at the soldiers.

The men   lined up in two lines, walked down the step,and __________the band playing marched down the street,as returning   heroes, to be__________home.My mother said it was a great day,but she was just a little disappointed that it didn’t last a tiny bit longer.