4 . Kim Stemple, a special-education teacher, faced terrible diseases during her stay in a Boston hospital. While ________ with depression in her hospital room, Stemple received an unexpected present from a friend: a medal.

Before Stemple got too sick to ________, she had been a marathon runner and the medal brought back her racing memories. It served as a much-needed pick-me-up, ________ her of the strength and perseverance she once possessed. ________, it worked like a charm, and then some, ________ her spirits and renewing her determination.

Inspired by this life-changing ________, Stemple began to think about how such a simple act could bring hope to others going through ________ times. And from this ________ of inspiration, her charity, We Finish Together, was born. This initiative ________ medals from strangers — runners, dancers, swimmers, singers, and even spelling bee win-ners — and donated them to individuals in need.

Part of the process ________ the donor writing a personalized note on the ribbon, giving the recipient a unique ________ to someone who cares. Indeed, for those who were ________ in hospitals and battling health challenges, being presented with a medal and reading the warm ________ really made a big difference. It ________ a reminder that they were not ________ in their struggles and that there was always support available to them.

I offer to pay you $200 in one year if you give me $190 today. Good deal or bad deal? It’s the kind of math problem you might encounter in real life, _________, say, whether the cosecant (余割) of a 30-degree angle is 1 or 2. You can imagine students _________ their spirits and paying attention when they realize that they need to know algebra (代数) to avoid being cheated on a loan. Math and personal finance make a _________ fit. Students grasp concepts in math much better when they see how those subjects _________ their daily financial lives.

A survey in 2022 funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that 61 percent of parents of students said math education should be “relevant to the real world” _________ that only 21 percent said it was. The drive for relevance goes beyond K-12 education. Some of America’s top universities are _________ personal finance into their curriculums.

Harvard has a personal finance course in the _________ department that’s taught by John Campbell, a past president of the American Finance Association. “_________, personal finance was regarded as a very sort of hands-on skill that you might teach to people who were going to a technical high school,” he told me. “There is, I would say, a modern movement to _________ of personal finance as a subject with actually a lot more intellectual content.”

In most high schools, personal finance classes are light on math, and math classes are __________ in personal finance. The FiCycle curriculum has plenty of each. “The personal finance component is incredibly __________ for our high school students,” Philip Dituri, the director of education at Financial Life Cycle Education, who has a doctorate in math education, told me. He believed that quite a lot of students would be stimulated by the __________.

There is a __________ standard for personal finance education that was put together by the Council for Economic Education and the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. It emphasizes how to __________ one’s finances. FiCycle focuses more on the underlying concepts. It’s about “how and why individuals and households transfer consumption over time,” Financial Life Cycle Education says.

In conclusion, the integration of math and personal finance in education is not just an academic pursuit, but a __________ necessity for students to guide their real life. It is time for educational institutions to take note and adapt their curricula to better prepare students for the financial challenges of adulthood.

6 . My school holiday routine usually involves sleeping in, but one morning, I woke up early for no particular reason. With nothing to do, I decided to _______ glance out of my window at the parking lot below, but unexpectedly witnessed something that greatly _______ my life.

As I _______ people coming and going, getting into their cars and driving away, my attention was drawn to a(n)_______ man busy washing and cleaning the cars near a bicycle with a bucket attached to its _______. The damp ground _______ that he must have started his work quite early.

He was just simply dressed. However, there was a _______ sense of pride in the way he went about his tasks — cleaning one window at a time,_______ to admire his work, and repeating the process. He seemed devoted to his small business, happily _______ at passers-by and occasionally stopping to chat with other old folks heading to the nearby market.

________ his simple life, he appeared content. This incident made me reconsider my ________. If we are willing to work hard,________ should not be a barrier to earning a living. I felt ashamed and ________ when compared with him. It ________ me that at any age, we should make the most of time and ________ the value of hard work.

7 . I’m Lovin’It

Food would undoubtedly be our best friend, if it wasn’t for our love-and-hate relationship with calories. And the _______ fact that so many tasty things actually contain so many of them often catches us off guard. Calories quietly hide in our favorite foods, ready to slide into our bodies uninvited, often without _______, where they will stay for an extended vacation, until we can find the motivation to do some physical exercise (which, let’s face it, is never) in the hope of losing some weight.

Calories _______ practically everything that you can put in your mouth, which makes them impossible to avoid. So, rather than totally _______ delicious treats, it’s time to embrace them. So, starting with everyone’s favourite fast food restaurant, we’ve ranked some of the food on the McDonald’s menu_______ calories, so that you can indulge (纵情享受) with full disclosure.

But a word of _______: There is an extremely high chance that once reading this, you will desire everything on the McDonald’s menu-regardless of the calories.

Despite the knowledge that a quick trip to McDonald’s will burn through virtually your whole daily allowance of food ________, we have no shame in admitting that it is our favourite place on Earth. We are certainly “Lovin’ It”!

9 . Games are anything but a waste of time. By playing games, children learn and precise important skills that they will use long after the games have been ______. Young children learn to follow rules and wait their ______. They also practice how to cooperate and ______ winning or losing. Older children develop thinking skills including using a strategy and planning ahead. Psychologist say strategy games encourage the frontal lobes (额叶) of the brain to develop. This part of the brain is ______ for skills which include planning, organizing and decision-making.

Playing board games can improve children’s focus and increase their attention span. But to be successful, games must be played to the end without any ______. Players cannot check their phone s or leave the table for a snack. Playing board games or card games is also a great way to unplug. A variety of studies ______ of the negative effects of too much screen time. Everyone gets ______ in a task with other people — in person — when playing a game.

Playing games is not just for kids, either. It’s ______ for adults as well. They need to make time in their day for enjoyment. This kind of activity can trigger (触发) the ______ of the feel-good chemicals that make people feel happier. The social interaction of playing games with family and friends also helps prevent ______ and depression. Sharing laughter and fun while playing games not only improves relationships and draws people closer but also improves brain ______. When people engage in games like chess or other strategy games, their brains are ______.

Playing games can also stimulate the mind and boost creativity. Taking a break for game — playing can also increase your ______. By the time you finish playing a game, your brain will have relaxed, so it’s ______ when you go back to work.

The playwright George Bernard Shaw famously said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” It follows then, that play keeps you ______. So make some time to play a game today!

10 . An Oregon teenager Marcos Ugartes is being praised as a hero after he saved a young boy from a house fire.

The fire broke out just after 10 p. m. Monday. Marcos Ugartes and his dad were sitting on the couch in their home when they heard ________ down the street. As soon as they realized the screaming was coming from the house down the street, they ________ some residents were just arguing. But Marcos Ugartes noticed the flames (火焰). Then Marcos and his dad took off running for their neighbor’s house.

After learning that an 8-year-old Cody Ma was still ________ inside the home, Marcos Ugartes didn’t think ________ about running down the street with his father to ________ the boy from the flames that broke out on the second story of the home.

Marcos Ugartes grabbed a ladder (梯子) and ________ to the second floor to the boy’s room. He ________ the window and finally rescued the ________ trapped inside.

The Ugartes had never met the Ma family before the ________. All that has changed, and now they are forever ________. Cody’s father said of the Ugartes, “I may never forget their ________ because they’re my heroes. They’re my son’s heroes forever.”

The Ma family expressed their ________ to Marcos on Tuesday, thanking him for his ________ by giving him a card and flowers.

Marcos told ABC News he got a lot of ________ from fellow students. The Gresham Fire Department plans to ________ Marcos later this year.