1 . Years ago, as a young business reporter, I interviewed an advertising executive. I was there to ask about the latest _________. But when I sat down, he wanted to talk about writing fiction. He spent hours meeting with clients and crafting slogans, but he dreamed of being a(n) _________ instead.

A decade or so later, however, I was _________ to see the advertiser on TV, holding up his new _________. James Patterson had _________ into a best-selling author. “Maybe I was delusional (痴心妄想), but I _________ thought of myself as an advertising person,” he told me when asked how he’d done it. “I always _________ to be a writer. It was always in my head.”

Mr. Patterson’s ability to see himself as a writer _________ a concept known as “possible selves”. It describes how people _________ their futures: what they may become, or want to become, or even fear becoming.

The term, __________ in 1986 by the social psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, grew out of some __________ on self-concept and self-perception. A possible self can take you __________ daydreams, which are often fleeting and not necessarily grounded in __________. It can come to fruition (实现) “if you build a __________ from your ‘now’ self to the possible self,” Dr. Markus said.

If you want a change, imagine your possible self and __________.

2 . I’m 19 years old and studying at college. I’m a(n) _______ student on campus. That was because my father once said to me, “Education is a _______ weapon, for one can overcome all difficulties of life using knowledge from books.” Since then, I’ve always encouraged myself.

I used to dislike learning. My parents, who had no college education, always _______ me to study, but I didn’t understand their _______ for my bright future. _______, time taught me that my parents were demanding of me because they expected me to live a good life.

Once I was _______ by my relatives in front of my father because of my poor academic performance at school. They also blamed me. They disliked me as I was the only child in their eyes who showed no _______ in studies. When people started to _______ my family, considering us ignorant, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

From then on, I _______ to study hard to make my parents respected. I tried to read books, which gradually became my hobby. My curiosity for reading never ________. It grew and enriched my mind with priceless knowledge. I also completed my homework on time. I ________ leaving any work for the next day. One of my teachers said, “ ________ leads to success.” I believed in it and formed a ________ of working regularly.

In fact, my parents always help me when I need them. I also help them do housework ________. My parents are my world, and they have taught me ________ values: self-discipline and responsibility.

4 . To the firefighters who deal with danger each day, every life is worthy to be saved.

Wildfires are just one of the many situations firefighters _________ toward when everyone else is going in the opposite direction. Every year, it seems wildfires _________ parts of California, Washington and Oregon. In September, 2023, Daniel Trevizo, a Los Angeles Fire Department head, and his team worked hard around-the-clock to _________ the fires in the south of California.

One day, they were watering down embers (余火) near Lake Oroville when he _________ a surprising thing. When the fires were put out, his team quickly did everything they could to _________ the fire scene. _________, Daniel heard an animal crying nearby. So he started looking around for the _________ of the sounds. Then they found a small cat under the burnt bushes. The frightened and lonely cat came right up to Daniel.

Daniel _________ the soot (煤烟)-covered cat, later named Ember, and kept it _________ in his jacket pocket until it got much-needed __________ in an animal hospital. The veterinarian (兽医) said Ember had only some minor __________. With medication and Daniel’s care, Ember __________ a few days later. Ultimately, Daniel managed to find Ember’s owners, who got __________ from it while they escaped from the fires.

There’s no doubt Ember’s life was saved by __________ Daniel and his team! They risked their lives to save those around them, and we couldn’t be more __________!

5 . I would say I totally did it.

I could sound a(n) _________ to cause people to pay attention to the children with neurological (神经系统的) diseases. I could put my _________ as a dancer to perform on stage across the country in order to raise money for these children.

I have tried a lot, and also _________ a lot.

On the other day I went to _________ money we collected to those extremely sick children. They all _________ me happily and looked at me as if I had been their long-lost family member, and one of them _________ held my hand, expressing his wish that I would come more often.

Therefore, I have made it my life _________ to help fight neurological diseases, and to inspire more young donors to participate in for _________ lives through arts.

I spend many weekends speaking at medical conferences to provide visibility (可见性) for the _________ ill children, so do my colleagues.

__________ things can happen if the arts and medicine join forces. A life can be saved somewhere in the world with funding research, __________ the medical equipment, and providing home-care services.

In these ways, the young __________ of our generation, along with our times, can come together and __________ a domino effect (多米诺骨牌效应) that we’ve been dreaming about.

I have learned that the __________ work is not something reserved for adults. I am 16 years old and I am responsible for my fellows. What happens to each of us __________ us all. I’ve only just begun to learn how to care about others.

7 . One day, we had a family dinner. While the adults were busy with their serious talk outside, I was left alone in the ________ to help my grandmother wash dishes. ________ my grandmother would tell me stories about her childhood.

Born just before WWII, my grandmother ________ an entirely different childhood lifestyle from mine. She did not have a chance to go to ________. Like in typical families, where boys were ________ much more than girls, my grandma had to stay at home to do ________. The only opportunity (机会) she could seize to ________ was when her brother was having Chinese ________ with the family tutor. She would sit quietly at the far end of the long dinner table, listening ________. This training taught her to read and write her Chinese upside down — a skill that has turned out to be quite ________, especially whenever we share the newspaper. On most weekends, my grandmother, a young girl then, and her brother would go to the ________. There, they would walk through deep water, sit down cross-legged underwater and hold their ________ while they watched all action going on around them. This is something I ________ — her ability to open her ________ underwater and still sit comfortably on the seabed.

My childhood is quite ________ compared with hers. I am ________ that I did not need to ________ the hardships like she did. I've never faced the problem of ________. I guess our different childhood background is what makes my grandmother such an amazing person to ________ to: her stories always make my history textbooks ________.

8 . When I decided to buy a house in Europe ten years ago, I didn't think too long. I liked traveling in France, but when it came to picking my favorite spot to _______, Italy was the clear winner.

During my first visit to Italy, I _______ to ask for directions or order in a restaurant. But every time I tried to _______ a sentence of   Italian together, the locals smiled at me and _______ my language skills. That encouragement helped me to get through the language _______. After I made Italy my permanent home, I discovered how _______ Italians are. Neighbors will bring me freshly made cheese and will come to my door to _______ me to close the window in my car when rain is coming. It's these small _______ of kindness that make a new country feel like home.

As a foodie, the way to my heart is through my stomach, and nowhere fuels my _______ quite like Italy. Each town has its own traditional ________, and every family keeps a recipe passed from one generation to another. Families ________ for big meals on Sundays, birthdays, and whatever other excuses they can ________. These meals are always ________ by laughter and joy. Whatever ________ life in Italy might have, the problems are ________ once you sit down to a big meal with friends and family.

9 . I worked part-time at a school teaching some children English in my college years. After _______, I decided to find a full-time teaching position.

This past Friday I had my first official job interview. I was very _______ before going to it. What if I did not know how to answer a question or couldn’t answer it _______? The thought of being interviewed soon was scary.

To do well in the job interview, I _______ the frequently asked questions and the ways to best answer them online. _______, I was still afraid that I couldn’t do well. As a result, I went to visit my teacher to seek _________ about interviewing.

My teacher provided me with useful guidance that made me _______. He said, “Connect with the interviewer and just be yourself. You know what you know; don’t _______ that you know something you don’t.” I loved his suggestion because it was _______and realistic. So often, people __________ to pretend that they have had experience or known everything.

During the interview, I simply reflected on my previous __________, the lessons I was good at, the relationships I had with my students, colleagues, and parents, etc. This allowed me to not only __________my personal examples quickly and effectively, but also   __________   how my opinions and passions as an educator were translated into action.

The whole __________ went very well, with satisfying ____________ of course.

10 . AI can transform education for the better

As students return to classrooms for the new year, it is striking to reflect on how little education has changed in recent decades. The sector remains a digital laggard (落后者). American schools and universities spend 2% and 5% of their budgets, _________, on technology, compared with 8% for the average American company.

When the pandemic forced schools and universities to shut down, the moment for a digital _________ seemed close when the market value of online tutoring providers like Chegg and Byju’s both increased. However, once covid was brought under control, classes continued much as before.

If the pandemic couldn’t overcome the education sector’s _________ to digital interruption, can artificial intelligence? ChatGPT-like generative AI, which can converse cleverly on varieties of subjects, certainly _________. So much so that educationalists began to _________ that students would use it to cheat on essays and homework. Increasingly, however, it is generating excitement as a means to provide _________ tutoring to various students and speed up boring tasks such as marking.

Learners, for their part, are _________ the technology. Two-fifths of undergraduates reported using an AI chatbot to help them with their studies. Indeed, the technology’s popularity has raised awkward questions for companies like Chegg, which was losing customers _________ ChatGPT. Yet there are good reasons to believe that education specialists like Chegg who employ AI will eventually _________ generalists such as OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

For one, AI chatbots often talk nonsense, an unhelpful trait in an educational context. “Students want content from __________ providers,” argues Kate Edwards, chief pedagogist at Pearson, a textbook publisher. The company has not allowed ChatGPT and other AIs to __________ its material, but has instead used the content to train its own models, which it is embedding into its set of learning apps.

__________, as Chegg’s Mr Rosensweig argues, teaching is not merely about giving students an answer, but about presenting it in a way that helps them learn. Understanding pedagogy (教学法) thus gives education specialists an __________. Pearson has designed its AI tools to __________ students by breaking complex topics down, testing their understanding and providing quick feedback, says Ms Edwards. Byju’s is incorporating “forgetting curves” for students into the design of its AI tutoring tools, refreshing their memories at personalized __________.

Bringing AI to education will not be easy, but once answers on how to make use of this technology become clearer, such a development will certainly deserve top marks.