1 . When I was a teenager, I was invited to a formal dance party. I was _________, but also nervous about what to wear. Mom suggested I wear high heels (高跟鞋).

“Mom, I don’t know if I can wear these,” I said, feeling _________. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Just take small _________ and keep your weight centered,” she suggested.

As I arrived at the party, I tried to be _________ and act like everything was fine. But _________ struck when I stepped onto the dance floor. I _________ my own feet, falling to the ground in front of everyone.

I quickly got up and laughed it off, pretending like it was _________. But deep down, I felt like a tomato, wanting to _________.

My friend Lilly helped me _________ that incident and managed me another high heels as a support so that nobody would understand my hesitation. But a little bit __________ continued in my mind.

When I returned home, I told Mom I felt like a complete __________ at the party. “It’s okay. You tried something new, and it didn’t go as __________. But that’s how we learn and grow. Don’t be too __________ on yourself and wear what you feel __________ in,” Mom said, giving me a hug.

From that day forward, I stuck to flat shoes. I learned to __________ my true self and not worry about what others thought.

3 . Just as we take care of our friends and families, our homes and Mother Earth take care of us. Our homes give us a place of shelter that ________ between us and the rest of the world. The earth is a(n) _________ giver of life and the keeper of our physical and spiritual needs. Her rich ________ bring us up, give us air, and offer us cooling shade. Her waters ________ our thirst. Yet it is easy to take both of these wonderful _________ for granted. ________ the thanks you feel toward your home and Mother Earth for the gifts each   ________   you. It can help you stay   ________ of where many of the gifts in your life come from. Each time you give thanks, you’ll be ________ of the importance of caring for your home and for Mother Earth. There is a simple and beautiful _________ you can find to show your thanks. Begin by finding a ________ place where you can be alone. Sit comfortably and breathe deeply ________ you feel relaxed and then read the following out loud:

“Thank you, home, for allowing me to live ________ your walls. Thank you for allowing me to stay strong and ________ me. Thank you, Mother Earth, for the land I ________ on and farm. Thank you, plants, minerals (矿物质), and animals on the land for allowing me to ________ your beauty and your amazement of life, and for the ________ of living with all of you on this earth. Thank you for the wisdom and       ________ you bring to us.”

You can do so as often as you like and anytime you feel particularly thankful for the many gifts that you have ________. Each time you do this, you’ll strengthen your connection with all that _________ and supports you.

4 . My previous home had a stand of woods behind it and many animals in the backyard. That first year, I ______ feeding peanuts to the blue jays, then the squirrels. The squirrels had no _______coming up right to me for them. As the months went by, the rabbits saw that I was no ______ and didn’t escape. When I threw carrot slices (薄片), they even came for a nibble (啃). Slowly they came to ______ me, and by the end of the year they were eating out of my hand.

That second year, the rabbits ______ me, and one would even sit up for slices! While I was feeding them. I ______ that a groundhog who used to run away was now taking an ______ interest in this food situation. I carefully extended a long ______, with a keen eye on those teeth, and ______, there were times I would have the groundhog sitting next to a rabbit, both munching (津津有味地咀嚼) on carrots. A few months later, while ______, she would even turn her back to me._______ when she was facing away, I reached out and ______ scratched (搔) her back with my finger. She didn’t move.

By year three, the rabbits and the groundhog were back. The groundhog ______ didn’t have a problem with me scratching her back, and I got an idea. I’d always ______, while slicing up carrots, that the end looked like a cap. ______ one day, just to see what she would do, I gently ______ one on top of the groundhog’s head. Again, not a ______. The next time, I had my camera ready to record what you see here, one of several dozen such pictures. ______ she had a slice to eat, she never ______ the one on her head. It was a fair______— I got a pleasure, and she had yet another tasty treat.

5 . When I re-entered the full-time workforce a few years ago after a decade of lonely self-employment, there was one thing I was looking forward to the most: the opportunity to have work friends once again. It wasn't until I entered the corporate world that I realized, for me at least, being friends with colleagues didn't emerge as a（n） ________ at all. This is surprising when you consider the prevailing emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close ________ relationships at work. So much research has explored the way in which collegial（同事的）ties can help overcome a range of workplace issues ________ productivity and the quality of work output such as team-based conflict, jealousy, undermining, anger, and more.

Perhaps my expectations of lunches, water-cooler gossip and caring, deep-and-meaningful conversations were a ________ of the last time I was in that kind of office environment. Whereas now, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely fulfilling without ________ to be best mates with the people sitting next to you.

In an academic analysis just published in the profoundly-respected Journal of Management, researchers have looked at the concept of “indifferent relationships", a simple term that summarizes the fact that relationships at work can ________ be non-interpersonal, inconsequential, unimportant and even, dare I say it, disposable or substitutable.

Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative. The limited research conducted thus far indicates they're especially ________ among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over confrontation. Indifference is also the ________ option among those who are socially lazy. Maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort, which, for some of us, is much too________.

As noted above, indifferent relationships may not always be the most ________ approach in resolving some of the issues that pop up at work. But there are nevertheless several apparently proven benefits. One of those is ________ . Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and churning（产出）.

The other is ________ . As human beings, we're programmed to compare ourselves to each other in what is an anxiety-causing phenomenon. Apparently, we look down on acquaintances（泛泛之交）more so than friends. Since the former is most common among those ________ to indifferent relationships, their predominance can promote individuals' sense of self-worth.

Ego aside, a third advantage is that the emotional ________of indifferent relationships has been found to enhance critical evaluation, to strengthen one's focus on task resolution, and to gain greater access to valuable information. None of that might be as ________ as after-work socializing but, hey, I'll take it anyway.

7 . Several years ago, Jeremy Clarkson, presenter of BBC television programme discovered one of his guests was half German and half Irish. Immediately, he said, “That’s quite a strange ______ . It’s like, this must be done absolutely perfectly...tomorrow”.

This joke played on ______ of the Germans as efficient and the Irish as lazy. Many people could ______ be offended by these kinds of assertions. We do not know every Irish person, so how can we conclude that every Irish person is lazy?

I recently read on a website that Irish business people were ______ as being “generally rather casual” and more outwardly friendly than many European counties’. German business people, on the other hand, are considered very ______ and they do not need a personal relationship in order to do business. Once you hear advice like this, it becomes easier to understand where jokes like the one in the first paragraph come from.

So why do some people ______ of the kind of stereotypes as seen in Clarkson’s joke, but not batting an ______ when it comes to generalizations. What is the difference between the two?

By definition, a stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. A cultural characteristic, on the other hand, is a pattern of behaviour that is ______ of a certain group.

So what does this really mean? Stereotype are simply overstated assumptions about groups of people. Imagine if a tourist visited a small town in Switzerland and saw a number of locals playing the alphorn instrument, and then ______ that Swiss people can play the alphorn. This would be a stereotype! This is an ______ image of the Swiss which is based on one tourist’s experience.

If however, this tourist were to say that the Swiss are very punctual, this could be seen as a cultural ______ . This is because it is a pattern of behaviour which is very typical in Switzerland: from their transport system to their business meetings in this way, some people argue that generalizing another culture is not just useful, but important. Politicians always have to be ______ of the cultural characteristics of different countries. By becoming aware of different cultural characteristics, they can avoid causing offence in those cultures.

______ , others argue that generalizing cultures will always lead to offensive stereotypes. They argue that the best thing we can do is to stop generalizing cultures and start treating people as ______ .

All this raises important questions: Can making generalizations about groups of people be a ______ thing? Or should we always avoid making broad assumptions about different groups?

8 . Long ago, poems were recited loud instead of being written down. Back when the Greeks first started the Olympics, they held poetry _________ as well as athletic competitions.

Now, poetry competitions have been revived. This year 120,000 high school students competed in the first Poetry Out Loud national recitation competition,_________ poems from memory for $100,000 in prize money.

The first competitions were held in classrooms. The winners went on to school wide contests, and then they competed in city and state competitions. _________, the 50 state champions, along with the _________ of the District of Columbia came to Washington D.C. last week for the last showdown. After the 51 champions competed _________ another, 12 went on to the _________. Then the field was narrowed to five. The final five had one last chance to “perform” a poem. The overall champ, Jackson Hille, a high school senior from Ohio,_________ a $20,000 scholarship. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation _________ Poetry Out Loud, because they realized that hearing a poem performed is a different experience from _________ it on a page.

It’s not just a matter of saying the words in the right order. It’s the tone of __________, the pauses, the gestures and the attitude of the person performing that bring the__________ to life. “Each time we hear somebody recite a poem, we understand again what we found __________ and interesting about it,” said National Public Radio Broadcaster Scott Simon, master of ceremonies for the finals. Hearing it in a new voice offers something new to the listeners.

Not only do the people hearing poems have a(n) __________ experience, but__________ and presenting poems helps the participants understand those poems in a new way. Another __________ of a competition such as Poetry Out Loud is that the participants learn public speaking skills that can help them for life.

10 . One of my fellow volunteers, a girl from Tanzania, seemed a bit sad, so I asked what the problem was. She told me she had a friend back home, who was, really________with her university studies. It was beginning to look like financial difficulties, which would make it________for her to complete her course.

So this friend of mine had done something________: she had sent all her pocket money for the month to Tanzania to________her friend! This meant that she didn’t have much food to eat, no money to go________outside the village, no money to buy any clothes, and so on.

I was so________that she did this for her friend and I felt I had to do something. So,________ my next trip to one of the nearby towns I walked into the fair trade shop to buy some food. I didn’t have much money________myself but I thought I’d buy her an extra box of the muesli we both liked and some rice. I started talking to the woman________in the shop, who was also a volunteer and________told her about my friend.

The woman looked at me,________ “Does she eat pasta? she asked. “Yes,” I replied. She immediately started________a bag with pasta, cookies, more muesli, sweets and other things until the bag was full. “Give her this for me. It’ s my________!” I couldn’t believe it but cried with________.

I left the shop to go home with my________bag of food, I asked the woman her name. “Just Gloria! God________both of you!” she said.

Imagine my friend’s face when I________the gifts on my kitchen table. I have never seen her so happy! A few weeks later, she found Gloria in the shop and thanked her________. These two________women really showed me what true kindness and compassion is, and the________will stay with me for the rest of my life!