2 . Yesterday two unexpected visitors came to our balcony during the brief time we were out. Two brave ______ had came into a district to ______ the freshness of our washbasin and some other bread pieces on our balcony.

When you came across such sudden visitors, are you ______ to sense it as an invasion (入侵) into your comfort zone, or you might ______ it as a lovely moment of Life? We chose the second option, with no ______. After all, we’ve been feeling encouraged to ______ the relationship with our sparrows more and more each day. We can’t stop _______and celebrating their dance from our window. We fed them with the leftovers (剩菜) on our tablecloth after every meal. And we have ______ them with our balcony. ______, they feel at ease in our courtyard. And that has led them to ______ up courage and determine to enter our house. Perhaps they have the feeling that we no longer consider them as unexpected guests, but friendly ______, who only leave some waste from time to time.

The ______ of our dear sparrows draws us out of our boring daily ______ and shows us the potential beauty. They often take different human forms. We’ve met sparrows like those, of all shapes and ______. And they’re everywhere. Perhaps all of them are willing to surprise us. Perhaps all of them are willing to catch our ______. They only ask us not to be afraid of them or feel reluctant (勉强的) to their presence.

3 . It was a long drive to the nursing home (敬老院,养老院) where my grandmother was living. _________, at least twice a month I drove to see her. I’d already _________ my mom to cancer and I wanted to always remember my grandmother, especially because she was beginning to _________ me. Nanna had Alzheimer disease (老年痴呆症), which was slowly starting to eat away at her _________. Sometimes she recognized me when I visited her and sometimes she didn’t.

On one visit, I _________ my grandmother good-bye and started to walk towards my car. Suddenly a tiny hand seized mine. “James!” a _________ voice said. I turned and saw a smiling, wrinkled face. Like my Nanna, she had Alzheimer disease but was still able to walk and get around. She _________ me for her son (A nurse told me he’d died years ago). I held her hands and let her joyfully _________.Though her eyes didn’t know who I was, I saw the excitement in them when she spoke to her son through me.

On the following visits, I always took _________ to visit my Nanna as well as her. I always got a smile and sometimes even a __________ from her. The nurses told me she was always __________ and calmer after seeing her “son”.

Then one day I noticed she was __________. I spoke to the nurses and they sadly told me that she’d been dead for some days. I put my head __________ and went quietly into my Nanna’s room.

Her loss didn’t really hit me __________ I went for a walk at night. I looked at the sky, realizing something—for a while I really had been her son. Actually, in this world we’re all __________ by invisible strings of love.

4 . In 2019, after Ane Freed-Kernis retired, she decided to build a home workshop and devote all of her free time to stone carving. “I might be ________ head to toe in dust but I’m happy.” she says.

This ________ has its roots in Freed-Kernis’ childhood. Growing up on her father’s farm in Denmark, she used to wander through the fields with her ________ fixed on the ground, looking for stones to ________ to her collection.

After moving to England in 1977 and training as a social worker, Freed-Kernis soon became ________ with her busy career and the demands of raising her son. Stones were the ________ thing on her mind, until her father died in 2005. “He took a stone carving course in his retirement, and I always thought it seemed so ________ but never had the time to look into it myself,” she says, “After he died I became determined to learn ________.”

“It was really ________ at the start because you would spend hours just hammering.” She says, “I’m glad I kept going, though, because eventually you begin to see the ________ that was in your mind emerging from the stone-and it’s ________.”

When she turned 60 in 2019, she realised this had become a passion she needed to ________ to. “Everything else ________ and I only love the creative process of seeing a design I have ________ in 2D drawing become something real,” she says. “It felt like a new ________ of life.”

5 . Chloe Smith is a girl aged 6 from Atlanta, Georgia. One day, while taking a walk with her father near their home, she________something shiny under a pile of rubbish. She picked up the ________ to take home, as she often did on her treasure-hunting walks. Chloe was later ________ to discover she had found a stolen Olympic gold medal.

The medal belongs to former canoeist (划艇运动员) Joe Jacobi, who won gold while ________ for Team USA in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games. The medal, along with other personal belongings, was ________ in May of 2016 when someone broke into Jacobi’s can. Though police managed to ________ some of his stolen items, they hadn’t been able to find his ________ Olympic medal. It may have been lost forever, if not for a 6-year-old girl’s treasure-hunting ________ .

Chloe’s dad had seen Jacobi’s story on the news, and ________ realized it was his stolen property. He found Jacobi’s email and sent him pictures of the treasure. After________ the medal, Jacobi was astonished, just speechless.

Chloe was ________ to give it back after speaking with Jacobi on the phone. ________, Jacobi promised to speak to her class when school begins again this fall. The ________ of this little girl reuniting an Olympian with his beloved possession is ________ . When we talk about character and doing the ________ thing, Chloe represents the Olympic values in every sense of the word.

6 . Taylor Hash desired to become a career pilot and she was under training. One day, she had just started building up hours of flight time when a(n)________ struck. As she guided the Diamond Star plane off the runway at airport, on her third-ever independent ________, the front tyre (轮胎) of her plane fell off.

Taylor was ________ at that point that she had just lost important landing equipment. “I didn’t feel anything wrong in the take-off ________,” she said. However, a(n)________ pilot Chris Yates, saw something and immediately took action. He knew that Taylor would have to make a difficult emergency landing. He ________ the control tower and said, “The Diamond Star that just took off lost its nose wheel tyre on the runway.” Yates asked people there to put him through to Taylor so he could help her. When Taylor learned what had happened, she was in ________.

Therefore, Yates ________ that the most important thing would be to keep Taylor calm so she could follow him attentively. Then Yates ________ Tavlor and told her that she could ________ above the field until she was ready to land. “When you touch down, I just want that joystick (操纵杆) all the way back. You’re gonna hold it back like you don’t want that nose to touch,” he ________ her.

Despite feeling unsure, Taylor trusted Yates. With palms sweaty and lips ________, Taylor successfully create a best landing chance. Finally, she managed to land ________.

No sooner had Yates extended his arms than Taylor hugged him tightly with tears of ________ rolling down cheeks. Yates smiled, patted on her shoulder and encouraged, “it was your excellent skill that help yourself ________ the emergency successfully. I am so proud of you.”

10 . I woke up with only one thing on my mind: what to wear. A billion _______ raced through my brain as wooden hangers moved back and forth. It was my first day of high school in a new state; first impression are everything, and it was necessary to _______ the people who I’d spend the next four years with.

It wasn’t insecurity that drove me to _______ but the fact that this was my third time being the _______ kid. Frequent moving does something to a child’s development. I struggled finding reliable _______. But this time Dad’s company ensured my starting and finishing high school in the _______ place. This time mattered, which made me nervous.

I emerged _______ in a patterned dress after riding(扫荡) my closet. I felt just as confident as I _______ the bus. But my jaw dropped to the floor when I found Mrs. Hutfilz, my English teacher, _______ the exact same dress as I did. I kept my head down and tiptoed to my seat, but the first day ________ introductions in front of the class, and soon enough it was my ________. I made it through my minute speech, until Hutfilz stood up, jokingly ________ she liked my style. All the anxiety that had accumulated (积累) throughout the morning surprisingly ________. The students raised heads as I shared my story. My ________ grew as I giggled(咯咯地笑) with my classmates. After class, I stayed behind, sharing with Mrs. Hutfilz my previous understanding about coming into a new school and state. I was ________ to make a humorous and genuine connection with my first teacher in the coming days.