2 . I was about to explain the meaning of the word “gossamer (小蜘蛛网)” to my five­-year­-old students. We were learning a poem. I _______ because one of them was waving his hand at me.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Once I got caught in a spider web _______ I didn’t see it,” the boy said.

“That’s gossamer!” I shouted, nearly jumping up. “Gossamer things are hard to see.” Gossamer is also how I might describe the voices of _______ young children. I can only hear them when I am close enough. They are not the children speaking with ease. They are the children whose faces turn _______ if I call on them, or who whisper (低语) “I don’t know” even when they do _______. I don’t want them to _______. I want them to be comfortable being _______.

Shy children usually have less practice in speaking, especially when there are other more children _______ to talk. It’s a loud world. Though shy children may appear _______ to be in the background, they are losing opportunities to participate. Without practice, fear of speaking ________.

It takes about three weeks, a small bit of ________ each day, for each of my 17 students to learn a poem. So far, they have memorized more than five. And now, an obvious ________ has happened. The “shyest” children are as eager to read aloud as the ________ ones.

Practice is an excellent way to increase ________ of shy children while learning a poem. And it is practice that makes them enjoy the ________ of the language.

4 . It was Mother’s Day and I was shopping at the local supermarket with my five-year-old son, Tenyson. As we were _______, we realized that only minutes earlier an _______ woman had fallen over at the entrance and hit her head on the ground. _______ was with her, but there was blood everywhere and the woman was embarrassed and clearly in shock. _______ a lot of people stopped to help out.

While we were walking towards the scene, Tenyson became very _______ about what had happened to the elderly couple. He _______ to me, “Mom, it’s not much fun falling over in front of _______.” Seeing that there was a flower stall (摊位) at the front of the supermarket, he added, “Why shouldn’t we _______ the lady a flower? It will make her feel better.” I was _______ that he’d come up with this wise idea. So we went over and told the flower seller ________ we wanted. “Just take it,” she replied. “I can’t take your money for such a wonderful ________.”

By now medical staff (医疗团队) had arrived, and were ________ the injured woman. We gave the flower to the woman’s husband and I told him it was ________ my son. At that, the old man started crying and said, “Thank you very much.” He then turned to me, “You have a ________ son. Happy Mother’s Day to you.”

The man bent down and gave his wife the flower, the old lady looked up at Tenyson with love in her eyes and gave him a little ________.

5 . In 2020, Nancy Ballard, a 60-year-old retired entrepreneur, went for a routine checkup at her doctor’s office that turned into something extraordinary. In fact, she was carrying a painting of a plant she’d done when she arrived there. “It would be great if we had _________ like that for our chemotherapy rooms (化疗室),” the nurse said. Ballard asked to see one.

She was shocked by _________ she found. The walls were grey and bare, and the paint was chipping. “_________, the patients here have nothing to look at while taking chemo drips,” she said, “I couldn’t imagine how anyone could even get healthy in such _________rooms like that.” She made it her mission to _________ the place.

She started by e-mailing 20 local interior _________. She wrote, “You don’t know me. But my heart _________ after seeing these rooms.” She then asked whether they would _________ their time and money to transform just one of chemotherapy rooms each.

Six of them leapt into _________ action and each designer chose a theme: The dragonfly room, for example, __________ bright artworks and dragonfly wall ornaments. Most rooms got new __________, lights, artworks, and furniture. When the transformation was done __________, Dr. Hufford was delighted. “All the patients feel __________ by it,” he said. He even noted that his own tone of voice was __________ in the rooms and that he was better able to connect with his patients. Ballard was so encouraged by the patients’ reactions, but when praised, she said, “What I did paled __________ the patients’ courage to fight cancer”.

6 . I was born legally blind. Of all the stories of my early childhood, the one about a _________ is my mother’s favorite. 

I was only two when the _________ occurred. We had just arrived home from a trip. Mom lifted me out of the car and _________ to speak to the driver. I took advantage of my brief _________ to dash across the lawn (草坪)—and hit a large maple tree! I was running so fast that I bounced off the trunk and _________ on my backside. Mom expected me to start crying, but I just sat there for a minute. Then I _________ myself up and kept right on going. Mom always adds here that, as many times as I _________ across the lawn after that, I never again crashed into that tree.

Mom loves to use this story as an _________. It reminds her that children don’t enter life afraid to take risks or unwilling to _________ again when they fall down. She never wanted me to lose that __________ as I grew older. When I __________ my major life decisions, I was still that little girl tearing full-speed across the lawn. I studied abroad and later moved away from my parents’ home to look for a __________. Through years of __________, I have become a respected teacher in a school serving high-need students.

We are almost certain to get __________ at some point during the process of achieving our goal. When that happens, don’t sit in the grass and __________. Just get up and keep on going. It will all be worth it in the end.

9 . Once I took a taxi to a hotel in Palm Springs to give a speech. The _______appeared to be in his 60s and I remember thinking how_______ he was to keep doing this boring job.

_______it turned out that he was the retired CFO of a major Chicago-based company. He took a part-time job as a taxi driver, so he could_______ new people and stay in touch with the world. He even_______giving some good advice to me, a financially inexperienced _______.

I believe every person deserves_______, and that I can always_______ something new from everyone else. Now I make a point of listening to people about their _______. From taxi drivers to cleaning women, each person gives me a chance to indirectly visit a place or do a thing I might never __________myself. I find that most people are __________if I show an interest in, and respect for what they say.

Respect doesn’t mean we have to__________but that we disagree in a polite manner. My work is in high-speed electronic communications, where misunderstandings are common and can lead to __________ disagreements.

Some people think the Internet __________ us. I don’t agree. The Internet is __________a tool for people to communicate. When an online discussion becomes serious, many of us choose to communicate__________, which can ease an increasingly worse__________. Reading words often invites the worst explanation. __________this is the key to the Internet world.

Whether it's on the Internet or in person, when I meet new people, __________ I’m open, curious and polite, I can learn __________ things. I believe it’s important to treat every person with respect.

10 . When I was eight, I wanted a toy and needed $10 to buy it. But, as usual, I was broken. I decided to ask my 11-year-old sister, Kathleen, for a loan. I went to her room, _______ her for the cash. Laughing, she agreed to lend me the money, but _______, “I will charge you 10 percent compound interest every _______ until you pay me back.”

“Compound interest-what’s that?” I asked.

“Well, interest is what you call the _______ money borrowers have to pay back on a loan,” she explained. “Compound interest means that the interest payments get bigger and bigger the _______ it takes you to pay back the loan. To repay the loan, you will need to give me $11 after one month. If you wait two months to pay me back, your _______ will grow from $10 to $11. So I’ll be charging you interest on $11. Then I will add that interest to the $11 you already owe me, for a _______ of $12.10. That’s what you’ll owe after two months. “

“Sure. I get it,” I said. Though truthfully, I was getting _______.

Kathleen lent me the money, and I bought the toy. My birthday came a month later, and my mom gave me $10. _______, that was just the amount I needed to buy another toy I wanted ________. I ________ paying my sister for a month. After another month, I forgot about the loan.

Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $20 bill in our stockings. I was just putting it into my pocket ________ Kathleen tapped me on the shoulder.

“Sorry, kiddo. That’s mine. I’m ________ your debt.”

“Huh?” Then I ________ the loan. “Hey! How can it be that much? I only borrowed $10.”

“True,” she said, “but interest has been compounding for eight months. Now you owe me $21.43.” She paused, and then, smiling triumphantly, said, “You can pay me the $1.43.”

I ________ to believe that a $10 loan could more than double so quickly. Much to my ________, my sister got her pencil and tablet and showed me exactly how it all ________.

My head ________ as I tried to keep track of Kathleen’s calculations, but this time, I got the basic ________of compound interest. I learned from this ________experience that borrowing money could be “double trouble” in no time.