1 . What do you do with an orchid (兰花) after its petals have fallen off? _______ you’re an expert on growing these plants, you may find that they never bloom (开花) for you again.

Just like most things rare and beautiful, they don’t _______ forever. They all have their own life cycle. And it’s always a little sad when the petals _______.

I can’t _______ just throwing out orchids. I usually put the green leafed plants outside, and I’ve even tried putting them in the ground a couple of times, but in vain. After so much trial and error, I was almost convinced that they would never re-bloom.

This year, _______ my lovely wife had other ideas.

A few of the plants were moved to a table in the living room, and some others were _______ on the kitchen window. I happily gave up _______ what to do with my flowerless orchids, and let my wife take over trying to help them.

At some points in life, even the most magnificent events come to a(n) _______. Life and love are only the two most typical. Actually, _______ we ever create or get involved with has its own life ________.

Sure, you can ________ hope. It was certainly easy to believe that those orchids would never flower again — that is, until my wife decided to come to their ________.

My wife kept moving the plants around the house, looking for the right light. ________, the orchids stayed alive. Tiny new stems (茎) grew from the old ones a year later. And now, nearly all of them are flowering.

Yes, you can ________ everything you think is important — your beauty, your wealth, even your family — but as long as you are alive, you can find new life within something you thought was never going to bloom again. Never lose hope on finding new life, even if the chance is ________.

3 . The scary day of our diving(跳水)test in my Monday morning high school physical education class was here. My parents thought we were honored to have an Olympic-size swimming pool at the school. But I wasn’t so _________.

Not only was I terribly _________ in regular classes and sat in the back of the room, but also I’d not be called upon to read. Each Monday I would work my way to the back of the lane forming at the diving board so I would not have to _________ the dives.

My blood ran cold when the teacher _________ we would be graded for our final on the most difficult dive. I _________ as the line to the awful diving board shortened. As I watched, each student seemed to perform the difficult _________ effortlessly, and shortly I would have to _________ something I’d never even practiced before.

Then I remembered someone telling me that when you _________ yourself doing a skill over and over, it’s just as effective as _________ practicing that skill. So I watched carefully as each girl jumped at the end of the board once, added a jump for height, __________ her body in half to reach for her toes, and finally straightened out like an arrow for entry into the water. I think I was actually in a state of __________, because all of a sudden I saw these four steps as achievable.

Then it was my __________. With my heart pounding and knowing I was going to be embarrassed(尴尬的、难堪的)beyond belief, I __________ the board, jumped once and then again to get height, folded for the toe reach, and stretched(伸展)out just as I had pictured in my mind, entering the water straight as a(an)__________.

I received an A for the course. It was __________ to think that I had just learned my first dive.

5 . A man was driving when he found a lady needed help. So he stopped. When he was coming up to her, she was worried _________ nobody had stopped for hours. Besides, he didn’t look safe as his appearance was so ugly and _________. He could see how scared she was, so he tried to calm her, “I am here to help you. Don’t worry. My name is Bryan Anderson.”

The car _________, so he had to crawl (爬) under the car to repair it. When the job was done, she asked how much she should   _________ him for his help. Bryan smiled, “If you really want to pay me back, the next time you see someone who needs help, _________ the person help. And think of me.”

Several days later in a small _________, the lady saw a waitress nearly eight months pregnant (怀孕的). The waitress gave her a friendly smile although she was _________ after spending the whole day on her feet. Then the lady _________ Bryan. The lady paid for her meal with a $100 bill. When the waitress got change and came back, the lady had gone. She _______ a note on the napkin (餐巾纸), “You don’t owe me __________. Somebody once helped me, just like now I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, don’t let this chain of __________ end.” The waitress found four more $100 bills under the napkin.

That night the waitress came home earlier, wondering how the lady could know how much she and her husband needed money when the   __________ would soon arrive. She knew her husband worried about that, so she was very __________ to tell him the news. Then she kissed him and __________, “Now everything will be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”   

The help you give to others shall always get back to you, so please don’t __________ to offer a helping hand whenever someone needs help.

6 . Every year I’d read over 2,000 college applications from students all over the world. It is quite ________ to choose whom to admit. ________, in the chaos of SAT scores and recommendations, one ________ is always irresistible in a candidate: kindness.

The most surprising ________ of kindness I’ve ever come across came from a student who had excellent scores and a supportive recommendation from his college consultant. Even with these qualifications, he might not have ________. But one letter of recommendation caught my eye. It was from a school security ________. Letters of recommendation are ________ written by people like former presidents, celebrities, and Olympic athletes.

The security guard wrote that he supported this student’s admission because of his ________. This young man was the only person in the school who knew the ________ of every member of the guard staff. He turned off lights in empty rooms, consistently ________ the hallway monitor each morning and tidied up the classroom after his ________ left school even if nobody was watching. This student, the security guard wrote, had a(n) ________ respect for every person at the school, regardless of position, popularity or power.

It gave us a ________ onto a student’s life in the moments when nothing “counted”. That student was admitted by unanimous (一致的) vote of the admissions committee.

Next year there might be a flood of security guard recommendations due to this essay. But if it means students will start paying as much ________ to the people who clean their classrooms as they do to their principals and teachers, I’m happy to help start that ________.

8 . Every fast-food employee knows that the drive-through window is the worst position. It was a freezing afternoon. Drivers _________ to stand outside in the cold and scream their orders into a speaker box. In such cases, most customers tend to take out their _________ on the employees. This woman was a(n) _________.

“I`ll get the next car’s order as well,” she said as she came up to the window to pay. She _________ outside, gathering snowflakes on her hair and eyelashes. “You can’t take their drinks,” I said, confused and tired. The lady laughed, her cheeks turning red with _________. “No, but I’ll buy them,” she said. “_________ it forward and all that.”

Completely shocked, I _________ her as requested, and when the next customer arrived at the window I _________ what had just happened. His facial expression changed like a chain of photographs on a slideshow—first _________ to be out in the cold, then surprised at the random act of ____________ and finally, delighted by his luck. “I suppose I’ll pay for the next order then,” he replied, nodding and waving at the ____________ driver behind him. He handed over the cash and received his pre-paid ____________.

The trend ____________ throughout the entire rush hour. Customers stood at my window emptying a handful of change to buy coffee for a complete ____________. Actually, it only takes one customer, one person, to change the entire flow of traffic. It only takes one moment, one smile, to ____________ even the coldest days.

9 . My fiancé (未婚夫) and I were excited about shopping for our first home. But our funds were _______, and none of the houses in our price range seemed satisfactory.

One agent recommended a house in particular. Although her description sounded wonderful, the price was _______ our range, so we declined. But she kept urging us to have a look _______.

We finally did and it was _______ at first sight. It was Our Home, small and charming, overlooking a quiet lake. Walking through the rooms and talking with the owners, a nice elderly couple, we felt the warmth and _______ of the marriage within that home. As perfect as it was, the price remained too high for us. But every day, we would sit by the lake, looking at the house and dreaming of what it would be like to live there.

Days later, we made a(n) _______ far below the asking price. Surprisingly, they didn’t _______ us. They renewed their offer instead. It was also much more than we could afford, but far _______ than the original asking price.

The next day, we got a _______ message that another buyer had offered a much higher price. Even so, we decided to talk with the ________ directly. We made our final offer, which ________ was thousands of dollars less than the other buyer’s bid. We knew it, ________ we had to try.

“Sold!” said the owner. Then he explained: He’d seen us sitting by the lake all those times; he knew how much we loved the place and that we’d ________ the years of work they had put into their home; he realized he would take a loss by selling it to us, but it was worthwhile; we were the people they wanted to live there. He told us to consider the ________ in the price “an early wedding present”.

That’s how we found our home and how I learned that when people are ________, they are not strangers, only friends we haven’t yet met.

10 . How do you pass the time during your subway commute(通勤)? Scrolling on your phone? Listening to music? Or just staring at the _______ ? Sabrina Bahsoon, a 22-year-old girl who now lives in London for her college education, turns the subway into her _______ .

Her self-shot videos of energetic dance routines _______ on London’s subways have quickly _______ TikTok, making her an overnight sensation(轰动). Her _______ has sparked a trend, inspiring others to be confident and do what they want regardless of what other people think of them.

_______ in Malaysia, Bahsoon developed a confident character. While listening to some music, she felt like making a short TikTok video on the subway on one typical commuting night. But with no _______ willing to help her, she finished the short film dancing to a joyful song, alone and _______ .

Inspired by Bahsoon, many viewers soon left friendly _______ to praise her bravery and confidence. Some also shared their own “Tube Girl” ________ on social media. This concept has gradually become a(an) “________” about embracing self-confidence.

However, some described her behavior as “________”. But these “haters” do not ________ Bahsoon at all. ________ , she thinks it is quite normal for girls to enjoy and ________ themselves on their values. “Just be yourself, ” Bahsoon told BBC News.