1 . Three packs of cigarettes were lying there on the pavement. I picked them up and pocketed them. Later, in a bar, when I opened the first pack, I found, to my _________, the twenty cigarettes were there.

I’m still at the bar, telephone in one hand and the cigarettes in the other. I’m dialing Shubentsov, who told me to call the moment I felt the urge to _________. I feel it even stronger than I felt Shubentsov’s healing energy. That’s saying something, since Shubentsov is known for curing smokers of their nasty habit, using a _________ method. He sent his healing energy from his fingertips, he tells me —something he picked up from another man in Russia. “I help you for free,” he told me in his muddy accent. “Just call me _________.”

I went to see Shubentsov. I think it’s time to _________ because I’m getting old, and I can’t keep doing this to myself. But here’s the real problem. I should quit, but like a lot of you _________ with the same habit, I really don’t want to.

Smoking has been very good to me. Cigarettes have never let me down, never abandoned me on lonely, desperate nights. Smoking _________ my head, helps me think. Smoking helps me celebrate victories, get over losses, comfort the comfortless. It also chases away the mosquitoes.

I will _________soon. My body and my mind are demanding that, daily.

I claim to smoke for pleasure, but I realize that slowly I’m losing control of this close, special friend. I _________ that. I realize it’s not just a “habit”. I’m __________.

So here I am, attempting to __________ again, at Shubentsov’s place. I’ve tried all the other quitting techniques __________. Anytime the urge to smoke __________, he said, just call him immediately. The funny thing is, I realize that I’m not phoning him to stop me from lighting up. I’m phoning him so I can. If I call, I’ll have done my part. Then I can smoke this cigarette. Besides, I know that at 9：30 on a Friday night, I’ll get the answering machine. I do. “The office is open from ten to four. Call me back then. This machine does not take messages.”

I put the phone down and I can honestly say I’m __________. You see, it’s not Shubentsov’s fault or anyone else’s fault that I’m still __________. It’s mine.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to smoke this cigarette. Whether I’ll really enjoy it, though, is another story.

2 . Lucky Candy grocery store (杂货店) held a challenge game for its customers in the neighborhood. The _______ is simple: answer a math question — say, what’s 8×8+50? — and you’ll get five seconds to take as much as you can from the store, all for _______ .

For Ahmed Alwan, 23, joy is as important as breakfast, but his regular customers sometimes _______ for both. So he came up with a clever way to _______ his customers’ days. “I’ve grown up in the neighborhood,” he says. “I know most of them don’t have much money, and sometimes they need _______.”

Lucky Candy is located on a busy street in the Bronx, known as a food _______ , where people are badly in need of affordable, healthy food. Many residents depend on neighborhood shops for their daily _______ .

When kids get an answer right, one of two things _______ happens. Some kids rushed for the candy and who could blame them? Others take things like rice and potatoes, clearly thinking of their _______ at home.

“The store is doing something ________ to many,” a customer told Inside Edition. “Many people here don’t even have anything. A chance to get free stuff like this means a lot.”

Alwan ________ this challenge game with his own monthly pay. And his boss, also his father Aobad, doesn’t ________ offering help, too. As an immigrant (移民), Aobad knows that in one of the ________ and most competitive places in the U.S., a little help goes a(n) ________ way.

“This greatly changed our community,” says Alwan. “They’re showing so much love and care — they’re ________ at the store for a chance to play. No pushing or shouting.”

4 . The rural girl from India, Anjali, was born blind. However, she has always been determined to live a full and _________ life.

Although poor, her parents _________ to send her to a local blind school, where she could learn to read and write in Braille. At first, Anjali was scared and _________. She didn’t know anyone, and she felt like she didn’t belong here. _________, she met her teacher, Mrs Gupta, a kind and patient woman, who often encouraged Anjali to _________ her dreams. With Mrs Gupta’s help, she quickly _________ in her studies and made many new friends. Additionally, she participated in extracurricular activities, such as drama and music.

One day, Anjali was _________ to audition (面试) for a role in a school play. She was nervous, but she practiced her _________ for hours a day, and she finally felt ready to audition. At the audition, Anjali gave a powerful _________. She delivered her lines with confidence and emotion so she __________ the attention of the entire audience. Finally, she was __________ the lead role in the play.

The play was a success, and Anjali became a star. After the play, Anjali was invited to speak at a local conference on __________. She spoke about her experiences as a blind girl and inspired others to never give up on their dreams. She finally found her __________, and she was ready to share it with the world.

Anjali is now an actress and a __________ speaker. She travels the world, sharing her story with others. She is a shining example of the power of __________ and perseverance.

5 . Gardening changed how I see myself as a disabled woman. When I started gardening in 2018, I didn’t know anything about plants, let alone how to grow things we can ________. I thought gardening required a lot of ________tasks. As I have a genetic condition that causes my bones to ________ easily, I didn’t believe I could complete them. The thought of taking care of plants in a wheelchair every day made me feel ________. But just like how I gradually learnt everything else as a disabled person, I had to ________ how to garden my way.

That first season, I visited my garden as much as I could. Noticing my interest in gardening, my neighbors in the community ________ offered me advice and support. Under their careful ________, I managed to pull up the weeds and watered my plants on my own. Finally, I was so ________ to eat the tomatoes I grew and even shared some more produces with neighbors.

Gardening has ________how I see other parts of my life. As a disabled woman, I fear being seen as a   ________ and struggle to ask for the things I need. Gardening helped me ________ the fact that I have needs. I don’t think my plant is a heavy load because it needs more nutrition. I don’t ________ it for getting insects and not being able to fight against them. Gardening also helped me ________ my social circle and grow closer to people in our community.

Over the years, gardening has made me feel more ________ in every aspect of my life. I’m planting what I want to grow, and I have gained a lot of ________ from that.

7 . Do you think you have what it takes to be a successful scientist? A successful scientist is generally a good observer. He makes full use of the facts he observes. He doesn’t accept ideas which are not ______ on obvious facts, and therefore ______ to accept authority as the only reason for truth. He always checks ideas ______ and makes experiments to prove them.

The rise of modern science may perhaps be considered to ______ as far back as the time of Roger Bacon, the wonderful philosopher of Oxford. He was probably the first person in the Middle Ages to ______ that we should learn science by observing and experimenting on the things around us, and he himself ______ many important truths.

However, Galileo, who lived more than 300 years later, was the greatest of several great men in Italy, France, Germany, and England, who began to show how many important ______ could be discovered by observation. Before Galileo, learned men believed that large bodies fell more ______ towards the earth than small ones, because Aristotle said so. But Galileo went to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped two ______ stones, proving Aristotle was wrong. It is Galileo’s ______ of going directly to nature, and proving our ______ and theories by experiment, that has ______ all the discoveries of modern science.

What ______ those people good scientists? From the example of Galileo, we can see ______ that successful scientists are those whose observations have ______ better results.

8 . Morning tea is a family tradition. It is nothing less than an art form, with the ______ laid down by my late grandmother. Her ______ had been formed during her childhood years ______ in the border state of Punjab, the land of five rivers, the bread basket of India. After her marriage, she eventually ______ to Mumbai, located on the western coast of the country. She lived here for nearly 70 years, bringing with her the ______ of home.

Each morning started with a cup of tea boiled in a kettle. Her favorite was a(n) ______ of fine black Assam loose leaf tea, to which a small amount of CTC tea was ______ for color and flavor. This mix would be ______ without a little crushed cardamom(小豆蔻).

Accompanying the tea was milk, ______ to boil. Both were served in stainless steel pots in quilted(有夹层的)covers, keeping them ______. The final touch was her cup, prewashed in boiling water, so she could ______ a steaming cup of tea.

Adding a spoonful of ______ sugar and a spot of milk to the beverage, she would drink it with her biscuits. Occasionally it would be sweet grape biscuits dipped in the tea, but with age, she ______ moved on to digestive biscuits packed with fiber. Depending on the ______, her tea would be ______. On hot days, she would drink iced tea, and on cool windy days, she’d mix up the spices.

9 . Lewis B. Smedes once said,” To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. “For years Tom Anderson’s life was withered (枯萎) by the memory of his ______ in an adventure that ______ the death of one of his classmates. He and his wife ______after six years of marriage. Then the news about Tom Anderson changed. His wife Betty came back; he ______ a fine position.

One day he told me what had changed his life,” I used to think nothing could ______ what I had done. The thought of my ______ would stop me in the middle of a smile. It put a ______ between my wife and me. Then I had an ______ visit from the person I dreaded(恐惧)most to see —the mother of the college classmate who died. ‘Unless you forgive, you cannot love,’ she said. ‘And without love, life has no ______. She paused, and then said ______, You are the only person who hasn’t forgiven Tom Anderson.’ I found there in her eyes ______ to be the person I might have been if her boy had lived. For the first time in my life, I felt ______ to be loved. ”

Forgiveness is truly ______, through which we gain the freedom to learn from experience. But forgiving our shortcomings doesn’t mean ______ that they exist. On the contrary, it means facing them ______.