1 . Juleus Ghunta is a published children’s author and award-winning poet. But when young, he could ________ read.

He grew up with his three sisters in rural Western Jamaica, raised by their single mother. Life was tough, and proper schooling was out of the question due to ________ resources.

When Ghunta finally went to school, he couldn’t ________ on reading. Not only had he been kept home from school as a child, but he had not been ________ to books.

By sixth grade, he could spell his name, but still couldn’t make out words or read with ________. He struggled in school with a deep sense of ________ and worthlessness.

At age 12, a young teacher-in-training ________ a special reading program for ________ students. Ghunta was the first to join. That teacher, whose name he does not ________ now, became Ghunta’s unsung hero — the person who changed his life.

The teacher was incredibly kind to him. Under her guidance, Ghunta’s reading skills saw marked improvement, and his sense of inadequacy began to ________.

“She had left me with the gift of literacy,” he said. “And a deeper ________ of my talent.”

After Ghunta’s experience with the teacher, his life course ________. He graduated with academic ________ and is now the author of two children’s books, including “Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows.”

Years later, Ghunta returned to his old school and asked the principal and teachers if they knew her ________, but none did. Carrying this memory, however, he still hopes to find and thank her for seeing his ________ and being a source of light and hope in his life.

2 . When I was 10 years old, my aunt and uncle lived far away from my parents.

Suffering from a severe disease _______ my uncle to walk with a stick. Back in the 1950s, he was _______ unable to work, so my aunt worked full-time to support the family. _______, she was responsible for her elderly mother who lived with them, too. As an innocent kid, I didn’t know that their _______ situation was not stable.

One day, my father and I went to see them, and my aunt asked me to get a _______, so she could pour me some milk. When I _______ the cupboard for a glass, I found that one of the drinking glasses on the shelf held a $10 bill. I felt so _______. At the time, $10 was a respectable _______ of money. Later, I asked my father why they kept money in a glass. It wasn’t until then that I _______ it was my father who’d __________ the money there. My father wanted to help his brother secretly, but didn’t want to make him __________ by handing him cash, which his brother surely would have __________. Dad knew the money would be discovered after our __________, thus avoiding any rejection and face-to-face __________ to keep the cash.

I learned a lot from my father about __________, pride, and how people help one another out while leaving their dignity unhurt.

3 . I was sitting at my desk when my phone buzzed. It was a _______ from Angus Menzies, my best friend since childhood. We had planned to go canoeing (独木舟). Whenever we'd hang out, we would hold some sort of adventure, maybe to prove that we hadn't yet become old men _______ of handling difficulties.

Then came the day when Angus and I _______ at a steady pace on the massive river which had reached a record high of around 200 feet. It started smoothly but all of a sudden, we heard a deep rumbling (轰鸣声). It was the sound of the rapids. I trembled with _______ , but we _______ . The river curved ahead. We _______ over a 3-foot wave and came down with a strike as a bigger one sped towards us. We hit it high and at an angle. As the canoe tipped over, I leaped clear, hitting the cold rushing water. I _______ surfaced, trying to get my direction. The canoe, upside down, _______ across the rushing current to my right. Angus couldn't reach it and ended up behind me. The current was impossible to _______ . Later, I heard Angus's voice, "Hold on to the canoe." I grabbed it, put my cheek to the canoe's ________ belly and the current moved us steadily along.

By pure ________ , a few minutes later, a small boat came into ________ . We whistled and the boat, ________ by a father and his two sons, came over and dragged us up. The boys stared at us as we sat on the deck, soaked and ________ . As we pulled up to a shore, we saw a line of firefighters. They wrapped an emergency ________ around Angus and me. We were rescued from our crisis.

4 . Seven years after a terrible fall left me paralyzed, here I was, with my two teammates, on the way to becoming the first all-disabled team to cross Europe's largest ice cap, the Vatnajökull glacier, unsupported and unassisted.

A year before, when McCann first suggested making the 100-mile trip, I was excited by the _______ of reaching this lost world of mountains and ice, yet _______ about whether I’d struggle. But I was eager for

From our start point, we would need to _______ through storm-force winds and overcome the _______ of our injuries. This was going to be the toughest challenge of my life. Roped together, we started toward the frozen horizon, _______ two sledges (雪橇) loaded with equipment behind us. Just 10 minutes into our journey, I was already beginning to feel the _______ on my shoulders and arms. The weight of our equipment was a constant _______ as it dragged stubbornly through the snow behind us. And yet, with each drive of my poles into the snow, I pushed myself further from civilization — and _______ to the man I'd once been.

After 11 tough days, and countless ________ and slips, we approached the eastern edge of the Vatnajökull glacier. We had beaten the odds, ________ our physical limitations and emerged victorious.

That moment at the ________ affected every aspect of my life and the way I ________ my disability. No longer did I consider myself ________ , because, if I could reach the summit of a remote ice cap, I could overcome the frustrations and setbacks of day-to-day life with flexibility and ________ .

5 . David, my cyber friend, now 25, is still searching for something to do with his life. His father, who has ________ their lives, wants to take him into his successful business. After a lifetime of ________ and want, David’s father holds out to him a small sign of hope for a ________ future. “He seems to be sincere in his ________ to make things right with us,” David says. “To have a job, to have a father — it is ________.”

But perhaps not to David’s ________. He hasn’t said much about how she feels about the ________ re-appearance of her ex-husband. But it’s pretty clear that she’s at least ________, if not made extremely angry. David feels that he has to make a ________ between loyalty to his mother, who has been there for him all his life, and forgiveness for his father, who may ________ his hope for the future.

“I ask you for advice,” he writes to me. “I do not wish to ________ my mother, especially not after all she has done for me. But my religion teaches me to ________ all men — including my father.”

Loyalty or forgiveness — which is the greater value?

It seems to me that life’s most ________ choices are not between right and wrong. ________, those choices are pretty easy to make. But choosing between cherished virtues puts our souls on ________.

6 . If you could save someone’s life, would you? That question was ______ in the hearts of Julia Harlin’s children. Their mother was at risk of dying without a liver transplant. Julia did not want her children to become living ______ , but the kids had other ideas. Eileen Harlin and two of her siblings (兄弟姐妹) made the ______ to have testing as possible ______ without telling their mom.

After securing a good test result, Eileen phoned her mother, “Hey, don’t get ______ , but I’ve been tested to see if I’m a match. And I am, and I want to do it. How can you be mad when your daughter is going to save her mom’s life?” The news went around and was ______ tears all around.

The transplant surgery went ______ on August 16, 2022, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Unfortunately, Julia received bad news shortly after getting her new ______ of life. She was experiencing kidney ______ due to her liver disease, so even though the liver was mending, the kidneys had too much damage to ______ .

Without a second thought, Eileen ______ and another transplant was ______ on December 19, 2023, at the same facility.

Daniel G. Maluf, M. D. , the surgeon for both of Julia’s procedures, said, “The mom’s kidney function recovered ______. And both of them were home two or three days after the transplant. Julia is a wonderful patient, very ______ of her kids’ efforts. And obviously, the hero of the story is Eileen, who ______ twice to save her mother.”

7 . As a traveler with a disability, I have always avoided cruises. This expedition-style small-ship cruise changed my mind.

When our expedition leader ________ we would make a Zodiac (卓迪船) ________ at Jan Mayen, a tiny island in the Arctic Ocean, I stepped out onto my balcony aboard our ship, ________ to find clear skies and calm seas. ________, I was met with a gust of wet wind and a view of mist-covered mountains in the distance. Jan Mayen wasn’t on our itinerary (行程), and due to its ________ location and often unpredictable weather, very few people ever ________ the island. I knew the ________ weren’t ideal, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

In fact, the possibility of ________ adventures was one of the reasons I chose this small-ship cruise. So I ________ joined my shipmates in the mud room, where we put on waterproof clothes and life jackets before hopping in the Zodiacs for a bumpy ________ to a black-sand beach. Even the fierce wind and rain couldn’t ________ our excitement as we ________ our way to the beach and hiked to a viewpoint, pausing to photograph little purple flowers ________ the volcanic rocks.

Our visit there wasn’t about what we could do or see. It was an opportunity to just be—to exist in a brief ________ on a tiny, often inaccessible, volcanic rock in the Arctic. And that’s something I never thought I’d ________ in my lifetime.

8 . Few dogs are as energetic as Sedze, a white Shih Tzu whose name means “my heart” in the Dogrib language. Last summer, the little dog went through a life _______.

On August 13, Louise, the owner of Sedze, was _______ the camping bag under an evacuation order. A(n) _______ wildfire was getting close and most residents were instructed to leave the city. Louise and her friends _______ into two cars with their pets. They made their way onto the highway, heading toward an evacuation centre in High Level. After driving all night, the _______ group set up camp to have a rest before _______ the road again. But 20 minutes into the second half of their journey, one of Louise’s worst _______came to life: Sedze was missing.

The group _______ back, believing they may have _______ left Sedze there. But there was no ________ of her. After searching for 30 minutes, Louise and the others had to continue the journey, ________ but still holding out hope for a miracle.

Later that evening, the group finally arrived. Louise called her daughter, Jilaine, who lived in Calgary, and ________ the news. Ten minutes later, Jilaine called back with a hopeful ________. A man named Ryan had posted about a dog that he found on the Facebook. The dog looked exactly like Sedze! Louise got on the phone with Ryan and ________ Sedze’s identity with a description of a flower attached to her collar.

Sedze was alive and well. And as it turned out, Ryan had also evacuated to High Level. While talking, they discovered that they were standing on opposite sides of a street. “It was the greatest feeling when he brought her over,” she said. Today, Louise still ________ at their luck that Ryan found Sedze.

9 . About four weeks ago, our dear little Persian cat Ashleigh Faith died at the age of 16, for which we felt sad. We _________ her when she was five weeks old and bottle-fed her until she was able to _________ on her own. She was _________, weighing only six pounds at her heaviest weight. She was our baby, _________ all over the USA with us in our motorhome, then _________ at our home in Custer. She left a huge hole in our _________, and she had been my constant companion during the _________months of my stay in hospital.

Recently, our neighbor called and _________ asked if we knew anyone who did cat-sitting, as her mother was ill and she had to _________ her. She couldn’t __________ her cat Bella with her. My husband __________ said, “We’d love to take care of Bella.” We visit Bella each morning and afternoon, and she has been so __________ for us after our loss. Bella is ten months old, and very __________. We take Ashleigh’s laser light toy and Bella loves chasing(追逐)the red dot all over the house. She now __________ us at the window, and then races to the door to __________ us. Spending time with Bella is just what we need, and it helps our neighbor know that we take good care of her cat.

10 . In Favour of Simple Writing

Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in _______ even the simplest message. If you do not, you may see yourself as a go-getter, one who values excitement and speed over _______: get it done decently now rather than perfectly later.

People are constantly receiving messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. What to read, what to skim (略读) and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens of times a day. A new book titled All Readers are Busy Nowadays makes the argument for being the careful kind of _______, even in informal lines. The authors also present well-established _______ that have long been prized in guides to writing.

Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well advocate the advice to _______ needless words. The authors, however, have _______ the idea. In an email to thousands of school-board members asking them to take a survey, cutting the count from127 to 49 words almost _______ the response rate.

Keeping messages to a _______ idea—or as few as absolutely needed—helps ensure that they will be read, remembered and acted on. _______ the number of the available options has the same effect, too. A link in an email, ________, attracted 50% more clicks when presented alone than when it was sent alongside a second additional link.

Syntax (句法) and ________ matter, too. It is more ________ to adopt short and active sentences, with common words familiar to everyone. From Facebook posts to online-travel reviews, even brief, informal pieces of writing that follow these rules get more likes and shares.

If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to sent as many messages as ________ as possible and hope for the best. But from essays to text messages organizing dinner plans, devoting time to the needs of readers has provable ________. If you are so busy that you write an undisciplined message which readers scan, ignore and delete, then you might as well have not ________ it at all.