1 . One day, I had a serious quarrel with my father. I felt he was always trying to _________ me and I wanted to break free. After we exploded in_________, I stormed out of the house and went back to school.

All that day, my mind was racing with _________ thoughts. After all, he hadn’t even finished high school, but here I was a mighty college student! How dare he try to _________ me on my life and plans?

Suddenly, I realized that I didn’t do the assignment that was _________: a thought card. Dr. Simon always _________ us to think deeply by raising all kinds of questions about social issues, political issues, personal issues etc. _________for something to write, I could only think of the _________ I’d just had with my dad.

“I am the son of an idiot (笨蛋) !” I wrote and then _________.

The next day, Dr. Simon gave back our cards. On the card, he wrote, “What does ‘the son of an idiot’ __________ with the rest of his life?” His question got right to the   __________ of the issue: Whose responsibility was it?

I felt like someone had __________ me in the face. Again and again, my parents didn’t   __________ me and I blamed them for this or that, but how could I get away with blaming them for my life?

Slowly, my thinking __________ and my relationship with my father improved. Instead of controlling, now I saw him as caring. And it all started with the innocent-seeming __________.

2 . Just several days ago, a violent storm hit our community. I looked out of the window and witnessed a tree being abused by the fierce winds. The branches bent, and swayed (摇摆) back and forth, thanks to their _______ to avoid breaking. The leaves desperately _________ the branches because their life depended on the tree. The powerful trunk that held the tree upright bent slightly backwards from the force in a battle to _________ its position.

After the storm passed, the tree gracefully returned to its _________ position standing tall among the mess. It managed to _________ the storm. It didn’t look the same as leaves had been shed from its branches, but what _________ was that the tree won the fight for its life. For a long time I couldn’t understand why this tree _________ my attention the way it did. As time passed, it became _________ that it wasn’t just about the tree but about the roots, which, although unseen, went deep into the soil providing stability and nutrition. The roots helped the tree to be able to suffer from the fierce winds because they were there _________ it.

I can’t but ask myself how deep the roots are in my life. Accordingly, the next time you catch your kids __________, the job is driving you crazy, you are underpaid and the money is __________, and the storms of life are heavy, go back to your roots. Life is full of __________. They will make you sway, make you ________ and make you lose some leaves. But the deeper your roots are, the stronger you stand.

Faced with challenges, you might bend but don’t __________. No matter how hard the wind blows don’t let life force you into an uncomfortable position. Your __________ lies in your roots.

3 . I was ready to pay for my bananas at the grocery one night, when fear seized me. My wallet was gone. I could only have left it on the G9 bus, which was now speeding in the dark to some _______ station. How much time and money would it cost to replace the contents of that little wallet? The credit cards, the driver’s license, the cash, all lost to the bus.

Two hours later, I heard a knock on the door. My husband answered it while I was on the phone. In my husband’s hand was my wallet, with not a penny _______. She left before I could even make it to the door to offer my thanks.

After sharing the story online, someone identified the lady as Erin Smith. Without _______, I called to thank her. She said she _______ my wallet on a bus seat. “If I were in that situation, I would want someone to try to find me,” she said.

This one stranger responded beautifully to my small _______, but she actually wasn’t the only one. Right after Erin took my wallet on the bus, she posted a picture of my driver’s license to an online forum, trying to see _______ anyone knew me. No sooner did she leave my doorstep than I had emails from two women whose kids go to my son’s nursery and who recognized my face. I’ve never _______ words with those moms beyond small talk, but they wanted to help. I read that people are more divided than ever, but that’s not how the people I _______ tend to act.

Erin had gone _______ what almost anyone would have done, finding my house on a bitterly cold night, and for that I was extremely __________.

4 . In the corner of my desk is a note, slowly yellowing from time. It is a card from my mother, containing only four sentences, but with enough impact to _________ my life forever.

In the card, she praises my abilities as a writer. The word “but” never appears; _________, the word “and” is there almost a half dozen times.

Every time I read it, I am _________ to ask myself how many times I’ve “but-ted” my own daughters. Although our eldest daughter usually got all A’s on her report card, teachers would always suggest that she talked too much in class. I would come home and _________ her with, “Congratulations! Your Dad and I are very _________ of your accomplishment, but could you try to _________ in class?”

The same was _________ of our younger daughter. She treats the floor of her room as a closet, which has often caused me to say, “Yes, that project is great, but _________ your room!”

I’ve noticed that other _________ do the same thing. “Our whole family was together for Christmas, but Kyle skipped out early to play his new computer game.” “The hockey team won, but Mike should have made that last __________.”

But, but, but.

Instead, what I have learned from my mother is to start thinking “and, and, and”. __________, “The hockey team won, and Mike did his best the whole game.”

Now, I am firmly __________ that “but” feels bad, “and” feels good. This is not to say that children don’t need or won’t respond to their parents’ __________. They do and they will. When those expectations are consistently __________, amazing things happen.

“No more buts!” is a call for __________. And if I ever forget, I have my mother’s note to remind me.

5 . UK safety advisers have dismissed concerns that highly processed food, also known as ultra-processed food(UPF), is automatically unhealthy because of the way it is made or its artificial ingredients.

The current way that the UK and most other countries _______ the nutritional value of foods—which is generally by how much fat, salt, sugar and calories they contain— remains the best approach to achieving a healthy diet, said a team of scientists. They also _______ that people who cut out all ultra-processed foods could make their diets more unhealthy, for instance, if they avoid foods such as yogurts, low-fat spreads, wholemeal bread and food made of grains.“We need to be driven by the _______ and not have this knee-jerk reaction that treats all UPF the same,”said Robin May, chief scientific adviser at the UK’s Food Standards Agency.

_______about processed foods have been growing, but it is unclear if there is something uniquely bad about them or if they just tend to be higher in things like fat and sugar. The issue has _______ this year since Chris vanTulleken, a doctor and TV presenter, published a book called Ultra-Processed People: Why do we all eat stuff that isn’t food... and why can’t we stop? Chris van Tulleken has called for more countries to adopt dietary guidelines pioneered in Brazil, where people are _______ to prioritise eating whole foods and homemade meals, and avoid eating factory-made foods.

On 27 September, researchers from nutrition organisations _______ the proposed system. “We_______need foods to be processed so that we can feed the world,”said May at the University of Leeds, UK, who is a member of the British Nutrition Foundation. May also said UPF_______ products that are both healthy and unhealthy. “It’s important we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here. There are many components that have a very important role to play in ________ and in safety,” he said.

Benefits of food processing include the use of preservatives that make food last longest and artificial sweeteners that help people________their sugar intake, said May. Other examples of processed foods that can be________ include baby food, infant formula milk and breads with added vitamins and minerals, said the panel.

But Van Tulleken says that the evidence ________UPF is strong. “There is an increasing amount of science describing the many ways in which UPF affects the human body,” he says. “The ________of the food structure by industrial processing means that UPF is, in general, soft. This means you eat it fast, which means you eat far more calories per minute and don’t feel________until long after you’ve finished.

7 . Forty years ago, Mrs. Austen was my first-grade teacher, an old lady with salt-and-pepper hair, firm but kind, patient and _________ . She let us bake gingerbread men in the school cafeteria — a delightful_________ that amazed me. And whenever we read the “Jack and Janet” books, she wouldn’t let the other kids _________ my classmate Jack or me.

But I came to truly_________ Mrs. Austen when a dress-up day was_________. On that day, we were encouraged to wear clothes in the _________of the mid-1800s. My mother, a superb tailor, made a pioneer-style dress for me. I was so proud _________ it as I walked to school that day. When I got there, however, I was the only one in my class who had dressed up, feeling kind of_________ . Mrs. Austen oohed and aahed over my_________and then went to her office. It didn’t take long before she __________in a frontier-style dress! She explained that she had asked her husband to bring the costume.

We moved away two years later, and I still __________ that I never told Mrs. Austen how __________ I was to her, a teacher who went out of her way, and even__________her husband’s help, to keep a little girl from feeling   __________. I had many wonderful teachers throughout the years, but Mrs. Austen has always held a(n) __________place in my heart.

8 . Hannah, an adventurous girl, lived in a small village on a land far away. All of the villagers were used to their ________ tasks and very few had the will to try something new. Unlike them, Hannah loved to ________ and would spend hours in the woods looking for new things.

One afternoon, she ________ an abandoned cottage. With curiosity she slowly opened the door and was left ________. In front of her was a room full of books glittering in the dust! She gasped as she ________ that she had found a hidden treasure. Before leaving, she ________ two books and decided to read them at her home.

From that day on, Hannah ________ read the books, which took her to a world of talking animals, mystical creatures, and daring knights. She read about characters who faced ________ with their determination and characters who ________ for good. She learned the power of love and friendship, and that the true strength lies within one’s own ________!

With the good in heart, Hannah started to ________ the gold from the tales with the people of her village. Soon, the ________ of Hannah’s storytelling spread. People traveled from different places to listen to her stories. ________, Hannah started writing stories of her own too!

Hannah’s passion and ________ blew life into the tales and her words breathed new life into countless souls. She became a beacon (灯塔) of ________, a reminder for everyone that even in the dustiest corners, there can be a hidden treasure.

9 . Life is often marked by unexpected twists and tums. As Alice and Mike watched their son Allan ______ Cambridge University Law School last month, they thought back to the moment he was born. “I’m so sorry your baby is blind,” a nurse had said.

Even though Allan’s family were middle class and they lived a ______ life, as a blind child, Allan Hennessy’s future was poor. The local hospitals could not offer Allan hope of giving him ______ because there weren’t enough eye specialists. But when Allan was 6 months old, an opportunity came and Allan’s father ______ it. “My dad sold his car, belongings and some of his land to pay for my ______. We left our home country with very little.”

The opportunity was an operation in London which ______ the sight in Allan’s left eye. “My mom remembers the first time I looked at her; the first time we made eye ______. She burst into tears. But for the operation, I wouldn’t have ______ anything in life,” he. explained.

For Allan, life as an immigrant (移民) was ______. When he was ___into Cambridge University, Allan realized there were so many differences between him and his peers (同龄人) at Cambridge. “I felt ______ different,” he said. “When you’re a half-blind guy climbing the greasy pole, everyone can see that and they judge you, even though they are ______ it too.”

But spending three years in Cambridge was ______. Allan said, “I met the most amazing people from all over the world.” What would his life be like if he had stayed in his home country? “I wouldn’t have a Cambridge law ______; I wouldn’t even be sighted. My family there have faced terrible events. Perhaps I wouldn’t be alive.”

After graduating this summer, Allan is taking up a scholarship and ready for being a graduate school student. “If you’ve got a first-class law degree from Cambridge University, that should set you up for life,” he said. “But when you’re a half-blind immigrant living in Britain today, there is so much more you have to do. The ______ has only just begun.”