1 . Last summer, I was suffering from too much stress. I’d just graduated from a(n) __________doctoral program and was exhausted from the years of research, study and writing. I took a __________to celebrate, but the academic intensity had become a __________. Sitting on the beautiful lawn of the hotel on Mackinac Island, I just felt like I should be studying or working __________.

Generally seeing natural beauty would have __________ me, but I couldn’t slow down. I couldn’t help looking at my cellphone __________in case I missed something important. “Enough,” I murmured. I needed to unwind, but why couldn’t I?

A dragonfly (蜻蜓) buzzed around me.With each __________, this creature’s wings __________ color — blue one moment, green the next. Dragonflies usually fascinated me with their quick movements that __________ me of acrobats (杂技演员) in the wind, but I wasn’t in the __________ that day. What I needed then was stillness, not movement. Suddenly, the dragonfly came to rest on a blade (叶片) of grass in front of me.

I watched that dragonfly carefully for many minutes. So did the dragonfly. “It’s not a matter of relaxing,” it seemed to say. “Life is so short.Be here in the __________ and let the mood take care of itself.” Suddenly, it __________ me that this beautiful creature, which only had months to live, was “instructing” me about the __________ of life and I felt much relaxed. The dragonfly seemed __________ that its message had been delivered. It sprang from the grass and flew away. I didn’t see it again. But I would never forget what it taught me: Be here and _____________ yourself.

2 . One day, the sewer line (污水管道) under our house burst. My first _______ was to call the plumber (水管工)．I expected the man to _______ of such a miserable job._______, he simply asked, “The address?”

An hour later, Steve arrived in his truck. I _______ anxiously as he walked down into the damp depths. A few moments later he_______, saying, “It’s broken.”

“Can you fix it?” I asked with a mixture of doubt and _______.

Steve looked at me as if scolding me for my lack of   _______ saying, “Sure.” Then he told me that he had to get a backhoe (挖土机) and   _______the street to the main sewer line and that it wouldn’t be done until evening.

I felt somewhat_______upon driving off in my clean vehicle, leaving Steve to such a(n) ________task. I went into town and visited a few friends.________, around 6 p.m., my curiosity got the better of me. I went home and saw a sweeter________: the newly-paved street and a covered-up excavation across my front garden.

I sat down, lost in________. I was taken by the very idea that, sometimes terrible things might happen to an unlucky homeowner, ________ there is always somebody who is ________in its solution.

5 . Exercise and I had never had a good relationship due to my fear of sports. From a young age, my dad _______ me into a dozen sports. I didn’t like any of them, _______.

When I entered the University of Regina, my dad _______ telling me “You have to find a way to stay _______.” or “You don’t want to get the Freshman 15, do you?” So I _______ to give swimming a shot, but I _______ managed to go to the pool twice during the fall semester (学期). Worse still, I was _______ to convince myself that’s OK.

The spring semester came. A friend of mine _______ me if I wanted to try Zumba (尊巴) with her. All I knew about Zumba was that it was basically a kind of exercise: dancing to Latin pop songs. It didn’t sound too bad, but I couldn’t be _______.

I went, and that was it. Zumba became my ________ of tea. The instructor would always say, “Don’t worry about the steps. Have fun. Do your own thing.” That removed my ________ of sports. I didn’t have to be ________. I didn’t even have to be good. I just needed to ________ the music and move. Zumba did ________ me from the Freshman 15, and it also did so much more. It let me make ________ with my unpleasant past about physical exercise, and enjoy staying healthy.

6 . I used to walk around the store with my parents, constantly begging for something. I still remember the _______ of all the bright bags of chips and candies that I asked my mom to _______ for me. At that time, I had no real _______ about the value of money.

When I was about twelve years old, my dad always _______ my begging and told me with an angry face “you can waste all the money you _______ when you have a job.” I listened to him, but I never _______ understood the message he was trying to _______ to me.

In high school, I _______ to find a part-time job. One day, a young man handed me a flyer (传单), which said at the top “Looking for a summer job? Be a _______ !” I started to think about the money I could make, so I ________. A few minutes after my application was ________ , I got an email from AMS pools, informing me to have a(n) ________ the next day.

After I ________ the training process, I finally started the job. Every afternoon, I worked in the pool, keeping a close watch on the ________ people. I was proud I rescued several drowning children. And I could earn my pocket money with my skill. However, the more money I made, the less I wanted to ________ . Instead of wasting my money on useless things, I started saving up. I now have 3,300 dollars in my bank account.

9 . For a herder (放牧人) in Africa, the hardest part of the job is searching for cattle lost in the bush. But for Andrew, a herder at a farm in Zimbabwe, it’s not a_________. Once he_________Toro, he knows the rest of the herd is nearby. That’s because Toro isn’t an ordinary member of the herd. He’s a giraffe. In_________weather, cattle rest in the shade under his belly to keep cool. And because of his height, Toro can spot lions long before they come close to the herd.

Toro’s_________situation came about after his mother was killed by lions. Toro survived the attack, but he was left with no one to protect him or give him milk. About two days later, some herders spotted and rescued him. With the_________of the Department of Wildlife, the herders moved Toro to Andrew’s farm. Since giraffes and cattle are both plant-eating animals that live in_________, their behaviors are much the same. Toro was accepted into the herd and_________among the cattle as they ate grass.

Toro doesn’t always behave like the other members of his new herd. Like many kinds of animals, cattle_________leadership. Standing more than 13 feet tall, Toro is more than three times taller than the_________bull, but Toro__________tries to be “the boss”. “He is very used to their __________,” Andrew said. When the herd enters the kraal (家畜栏), the cows and bulls__________each other. “But thanks to his height, Toro does not need to join the__________,” said Andrew.

When asked if Toro would ever be__________to the wild, Munetsi, an officer of the Department of Wildlife said no. “In the wild, he would find it difficult to be accepted into another herd or defend himself from being killed by other animals,” he added. “He seems very much at home and is respected by the__________.”

10 . When I was 17, I read a magazine article about a museum called the McNay, once the home of a watercolorist named Marian McNay. She had ________ the community to turn it into a museum upon her ________. On a sunny Saturday, Sally and I drove over to the museum. She asked, “Do you have the ________?” “No, but I’ll recognize it, there was a picture in the ________.”

“Oh, stop. There it is!”

The museum was ________. We entered, excited. A group of people sitting in the hall stopped talking and stared at us.

“May I help you?” a man asked. “No,” I said. “We’re fine.” Tour guides got on my nerves(让我心烦). ________ they talked a long time about a ________ you weren’t that interested in? Sally had gone ________. The people in the hall seemed very nosy(爱窥探的), keeping their eyes on me with ________. What was their problem? I saw some nice sculptures in one room. Suddenly I sensed a man standing behind me. “Where do you think you are?” he asked. I turned ________. “The McNay Art Museum!” He smiled, shaking his head. “Sorry, the McNay is on New Braunfels Street.” “What’s this place?” I asked, still confused. “Well, it’s our home.” My heart jolted(震颤). I ________ to the staircase and called out, “Sally! Come down immediately!”

“There’s some really good stuff(艺术作品) up there.” She stepped down, looking ________. I pushed her toward the front door, waving at the family, saying, “Sorry, please forgive us, you have a really nice place.” ________, when I told Sally what happened, she ________ her mouth, laughing. She couldn’t believe how long they let us look around without saying anything.

The real McNay was splendid, but we felt nervous the whole time we were there. Van Gogh, Picasso. This time, we stayed together, ________ anything else unusual happened.