1 . Alexa Bjornson was starting to get worried. Her 7-year-old son, Landon, was set to head off on a flight, but that wasn’t all. Landon was flying all_______ to see his father but had been diagnosed with high-functioning autism (自闭症)．

This means that traveling can be pretty _______ for the youngster. Plus, Alexa wouldn’t be by her son’s side to help him through it all.

The mom knew she needed to make sure that Landon was as _______ as possible. She decided the best way to keep him safe was to tell the other person on the plane. How? Alexa wrote a(n) _______ for Landon to hand to someone. The mom_______ Landon’s diagnosis (诊断) and said that he could be_______ and ask the same questions. Alexa also attached $10 to the note to ask if the passenger could _______ Landon to feel relaxed.

Not only did Landon find a _________ on the plane, but a passenger named Ben sent photo proof that he had looked after Landon throughout the _______. That wasn’t all. Ben also admitted that the $10 was unnecessary, and he had ________ to an autism charity in Landon’s name to help someone else that could need the__________.

Alexa started her day ________ about how her autistic son would cope with the flight. Little did she know that Landon would not only meet a________ friend, but she would learn that some people want to make sure the world is a ________ place, too. Mom of the autistic son learns the ________ of strangers. Fortunately, one good deed soon turned into a chain reaction.

2 . Have you ever been near an animal you were afraid of? How close have you been to a dangerous snake? Well, Tony Kepler raises killer snakes for a living and he loves his ________. He has been working with them since he was a little boy and he’s not ________ at all.

Tony’s father has been a snake handler (驯蛇师) for twenty years and he has taught his son a lot about them. In order to ________ the venom (毒液), Tony has to find rattlesnakes in the western part of the United States. He sends the venom to a ________, where they make it into something called anti-venin. Anti-venin is what they give people after they have been bitten (咬) by poisonous (有毒的) snake. This anti-venin is really helpful in saving the person who has been bitten. He has been making his living this ________ for five years and feels great.

Tony’s dad has handled nearly 1,000 snakes in his lifetime. And hundreds of people go to him to learn how to ________ snakes. Tony’s dad shares everything about how to hold, how to feed and how to get venom from snakes. But not everyone can get used to the idea of ________ a snake. Many people heard scary stories about snakes when they were children and have been afraid of them ever since. Tony has been trying to educate people about the positive (积极的) things snakes do. For one thing, they help ________ the rat and mouse population. Snakes are also very clean and quiet and they ________ trouble humans.

Tony’s job is very different from any other job I’ve heard of, but it is a really ________ one. Without venom collectors, many people would be in real danger and some would die.

3 . The 11-year-old girl who fought off an attempted kidnapping this week was considered as “Brave Teenager” for her quick thinking that helped police identify the suspect.

That’s exactly what happened. Alyssa was _______ her school bus in Pensacola, Florida, Tuesday morning when a man drove up. The man got out of his vehicle holding a knife and came towards her _______. Predicting what was going on, the girl was trying to escape before the man could grab her, but _______. There’s a violent _______ before she broke free from the man’s _______ grasp and they both fall to the ground. Fortunately, Alyssa was running away _______ the man hurried back to his car and drove off.

The girl was _______ blue slime, sort of thick liquid, at the time of the kidnapping attempt. _______ she was able to get the slime onto his upper arm and a little bit on his lower arm because she knew that might be better _______ if the policemen did find him. As expected, the suspect 30-year-old Jared Paul Stanga got ________ in no time due to the blue slime Alyssa marked on his arm.

Alyssa told investigators that the same man had ________ her about two weeks ago at the bus stop and made her feel ________. She told her mother and school officials what had happened, and her mom had been walking her to the bus stop each day. Tuesday was the first day since the previous ________ that the girl’s mother did not go with her to the bus stop.

Asked how she felt after her ________ escape, Alyssa said, “mostly proud of myself,” and the officer praised, “Alyssa’s detailed observation and quick thinking did make a big difference to save herself in such an ________.”

4 . Do extroverts (外向者) make better leaders?

There is a general impression that you're better off in the workplace and in life — if you're an extrovert. Understandably, this idea is most likely to be spread by extroverts themselves, who are "_______ and proud".

In what could be _______ news for introverts, a new study has found that extroverts do have the _______ that increases their chances of success. They _______ a distinct advantage in four aspects: emotional; interpersonal; motivational and performance related. Michael Wilmot, the scholar who led the study, _______ that extroversion is closely associated with experiencing positive emotions more regularly. As happy employees are usually more satisfied, they _______ to work harder and are thought to be a better leader as a result. The way the extroverts behave also helps to protect them from stress or negative experiences at work. _______, extroverts enjoy the _______ of others, so they seem to adapt better to different social situations, which is a strong leadership skill.

_______ the research suggests that extroverts have plenty to be positive about, Wilmot says introverts should not be ________. They are not at an unavoidable disadvantage. Why is that? First, few people can be defined ________ as an introvert or extrovert since everyone displays a mixture of behaviors. Secondly, numerous other characteristics ________ workplace success, including cognitive ability, and the ability to ________ negative emotions. There are many jobs, such as computer programming, where having introverted characteristics such as ________ skills or the ability to focus, would be more beneficial than extroverted characteristics such as sociability. If you ________ his view, remember that some of the world's most successful people are introverts. Among them are legendary investor Warren Buffett and Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep. They all prove the point that you don't have to be extroverts to succeed in life.

5 . Owen Colley, a 6-year-old from Hingham, Massachusetts, was upset to learn about the Australian bushfire. He asked if any animals had been hurt in the _________ and his mom said yes. Quiet, he left the room and drew a picture of a kangaroo, and a koala in the rain with his own pencils. The picture _________ his wish for Australia, a wish for rain.

“It was _________ the first time Owen had made a wish for something else _________ himself,” his mother said. “He asked us if he could help and together we came up with this _________. We could make some clay koalas and sell them and then we can _________ away the money."

Owen started making little koalas out of clay and his parents set up a way for people to _________ to Wildlife Rescue South Coast, a rescue group. The Colley family is sending one of Owen’s koalas to each person who is _________ to donate $50 or more.

So far, Owen has _________ more than $20,000 for the rescue group in just a week. In fact, Owen has a connection to Australia. His father __________ in Sydney and Owen even lived there when he was __________.

Owen hopes that other parents and children can find ways to help with those __________ by the bushfire. “Anyone can make a __________ and even we can bring hope to them when we come __________,” Owen said. “I just love the idea that maybe other kids can take this to their communities and sell small clay koalas locally and collect money for this __________ cause.”

6 . Mount Tai, located just north of Tai’an city in East China’s Shandong Province, is a mountain of historical and cultural_________, with impressive views and beautiful natural scenery.

Among the Five Sacred Mountains (the other four are Heng Mountain of Hunan Province, Hua Mountain of Shaanxi Province, Song Mountain of Henan Province and Heng Mountain of Shanxi Province), Mount Tai is only the third highest. Why is it seen as the _________of the Five Sacred Mountains?

In absolute terms, Mount Tai cannot be considered as the highest of China’s mountains, but because it is_________ to the sea and rivers and rises abruptly from the relatively low hills and plains, its _________height is quite impressive, with a (an)_________ of over 1, 300 meters. _________, in Chinese culture east is regarded as a sacred direction, since it is where the sun and the moon rise. Therefore, Mount Tai is often regarded as the first of the Five Sacred Mountains. It is associated with sunrise, birth and_________,

Many Chinese emperors climbed to the top for enthronement (登基) or other significant ceremonies in ancient China, for they considered it to be a _________ of Chinese power given by master of nature. The earliest activities could _________to Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty, so it __________a good many of cultural relics and historic sites. Famous writers, poets and celebrities were attracted here and thousands of poems and __________ about Mount Tai are best-known nowadays.

Mount Tai is famous for its various stone inscriptions, which are the works of either ancient emperors or celebrities. The stone inscriptions__________ different bodies of calligraphy, and most of them are inscribed with beautiful diction, elegant writing style and __________ design. Besides historic relics, Mount Tai also boasts unique natural scenery, and it is well known for its__________. Overlapping mountains, gigantic rocks, centuries-old pines and cypresses (柏树), ever-changing clouds make Mount Tai __________with brightness and peaceful with miracle. As a result, it attracts lots of tourists from the whole world.

7 . I stood behind the curtains listening to the applause to the previous act. I breathed out deeply, realizing this was a moment that ________ my childhood wish. Tonight was special because ________ an alto aria or a jazz lick, I had prepared a song unique to my ________. I curled my fingers around the microphone and waited ________ as the curtains opened slowly.

My love for performance ________ my appreciation of music as a child. In the city in China where I spent the first ten years of my life, I never found a choir to join and never laid eyes on a grand piano. ________, I treasured my ________for song and sought ways to bring music into my life.

Music ________ my emotions that words and pictures can’t. I also enjoy the intellectual challenges that music offers very much. Through music, I can share and celebrate my past.

Now, dressed in a(n)________ Chinese dress that my mother had worn in her youth for years, I stepped onto the empty stage ________ by pale blue light. I ________ the microphone up to my lips and smiled before starting. Then, I brought to life the beautiful ballad that had brightened my childhood in China. My mind was full of warm memories of that faraway city ______ I calmed down the audience with my melody.

Music allows me to ______ my native culture and contribute to the diversity in my community. It has ______ my mind and provided an outlet for my creativity. To me, nothing is more ______ than being imaginative. I look forward to continuing in my undergraduate years.

8 . It had just been a few years earlier, it seemed, that Indigo — a black Labrador — had first barged (横冲直撞) through our door. She was_________flies right out of the air, and she was a sight to behold.

She had a talent for making_________. On one occasion, I came home to find that she'd eaten a five-pound bag of flour. She was_________in white powder, and flour paw prints were everywhere, including,_________, on the counter-tops. I asked the dog what the hell had happened, and Indigo just looked at me with a_________that said I cannot imagine what you are_________.

Time_________by. Our children grew up and went off to college. The mirror, which had_________a young mom when Indigo first arrived, now showed a woman in late middle age. I had surgery for cataracts (白内障). I began to_________my hearing. We all turned____________: me, my husband, the dog.

In August 2017, I took Indigo for one last walk. She was slow and____________on her paws. She looked up at me mournfully, "You did say you'd take care of me, when the time came," her eyes said. "You promised." She____________that month, a tennis ball by her side.

Sometimes even today, I'd find myself looking for her,____________she might be sleeping in one of my children's empty bedrooms. For a dozen years, Indigo had been a constant part of the____________that held us together. Now she was____________.

9 . This pasta（意大利面食）is no ordinary pasta. When imprinted with grooves（沟、槽），it can _________into tubes, and other traditional shapes as it cooks. This new technique would _________ uncooked pastas to take up less space. That means it would need less _________

Pasta lovers “are very picky about the shapes of pasta and how they _________ with different sauces,” says Lining Yao. She studies the _________ of smart materials at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn. Flat pasta like spaghetti holds less sauce than twisty types like rotini. But those shapes come at a(n) _________ :bigger packages. For some _________ pasta, more than 60 percent of the package holds just air.

Yao and her colleagues _________ a series of grooves onto one side of each noodle. Then they cooked that pasta. The pasta _________ water as it cooked. But the liquid couldn’t go as fully into the grooved side. So that side became less expanded than the ____________ side．That asymmetric（不对称的）expansion bent the ____________ flat noodle into a curve（曲线）．By changing the arrangement of the grooves，the researchers ____________ the final shape.

Yao and her colleagues reported their ____________ in Science Advances.

The pasta ____________ good camping food, Yao says. A member of her team brought it along on a recent hiking trip. The pasta slips easily into a small pack. But it cooks into a(n) ____________ shape.

10 . Angel's story began on Thanksgiving Day. She heard that Fresno's Chaffee Zoo didn't have enough money to take care of its animals. Feeling _________ the zoo animals, she wrote a letter to the local newspaper to show how she felt _________ she put a dollar into the envelope.

A week later, a man _________ the newspaper came to take a picture of Angel. A few days after that, Angel's letter was _________ in the newspaper. Almost immediately, people began sending in dollar bills. Angel's letter was _________!

Angel's letter had _________ the community (社区) and other places. Donations (捐助) for the zoo began to _________ all over California. One donation was from as far away as England. It seemed as if the whole world wanted to _________ the zoo.

The people at the zoo were _________. They __________ Angel and her family to the zoo. They wanted to thank Angel and gave her a __________ to name a baby tiger.

Soon she was asked to make public appearances to __________ money for the zoo, and Angel was __________ to help. "The __________needs your help," Angel told the people." We can all make a difference __________ we try our best."