1 . Much of what I learned about beauty is from my daughter, Inga, 24. She often sits for hours in front of the   _______ applying makeup(化妆品) and   _______ her hair to perfection. Once _______, she arranges herself in her study and reads books.

When this began, I found it _______. Why bother? Why did she go to the _______ of applying makeup and curling her hair, just to stay at home? With no one _______her mom around to admire her, it seemed a waste of _______ and time. I couldn’t help throwing my question at her after _______ in silence for several weeks. She answered, “Because it makes me feel good.” In- stead of being _______ by my doubts, Inga continued to go her own way.

________, she was putting herself first. What others thought of her was not the ________. I had to admit that I had become so practical that I was ________ to enjoy myself. Most of time, I was always arranging my hair and makeup out of ________ and trying to present my best side to others. If I ________ makeup, it was either for a date or for an event where I would look de- cent with my ________.

If I had paid attention to myself, I could have found more ________ and satisfaction in my own life. Inga was explaining a kind of ________ that many of us found it hard to ________ our- selves in no matter when and where. The simple act in the daily life offered me a view that ________ begins the moment you decide to be yourself. ________ yourself with the attention and love you deserve.

2 . One spring morning many years ago. I had been exploring for gold along Coho Creek on southeastern Alaska when I spotted a huge gray wolf no more than 20 paces away-- _________ in a trap. Confused and frightened at my approach, the wolf _________ straining(用力拉)at the trap chain. Then I notice it was a female. Somewhere there might be hungry little wolves waiting for their _________ From her appearance, I _________ that she had been trapped only a few days. That meant her babies were probably still _________, surely no more than a few miles away. But I suspected that if I tried to free the wolf, she would turn _________ and try to tear me to pieces. So I decided to _________ her babies instead. After several moments, I finally _________ the little wolves. I began imitating the sound of a mother wolf _________ her young. No response. A few moments later, after I tried another call, four tiny wolves __________. They couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. I __________ my hands, and they tentatively(试探性地)sucked my __________. Then, one by one. I placed them in a bag and headed __________. When the mother wolf spotted me, she stood straight. When I __________ the tiny wolves, they raced to their mother and without __________,they were slurping(吸食)at her belly.

I realized that I must find her something to __________.Therefore, I hiked toward Coho Creek and spotted the leg of a dead deer sticking out of a snowbank. I __________ a leg and returned to the wolf. If I could only win her confidence, I thought, it was her only hope of being __________. Over the next few days. I delivered her dinner and played with her babies to win the wolf’s __________. Finally, I saw a slight wagging of her tail. I moved within the length of her chain. applied pressure and __________ the trap. The wolf pulled free.

3 . I’m approaching the Knight Street Bridge in my car. It’s 5:15 pm. The traffic is already _________ and then it comes to a full stop. I’m _________ even before getting on the bridge. Ahead of me are endless rows of _________, roughly 300.

When I finally _________ it onto the bridge, the traffic is still moving at a slow pace. Tired and hungry, I become very _________.

Just then I hear a weak sound in the distance. The sound gradually becomes louder, until I can _________ it as an emergency vehicle approaching from behind. What do we do? The bridge is _________. There’s no room for us to move.

But I’m wrong. Every single car quickly, yet _________, moves to the side. Without thinking, I follow suit. The lane (车道) remains _________ for a few seconds, during which the ambulance __________ through. Afterward, we close up the emergency lane, ready to continue our wait. Back in my __________, my anxiety is gone. I start __________ what we just did.

Despite our tiredness, we collectively drew on our compassion (同情心) and __________ to help the stranger who needed the time more __________ than we did without any orders. Although I may seem alone stuck on the bridge, I’m __________ to all the other drivers. Together we could make the impossible possible.

4 . On Sunday, Schoonbroodt, a 71-year-old from Maastricht, ran a marathon. In a _________ 2hr 54 mins and 19 secs, he became the fastest person of his age in history. At an age when many of his contemporaries (同龄人) are_________ down, Jo Schoonbroodt is_________ speeding up.

It turned out that Schoonbroodt’s new 70+ world record, was _________ by an unlikely source: the Belgian singer Eddy Wally. With a few miles_________, his legs were starting to get_________.

“However, my friend had a special _________ to keep me on track,” said Schoonbroodt. “He put Eddy Wally’s song Chérie on his phone on repeat. I’ve always loved it. It gave me a_________. I overtook one runner after another and, _________ getting cramp (抽筋) in the final 500 metres, I was able to__________ the record by four seconds.”

While Schoonbrodt’s achievements are exceptional, he is not __________. Several men over 70 have run a sub-three-hour marathon. John Brewer, a sports scientist at the University of the West of Scotland, __________ that while we suffer a 10% decline in muscle mass every decade __________ we age, the decline isn’t as sharp for endurance. “Compared to 40 years ago, the__________ in nutrition, recovery and technology all mean that it is more __________ for people in their 60s and 70s to produce good performance if they follow the right training,” he said.

5 . As Gwen Erickson approached 97, she began raising one of America’s most popular, yet endangered butterflies—the monarch butterfly (帝王蝶). She managed to _________ 27 butterflies last year and this year the _________ has gone up to 61.

The whole process is a little _________, beginning with collecting eggs from the milkweed leaves that grow in her backyard. Four days after Erickson placed the eggs in jars on her living room table, the caterpillar (毛毛虫) appeared, and then, within several weeks, formed a chrysalis (蛹). Two weeks later the beautiful butterflies _________. Erickson then released the butterflies into the wild, but a couple seemed a little _________ to leave their loving home and _________ the senior by flying around the house.

Erickson remembered her first attempt to raise _________ and said she hoped it could enable her grandchildren to _________ an interest in these beautiful insects. However, it’s she who has found the _________ in raising butterflies in the end.

Erickson doesn’t like to talk about herself and what she does, but she does so this time as she wants to ____________ others to care for this endangered species. Happily, a friend and her son have joined her in her new-found ____________. Hopefully, we will see a(n) ____________ in those decreasing numbers.

This new ____________ is a fine example of people caring for the smaller things in life. It ____________ us that it’s never too late to be ____________ in life.

6 . The first time you make a speech is truly a special moment, and I will surely never forget the one I gave.

As a kid, I was very ________ and seldom said anything, ________ to stay quiet most of the time. When I was about to graduate from ________ school, I remember that my teacher pulled me aside and offered to make a (an) ________ with me. She told me how I was getting As in all of my subjects—________ handwriting, in which I had only managed to receive a C. She said if I could ________ the welcome speech at graduation, I would get an A in handwriting.

My first thought was that giving a speech doesn’t sound like much ________. But if I could get an A so ________, why not? The speech I wrote was ________ boring. It started with something as stupid and ________ as “Good afternoon parents, teachers, and students. Welcome to the graduation ceremony.”

As you can see, my speech was nothing fancy and I am sure nobody ________ it either. But the important lesson is that I ________ it and I realized the earlier you can stand up and speak, the better it is. The next year in junior high school, I found it had given me more ________ when I started ________ to the student council (学生会). When giving a speech, ________ its quality was an important first step that I took and hopefully you can too.

7 . Have you ever imagined turning something into warm blankets? A young girl from Wales is _________ just that!

Twelve-year-old Alyssa has spent the past year _________ chip bags and then she transforms chip bags into foil (箔纸) warming blankets. She _________ them to organizations that support homeless people.

Alyssa got the _________ from Pen Huston. He _________ survival bags with foil blankets and gives the bags to the homeless who are _________.

As a _________ environmentalist, Alyssa thinks there’s another _________ of using chip bags. “Crisp packets are _________ hard to recycle, so this is a new way to stop them going into the __________,” she said.

For each bag, she starts by __________ the collected packet and washing it, then she places four packets on a piece of paper and irons them so they stick together. The last __________ is ironing them to seal it all together. The result is a foil blanket __________ to the ones used in emergencies.

This young lady is really lovely! She’s making good use of her __________ to help others in such a selfless, meaningful way. __________ the great work, Alyssa!

8 . I had just stopped by the local grocery store to pick up a few items. Only one _________ was working and the small store was almost empty. I _________ at her passage and waited while the guy in front of me was _________ a full cart of food. After payment, he put groceries back into his shopping cart and _________ if he could push the cart up to his _________ a quarter mile away, unpack it and bring it back. The cashier was _________ and wasn’t sure what to do. I spoke up then and said I’d be happy to give him a _________ .

We talked on the short trip to his home. He was new in town having just _________ here recently. And like all of us he was feeling the _________ of the high cost of living. I nodded __________ , thinking to myself too, “The cost of living __________ going up, but at least the cost of loving has stayed the same.”

If you spend your love helping others, sooner or later your heart would be empty like your __________ . Thankfully, love doesn’t __________ like that. When we share our love, it doesn’t __________ . Instead, we find that we have even more love to share. Always remember the most __________ thing on earth is FREE.

9 . Michael Jordan is widely considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time. In fact, for more than a decade, he was the ________ of the NBA.

And then he made the decision: a career ________. How could a man, at the peak of his success, walk away from success? Not only did he walk away from his previous success, but he did the unthinkable. He risked his ________ talent by trying to play baseball, a sport he hadn’t played for many years.

Was it ego? Was it boredom? No. It was psychological. It was the mindset he buried in his soul after being cutting from his basketball team when in high school.

To understand why he ________ everything, let’s take a look into the mindset of Michael Jordan.

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve ________ again and again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

As Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, would say, genetics may determine the starting line, but hard work determines the ________ line.

Jordan may have become bored with basketball. He may have desired another challenge. However, he wouldn’t have risked everything if he honestly didn’t believe hard work ________ all.

Coach John Wooden felt the same way. He ________ discussed wins and losses in his pregame speech. Instead, he focused on ________ his players were willing to give 100 percent and leave everything on the court. He knew by focusing on the process, things would change for the ________. Ten national championships later proved his theory of hard work.

10 . I live next door to two ladies, Meg and Le-xi. Both live _______, both in their late 70’s possibly even 80’s.

I don’t know them very well. I don’t even know if they have children or are mothers. But I felt really _______ and inspired to _______ these two lovely ladies. So last night I _______ on the most beautiful kind-hearted card of tulips words of love and _______, and at 3 p.m. today went over to give them both.

Turned out I was the one _______ back! Le-xi noticed my _______ and after I explained to her to keep her _______, for I had symptoms of a cold with a tickle throat and sneezing, she went to her fridge and _______ a jar of something big and yellow. “It’s quinine,” she told me.

“During this Covid season I’d always got some ________.” I looked at her with a facial expression of “what the?” And she ________ to me just what this homemade mixture was. It’s made from organic grapefruit and lemons and stewed on a stove for many hours, and ________ was used many years ago for fighting malaria(疟疾) and all sorts of bacterial infections.

I happily took the little glass of it she gave me and as soon as I got home I took it as a ________. Tastes quite bitter and odd. Yet this isn’t what this is about. What ________ me moved most here is how I had gone over to bless these two ladies yet ________ I was the one being blessed!