1 . I believe in meaningful expressions of appreciation, especially the power of the well-written thank-you letter. I feel very satisfied with sticking _________ on carefully penned thank-you letters and _________ them out. Every Monday morning I sit down with my favorite pen and write a few letters. I write them for parties I attend, dinners I’m fed, or just to _________ a friend for listening. It is one of the _________ of my week.

Several years ago, I even sent my mom a thank-you letter to thank her for teaching me to express my _________ on the letters. Sending letters of thanks out has made me more _________ of the true love, support, and kindness I _________ daily.

My father _________ when I was twenty-seven. Even then, I found _______ in writing letters of thanks for many gifts of __________ I received. At a time, all I wanted to do was retreat (隐退) into my own sadness, but the act of giving thanks forced me to be __________ with the world.

While it may seem unimportant, my __________ in thank-you letters has secured my __________ for myself. Since real thank-you letters are few and far between, my actions are considered to be __________, and many people seem ____________ moved by my efforts.

I was a middle school English teacher. As I told my students, good __________ are the cornerstone (基石) of a quality community. I believe that thank-you letters keep me __________. I am more motivated to do __________ things for others when I feel appreciated.

What many people consider a boring thing has become one of my favorite __________. The thank-you letter is simple, but so __________.

2 . Bobby had attempted to climb the big snowy mountain. He had tried it at least thirty times but had always_________. He began at a god pace, focusing on the snowy summit, imagining the wonderful _________ there. But as he went on. and his strength dwindled (减少), his gaze would _________and look at his worn out boots. _________ , when the clouds had gathered round him, and he understood that he wouldn’t be able to_________ the view from the summit that day, he would give up and return to the village below.

On one of these _________he went up the mountain accompanied by old Peeper, the town optician (配镜师), who witnessed the_________. Peeper encouraged Bobby to try again, and he_________him with a pair of special sunglasses. “If it starts_________over, or if your feet start hurting, put these glasses on. These are__________glasses; they’ll help you. ”Bobby accepted the gift without giving it much mind, __________when his feet started hurting again, he put on the glasses. Just as nearly always seemed to happen, __________returned in the form of cloud cover. But this time it was so__________that he could still see the summit through the clouds. And so Bobby kept climbing, __________his pain, and finally arrived at the summit. His feeling of__________was incomparable with the mountain below surrounded by a sea of clouds. Bobby didn’t remember the clouds being as thick as that, so he looked more __________at the sunglasses, and understood everything.

Peeper had engraved a light __________on the lenses, in the form of the snow-covered summit. It was made in such a way that you could only see it if you looked__________He thanked Peeper for using that little__________to help him see that his aims were not __________, and that they were still there, where they had always been.

3 . Are fields full of solar panels (太阳能电池板) a bad thing for England’s green and pleasant land? Some figures at the top of the UK government certainly think so.

“I think one of the most ___________ sights when you’re driving through England is seeing fields that should be full of crops or livestock full of solar panels,” said Liz Truss, then UK prime minister, in August. “___________ lands … should be used for food production.”

This is an issue in many other countries too. China, ___________, is reportedly considering a ban (禁令) on ___________ on farmland and in forests. In England, existing rules already ___________ solar farms on the most productive agricultural land. Nevertheless, the UK government was reportedly planning to effectively ban them on most English farmland.

With Rishi Sunak, who has previously criticized solar farms on farmland, now having replaced Truss, it is unclear whether the UK government will ___________ the ban nationwide as planned, but ___________ of solar on farmland must know three things.

First, a lot of food is being turned into biofuels — even though food-based biofuels increase greenhouse emissions, harm biodiversity and ___________ food prices.

Second, plants aren’t great at  ___________ solar energy. Crops typically turn less than 1 per cent of the solar energy that hits them into useable biofuel, whereas solar panels ____________ about 20 per cent of light energy into electricity.

Third, farming is very polluting, ____________ a third of global greenhouse gas emissions as well as many other pollutants. In the UK in 2020, 121,000 hectares were used to grow crops for producing heat, electricity or biofuels ____________ food. That is five times as much as the 23,000 hectares covered by ground-mounted solar.

To see which is a better use of land, let’s ____________ what we get from solar panels and biofuels. Per year, a hectare of wheat can produce enough bioethanol (生物乙醚) for a car to drive around 23,000 kilometres, Simon Evans at the climate site Carbon Brief has calculated. A hectare of solar, by contrast, can produce enough electricity in a ____________ for an electric car to drive 2,570,000 kilometres. So a hectare of solar gets you 50 to 110 times further — and with much less pollution along the way. This is why it makes no sense ____________ or environmentally to ban solar on farms, while continuing to allow farms to grow foods and turn them into biofuels.

4 . When I first started college, people in my dorm “warned” me about a curious character that would randomly appear around campus. She would wear a teddy bear costume and hug _________. No one had any clue as to her _________ or why she was doing it.

One late night when I was heading home, and right behind a building, a teddy bear head popped out! Astonished, I _________ , and she started to jump into the air and _________ at me! Then she stretched her arms out for a hug. Not quite knowing how to _________ , I reached my arms out, and she _________ me like we were best friends! She then waved goodbye and skipped away into the night.

Then, one night, I was out and _________ a figure running across a parking lot. Moments later, I heard a sickening crying; clearly, someone was _________. I made my way over to find the girl lying on the ground, _________ injuring herself. I helped her up and phoned for an ambulance and as we waited, I eventually __________ her to take off the costume. She looked like any __________ girl in her late teens to early twenties.

When I called the police a few days later to make sure that she was okay, I was told that she was actually __________ throughout the local police department. As it turned out, she suffered from a mental illness, and to __________ some of her pressure, she gave people hugs and it made her calmer. She chose to dress up in a teddy bear suit to make herself look less __________ to other people. No one saw her again after that. I chose to keep that encounter and her identity as a(n) __________ to protect her.

5 . 95-year-old Pauline Kana and her grandson Ross Smith have a bond unlike any other. At 95, Pauline “Granny” Kana is living a (n) ________ that is more colorful than most people of her age. She’s a comedic social media ________ that can be found shooting guns, reviewing the coolest products on the Internet, and ________ in matching outfits (服装) with her grandson Ross Smith on his social media pages. She’s ________ as “Gangstar Granny”. Kana and Smith do just about everything and anything in videos.

It all ________ about five years ago, when Smith was a college ________ at the University of Dayton. One day he ________ a video asking his grandma to block one of his basketball shots and it went viral. Their humor is ________. Everyone knows Granny is funny.

The grandmother and grandson’s videos weren’t ________ at first. So, Smith went on to ________ an MBA and play professional football in Europe. ________, he found that he’d much rather ________ with his grandma and make silly videos. He believed he was ________ to make it pay off for him and his grandmother. Grandma didn’t ________ participating — she thought she was just posing for ______ for the first three years — and didn’t really have any ________ how big their reach was until Smith bought her an iPad for Christmas where she was able to see the videos on the Internet and see how many people they were reaching.

The grandmother and grandson have a TV show in the works and are hoping to raise money for Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症) ________. Ross Smith tries to give his grandmother money but she won’t ________ it. She grew up poor and ________ to let him buy her a new house. She likes the one she lives in. But he is coming up with a plan so that he can dump funds into her ________ account.

6 . William was one of my students. He was very _______ , loving plants and animals. And even though he_______his study, he never once _______. Besides, he often comforted others. There was_______he brought with him wherever he went.

Still, I couldn’t help but worry. Despite his_______, William’s grades showed no sign of improvement. But one day, when we studied the lifecycle of plants, William behaved _______. As a class project, each child planted a sunflower seed. It was_______for many of the students, but it took too long to see_______from daily watering. Gradually, most kids had little _______and even forgot to________their sunflowers-to-be. However, William made sure all the seeds were watered and nurtured (培育).

Later, William entered the third grade. Though I was happy for him, the worry________. Would third grade be too ________for him? Would his new teachers see how special he was? And I was unsure if the sunflowers had made it. But when I saw them, I was________.There, behind the library, stood William’s sunflowers. They were strong and faced the sun. This is what it means to be a teacher: To________our students and do our best to nurture them. At that moment, I knew I didn’t have to worry about William. One day, he would bloom (绽放) and________ －just like his sunflowers.

7 . It’s the e-book that helped feed the hungry.

For years Patrick Bonner has been telling his daughter, Stella, the same bedtime story, _________ more to the tale each night. About a year ago they decided to write the story down, but _________ to find the time. However, that changed during quarantine (隔离), and they finally finished their _________.

Patrick _________ they get their book published while Stella had other _________. “Some people don’t have the money to put food on the table, or get clothes for themselves, or send their kids to school,” she said. “I wanted them to have that _________.”

_________ by other online fundraisers, they decided to _________ a campaign on the Internet for a nonprofit that managed a network of food stores and soup kitchen. Anyone who donated $10 or more received a(n) _________ copy of the Bonners’ book.

Patrick originally set the fundraising goal at $500, __________ mainly family members and some friends to __________. “We thought we’d get maybe $200,” he said. To his __________, the campaign met its __________ goal less than two hours after going live on May 7. So far, it has collected over $26,500 from more than 670 donors across the world.

Every $10 donated can provide more than 10 __________ to children and families in need, so they estimated their fundraising would be able to __________ over 2,650 meals.

__________ the money raised, Patrick was amazed by the __________ of the campaign. “It is this togetherness about it that is really the best part of it,” he said. “We __________ exceeded (超过) the number we wanted, and it also helped us __________ the isolation (孤独) of quarantine when we feel __________ to other people.”

8 . As a parent, controlling our tempers(脾气) can be a huge challenge. When our kids misbehave, it’s___________for us to react with anger, but that’s not a ___________approach.

Dr. Chae shared a story about dealing with her daughter bad attitude and it shows just how___________it is to help our kids understand why they act the way they do. Her 6-year-old daughter was a bit___________to her one day, so she asked her what was wrong. “At first, she just looked at me,   sol explained that I can’t help her___________I know what’s wrong,” Dr. Chae said.

Just trying to ___________why her daughter acted that way was such an important step. Instead of assuming she was rude because she was mean (刻薄的), Dr. Chae guessed that something had happened. Of course, she was right!

“She said, ‘I don’t know.’ and started ___________.Looking at her tearful face, I___________her. ‘It’s OK. Sometimes Mom just doesn’t feel happy either. You’re not ___________.I just need to figure out how to help you,’” Dr. Chae said. Her daughter was____________to hear that other people feel the same way now and then.

Dr. Chae then gave her daughter an important____________that will help her throughout her life: “When you aren’t quite feeling right but don’t want to be ____________, you can whisper, I’m not feeling my best self; I need a ____________.’”They practiced the__________a few times and her daughter felt better after calming down alone. Besides, she is now equipped with something to say the next time she is in a____________mood!

9 . Nowadays, more and more teenagers have too much pressure (压力). Their schoolbags are getting heavier (更重的) and the hours they spend on their homework are becoming ________. They think they should be allowed (允许) to practice their hobbies (爱好). But their parents think the hobbies can ________ their school work. Should parents allow their children to make their own decisions?

Li Kai, a fifteen-year-old boy, likes singing very much. He always wants to be a professional (专业的) ________when he grows up. However, his parents don’t want him to practice singing. They think their son should study hard to get good ________ and enter a good university. “He needs to spend more time on his schoolwork because it’s ________ to become a professional singing star,” says his father. But Li Kai really ________, “I know my parents ________me. And they hope that I will have a better life in the future. But I am ________ singing. I should be allowed to make my own decision. Only then will I have a chance to ________ my dream,” says Li Kai.

Doctors say lots of pressure is bad for children’s development (发展). Parents should have the ________attitude (态度) towards the children’s development. Although it’s normal (正常的) to want successful children, it’s even more important to have healthy and happy children.

10 . A huge smile ________ across my face as I heard the shave (剃刀) near my head.

After seeing a family friend shave his head in Dad’s ________, I knew it was the right thing for me to do. When my dad died, I was ________.

Once a week, Dad would take me out for frozen yoghurt before we ________ to the local gym, lay down in the cool grass and listened to Coldplay’s songs. “Look at the stars,” he’d sing along, “look how they shine for you.” Dad was so ________ and funny. We were best friends.

When I ________ to shave my head, The Leukaemia Foundation (白血病基金会) wanted to share my story to raise ________. I was happy to help, went on TV and talked about it. As the day for the shave ________, I was so excited.

Mum helped to ________ the shave at a local cafe with other participants. But a week before it, we had to ________ it because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I still want to shave my head,” I told Mum.

We decided to set up a live stream on the Internet so it could go ahead with friends watching on. My family took turns shaving my long hair as my stepdad Michael read out encouraging ________ from the community. “You’re an inspiration, Tanisha,” one had ________.

After 25 minutes, my hair was all over the floor and my head was ________ bald (秃的)! Next day, I found out that I’d raised just under $3,500, which was a great feeling.

My dad was an incredible person and I’m so happy I did something he’d be proud of. Hair can grow back but Dad can never be ________. If I can help prevent just one family going through what we have, it would all be ________ it.