1 . Jameson Lobb and his friend Raphael Jafri were squeezing in a lunchtime workout on Pier (码头) 15, overlooking the East River, when Lobb _________. “Somebody’s in the water,” he said. Before Jafri could respond, Lobb _________ the rail and dived into the cold, polluted water. What Lobb had heard was a (n) _________ fisherman shouting from Pier 16, nearly 50 yards away, “Help! He’s in the water!”

_________ the unconscious (昏迷的) victim, Lobb saw that it was a middle-aged man. He was big, around 200 pounds, respectably dressed and sinking fast. He was 3 feet below the surface by the time Lobb reached him. The _________ dived, felt around, grasped the man and kicked upward until they both _________. Jafri was there now. The two friends floated the man on his back. Their muscles_________   as they pushed and pulled the immobile _________ through the water.

On the pier, a crowd had gathered. From somewhere, the onlookers produced a rope and a life preserver, which they _________ to Jafri and Lobb. The friends worked the victim’s arm and head _________the life preserver and tied the rope around his body. With the pair pushing from below and the _________ pulling from above, the man slowly rose until _________ hands pulled him onto the pier.

Both men, thoroughly _________ , watched as rescue workers _________ the nearly drowned (溺亡的) man into an ambulance and drove away. Lots of people were on the piers that day, yet only the two of   them jumped in the water — because, they say, they were the fittest people there and, so, had a moral _________

2 . There were eight children in my family, and we never had enough money. Meeting basic needs was a constant ________ for us. I got my first pair of ________ when I attended Senior High because I was awarded a scholarship since I performed well ________ in first grade. That enabled my parents to buy me shoes since we were ________ from the schooling fees (学费).

The first day when I walked in my new shoes, each step felt ________ beneath me. The shoes, simple and strong, protected me from the roughness of the path. To me, they were not just shoes but a symbol of ________ — through hard work and determination, I could ________ my situation.

The day I turned 18, I stood before my parents, my heart heavy with a(n) ________ that would shape my future. I told them I determined to leave home to ________ my dreams, which were bigger than what we had known here and that I wanted to change our ________. In my father’s eyes, I could see a ________ of sadness and understanding. After what seemed to be as long as a century, he nodded yes. My mother too blessed my journey. I stepped into the ________, carrying the dreams of generations with me. No matter how difficult things turned out to be, I never gave up. Years later, I started my own business and succeeded ________.

Although the first shoes are now ________, I keep them in my office as a witness of the long and hard journey from those barefoot days to now. They ________ me that hard work does pay off.

3 . I’m an online columnist. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about my life, ending up receiving some _________ reviews on a regular basis. I have become _________ used to being criticized like that. In the following days, I was also surprised when more lovely words _________ in. They told me that my running adventures had _________ them to go out to work out. Yet more _________ me for giving tips on the mental health issues they had also experienced. I have been so touched by all these people.

As an online columnist for ages, I have constantly encountered _________ readers. A lady was _________ about my daughter when she was hospitalized and a gentleman offered to _________ me for my training when I was badly off. There was also a couple who sent me a jar of home-made marmalade when they read about my _________, in the hope of cheering me up. As I thought about __________ of these kind people, I wondered why our brains are programmed to focus on the bad things __________ all the lovely ones.

At that moment, I’ve realized we don’t have the luxury of negativity. Our life is too short to be __________ by it. To stop engaging in it, the key is our __________ to be dragged down by it. In that spirit, I’ve __________ that from now on, I’m only going to focus on the positive. I’ll keep a file on my cellphone containing all __________ for me, and look at them when times get tough.

4 . That morning in September, at a five-kilometer race, I waited for my 11-year-old son at the finish line. He’d run 30:34 at another 5k in late spring, so I ________ he could run a 5k in about 30 minutes. When I didn’t see him at the 35-minute mark, I began to ________.

It’d already been an ________ morning. About an hour earlier, when we drove into town, my son noticed a lovely tiny green tree cricket in my car. It jumped onto my son’s hand where it stayed so long that we eventually gave it a name: Little Friend.

Minutes before the race, it jumped onto the sidewalk. Maybe it wanted to seek freedom, but this wasn’t a safe place due to the ________ pedestrian traffic. So my son knelt and ________ his hand. Little Friend came back. But I told him he would ________ it during the race.

I ran well and felt thrilled at the finish line. However, that ________ gave way to anxiety when my son didn’t show up. I ________ asking people if they’d seen him. No one had. So I returned to the race headquarters. In my confusion, I didn’t even see him ________ the finish line. But there he was, just ahead of the 45-minute mark, with Little Friend ________ on his right thumb.

My ________ were wrong. My son didn’t run fast, and he didn’t lose Little Friend. These two ________ seemed somehow related. He ________ a cold he was getting over, but I knew it was more than that.

Sometimes life gives you something beautiful, but fragile. There’s no need to ________ ahead. Treat it ________ and hold on when you can.

5 . The teacher asked, “Is everybody ready?” I _________ wasn’t ready. It was the early 1980’s. I was in my high school typing _________ and totally confused.

I had taken it as a (n) _________ course because taking French or Spanish language seemed too difficult. _________, I wished I hadn’t chosen it. I was on _________—my fingers were shaking and my heart was beating wildly. I had thought we would just be learning to touch type (盲打), not be tested on speed and accuracy. Besides, I was the only freshman in the class, and the other students were _________ to me. My young body felt too nervous to be typing so quickly and _________.

The teacher said, “Hands on home keys. Eyes on books. Ready, type!” Suddenly, the room was alive with 30 electric typewriters’ keys _________ on. I tried my best to _________, but it was obvious that being a secretary wasn’t in my future. While I didn’t __________ many errors, my typing speed was horribly slow. And I knew I wasn’t going to get a good __________ on this test. I really __________ taking this class and wished I could be learning French instead.

Now years later, I’m a novelist. I’m so happy that I took that class and learned how to type. It has helped me write countless __________ flowing through my mind and into my __________ through keyboards. It has helped me to write e-mails full of kindness to __________ with friends and family. It has helped me to do what I should do and share what I was meant to share in life.

6 . The summer after my freshman year college, I had to get my first job. This was probably one of the _________ tasks I have ever had to do. I had never held a job when I was in high school because my parents wanted me to put all my _________ into my studies.

At first, it was very hard. I filled out dozens of _________ but got no calls back in the first two weeks. It made sense because I had _________ no job experience. All I could _________ was that being a high school graduate and a year of college.

However, halfway through the third week, I finally got a call back from one of the places I _________. We had set up a meeting time, and after my _________, I was more than ready to start working the following Monday. I was _________ at the chance of working for my wages.

When I started, it was very clear that I was not _________. I made mistakes with orders and often __________ sales promotions (推销). My parents made a bet I would not __________ the first two weeks, and I would be back looking for more __________. However, I stuck with it.

After working a while, I got better at orders, and always __________ the cheaper options for customers. A couple of weeks later, I had been told by the manager that I had __________ the award of the best employee of the month. It taught me a lot about responsibility and gave me the __________ of working.

7 . “You don’t want that one,” the shelter volunteer said. “He’s broken.”

Had I heard her correctly? I looked down at the _________ cat sitting on my foot. The volunteer said the cat had been moving around since birth and that he didn’t like anyone. “He seems _________, but I still want to adopt (领养) him,” I said. “Because he needs a home, and because I’m _________ too.”

It was in 2021. I’d been in a _________ for a while. I had what the professionals called development trauma (精神创伤), which caused me to have serious attachment issues. But recently my doctor _________ I get an animal companion. He said it would be good for me and could help me form _________ with people.

It took me a week to _________ a name for him. I finally settled on Mr Bo, after the song about a homeless man who, even after great _________ , remained happy. At home I watched as the dark little thing smelled every corner of the house. _________, his curiosity satisfied, he settled in my lap. By the time a year passed, we’d developed a __________. When I woke up in the morning, Bo would demand that I hold him, so he could __________ my face. Then it was breakfast for us both before I __________ to work. When I got home in the evenings, Bo would make a crying sound until I __________ him up.

Bo was great __________. He’d made my life better. __________ having been abandoned (遗弃), he wasn’t afraid to love and be loved.

8 . A lost baby elephant has been united again with its mother with the help of the Forest Department. The story happened when the baby elephant was discovered walking _________, anxiously looking for its mother in the huge wild areas of the Tiger Reserve at Pollachi.

An official _________ the situation when he was checking the monitor (监控) and it immediately made him _________. As a matter of fact, it was he who shared the inspiring process of the _________ online later, along with a moving photo showing the exciting get-together.

“The year ended with a(n) _________ event for us,” the official wrote on his post. “After a lost baby elephant was saved in the Tiger Reserve, our foresters united it with its mother and the herd (象群).”

After hours of searching, the baby elephant was _________ by a team full of love and determination and they immediately _________ .

Using advanced technology such as drones (无人机) and the knowledge of _________ forest watchers, the Forest Department successfully found the herd, _________ the safety of the baby elephant.

After __________ that the youngster’s family had walked 2.5 miles from the baby, the team tried various ways to __________ the baby to walk towards its family, including using the sound similar to that of its mother to __________ it. Finally, they made it —it was really a(n) __________.

The official took a picture of the baby nestling tightly with its mother and __________ the excellent performance of forest department staff online. And the heroes in this event are praised for their __________. Under the photo, a sentence “A picture is worth a thousand words.” was written.

9 . A few years ago, Ben Gomes received a worrying call at work. The caller told him that his 92-year-old mother, Thomasinha, was being _______ to the hospital after she had been dragged (拖拽) by a car in the street. He raced to the _______ to see her.

“I was _______ at the time, I couldn’t picture what it would be like,” Gomes recalls. Gomes soon learned the _______ of what, had happened. Thomasinha sometimes received _______ from volunteer drivers to her local senior center. On that day, when she got out of the car, one of the long drawstring cords (拉带) on her jacket got _______ in the door as she closed it. The driver didn’t see her, and began to _______ , dragging Thomasinha along.

She _______ alongside the car, _______ the window of the car to get the driver’s ________ . That’s when a passer-by saw her from across the street and got in front of the car to ________ the driver. At that point, Thomasinha ________ , and she had a serious injury.

“I’m so grateful that I was not greeted by the sight that I feared when I went to the hospital,” Gomes says. Today, when Gomes reflects back on the kindness of this ________ , he says it’s hard to express his ________ . “I don’t know if I’d have ________ words to say than ‘Thank you’ for what you did for my mother and for what you did for me,” he adds.

10 . Three days ago, I was walking in a park. ________, a gentleman called me, “Sir, can you help me with this?” I ________ and asked, “What please?” He showed me a print, asking me if I could explain it. After ________ it, I knew it was his health diagnosis report. I told him I wasn’t a ________ but could help him. I added, “Sir, the report is called HbAlc; it is about your average glucose (血糖) levels in your ________ over the past 3 months; your reading shows 7.6, which shows you are diabetic (患糖尿病的).” He said, “Sir, my doctor has given me ________ and I have taken it for one month. But this report from yesterday still shows I am diabetic.” I said, “Your report says you are 53 years old. Your being in the ________ means you probably walk regularly, which is a ________ sign. Please follow the diet given by your doctor and ________ regularly. Be positive; stay patient and you will be better soon.”

The gentleman said, “Thank you.” As I was about to ________, his friend next to him stopped me, saying, “Sir, he ________ to tell you be likes sweet food very much. Only recently, he has reduced the ________ of sweet food.” Smiling, I ________ told the gentleman, “It is ________ that you have reduced your sweet food. I believe you can give up sweet food.” He smiled, “Thank you for your confidence, sir.” May he get the courage to overcome his ________ to sweet food and be healthier!