1 . A missing woman Emma was found after three days stuck in the mud and her parents are calling it a miracle (奇迹).

The 31-year-old was reported ________ on June 26 by her parents, who said she left her cell-phone behind when she left home on Sunday night. When she didn’t return, they ________ the alarm. “So many times this type of story ends ________ and I didn’t have much hope at all,” the missing woman’s father said.

Local authorities were called to Borderland State Park in Easton, Massachusetts. Emma was ________ found when people hiking reported ________ coming from a swamp (沼泽地). Easton police officers entered the swamp and ________ to pull Emma from the swamp — she was then carried to ________.

Emma’s mom, Barbara Zinaman, said, “She ________ for help. She said ‘I need help.’ I’m still ________ after a week that she could even do that because she didn’t have ________ and she was also pretty dehydrated(脱水的).” “It was awful to be ________ in the swamp for as long as she was,” Zinaman continued. “It’s miraculous that they ________ her.”

Emma’s mother went on to ________: “I want to thank everybody that has texted, called, emailed, showed love and ________. The search and rescue teams and the county.”

Police say Emma will recover. While she is still ________, her injuries are not life-threatening.

3 . Griffith was driving alone to the Bay Area on a work call Saturday morning, thinking he was having a heart attack. He was in ________. He was in the fast lane (车道) and he started to work his way over to the ________ lane. He drove his car at such a high speed that his car crashed off the exit ramp (匝道) and hit a big tree. All the while everything became ________ before his eyes.

A young man and woman ________. They left their car and ________ to Griffith’s car. They knew ________ what to do. They didn’t ________ Griffith from the car but instead left him where he was and got right to work, doing what they could.

“They kept_________ to keep me awake because I was not doing well,” recalled Griffith.

________ under pressure, they called the ambulance and took care of everything until professional _______ got there.

They found Griffith’s wallet and ID in the car and _______ them to the rescuers. They even _______ to find Griffith’s telephone list and _______ his family of what was happening in no time.

Griffith now knows a rare nerve impingement (神经压迫症) in his neck is what _______ him to black out. He left the hospital a week later. He said he was lucky to be alive, owing _______ to the helpful couple and other rescuers.

4 . History’s first empire rose out of a hot, dry landscape, without rainfall for crops, without trees or stones for building. In spite of all this, its people built the world’s first cities, with monumental architecture and large populations — and they built them _______ out of mud.

Sumer _______ the southern part of modern Iraq in the region called Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means “between two rivers” — the Tigris and the Euphrates. Around 5000 BCE, early Sumerians used channels and dams to _______ river water and farm large areas of previously _______ land. Agricultural communities like this were slowly _______ in Mesopotamia.

But Sumerians were the first to take the _______ step. Using _______ made from river mud, they began to build multi-storied homes and temples. Those clay bricks gave rise to the world’s first _______, like Uruk, Ur, and Eridu, probably around 4500 BCE.

The Sumerians created the first _______ system, designed to teach the ability of writing. In the schools, people studied from dawn to dusk, from __________ well into adulthood. They __________ accounting, mathematics, and copied works of literature.

But by the third millennium (千年) BCE, Sumer was no longer the __________ empire around, or even in Mesopotamia. Waves of nomadic (游牧) tribes poured into the __________ from the north and east. In 2300 BCE, the Sumerian Empire was conquered and __________.

Afterward, Sumer disappeared back into the desert dirt, not to be __________ until the 19th century.

6 . Charles Potter lost his ability to walk in 2006 and had to use a wheelchair after being hit by a drunk driver. He said that after the _________, he woke up, unable to move anything below his head. _________, his injuries weren’t worse.

Once Potter started to _________, he had to relearn basic things like eating. His recovery was so _________, but he didn’t give up. “I always _________ a positive attitude. I believe I can look after myself soon,” he said.

Years later, Potter and Rhonda got married. They _________ their daughter, Charlize one year later. “She just knows I’m in a wheelchair and _________ to doing certain things,” he said.

Charlize has always been into dance. At school, she took such a _________. One particular class had daddy-daughter dances, and she invited her dad to _________. Potter agreed. The two __________ learning the routines (舞步) and came up with creative workarounds (变通办法). They got the moves together only within a few weeks and __________ them during a recital (演奏会). Several videos of their dances were __________ online and they became Internet stars soon.

So many people were __________ to see a father in a wheelchair dancing. The proud father is happy to spread a message of __________ and he hopes it makes others realize that no matter what their __________ they can live meaningful lives.

7 . A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory

As we age, our memory declines. This is a fixed ___________ for many of us; however, according to neuroscientist Dr. Richard Restak, a neurologist and clinical professor, decline is not ___________.

Ultimately, “we are what we can remember,” he said. Here are some of Dr. Restak’s tips for developing and ___________ a healthy memory.

Some memory lapses are actually attention problems, not memory problems. ___________, if you’ve forgotten the name of someone you met at a cocktail party, it could be because you were talking with several people at the time.

One way to pay attention when you learn new information is to ___________ the word. Having a picture associated with the word, Restak said, can improve ___________.

There are many memory exercises that you can ___________ into everyday life. Dr. Restak suggested composing a grocery list and memorizing it. When you get to the store, don’t ___________ pull out your list (or your phone) — instead, pick up everything according to your memory.

Once in a while, get in the car without turning on your GPS, and try to ___________ through the streets from memory. A small 2020 study suggested that people who used GPS more frequently over time showed a steeper cognitive ____________ in spatial memory three years later.

Dr. Restak’s “favorite working memory game” is 20 Questions — in which a group thinks of a person, place or object, and the other person, the questioner, asks 20 questions with a yes-or-no answer. Because to succeed, he said, the questioner must hold all of the ____________ answers in memory in order to guess the correct answer.

The point is to ____________ your working memory, “maintaining information and moving it around in your mind,” Restak wrote.

One early indicator of memory issues, according to Dr. Restak, is ____________ fiction. “People, when they begin to have memory difficulties, tend to switch to reading nonfiction,” he said. Fiction requires active engagement with the text, starting at the beginning and working through to the end.

Storing everything on your phone means that “you don’t know it,” Dr. Restak said, which can ____________ our own mental abilities. The second way our relationship with technology is harmful to memory is because it often takes our focus away from the task at hand.

8 . When I was 18, my older brother bought me my first mountain bike. I_______my first ride at Sand Canyon. We_______a long and winding road beginning at the mountaintop, and I was_______because I’d never seen mountains that big.

The trail_______at 10,000 feet, dropping 4,000 feet over 12 miles. This ride seemed extremely_______, with sandy roads and high-speed sections that seemed to go on forever.

It took us three hours to get to the_______, but for those three hours, I_______nothing but the trail. On the trail, I forgot about all the awful memories and longed to experience that feeling again.

I loved the_______of rushing past trees and focusing on the next challenge. Biking helped me appreciate the little_______of overcoming a sandy road or________a jump. Biking on trails helped me connect with the natural world.

Mountain biking also gave me the courage to pursue further________and earn a master’s degree in sociology. I wanted to help others discover the sense of________I had found in the biking community and see themselves reflected in stories about the sport. So I________an online collective called @pedal2thepeople that highlights people who bike. I’ve also become a free photographer, and I love to include bikers in my________storytelling.

I am________to my brother for introducing me to this incredible activity that has given me life-changing insight.

9 . I worked part-time at a school teaching some children English in my college years. After_______, I decided to find a full-time teaching position.

This past Friday I had my first official job interview. I was very_______ before going to it. What if I did not know how to answer a question or couldn’t answer it_______? The thought of being interviewed soon was scary.

To do well in the job interview, I_______the frequently asked questions and the ways to best answer them online._______, I was still afraid that I couldn’t do well. As a result, I went to visit my teacher to seek_________about interviewing.

My teacher provided me with useful guidance that made me_______. He said, “Connect with the interviewer and just be yourself. You know what you know; don’t_______that you know something you don’t.” I loved his suggestion because it was_______and realistic. So often, people__________to pretend that they have had experience or known everything.

During the interview, I simply reflected on my previous __________, the lessons I was good at, the relationships I had with my students, colleagues, and parents, etc. This allowed me to not only __________my personal examples quickly and effectively, but also __________   how my opinions and passions as an educator were translated into action.

The whole__________went very well, with satisfying____________of course.

10 . Life can change in the blink of an eye. While Bridgette was in the parking lot, together with her kids, a car hit them. This left them _________ beneath the car. Thankfully, the driver wasn’t going very fast when she hit them. In that moment, she was _________ by the sun, which is the _________ cause of the accident. However, as soon as she could, she _________ out of the car to help.

Soon, Chris Crowder, CEO of the school, joined her. Without delay, he _________ a group of students to help. “It was _________,” Chris recalls. “I immediately just _________ the building because I knew I had to get a lot of people to lift this car. We have about 220 domestic kids and over 300 international kids at the school. They just heard me _________. All these kids from different countries just come running out and lift it up.”

Still, this wasn’t an easy _________. “The car was heavy,” says student Junier. “We did our best, and the moment I heard the kids crying I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, the kids are good.’”

The mother and kids were __________ to the hospital. Although Bridgette suffered the most of the injuries, all three of them are expected to make complete __________. A GoFundMe has been made to help the family with __________. “Thank you for your support of this amazing mother and her beautiful children as they __________ from this tragic accident,” Keaton Speaks, creator of the GoFundMe page shares. “We also have the __________ husband and father, Andrew Ponson, in our prayers as he takes care of his family wholeheartedly day and night.”

In addition to being grateful for Bridgette and her kids’safe rescue, the heroic students who helped are also getting their __________ praise.