1 . He, handsome and attractive though small, is 73 this year, but looks much younger than he actually is. My mom got the_______from my grandpa. And thank God so did. You can never imagine how genuinely _______and fascinating he could be. My grandpa absolutely leads a _______life of old age, unlike other retired elderly people just walking with their pet birds, or _______time at home as couch potatoes do.

He takes to cooking tasty cuisine, singing Karaoke, collecting antiques, and experiencing brand new dimensions of cultures. “Stopping to smell the roses and passing on the happiness is a _______factor of people’s happy life,” he always _______his peers.

“He is always doing everything with his_______— so cool and enviable!” my grandpa’s friends remarked. They also_______my grandpa for his blog where he writes much,_______his distinct opinion of life. One night his blog caught my eye. There was a________, at the very beginning, of him hugging my grandma with fireworks blooming on Times Square last Valentine’s Day. “People say reality________and fantasy begins when the fireworks display starts, but for me both________a great deal. I take g reat joy in everyday life________I can hold the hands of my love,” he said beneath the photo.

I couldn’t believe those were from my grandpa, I mean, from a 73-year-old person. Now I finally see the true meaning of the saying that ________is not a time of life but a state of mind. I love my grandpa for the interesting and romantic________he has.

3 . Family is the warmest place where members always help each other, especially in the most difficult times.

My husband and I went through tough times many years ago. However, we didn’t mention the difficulties to our children. The only thing they knew clearly was that we had to _______many things. But we didn’t want to _______ them with a problem about which they could do nothing.

Our situation wasn’t improving, and we knew that we would have to look for outside help. Just as we reached the point of _______, our community gave us an envelope that had been left in the committee’s offering box. The committee said, “In our community, there has been a way of assisting those who have financial difficulties. In order not to make the receivers feel ashamed, money is secretly dropped into an offering box with only the_______name on each envelope. Then the envelopes are_______to those members without them knowing the givers’ names.”

You could imagine how overjoyed we were to receive it, which was enough to bring us through the desperate time. We couldn’t help but _______ who had given such a generous gift. We were enormously grateful.

Later, our son applied for a student loan so that he could attend university. It was then that we _______his saving account was almost empty. We’d trusted him to put the wages from his part-time job into the bank. We were so_______ that I asked him repeatedly to find out where the money had gone. He just stood there with firm eyes but said nothing.

Finally, with great _______,my son eventually admitted that the year before he had put his savings in the offering box for us. I stood there speechless, tears filling my eyes. He had spent several years saving that money and had given it to us __________without telling us what he had done.

4 . My two little boys were happily playing when I watched a passenger jet(客机) explode into one of the World Trade Center towers(世贸大厦) in New York City on the television.

It took my husband, Matt, several hours to return home. I ran to the door to _________ him. We held each other tightly, _________ in a state of disbelief. How could this have happened in our safe_________?

Dinner was quieter than usual, although the kids helped keep things _________. There wasn’t much _________ aside from expressions of deep sadness.

“I have a _________ for you,” Matt said.

“For whom?” I asked and then remembered it was my birthday. I don’t feel much like. “_________.How about if I open it tomorrow?”

“Okay, but you have to read this tonight.   He handed me a _________.”

9/11/01

_________ today; with the horrible disaster; I want to __________ to you again, how much you __________ to me. The hard work that you are engaged in right now is __________, invisible and largely thankless in the short term.

But honey, please know that __________ these little guys grow into men is a privilege that we should be proud to __________ as we grow old together and the perfect fulfillment(实现)of our __________ bonds.

You are a great mom.

You are a great wife.

You are my best friend.

You are very pretty. Happy birthday.

——Matt

5 . Time didn’t ease the pain of losing my mother. Each day brought new ________ since her death over a year ago, and often I found myself fighting back ________ tears.

Mom ________ just before the Christmas season the year before, after a short ________ with cancer. At the age of seventy-two, she had been well ________ for her death, ________ I was not.

All her life, Mom was there for me. I still keep the picture in which my mother wore a red sweater in my bag. Although now a ________ woman, I still needed my senior parent for advice and ________. I often found myself wearing her red sweater, holding it to my cheeks, ________ in its distinctive smell. It had been Mom’s ________ which I now drew comfort from, and it was ________ and worn from years of use.

One day I sat waiting for my ________ to have my hair done in the beauty parlor (美容院). I was exhausted from working, and I became frustrated with the wait. Then I ________ a small child watching me. She and her mom were holding hands while they stood at the counter. They moved to the area where I was sitting, so I moved over one chair to give them ________ to sit down.

The little girl ________, then said to me, “Where did the woman go that was sitting beside you?” ________ at her question, because no one had been sitting next to me ________ my beloved sweater and the precious picture in my bag lying there. Suddenly I realized she meant my mother in the picture.

My ________ and frustration were suddenly ________ as a warm glow washed over me. ________, I realized my mom never left me. She really is only a shadow away.

6 . Growing up, moments with Mum were painfully short. That’s because we spent most of the year at our boarding school in Singapore, __ only during the holidays. Every year, she would __ expect our reunion.

However, those sweet, cherished moments gradually __ as I grew older and moved further away from home for university. And soon, our __ became tense. Weekly phone calls filled with small talk were too __ to ever develop into real talk, real feelings. The __ led to arguments instead. To me she seemed unable to __ that I was no longer a kid, thus, forcing me to hold back information or even lie frequently. But the more I pulled away, the more I felt __ . Perhaps the journey to the local museum would give us a __ to breathe it back to life.

When we got there, we __ for a joint drawing activity. Secretly I hoped producing something together would help us connect. Later, when a digital screen __ our works, Mum went up to the screen and reached out, __ the fish as if doing so would __ it to life. That momentary glance of my mother’s childlike __ and delight at a new experience revealed the little girl in her, who like me, had lost a vital __ to the trials and responsibilities of adulthood and motherhood.

7 . Hurricane Ian hit Florida and brought with it flooding, winds and a record high storm.

Karen is 84 years old and relies on a wheelchair to _________ because she is missing a leg. Her son Johnny tried _________ to get her to leave, but she refused again and again — she _________ the intensity of the storm.

Johnny lives four blocks away. When Karen reported the water in her house had reached her waist, he knew he had to take _________.

First, Johnny _________ his kids were taken care of. He gave them food and opened the attic (阁楼) so that they could _________ through the roof if water continued to rise. Then, he jumped out of a window and began to _________.

Johnny was racing against the clock. He knew he only had a(n) _________ period of time to get there before the water rose above Karen’s _________. It took him 40 minutes to swim four blocks. The sound of Karen yelling was __________ to his ears! She was still alive!

Everyone in Johnny’s family is now __________ although they’ve lost everything they owned. But they’re __________ just to be here.

“I didn’t lose __________. Life is like a computer. There’re two __________: a reset and a power — and we are blessed that it was just a reset button, not the power, that got __________,” he said.

8 . Many years ago, I was living with my best friend and we had many happy moments together. But there was one night that ________ our lives forever.

On the night of November 25, 2011, I got into a fistfight with my best friend in our kitchen. It all started because I was trying to help him. He was drinking a lot, arguing with everyone and ________ himself from others by keeping silent most of the time. This had been going on for weeks and finally I decided it was time for a(an) ________ I told him that he needed to stop drinking so much and tried to ________ his alcohol and he got angry and started ________ with me. It was scary, but by the end of the night, we were able to calm down and talk to each other.

I thought alcohol ________ was his main problem. But he was just using alcohol to ________ himself through. He was lonely, heartbroken and struggling to connect with people. So during the Christmas season a few weeks later, I gave him a ________ that I didn’t even know I had.

That Christmas my friend didn’t have any place to go, so I invited him home to my parents’ house in Lancaster. They ________ cleaned up our guest room for him and even bought him some Christmas gifts. I’ll never forget the night we arrived at my home. My parents were already ________, but my mom had prepared dinner for us, baked some cookies and left us a note. My parents are known for their ________, so I wasn’t surprised by this warm welcome. But when my friend read my mom’s note and saw all that she had prepared, he broke down and cried. That’s when I ________ how much I took my loving family for granted.

That year my friend and I both received gifts that we would ________ forever. I gave him the gift of a warm, loving, safe place to spend Christmas. And he gave me the gift of a new ________ on life. If I hadn’t shared my home with him, I wouldn’t have understood how ________ I am.

9 . Every August, teams with players about 10 years old play baseball across the US, with the aim to become Little League _______. In this year’s game, Isaiah Jarvis, a Little League batter (击球手),   _______ the pitcher (投球手), Kaiden Shelton, who threw a baseball that hit him in the head. The   _______ scene brought tears to the eyes of the crowd in the stadium.

On August 7^th, Kaiden Shelton, from Texas, _______ Isaiah Jarvis, from Oklahoma, at the plate. With two strikes against Isaiah, Kaiden _______ lost control of his pitch. The ball hit Isaiah in his helmet, sending him to the ground. The field staff immediately _______ him and found him to be OK. He decided to remain in the _______. Yet Kaiden, the pitcher, appeared to be _______.

Isaiah called a timeout upon seeing his _______ battling emotions. He calmly walked toward Kaiden and gave him a big hug, trying to ________ him. “Hey, you’re doing just great.” Kaiden later shared with NBC News. “These ________ words from him really helped me.”

A video of the moment was posted online and attracted more than 6.5 million views. Danny Graves, a sports announcer, said Isaiah’s ________ was the best thing he had ever seen in Little League baseball.

The Texas team won the game 9-4 to ________ to the Little League World Series. And Isaiah was also ________ to the game to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The pair told NBC News they think their newfound ________ will last beyond any tournament.