1 . After retirement, I wanted to stay in good shape. I _________ a senior fitness center, “I’m looking for a senior aerobics(有氧运动)class.” Diana answered the phone _________ “Come to check out our class!” she invited. “We start at 10 a. m.”

The next morning, I pulled into the parking lot and _________ the fitness room. Diana_________ me and then the music started. Instantly, I felt at home. The moves were_________ from the aerobic dance classes I loved in the 1980s, but they were_________ to a mix of music dating back from the 1940s to modern country. I_________ some of the songs from my high school days; others were_________ before I was born. The hour-long_________ included aerobics, hand-and-ankle-weight routines, sit-ups and balance exercises. The exercise burned off the fat and__________ the muscles I didn’t use in my daily walks. I was__________ and became a regular member.

My classmates__________ in age from their late fifties to early nineties. Most gave the exercises their own__________, doing as much or as little as they were able. __________ wasn’t the only focus of the class. During breaks, people often chatted about family news. Some__________ shared their nearby bird sightings. Whenever people were__________, we asked around(到处打听). We signed get-well cards for those who were ill and sympathy cards for those who had__________ loved ones.

As I’d hoped, I’m in better __________ now than when I started. But the__________ gift of joining the aerobics class is gaining new __________ and feeling more connected to my local community.

2 . Every year, in preparation for New Year’s Day, my family holds Baking Day, a very important tradition to our family. It began years ago and is nearly _______ as much as New Year’s Day.

For our Baking Day_______we certainly bake pies and cookies, but the most _______ dish we work on is my great-grandma’s L Noodles. She _______ it “L Noodles” because she felt the vital ingredient(成分) was the _______ that went into creating it. As a little girl I asked her for the _______ and leaned accordingly to make this dish other families rarely eat on New Year’s Day. On Baking Day, together my family make L Noodles we’ll _______ beside other dishes, using kitchen items _______ from my great grandma and telling her stories. I understand this isn’t a _______ New Year dish, but it means a lot to me-it’s about ________ and the special legacy(遗产).

________, my girls never met their great-great-grandma. But it’s amazing to ________ them to make L Noodles to pass down this legacy and make them ________ of her life. I tell stories that my great-grandma once ________ me when I was a little girl to my girls most nights. They brighten up knowing I heard the same stories in childhood. And we experience the legacy of love in something as small and ________ as that.

3 . My grandmother and I walked into a clothes shop. “It’s a store for old people, I know,” she said loudly, much to the _________ of the salesman standing nearby.

Today, she was _________ a small animal-print dress. She began io _________ the clothes store for something bright and noticeable. As a 15-year-old, I just wanted to _________ normally, but my grandmother—with her dyed (被染色的) hair and _________ coloured clothes—existed in a _________ world of style. I envied her confidence.

She had self-love. She expressed herself exactly as she wanted. Once my grandfather died, she showed her _________ for herself through how she looked. In her early 80s, she shopped with the _________ like my 10th-grade sister but with a lot more confidence.

She _________ me to look my best and always checked in on me, even though most of our relationship was long-distance. This __________ I had lots of missed calls and texts asking how I was doing.

She loved to __________ with others and would call me several times. Once she told me how she had spent the whole afternoon talking to friends and family. Her __________ had become weak but she still managed to ask me: “Are you making time to __________?” Each call was a reminder to pencil in fan to my schedule.

I wish that I’d thanked her for all of the __________ she’d been passing on to me throughout all of my adolescent and young adult life. If it hadn’t been for her lessons in __________, would I be the person I am today?

5 . There isn’t a book that I always _________ to at this most wonderful time of year, as jingle-bell _________ has it. Having said that, my husband is much more Christmassy than me and there are two texts he has made a(an) _________ part of the family festival, like the _________ tributes to the dawn of next year led by the calendar.

This Christmas, then, the following unchanging ritual (仪式) will be _________. He shooed us to the sitting room, withdrawing a shiny black long-playing _________ from its ancient, crumbling sleeve and place it on the turntable.

When he did this the first time our children were _________, as up to that point in their young and tech-centric lives they’d never seen such a thing before. They were quite happy to watch it go round and round _________ the point of the ritual was the spinning disk, whatever sound was coming out of the two ancient speakers.

“Richard Burton is the best,” my husband then cut in _________. As the dark Welsh __________ of Burton began to narrate (解说) Dylan Thomas’s radio drama Under Milk Wood, the children would settle in silence, __________ their listening positions in the sitting room by the fire, only slightly anxious about how to convey without complaining out loud their deep concerns about being detained too long from toys, televisions and presents.

My husband will sonorously (洪亮地) __________ his favourite bits so we all benefit from hearing the words in stereo (立体声). Our Master’s Voice and Burton’s declaiming Under Milk Wood together.

“It is a spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black…”

Filled with seasonal feeling and wonder as any bible reading or carol, the best bit for me is watching my children’s faces as the __________ words make pictures in their heads __________ Dylan Thomas’s unimprovable formulations: they see the dogs in the wet-nosed yards and they hear the hushed town breathing.

This is as much a part of Christmas as a Festival of Ten Lessons and Carols from Kings to all my family, and this is __________ :Even though cold and silence and blackness run through the piece like a layer of __________ , it beats with heat and warmth. It is a celebration of humanity. Compare the words of “Silent Night” to this:

“Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt and silent black, bandaged night. ”

Of course, on the face of it, Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales is the more __________ text, and my husband will often play or read that too. The __________ lines of A Child’s Christmas, “I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I __________ ,” are perfectly final. Dylan Thomas rounds off his little story of his Welsh childhood as Shakespeare rounds off our little lives — with a sleep.

All is dark, all is bright in both, but the one I ponder __________ my heart is Under Milk Wood.

6 . In our town, there was no one else quite like my father. Other people had pictures on their walls, or _________ a calendar. We _________ 3, 000 books, lining every vertical surface of our home.

Father was the most _________ scholar I ever knew. Every summer he took a month off to attend _________ in another town. In total, he earned seven _________ and attended 11 different colleges and universities.

My sister and I were the immediate beneficiaries (受益者)of Father’s _________ for learning. Every spring, he would take us _________ through the mountains and search for rocks and wildflowers for his specimen(标本)_________. On winter nights, when the skies were especially _________, he would set up a telescope and wake us to __________ the stars, which he then named like a tour __________ for the heavens.

My father was __________ drilling me on proper speech. Before I was 3, he was __________ aloud to me from the Bible, Shakespeare and Mark Twain. __________, I read aloud to him so he could work on my diction (遣词造句). By the time I was 10, I could recite from a whole range of __________ literature and poetry.

Of course, there were times when I was __________ of studying. But Father would always __________ me of my duty by quoting Shakespeare: “If all the year were playing holidays, to play would be as tedious(单调乏味的)as to __________. ”

Obviously, his efforts __________ off, for my __________ has enabled me to earn a good living.

10 . For years, I have wanted to write a book. But I never got past _________a page of ideas before my day job and other responsibilities _________ me away.

Then, my first daughter was _________. Living in Canada, my wife and I had one year of paid parental leave between us. We _________my wife would take the first 6 months and I would stay home with our daughter for the second half of the year. A few weeks into my leave, it _________ me that I could get back to writing my book _________ my daughter took consistent 2-hour naps. That way, by the end of my leave, I might know whether book authorship was a real _________ or a dream I should leave behind.

At first it was challenging to _________ from caregiver to author and back again. Quite often I was in the middle of setting down an idea when that familiar wake-up cry reminded me I had other _________ to attend to.

Soon, I had a book proposal I was __________ of. I shared it with my most critical friends and __________ positive feedback. I grew determined to get the book __________. With my wife’s support, I shopped around my proposal to publishers. __________ , I got the call I was waiting for.

Now comes the biggest __________: writing the book. I’ve __________ the most important thing is to write every day. I couldn’t do these __________ my wives’ supports. I’m also __________ for the other advantages that have __________ me to get this far, including Canada’s parental leave policy.

Even so, I’ve learned that the odd quiet moments in a __________ day can be a resource. I’ve also learned that I can only follow my __________with the support of those closest to me.