1 . Jaxon Carter, a 6-year-old boy, lost his mother very early. Her passing away left the little boy and his dad in _________. Soon after that, Jaxon had to move to a new _________ to study, which proved to be a great _________ for him.

Jaxon has been an outstanding and _________ student, despite his sadness over losing his mother. Jaxon recently had his graduation ceremony where he _________ a valedictory (告别的) speech. However, a normal speech everyone expected _________ an emotional and heart-breaking one as the boy paid tribute to (致敬) his late mother.

“When I started kindergarten here in August last year, I was a little 5-year-old boy who had lost my beautiful mother a month before. My kindergarten year helped me grow braver, smarter, more kind-hearted, and more _________,” he said in the _________. He thanked his teacher, who he _________ as someone with a “big heart”. “When I was __________, she used to tell me it would be all right.”

Lastly, he dedicated his speech to the person he __________ missed his mother. “I dedicate my speech, good grades, all school awards, and my kindergarten graduation to my beautiful mommy, who I will always __________ and miss so much,” said Jaxon. “I know she will always be with me in my __________.”

The audience __________ him as they were all brought into tears by the boy’s beautiful and heartfelt __________.

2 . Tiffany Hammond and her son Aidan communicate in some familiar ways, like hand gestures and body language. But when Aidan wants to ______ himself with words, he uses a tablet (平板电脑).

Aidan is autistic (患孤独症的) and does not speak, so when his mom asks ______ , he can press a button on the screen to answer them. The family has designed routines around his autism, but people outside the household don’t ______ .

“Every single time we go outside the house, there’s something bad happening. There’s a______ , and there’s a mean stare,” Hammond said. “And he feels lonely a lot.”   However, that loneliness and those reactions from outsiders ______ Hammond to find a way to ______the ways in which people with autism can express. They just communicate in a(n) ______type of way. The result of this experience is a children’s book from Hammond titled A Day With No Words. The book followed Aidan through a regular day, showing his ______routines.

Hammond also wrote about the ______ of the book to want people to give kindness and the goal she hoped to ______ with the writing.

In an interview, Hammond said,   “I want to ______ all the things that I see in him. He loves being outside and swings, and he loves life. He is ______ like other people. I want to______ the regular life that I have with my son, and it is supposed to ______ a loving letter to him.”

______, a day with no words can be full of meaningful communication.

3 . It was wintertime 30 years ago. I was a young father with 3 little children to support. My college education, however, didn’t ________ me a good job. Now I was working in a sawmill (锯木厂) for just above the minimum ________. Every day before I went to work, I would ________ band-aids around my fingers. Working 8 hours a day in the cold dry air had ________ cuts and scars.

That day was harder than normal. We were ________ of workers and the machines kept breaking down. We could see our ________ as the heaters weren’t working. When the day finally came to an end, I ________ my legs to my car. There I took off my work ________ to see my aching fingers. The cuts were worse than ever and ________ leaked through again. As I made a (n) ________ to fix it, my bad back cramped (抽筋). I had never felt that ________ before. I finally started my car back home and ________ fought back the tears. I wondered why life was so hard and how ________ I could keep doing this.

As I opened the door, I ________ a weak smile on my face. But it soon became ________ as my daughter screamed a sweet “Daddy”. When she threw her little arms around my neck, my heart ________ with love. All my aches and pains disappeared in her ________! In that second I remembered again I was here for ________ and I knew I could move on.

In our lives, we all have ________ fingers and band-aid days. But with love we can survive.________, work may give us a living, but love gives us a life.

4 . A hero isn’t just a superman that flies around saving people. A hero can be a volunteer worker, a teacher, or even a _________ member. My hero just so happens to be my dad, which may sound like something _________ to you. You would also say your mom or dad is your hero because they raised you, or you’re always able to _________ them. My _________ are like that as well. _________, I still consider my dad a hero above everybody else and he _________ deserves it.

My dad has always been caring and loving. When I was young, he was the one that stayed at home with me, taking _________ of me and loving me wholeheartedly. He also helped me with my _________ so I could do well in my schoolwork. I couldn’t ask for a _________ dad. I love how my dad __________ my mom as well. He is a fantastic __________, so my mom is willing to share her sorrows and joys with him. Besides, my dad is always __________ to offer a helping hand, sharing housework and solving her problems at work. He has also shown others his good __________ by serving our country and helping the community.

My dad isn’t a great person who changes the world, but he has __________ my little world. He is a great __________ for me and I’d like to be an ordinary hero like him.

5 . When you left us, it was the end of a long, painful road. Since then, I was_______my favorite memories of you.

I remember us taking our family dog for walks together on the _______ sand dunes (沙丘). I remember sitting on your knee, watching candlelight _______ inside. Once I bought you a gift — a _______ printed on a glass board, titled “Walking With Grandpa.” _______, you wrote me your own poem, too. I imagine how you must have taken time finding the right words, how you printed it out and cut the paper to _______ before placing it in the frame.

However, Alzheimer began its _______ through your life. In your last few days of life, I was _______ when sitting by your bedside silently, feeling very worried and afraid. I didn’t know what to do or how to _______.

Now, I am an adult, I wish I had been ________ — that I had come close to you and told you how deeply I loved you, how you filled the ________ which was the absence of my father in those 10 years of my life, so that I didn’t realize anything was ________. It’s only now that I am aware that when I ________ a relationship with my father, the reason why he fell short of ________ is that he wasn’t you. I really hope you know how much you ________ to me.

6 . My adult son walked to the table this morning for breakfast. As he did he opened his _________ to me. I did the same and gave him a big _________ just like I do every morning. And this time a beautiful _________ came back to me.

My Italian grandma had been a big hugger when I was a boy, but my mom had _________ in a more reserved (保守的) family and didn’t hug me often as I grew into my teenage years. My dad seemed to _________ the gender roles of the day back then and didn’t hug me much as I got older. By the time I was a teenager then, _________ grandma, I didn’t hug anyone.

When I was sixteen, I went on a trip with a group of boys to _________ a college. We visited a _________ on our way, where we were _________ by the largest monk (和尚) I had ever seen. He gave each of us a HUGE HUG. My own __________ came at last. Though I felt a bit __________, I stepped in and hugged him back. I sensed a __________ in my heart as he shared his loving kindness. It was amazing. Later that day I began to wonder why I had __________ giving and receiving hugs when they brought so much joy. When my own children were born, I __________ never to stop hugging them and telling them I __________ them, no matter how big they grew or how old they got.

7 . Every year on my birthday, a white gardenia (栀子花) was _________to my house. But no card or note came with it. Calls to the flower shop were always _________— it was a cash purchase. After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender’s identity and just _________in the beauty and heady perfume of that one magical, perfect white flower lying in soft pink paper.

But I never stopped _________who the giver might be. My mother _________to these imaginations. She asked me if there was someone for whom I had done a special kindness who might be showing _________. I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy I fell in love with or one who had a _________on me even though I didn’t know him.

One month before my high-school graduation, my father died. My feelings _________from sorrow to fear and anger: my dad was _________some of the most important events in my life. I became completely __________in my coming graduation, the senior-class play and the ball. But my mother would not hear of my losing any of those things. Mother and I had gone shopping and found an impressive dress, but it was the __________size. When my father died, I forgot about the dress.

The day before my ball, I found that dress — in the right size — hanging over the living room sofa. It was __________to me so lovingly. I didn’t __________if I had a new dress or not. But my mother did. She wanted her children to feel __________, filled with a sense that there was a beauty even in the face of __________.

My mother died ten days after I was married. The following year the gardenia stopped coming.

8 . My heart pounded wildly as I saw three missed calls. After a half-dozen rings, my mom called me back. “Daddy had a heart ______ while he was surfing today. He’s dead. I’m so sorry.” I ______ to my knees in the grass, ______with sobs.

That evening, I ______ a one-way ticket to my mom. I emailed my adviser on the way to the airport. His______ brought a wave of relief: “I am so sorry! Please take whatever time you need.” During the next few weeks, my research ______ crossed my mind, and my adviser reminded me with unconditional ______, “Please don’t feel any pressure to ______ back to lab.”

After a month away, I felt the ______ thing for me would be to try to force a ______ to school. But as graduate students and professors offered well-meaning ______, I felt embarrassed and isolated by my sadness. I was ______ and uninterested in my research. I began to doubt whether my fascination for ______ would ever return.

Then a senior graduate student asked me how I was going. I didn’t ______ her well, but something about her made me ______. I broke into tears, and she shared with me her experience of ______ a loved one during graduate school. It was the first time since I returned that I felt somewhat ______.

From then on, I slowly began to feel a bit more ______ each day. I am still learning how to handle my ______. That sadness will never go away. But I also feel proud that I ______.

9 . Childhood should be full of friends, play, and happiness. But when children are _________ and without their peer group, they may _________ a helping hand to get back on track. That’s why schools in India are teaching _________.

Actually, it is important to _________ kids to be resilient (有弹力的). They needed a(n) _________ that could train students to identify emotions and ways to channel them.

The happiness course was _________ started by the Indian government in 2018. It _________ mental health, well-being. It also encouraged _________ peer connections for elementary school children. The course included storytelling and teamwork activities.

“The happiness course is a(n)_________, and schools should welcome it. The objectives include developing self-awareness, mindfulness, critical thinking, and helping children __________ life skills to deal with stress,” said Shikha Banerjee, the principal of the Seth Anandram Jaipuria School in Kanpur.

“Mindfulness is the cornerstone of the happiness course and its biggest __________ is that every day 1.6 million children in Delhi start their studies in school with mindfulness. It has __________ as a turning point in the lives of students studying in Delhi schools and has relieved (缓解) children from stress and __________ their focus in studies,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said during the Mindful Education Awards 2021 program.

The award is an initiative to __________ the efforts of schools in creating a mentally and physically healthy __________ for the development of children through teaching mindfulness.

10 . I love persimmons(柿子). A few years ago, preparing to travel from San Francisco to Boston, I_________two persimmons, one of which I_________in the flight departure lounge(候机室), waiting to board the_________.

A lady _________me and asked from which store in the airport the fruit was bought. She looked a bit _________hearing that it couldn’t be purchased from any airport shop. I thought to myself, “I can_________the second persimmon to her.” When I _________her the fruit, she at first _________ , but when I insisted, she was visibly glad and appreciatively accepted. I_________my corner of the lounge, satisfied to have made someone else__________and that I thought was the end of the story.

Sometime during the flight, the lady caught up with me in the aisle(过道) to__________me again for the persimmon. She__________that she had grown up in Japan, where there was a persimmon tree in the yard of her childhood home. She now lived in Boston, where she hadn’t been able to find the fruit. The taste of this one persimmon was precious to her, __________her with memories of her parents and grandparents by our senses of taste and smell, as if magically.

Only then did the influence of this tiny act dawn on me. To this day I am__________by it so much that the taste of the persimmon I never ate gives me more__________than all the ones I have eaten, combined.