1 . I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling (天花板). I hadn’t been able to sleep _________ since Richard passed away a month ago. I was full of pain and _________ at not ever having told him how much I loved him.

Richard was my stepfather. When I was nine, Richard _________. Richard was a big guy with huge hands. But he was the gentlest _________ I’d ever meet. On weekends, we’d work together on home improvement projects and the three of us were _________.

One day, while working in the barn, Dad got a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. When we took him to the _________, they told us it was internal bleeding from the blood thinners (稀释剂) he was on. It was only a (n) _________ of time. All we could do was make him _________.

I sat alone with him that day. He was _________, and we spent time talking about the barn, the horses and his truck. There was so much I wanted to say, and so much I wanted to hear from him __________. But it was hard for us to be open with our __________. It was the last time we ever spoke. Dad __________ a few days later.

As I was grieving (悲痛), suddenly, a birthday card from Dad __________ my eye, which was written for my birthday years ago. It said he loves me. Holding that, in tears, I assumed Dad knew how much he __________ to me. For the first time since Dad’s passing, I felt a heavenly peace, and finally I could __________.

2 . On the night of the speech contest, I was worried about the shy girl. My heart _________ when I knew the boy on stage previous to her, _________, was fairly successful with his humor and personal style. The whole audience burst out a wave of _________ almost every 30 seconds.

My palms (手掌) began to _________. It was the first time that she had been on the stage, so I couldn’t blame her for any _________. The strong spotlight made her so insignificant that nobody _________ she had been on the stage.

But the moment that _________ me occurred. I clearly heard a _________ voice, “Now, your _________, please!” The whole audience fell quiet. Small and thin as the girl appeared, the __________ look on her face instantly caught everyone’s eyes. Then her speech was on, logical and well-organized. Words of power __________ freely out of the girl like magic. When her speech __________, a thunderous applause sounded from the audience. When the competition was concluding, all of us waited __________ for the winner’s name to be called. Tears of joy __________ my vision when the host announced she won first prize. Holding the medal tightly, she gave me a brilliant smile. I __________ her into my arms, too excited to say any words.

3 . Halfway home I asked to stop for a drink. Then afterward I jumped in the backseat to read a book to my brother. And that’s what _________ me, because the crash happened a few miles down the road. The entire front of our car was _________.

I was taken in an ambulance. But my dad, Kash, never regained _________. He died too _________ to save his organs. But everything else was _________: his eyes and tissues. We have a list of fifty people whose _________ he changed. The only things my mom _________ were his bones.

As for me, I couldn’t even play the piano, which had been such a _________ part of my identity. All the bones in my left _________ were seriously damaged, and whenever I tried to __________ with my right hand, I’d just __________ desperately crying. I went through surgery after surgery, but nothing __________. Finally the doctors told me: “Your hand is dying, and the only thing __________ to try is a bone transplant.” Only then did my mother __________ my father’s bones. When the doctor transplanted his bones onto my wrist, the blood started to flow. My hand __________ came back to life. And I could play again.

Now, seventeen years later, though our house is small, we have a piano. Whenever I play the piano, I __________ my dad so deeply. How I wish he could have survived that __________. In our living room we keep a photo album of my dad. I __________ the fact that he never got to meet my kids, but they are quite __________ with him. They call him “Papa Kash”, who we know is __________ alive in this house.

4 . A LETTER TO MY NEIGHBOUR

You have always been reserved, polite neighbors who kept to yourselves. You have the best house in the _________ —the one at the end that has an old apple tree that was there before the houses were _________. The legacy of the apple tree is great, and you’ve always _________ your fruit with me and my children.

It _________ fruit from September to January, which is a _________ resource. As a single parent facing a tight _________, I welcome the healthy food of free, keeping me and my children in dessert fare for months _________. You said that mostly you _________ to take the apples home, because people didn’t want to _________ the work to clean and prepare them. I still can’t get my head around that.

I once started to __________ how much it would cost if I had bought the apples you gave me from the supermarket __________. I stopped when I realized that it would have been a luxury I couldn’t __________. I gave you apple pie as a Christmas thank you, but there’s no way that was __________.

Over the years your apples have been turned into __________ apple sauce and the main part in the homemade pie that __________ the hearts and stomachs of my family.

It __________ me recently that you probably don’t realize how much you contribute to our comfortable home, with so much __________ and unrest in our past. It’s a fundamental __________ of mothers to feed their children, and I’m able to express this at least in __________ because of you. I think that as my kids become adults, they’ll remember ups and downs, but also good food from the __________. So thank you from all of us: a struggling household.

5 . In the back of my closet, there is a small cardboard chest that has followed me to every one of my new addresses. Until now, the only _________ contents in it are three wrapped _________ marked in my mother’s tidy handwriting: “Engagement”, “Wedding” and “First Baby”.

When I was three, my mother learned that she had advanced breast cancer. When I was seven, she had begun _________ a gift box for me. Inside, she packed presents and letters for the _________ of my life she was going to be missing — driver’s license, graduation, and every birthday until the age of 30.

My mother died ten days before our _________ birthday. That morning, when I turned 12 and she would have turned 49, I woke up early and opened the package _________ “12th Birthday”. A white card curling around the present _________: “I always _________ a birthstone ring when I was a little girl. Your Granny finally bought me one and I loved it more than I can say. I hope you like it, too.” I put on the ring and _________ her writing with my fingertip.

On the morning of my high school graduation, a __________ of pearls appeared as I opened the wrapped present. Her note read: “There seemed to be a __________ in my family that when girls graduated from high school, they received pearls.” I wore the pearls that afternoon as I took the stage to accept my diploma.

Year after year, my mother __________ forward in time to meet me. When I was a child, opening the next package felt like a treasure __________. As I grew older, her message met me like guideposts in a dark forest. If her words couldn’t point the way, at least they offered the __________ of knowing that someone had been there before and that I have been __________, wildly loved.

6 . My children had both left for college at the same time. I _________ had no purpose, no reason to get out of bed in the morning, no _________ to do anything.

A few months later, we all _________ for Christmas. Though I was _________, I could not help but think that the good time would _________ quickly and in weeks, I would be back again in my _________ house and I would be more depressed than ever

And then my daughter, Emma, handed me a blessing box as a Christmas gift and told me to write down things I was _________ for and put them in the box. Then I could read them later when I was feeling down or sad and _________ myself that there were many good things in my life. That night, I wrote down the first _________, folded it and put it into the box, and then one for each night until the kids left.

The holiday decorations __________ and the house was once again cold and cheerless. One day after work, I __________ the box under a pile of books and I quickly took it out. One by one I pulled out each piece of paper, __________ and read it. With them, I remembered all the good things in my life.

Now I write notes of thankfulness weekly and re-read them often. It has helped me deal with depression and __________ and has given me a new __________ to life. I’m learning to __________ the quiet time, even the big house.

7 . According to a Gallup World Poll, 1.1 billion people want to move temporarily to another country in the hope of finding more profitable jobs. An additional 630 million people would like to move abroad permanently.

The global desire to leave home arises from poverty and necessity, but it also grows out of a belief that such mobility is possible. People who hold fast to this universal ________ assume that individuals can and should be feel at home anywhere in the world and that they need not be ________ to any particular place. This view was once regarded as a negative product of the industrialization but is now accepted as central to a(n) ________ economy.

It leads to opportunity and profits, but it also has high ________ costs. According to a long research into the emotions and experiences of immigrants (移民) and migrants, many people who leave home in search of better prospects can’t avoid feeling ________ although few speak openly of the substantial pain of leaving home.

Such tolerance of emotional suffering became common among mobile Americans in the 20th century, and represented a(n) ________ from the past. In the 19th century, Americans of all groups, pioneers, soldiers and the millions of immigrants who streamed into the nation, loudly complained that moving was emotionally ________. Medical journals explored the condition, often referring to it by its clinical name: nostalgia (思乡).

Today, discussions of nostalgia are rare, for the emotion is typically regarded by individuals as an embarrassing block to progress and prosperity. The ________ makes mobility appear misleadingly easy.

Technology also tricks us into thinking that mobility is ________. The comforting vision of ________ offered by technology makes moving seem less consequential, since “one is always just a mouse click or a phone call away”.

But such a claim was ________ optimistic, for homesickness continued to hurt many who migrated. The ________ that phone calls and the Internet provide means that those away from home can know exactly what they are missing the exact moment and how it is happening. It gives the impression that one can be in two places at once but it also highlights the ________ of that assumption.

The persistence of homesickness points to the limitations of the universal philosophy that strengthens so much of our market and society. The idea that we can and should feel at home any place on the globe is based on a worldview that celebrates the independent, mobile individual and takes it for granted that men and women are easily separated from family, from home and from the past. But this view isn’t ________ our emotions, for our attachment to home, although often ________, is strong and enduring.

8 . Anger is the most destructive (破坏性的) emotion. When you are ___, you make hurried decisions that you will probably regret. You will also regret careless language ____ without thought. What can be done to control anger and prevent it ruining our lives? Here are five ways that you can fight the cause of anger.

Firstly, you need to change your attitude to the way the world ____. You have to admit that sometimes things do go wrong and that people are always lovely. Try to ____ that ____ people do behave in ways that will make you both frustrated and angry. Secondly, don’t regard anger as a bad emotion. There are occasions ____ anger can be directed in such a way as to achieve great things. Thirdly, it is beneficial to stop trying to manage your anger. A good way of ____ anger is to identify (识别) the root cause. Taking ____ steps towards solving the underlying (根本的) problem will help you overcome feelings of anger. Fourthly, reacting angrily is a hard habit to break. But it is a habit, and habits can be ____. You need to learn not to respond at all. This way, your anger will not get the emotional ____ it needs to survive. Fifthly, don’t take the easy way when you get angry. You might say you feel better after an angry outburst, ____ that   is just the after-effect of the adrenalin (肾上腺素) your body released while you were angry. If so, it is much harder to stay calm, to walk away from conflict (冲突), or to take a deep breath and act ____. That, however, is ____ you must do if you are to stop anger from becoming your master.

____, you must recognize that anger is ____ you can control. Make changes to your lifestyle and attitudes, and you will find that you will turn angry much less often, if at all.

9 . A sunny afternoon before Christmas, a little girl was decorating a box with a gold wrapping paper to put it under the Christmas tree. Money was tight, so the girl’s father _________ her for wasting almost all roll of that _________ paper.

However, the next morning the girl _________ the gift to her father. “This is for you, Daddy.” she said. He opened the box and found it _________, so he became angry again. “Don’t you know, that when you give someone a _________ it is supposed that there would be something inside it.” he said _________. The little girl looked at her father with _________ in her eyes. “Daddy, this box is not empty, I _________ it with my kisses, all for you.”

The father was extremely _________. He felt so embarrassed that he could just put his __________ around his little daughter and beg for her __________. For many years of his life the man kept that golden box near his bed. Wherever he felt __________ and downhearted he opened the box and thought of __________ that the little child had put into it.

Each of us have been __________ a present of unconditional love from our children, family, friends and God. It is the most precious __________ that anyone could hold.

10 . When I was in high school, I spent most of my holidays going back to my hometown to enjoy life with my family. Being a member of my family _________ me happiness.

My brother was born when I was a senior high school student. It is _________ that children’s eyes are bright and _________. I looked at my brother’s eyes that _________ looked around the world, and I felt his curiosity about _________. He wasn’t even_________ to grab a bug and play with it. When he _________ the cuckoo (布谷鸟) call, he immediately learned to _________ it. And he would shake his _________ to learn how to fly like a butterfly. Before that, I never realized that a child’s ____________ ability was so amazing.

One time, my little brother ____________ the stones on the ground to look for the ants underneath (在······底下). He ____________ his snacks with the ants, looked up at me and said, “Sister, the ants are ____________!” He is learning to share.

As a sister who loves her brother so much, I came to realize the feeling of my parents’ ____________. I want to ____________ the best to my brother and accompany him while growing up.