1 . My 23-year-old son Dan packed, ready for the journey to work abroad for a year. It was a milestone, _________ the transition from his school days to adulthood.

I looked _________ at his face when we were to say goodbye, trying to remember every feature, meanwhile, _________ to say something that had long buried deep in my heart. However, not a sound came over my lips.

This wasn’t the first time I had let such an opportunity _________. On his first day in preschool, I accompanied him to the bus stop. His _________ and curiosity filled all the way. But even still, he boarded the bus and disappeared, I was _________. There still were many other _________ like this.

Now I stood in front of him, trying to recall all the times I had let go of. How often has that not happened to us all? A son graduates or a daughter is married. But at those ceremonies, we don’t seize the _________, telling them what they _________ to us.

Here and now, I knew it really mattered; but I still found myself nervous and uncomfortable. Why does it have to be so __________?

I gathered all my courage. “Dan,” I __________ stammered out (结巴地说出), “If I had the choice myself I would have chosen you.”

I was not sure whether he __________ what I meant. But then he stepped __________ me and put his arms around me. For a short while the world and everything was gone, there were only Dan and me.

What I told Dan was clumsy and commonplace. Yet it was __________.

Then he __________ the airport with his girlfriend in a taxi.

2 . Earlier that evening, my mother called, telling me that my brother died in a car crash. I stumbled (跌跌撞撞地走) around the house _________ what to put into the suitcases. My husband, Larry, and I had been packing for moving to New Mexico. The house was in (a) total _________.

I tried to hold my tears. I _________ picked things up and put them down. I couldn't _________. What I'd heard on the phone echoed (回荡) through my head.

Larry phoned a few friends. _________, someone asked to speak to me. “If there is anything I can do, let me know.” “Thank you,” I replied. I didn't know what to _________.

The doorbell rang and I rose slowly for the door. It was Donna.

“I've come to clean your shoes,” she said. _________, I asked her to repeat. “When my father died, it took me _________ to get the shoes cleaned and shined for my father's _________,” she said. I hadn't even thought about shoes.

Shoes were gathered. Donna __________ herself on the floor and got to work. The love in the act __________ my tears. Watching her __________ on one task helped me pull my __________into order. Laundry first, I told myself. One by one, the jobs fell into place.

Now whenever I hear of an acquaintance's loss of a loved one, I think of one __________ task that suits that person's __________. If the person asks, “How did you know I needed that?” I'd reply, “Because someone did that.”

3 . Peter and Lisa Marshall’s wedding day was unforgettable, according to Lisa. But her husband has _________ it. “It’s the _________ part because you want to remember the happy past, and you’re alone in the _________ ,” she said.

Three years ago, at the age of 53, Peter was _________ with early Alzheimer’s（老年痴呆症）. Eventually, he forgot his wife. Lisa became just another nameless _________ , with their entire _________ together erased. And yet, a whisper of their _________ must have remained—because all of a sudden, Lisa said, her husband started courting（求爱）her, as if they’d just started _________ .

One day, when a wedding scene came on TV, Peter pointed to the _________ , “Let’s do it.”

“And I said, ‘Do what?’ And he pointed again. And I said, ‘Do you want to __________ ?!’ And he got this smile on his face and he said, ‘Yeah.’ So he fell in love with me __________ ,” Lisa said.

Lisa __________ . A few months ago, she __________ a wedding for her already husband.

“I can’t even describe to you how __________ it was. He was so __________ and happy. And it was very touching,” she said.

Unfortunately, it was a Cinderella（灰姑娘）moment. The clock struck __________ and by the next morning, this __________ too was lost to the fog. But Lisa had fully __________ that. “I’m the one who’s going to __________ that. And that’s going to help me heal later, because it really is a true love story,” she said.

Alzheimer’s can __________ so much—but fortunately, love is almost always the last to go.

4 . I have just finished my years in Colmar, in eastern France. I _________ in Leeds, a large city in the U.K.! I was _________ in Chester. I had lived there until I went to university.

I _________ in a secondary school in Colmar. I taught English to several classes and over a year I grew quite attached to my _________. I enjoyed preparing lessons that they would _________ and games that would make them laugh. Telling each class that it was my last lesson with them was _________ painful. It is likely that I will _________ see most of these students again. I didn’t want to _________ this beautiful town, nor lovely colleagues （同事） and students behind.

I attended university in Leeds. I _________ a house with six other people—it was great fun and I have some __________ memories of our time together. Within just two years, Leeds became my second __________. I knew where to go for many kinds of things, the nice places to eat and who I could turn to for help. It was a(n) __________ to leave the city.

Last but not least, I must mention Chester. I am __________ to have a group of friends from secondary school there. We still meet up when we’re back in Chester. Being in Chester also       ________ spending time with my family.

I no longer know which place to call home. However, when I’m in one place, I will __________ the other two — which makes me quite sad.

5 . When it came to moral reasoning, we like to think our views on right and wrong are rational (理智的). But ultimately they are grounded in emotion. Philosophers have argued over this claim for a quarter of a millennium without _________. Times up! Now scientists armed with brain scanners are stepping in to settle the matter. Though reason can shape moral judgment, emotion is often _________.

Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene does brain scans of people as they study the so-called trolley problem. Suppose a trolley is rolling down the track toward five people who will _________ unless you pull a lever (杠杆) that pushes it onto another track— where, unfortunately, lies one person who will die instead. An easy call, most people say: _________ the loss of life — a “utillitarian” (功利主义的) goal as philosopher put it — is the thing to do.

But suppose the only way to save the five people is to push someone else onto the track — a _________ whose body will bring the trolley to a stop before it hits the others. It’s still a one-for-five _________ and you still initiate the action that dooms the one. _________, now you are more directly involved; most people say it would be wrong to do this trade off. Why? According to Greene’s brain scans, the second situation more thoroughly excites parts of the brain linked to _________ than does the leve-pulling situation. Apparently, the intuitive hesitation of giving someone a deadly push is more _________ than the hesitation to a deadly lever pull.

Further studies suggest that in both cases the emotional __________ compete for control with more rational parts of the brain. In the second situation the emotions are usually strong enough to win.

And when they lose, it is only after a tough __________ process. The few people who approve of pushing an innocent man onto the tracks take longer to reach their decision. So too with people who approve of smothering (死) a crying baby rather than catching the attention of enemy troops who would then kill the baby along with other __________.

Princeton philosopher Peter Singer argues that we should __________ our moral intutions (本能) and ask whether that logic deserves respect in the first place. Why obey moral impulses that evolved to serve the “__________” — such as sympathy that moves toward relatives and friends? Why not worry more about people an ocean away whose suffering we could cheaply relieve? Isn’t it better to save 10 starving African babies than to keep your 90-year-old father on life support? In the absence of a tough decision-making process, reason may indeed be a(n) “__________ of the passion.”

6 . I touch my father's shoulder to let him know we're here. But he doesn't _________ me. My daughter Charlotte notices and hides a quiet _________ I start to worry. I wonder whether I should have brought her, but she wants to see him. Like many with autism (自闭症), Charlotte is unafraid of difficult questions. However, she's not used to watching Alzheimer's (阿尔茨海默症)_________ so quickly.

In my mind I beg her _________ not to ask him about dying or memory loss. Now, they face each other across the empty _________. Both look uncertain. My heartbeat _________ the silence between them. Charlotte reaches her hand across the table. Dad looks at it for a long minute, not sure what she's doing. She _________ it there, resting halfway between them. Then instinct (本能) kicks in and he _________ her hand: the dignity of a man who knows this _________ is important while not knowing exactly who we are. Perhaps he is ____________ the need for a kind touch or recognizing an offering that would be rude to ____________.

The two of them remain quiet, holding hands. Every fiber of my being wants to ____________ questions they can ask each other and introduce a topic of ____________ about one of their shared interests.

Despite all the words in my head, something ____________ keeps me quiet. I look at them. Their body language is relaxed, at peace. Neither is straining (拉紧) to talk. And then, out of the silence comes the first ____________.

"I love you, Grandpa."

"I love you, too."

He doesn't speak her name but it doesn't matter. Names aren't all that important.

7 . At my daughter’s presentation ceremony, the principal reminded the kids of that now-familiar truth: they could have multiple careers in their lifetimes. As I lay in bed that evening, another truth ________ me that it is not just different careers that________each child.

I________my own life and how much it has ________. Five years age, I was in an unhappy marriage, living in a house that I felt wasn’t mine. I felt________most of the time and not________my own future. Now, I live in my own beautiful apartment. My family life is peaceful, filled with ________. My life is barely________. I created a whole new reality.

I have always________ that great change is possible. I am the great-grandchild of the immigrants who left their countries with few________. From the shtetls(犹太人小村庄) of Russia and Poland, they created their own communities.

My parents moved to a ________city with two small children and started a life different from that in their hometown. And my late grandmother lived two completely different lives. ________she was a widow at 43 after my grandfather died suddenly, she ________her daughters alone, cared for her elderly mother and ________travelled out of her hometown. At 68, after being single for 26 years, she ________us all by falling in love and remarrying. She and her husband, Harry, socialized   ________ , and travelled around the country.

Life is full of ________. We assume that our lives are linear(直线的), leading us from birth to death into a straight ________. But they can change and have sharp ________. They can double back and leap forward and begin another ________altogether.

8 . “I’m going to tell you a story,” I tell my class of high school seniors. “It’s a tale about love. And heart-break. And embarrassment.”

Their eyes widen. I ________ my throat. “In sixth grade,” I begin, “I fell madly in love. His name was David. He was tall, ________, kind of a bad boy—which I found fascinating. Unfortunately he had no interest in me at all. So it was Valentine’s Day. That day as I spilled my Valentine cards onto my desk, and among many small ________, I saw an enormous one, decorated beautifully. My mind ________:‘Who could it be from?’ With trembling hands, I ________ open the envelope and out fell an image of a queen, the heading of which ________, ‘To a Queen of a Valentine.’”

I give the class a ________ look. “I turned the valentine(情人卡) over, and at the bottom I saw the ________ and almost fainted: David. Then my eyes ________ up to the writing above his signature. It said, ‘To the Ugliest Girl in Our Class.’”

“Well, it ________ Valentine’s Day for me. It shook what little ________ I had in myself for a long time after. But I ________. And now I refuse to give up this holiday of love to the meanness of one ________ boy.” I smile. “And that’s why we’re going to have a party. A party that ________ kindness instead of cruelty.”

Their eyes ________. They are willing to let me take them ________ I am going. I hand out some paper so they can make cards. “Now please write something positive and sincere to everyone in the class. Even if it’s someone you ________ know, there’s always something nice to say.”

All these years, I’ve made it a routine in each of my class. After 20 years of teaching, I________few hopes that students will ________ all of the grammar or vocabulary I taught them. But if all a student ________ of one of my classes are the valentines they received one long-ago February, to me that makes it all worthwhile.

9 . One night, I read a book about some parenting strategies, one of which was to talk with your _________ and use those three magic words: “I love you.” It had _________ over and over that children need to know that you really love them.

_________ by this, I went upstairs to my son's bedroom. As I knocked, _________ I could hear were his drums. I knew he was there but he wasn’t _________. So I opened the door and, _________ there he was playing his _________. After I _________ over to get his attention, I said to him, “Tim, have you got a second?”

He said, “Oh sure. Dad.” After about 15 minutes’ small _________, I just looked at him and said, “Tim, I really love the __________ you play drums.”

He said, “Oh, thanks, Dad, I appreciate it.”

As I was walking downstairs, it __________ me that I went up there with a certain __________ and had not delivered it. I felt it was really __________ to get back up there and have another __________ to say those three magic words.

“Son, do you remember __________ you were learning how to drive, it caused me a lot of problems? I wrote three words and __________ them under your pillow.” Finally after a little small talk, I looked at Tim and said, “What I want you to know is that we love you. We just don’t express it __________.”

He said, “Thanks, that means a lot. I know you do.”

__________ I was walking downstairs, I started thinking, “I can't believe this. I’ve already been up there __________. I know what the message is and __________ something else comes out of my mouth.”

10 . We have lost the art of the unsent angry letter, says a recent New York Times column.

The writer, Maria Konnikova, says that many famous people had the habit of writing letters expressing their _________ towards their receivers and then destroying the letters. Whenever former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln felt the _________ to tell someone off, he would compose what he called a “hot letter.” He would vent (发泄) all of his anger into a note, put it aside until his emotions _________. And then he would write on the letter, “Never sent. Never signed.”

Konnikova says that the unsent angry letter used to be a tradition among public figures who needed to think twice about their choice of _________. Former U.S. President Harry S. Truman, former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and American author Mark Twain all wrote unsent angry letters.

There are two _________ of the unsent letter, says Konnikova. “It serves as a type of emotional _________, a way to let it all out without incurring the negative aftereffects of actual _________. And it acts as a(n)_________ exercise, and exercise in saying what you really think.”

In the social media age, we have more channels to _________ immediate displeasure than ever before. Venting our ____________ feelings is easy, but it also means that we give up the chance to think twice and to act differently.

When Lincoln wanted to write his “hot letter,” he had to find a pen and a piece of paper. That process alone provided time to determine if his anger should be ____________ or be kept quiet. Now we need only to click a button to send our ____________ and hurtful words on their way. In the heat of the moment, says Konnikova, “We find the line between a(n)____________ response and one that needs a cooling-off period.” We have ____________ a buffer zone (缓冲带) to determine what needs to be said and what needs to only be felt. Perhaps that’s why we see so much anger and hatred online. Because it is so easy to create them in order to vent our feelings, we end up receiving less ____________ from the experience, and, as a result, we feel the need to do it more often to make up for this shortage. When your emotions never quite cool, they keep coming out in other ways.