1 . I was ten years old at that time. It was a hot, summer afternoon and I decided to _______ by swimming in the river where the water was cold. After a while I grabbed my _______ and headed back up to the house. I knew that _______ would be ready soon.

I _______ in slowly and saw my grandmother busy cooking. Two freshly baked loaves of Italian bread smelled wonderful. My grandmother was _______ her special sauce (调味汁) without noticing my arrival. It had been slowly _______ for hours. Potatoes, pieces of chicken, and meatballs had been quietly cooking in it. Grandma _______ a wooden spoon, stirred the sauce and brought up a bit for a _______. She made a face and shook her head. Something wasn’t quite _______. She added some salt. Then she shook in a little more garlic powder. She ________ stirred the sauce for a while longer. ________ she took another taste. This time her ________ widened and she nodded her approval of her ________. I smiled too. I knew it was going to be another ________ dinner.

Looking back I think grandmother was such a ________ cook because she not only seasoned (给……调味) her food with the right ________ but also seasoned it with her love. She was a true ________ when it came to cooking and truly wise when it came to living. I still ________ her every single day and I am so thankful for all the ________ she taught me. Life is so much tastier when you ________ it with joy. Be the chef of your own life then.

I’m writing this letter because it’s been a while since we’ve been together. I remember when we first_____________. It was a bright afternoon. I had_____________come home from a tiring day at school, so I wasn’t looking forward to_____________my difficult homework. I _____________the house to see my mother and my aunt sitting at the kitchen table. They greeted(迎接) me warmly. But before I could respond(作出反应), you caught my_____________immediately. There you were, hiding between my mom and my_____________. They moved out of the way to_____________ you—a gift they had brought home for me.

I will tell the_____________: It took me a while to_____________you. I was a busy person. And I cannot recall having a______________tooth before meeting you. However, your sweetness was a welcomed balance to my busy life. At first, Iwas shy, so I mostly kept you locked away in the______________ only to come back to you when I was bored of being in my room and ______________to eat something. And every single time I needed you, there you were.

You never ______________to make me smile. There are very few things that make me ______________ and you are one of them. My favorite moment is when I take you out of the fridge.______________you, I now look forward to the moment when I arrive home.

I love you, cheesecake.

With love,

Zakilya Brown

4 . Summer marks the middle of green tea season, which runs from late spring to fall. While it may seem _________ to drink hot liquids in the heat, many Asian cultures believe that doing so will increase sweating and help _________ yourself off.

“But preparing green tea is a _________ process that most people get wrong,” says Rona Tison, senior vice president of corporate relations for a Japanese tea company that sells bottled tea as well as loose leaf tea from its Manhattan store. Green tea, _________ black tea, has not been oxidized (氧化) and can easily turn bitter if not made _________.

“A good cup of green tea _________ with a fresh, high-quality leaf. Green tea is _________ to having a fresh vegetable. It goes bad easily and has a shelf life,” Ms. Tison says.

Tea leaves produce the best _________ when used within two months of purchasing. Six months is the maximum time to store green tea. The leaves _________ smells so they should be stored in an airtight, moisture-free metal or tin __________ that is away from light. Out-of-date tea leaves will be brittle (易碎的) and dry, __________ good taste and smell.

She uses mineral or spring water for brewing. One of the most common __________ people make when brewing tea is __________ boiling water, which burns the leaves and __________ them bitter.

She __________ about one teaspoon of leaves per teacup into a pot and __________ in the warm water, letting it steep for a minute, but no more than two. __________ loose in a teapot or placed in an infuser, leaves should never be excessive. “You want the leaves to unfurl to really __________ the flavor out of the tea,” she says.

She gently __________ the teapot around and around quickly while the tea is steeping to make sure she __________ all the tea with the water. If she is serving more than one cup, she pours a little at a time in each cup to balance out the flavor.

6 . A warm cup of tea can seem to heal the soul. A new study finds it may be good for your_________, too. Past studies in China and Japan have suggested that green tea _________ drinkers. Now, scientists say _________tea may show similar benefits.

Scientists from the United States National Cancer Institute carried out the_________. They examined years of data gathered about the tea drinking _________of almost 500,000 adults in Britain for as many as 14 years. The researchers _________that people who drank two or more cups of tea daily _________were less likely to have _________from all causes than those who didn’t. The scientists said the _________risk of death held true for the __________with heart diseases and stroke. However, there was no clear finding in connection with deaths from __________. Researchers were not sure why. “It is __________that there were too few confirmed cancer deaths to __________,” explained Maki Inoue-Choi, who led the study.

All kinds of tea—green, black, oolong, and white—are produced from the same tree plant using different __________methods. Antioxidants(抗氧化物) in black tea are major__________to health benefits. A group of antioxidants called Flavonoids are thought to be__________for heart health. That’s why black tea helps drinkers live longer.

The researchers do not offer enough __________to advise people to start drinking tea or the change how much they are __________right now. They need more research to__________the findings. But Inoue-Choi said, “If you are already drinking tea, you can __________doing so.”

7 . Many of us are lucky enough to have some degrees of choice over what we eat. When we open the fridge or browse the shelves of the local supermarket, there are a variety of options_________to us. But are the_________we make about our diet as free as we like to think? What if there was something _________our own hunger influencing what we eat?

Certainly, it appears we’re_________ influenced by other people-especially those _________to us — when it comes to what we eat. Research has found that the closer and stronger two people’s _________, the more _________hey have over each other’s food choices. “A lot of our cues from face-to-face interactions are linked with who we’re with,” says Solveig Argeseanu, associate professor of global health and epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US. “It’s more about the relationship and how _________myself with that person than other individuals. If I think the person I’m with is more _________or popular, I’ll tend to want to__________them more.”

Our eating habits are also influenced by what we see. Scientists say we __________ oozing (渗出) protein, a dribbling egg yolk, or bubbling mozzarella (马苏里拉奶酪), for example. “There is some evidence that, if you see pictures of food, that visual__________can prompt you to feel a desire to eat,” says Suzanne Higgs, professor in the psychobiology of appetite at the University of Birmingham, UK. Although, she says, whether people __________through on that desire is influenced by lots of other __________, such as what food is available at the time.

Social media is one place where visual and social cues __________. Undoubtedly there is (a/an)__________ that if friends in your social network post__________about particular types of food, it could lead you to__________them, for better or for worse. And research__________that social media might be changing our relationship with food, __________us think differently about what we eat.

8 . What do you think a former football player might do in retirement? ________ a school cafeteria employee probably won’t come to your mind.

Jared Veldheer was also a bit ________ when he found himself ________ the role. But when his two children’s school didn’t have anyone to ________ their kitchen just weeks before the start of the academic year, he found himself drawn to the position.

Standing at 6 feet, 8 inches, Veldheer certainly doesn’t ________ like your typical lunch server, but that isn’t the only thing beyond people’s expectations. ________ sticking with the usual meals, he was creative to make healthy yet delicious meals for the kids.

Because the school uses an online portal (门户网站) where parents ________ food about two weeks before the start of each month, Veldheer ________ the lunch menu a month in advance. When his first one went live, the students’ parents were ________ to find foods like braised (炖熟的) cabbage and mashed cauliflower on the list.

Creating meals that the students will love is no easy task, but Veldheer is ________ about doing everything he can. Veldheer isn’t ________ to ask the students for their ________ feedback. Despite having a few harsh (but adorable) critics, the ________ that Veldheer has developed with his students is absolutely heartwarming to witness.

“I’m smiling from ear to ear seeing this every day. The kids look straight up to him yet can feel so ________ and confident in asking him questions and trying different ________ ,” said the principal.