1 . Those in the food industry understand the difficulty that comes from working with people. No matter how much you try, some customers are never _______. If you make one mistake, some people are likely to lose _______. This situation took place at a McDonald’s in suburban Atlanta.

A customer approached the drive-through window _______. He threw a drink back at the pregnant fast food worker who _______ it to him. Most would find that unthinkable. However, he himself felt _______ because the drink was not what he _______.

Bryanna was the _______ in this incident. It was so _______ to her that she couldn’t even _______ what was happening. She was ________ and covered in ice and soda.

The ________ next in line who witnessed what happened was Feroza Syed. She ________ the incident via Facebook after things took place. “I’ve never seen anyone ________ that way, especially to do that to a pregnant worker, which was just ________.”

When Feroza approached the drive-through window, she ________ the fast food worker a cash tip to comfort her. She had yet another ________-set up an online registry for Bryanna’s baby. Feroza ________ maybe she could raise $300 or $400 for Bryanna to buy something nice. But by 24 hours later people had ________ $1,700. Feroza is just obviously going crazy with ________.

Through this, Feroza and Bryanna have become friends. It’s just ________ to see such love and happiness.

3 . A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the woods for 3 days is now safe at home. But Casey told his parents that he was not ________ in the rainy, freezing cold woods. He said he was with a friend — a ________.

The child went ________ on January 22 while playing with friends at his grandmother’s house. When the other children ________ to the house and Casey didn’t, hundreds of people ________ the search. Then on January 24, someone called the police saying he heard a child ________ in the woods. The police then found Casey at night. He was in good health. After being ________ carefully by the doctor, Casey was sent home with slight ________.

Casey told the police that he had ________ with a black bear for two days and he called it his “________”. His mother told reporters that Casey did not say how he was able to ________ in the woods for three days. ________, she said, “He did say he had a friend in the woods, a bear, with him.” His mother ________ everyone who joined the search for her son. “We just want to tell everybody that we’re very thankful that you took the ________ out to search for Casey,” said his mother. “He is good. He’s already asked to ________ online cartoons.”

4 . Francis Kere is the first African to win the Pritzker Prize, known as the Nobel Prize of architecture. However, his ________ to the peak of his field was far from smooth. Growing up in a village where there was no kindergarten, he was ________ into an extremely hot classroom with over 100 students. At the age of 7, Francis Kere had to leave his family home to attend school because his village didn’t have one of its own. This ________ of poor building facilities contributed to his vision of better educational lives of local children, using architecture. Thirteen years later, he boarded a plane for Germany on a scholarship to study architecture.

His early reputation came in helping ________ a school in his village after graduating from college. He ________ the whole village to provide ideas and drew the ________ on sand for all to see. ________, he involved them in constructing the school, using local wood and local clay (黏土).

The result of their hard work was a welcoming structure with a “floating” roof that ________ ventilation (通风) in a hot climate and wall openings that bring ________ for students to learn even without electricity. He showed the villagers that ideas to ________ climate or other challenges are always at hand.

In this process, local people learned ________ skills that they could later use to find work. By cooperating with them, Kere ________ the idea that climate solutions started with big institutions. He ________ that everyone could contribute to addressing the major issues related to education and climate and ________ a global impact by acting locally.

Adopted by architects in dozens of countries, his ________ is rooted in the “unique” aspects of each community now.

5 . When I learned that our community library was hosting a Book Nerd Challenge, I got excited. My granddaughter and I needed a little _______   to increase the quality of the books we read, so I suggested we _______ .

The goal was to read fifty books in a year. I’m an English teacher. This didn’t seem like much of a _______ . Then, I read the small _______   that there were fifty different categories ranging from historical non-fiction to a book with a red cover. Not so _______ after all.

The experience created a _______ between my granddaughter and me. We read a couple of the _______ novels, but we mostly read different titles. However, we had interesting _______ based on the similar themes in our books and we _______ the authors’ styles, different genres, and our favorites. With fifty categories to choose from, I ________ my all-time favorite I read once and several classics.

________ , inspired by a stubborn need to meet the goal, I ________ myself to make time to visit the worlds and characters of the novels. During the Book Nerd Challenge, sometimes I made excuses for ________ when I was unwilling to continue. But after a year, reading became a ________ I desired. My life became more ________ as I grew intellectually. Reading made me uninterested in TV programs. The realistic stories of life ________ the unrealistic dramas on the screen.

Now I find books can provide a better ________ . Perhaps the greatest benefit I ________ through my increased reading is the ________ it has on my writing. Reading improves my vocabulary, models unique styles, provides new insights, inspires new ideas, and stimulates a desire to ________ other authors’ successes.

7 . People always tell me I was brave to apply to medical school in my 30s. But for me, the bravest thing was to ________ from being a doctor 10 years later.

I’d always wanted to study ________ to help release the world from sufferings, but believing I was not bright enough, I left school at 15 and didn’t return to education ________ my 30s. ________ the fact that the commute (通勤) was tough and the money was ________, I kept going this time. I dreamed of becoming a doctor who made a(n) ________.

I spent five years at medical school learning ________ to fix things, but after graduation, when I worked in a hospital, I soon discovered there were many things in life I was unable to ________. It wasn’t the workload I struggled with, though. What I found really ________ was the emotional load. As a doctor, I knew I would ________ upsetting things. I knew I would watch people die and I knew I would see the most awful things. However, being always present at all these moments became a ________ for me.

I knew I needed a solution ________ it, and I finally ________ writing. Writing allowed me an escape, a door into another world, and it also helped to ________ my anxieties. Writing, something I had started as a form of treatment, now gave me success, an exit card, and a chance of self-protection. ________, I was wondering whether I was a doctor or a writer. Having thought thick and thin, I ________ my job and took the writing.

It was not a decision I made ________. I knew if I didn’t put ________ first, I would eventually disappear.

I still work on the wards (病房) now, but as a(an) ________. There are times when you need to focus on yourself. If you have walked so far down a rough road, you may find it ________ to head back because walking away is often the safest route of all.

9 . It’s most people’s nightmare: surviving a plane crash only to be stranded (滞留) in a jungle with no way of contacting the outside world. But this was ________ for four Colombian children.

The children were ________ with their mother from their village in the Amazon to visit their father working overseas. The ________ they were taking experienced engine problems and ________ on May 1, 2023. Bad weather ________ the army from finding the crash site for two weeks, where they later ________ the dead bodies of three adults, including the children’s mother.

How did these children survive conditions that would be a ________ struggle for most adults? They are members of the Huitoto indigenous group (土著群体) and were ________ in the jungle. As such, they have an intimate (深刻的) understanding of the rainforest. They know which fruits are ________ to eat and which plants should be ________. Working with, rather than ________ the Amazon, they survived off of juan soco (a fruit similar to passion fruit) and seeds.

While the children got on with the business of ________, the Colombian army worked with indigenous ________ to find them. After 40 days of ________, the children were found and taken to ________ at a military hospital in Bogota.

Many around the world have taken their survival to be a ________, but others ________ that it is the result of a(n) ________ and intimate knowledge of the rainforest that has been ________ through indigenous communities over the generations. It is their close connection to and understanding of the rainforest that ________ helped the children to survive.