2 . An unpleasant smell floated into my nose as the bowl of fried stinky tofu settled onto my grandmother’s dinner table. I immediately sat back. The smell ruined my appetite, and I pushed the dish away.

“It’s supposed to stink. Just give it a try!” my grandmother said.

Holding my breath, I unwillingly took a bite. To my surprise, the tofu beneath the fried skin     was warm, soft, and mouthwatering. Thus, stinky tofu became more than a household tradition. It became my favorite dish.

Along with the stinky tofu, I would meet my Uncle Chan on every visit. As an immature boy, I never understood my uncle’s condition of Down syndrome(唐氏综合征).He was an unfriendly and terrible creature in my eyes. He constantly walked around the house, talking to himself. Whenever he was within view, I would run away in fear.

However, one day, my view of my uncle suddenly changed. I was just getting out of my bed when I heard soft steps approaching. It was my uncle. My muscles froze. He slowly sat next to me and touched my face gently, as a mother would stroke (抚摸)a baby. A wide smile emerged from his blank expression. How beautiful his smile was! I could not help but smile back. My fear disappeared gradually, and my muscles relaxed.

My uncle very much resembles stinky tofu. Stinky tofu smells unpleasant on the outside, yet feels warm and soft in the inside. Like stinky tofu, my uncle’s Down syndrome made me keep my distance at first. Yet, I learned that deep inside, he is harmless and has a loving nature.

The outside and inside of the stinky tofu exist as two extremely different worlds. Perhaps that is what makes it such a tasty dish. Not only is it delicious, stinky tofu offers a valuable lesson: never judge people at first glance, for true beauty comes from the inside.

3 . When my father was a teenager, he had been declared a genius by his art teacher. He ______ to become an art major and had some ______ of his paintings. But when my mother got ill, his creative life came to an end.

I remembered my father’s ______ for art. One day, I asked whether he was interested in drawing a cartoon. My father was not much of a ______. When learning to drive, I had asked if it was more important to ______ the cars ahead or those behind. “Both.” Then he was ______ for the next three miles.

He gave no ______ answer to my query (询问). I asked again the following day. Still no real ______. I ultimately ______ the idea. I understood he had enough on his plate already. But a week later, I received an email from my father — with a(n) ______. I downloaded the file and there was the cartoon I had asked him to draw!

We began to draw cartoons. The process of creating gave him ______. As he built his art muscles back up, his teenage self’s enthusiasm ______.

It never ______ me that he could talk so much that I had to pretend I was getting a call to ______ his excitement. He is now painting and drawing. If he were to ask me whether I was prouder of the cartoon or of him turning his life around, I would say, “______.”

5 . I found a wonderful picture of Maolan karst cones online and presented it to the innkeeper. “You can’t go there,” the innkeeper ________me with a smile. “The viewing platform has been closed due to________that too many visitors could cause geological damage.”

Though disappointed, we________an alternative: a seven-hour hike through the“funnel forest”. Initially, we were ________to run the risk. However, I had________the tourism motto in the nature reserve: “If you don’t do it now, you won’t do it in your lifetime.” Three of our group ________decided to venture into the forest. The innkeeper responded with a knowing ________:“Great. Bear Grylls went there.”

The next morning, we set off with a local________. Rain came and went three times, and before I actually________to climb over the first mountain, I had already got wet to the skin. I was a walking________of mud and water.

Our guide, in his 50s, behaved like a botanist, introducing the locally specific plants to us, but I was hardly in the________. Every step sank into the muddy, sucking ground. Every log or rock in front of us was a physical________. “One can never reach those places without strong willpower,” I murmured, reciting that millennium-old________, over and over again.

Sinkholes and entrances to underground rivers kept popping up along our________. Thinking of them leading to an unknown world, I began to________the road that I can control even more.

Wandering in a green chaos without any obvious landmarks is also breathtaking.

6 . “A bird with a broken wing will never fly high.” I’m sure that John would agree with this saying, as he felt this way almost every day in school.

By high school, John was the most famous _________ in his town. He was always absent, didn’t answer questions and got into_________. He had failed almost every exam by the time he entered high school, yet was_________a higher grade level each year. Teachers didn’t want to_________him again the following year. John was moving on, but definitely not moving up.

I met John for the first time at a weekend leadership training program since John was one of the 405 students who_________. At the start of the training, John was just standing outside the circle of students, against the back wall. He didn’t _________join the discussion groups. But slowly, the interactive games_________him in.

The ice really melted when the groups started building a list of_________ and negative things that had occurred at school that year. John_________some constructive ideas on those situations. The other students in John’s group __________his comments. All of a sudden John felt like a__________of the group, and before long he was treated like a leader. By the end of the training, he had joined the Homeless Project team. The other students on the team were__________with his passionate concern and ideas. They even elected John co-chairman of the team.

John started__________at school every day and answered questions from teachers for the first time. He led a second project,__________300 blankets and 1,000 pairs of shoes for the homeless shelter from house to house.

7 . After I made it to the city center, I started to feel it might be easy for a foreigner to deal with the great size of Beijing. With growing confidence, I decided to take the subway to the hotel, not realizing that the network didn’t go that far. Impressed with the cleanliness of the station, I bought a ticket and boarded the first subway that came along.

After a few minutes I asked in English a young man seated next to me where I should get off closest to the Friendship Hotel. Wearing a smart business suit and tie, he would surely speak English, wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand me but seemed very friendly. I showed him the room card with all the information of the Friendship Hotel in Chinese characters. He looked at it, and then his eyes moved quickly to the carriage (车厢) subway map. Next, he raised three fingers of his right hand.

In Australia, raising fingers at someone is not usually nice, but this man wasn’t smiling. At the next station he showed me two fingers. Now in Australia, that’s really rude, but I got the message. When we stopped at the third station, he didn’t just point to the door, but got up, took me out of the train, and led me to the top of the stairs, and out onto the street. Then he stopped a taxi and told the driver where to take me.

All this came from a man who couldn’t speak my language, and I couldn’t speak his. I was now speechless, especially when he refused my offer of money. I felt a little embarrassed having even thought he would accept a tip.

This experience made it clear I had to learn some Chinese quickly or my adventures might start turning into misadventures.

8 . An early morning winter storm had brought several inches of snow to my small town in the mountains. Schools were canceled, roads were dangerous and all I wanted to do was to stay in bed. However, I knew I had to get the day started so I put on warm clothes and walked outside. The snow got all over my shoes. The cold wind dried my lips and my eyes. My 47-year-old back ached in anticipation (预想) of the shoveling (铲雪) I would have to do if the snow didn’t stop soon.

Yet, when I looked out on the white blanket that covered the ground, I couldn’t help but smile a bit. It was so beautiful. It softened the bare trees and hid the dead grass. In the distance I could hear the sound of the snowplow on the road, the barking of a happy dog and the laughter of children playing outside, enjoying their day off from school. The sweet music of that laughter brought back a hundred memories of winters past. I remembered catching snowflakes on my tongue, building snowmen, making snow angels, running down hills and always losing snowball fights with first my brothers and then my own children. Standing there in that warm coat of memories made the wind a little less cold and my back a little less sore. I turned up my head, stuck out my tongue and for the first time in years caught a snowflake on it. It tasted so fresh and clean. It tasted like youth, like joy and like love.

May you always feel young in spirit, no matter how old or achy your body may be. May you always delight in the simple joys of life. May you always share your happiness with the hearts of children. And may you always give your love, your light, your laughter and your warmth to others even on the coldest days.

9 . Lowri Moore, aged 15, of Nottingham, England, has worn eyeglasses since she was a baby. But she hasn’t always seen glasses ________ in the cartoons she loves. Lowri is making it her ________ to change that.

When Lowri was 9, she sent a letter to Disney asking them if they could create a(n) ________ role model who wore glasses. Glasses are a great tool because they give you the ability to see. This should be ________ . But kids at school ________ not to think so.

Disney ________ Lowri, and three years later, the movie En-canto came out, whose main character, Maribel, wears glasses! En-canto director Jared Bush said, “She’s my hero. I can’t imagine being that age and being that ________ . She is such an inspiration to all of us.” En-canto is a movie putting people on the screen that ________ to be seen and audiences from all over the world have been able to find themselves, their family members in these stories.

In 2019, Lowri Moore, called for more glasses-wearing ________ . She pointed out that figures wearing glasses are usually ________ as “nerdy instead of beautiful.” Having more positive figures with glasses on will help people feel ________ about wearing their own glasses. It also allows people to see the ________ to add glasses like we already have the ability to change skin and hair color on emojis(表情符号). Natalie Owen, ________ heard of Lowri’s story and decided to help her dream come true. Owen created a princess wearing glasses in his new book just for Lowri.

With her dream ________ , Lowri posted a message on her personal website: If you believe in something, don’t be afraid to say it. Don’t think that because you are young, you can’t make a ________ .

10 . Zhao Yuan, who was a dance teacher, lost one leg in an accident at the age of 24._______she had to use a wheelchair, and leave her_______ position and started to make a living in business. She opened a hotel in her hometown and used some of her earnings to help_______for the college cost of 13 poor students.

In 2020, she set up an offline sales platform called Good and Fresh, which mainly sold goods produced by Zhao’s disabled friends. _______ the pandemic (疫情), however, Good and Fresh _______making money, so Zhao _______ online sales instead.

She became a livestream(直播) host on social media platforms, _______ the sales of goods like brown sugar, sweet potato flour and honey that her friends made. Although Zhao Yuan, who only had one_______, had to deal with her own disability, she had made her business succeed in creating a_______ in e-commerce   (电子商务) and had helped more than 2,000 other________ people sell agricultural products. Everything she sold came from 55 agricultural centers around the province________ by the disabled. She had also trained 57 hosts, all of whom were disabled.

With the________ of her business, Zhao has set up the Good and Fresh Agricultural Science and Technology Development Company, of which she is________. She is planning to________ another 1,000 hosts, and hopes that they will also be able to achieve their personal and social________ through work, just as the way she is doing.