1 . In the post-war era, re-gifting and returning gifts to shops were commonly occurring.My mother and Aunt Florence ran a_________. For them finding desirable stock (储备物) for the store was an adventure. But the greatest_________of all was getting the wanted items without taking too many_________ones ‘paired’ with them. This pairing resulted in a highly saleable item being paired with something that had to be heavily discounted just to move it off the shelves_________at a loss.

One item I particularly remember was an ugly ornament (饰物) framed in a horseshoe.My mother was shocked by its_________ . My aunt patiently explained she had to buy it to_________some attractive crockery sets (瓷器套装) in high demand. She had paid ten pounds for it and hoped to get five pounds for it. After briefly_________ it at ten pounds, she put it on our bargain table, expecting the crockery sets would sell quickly and cover the_________ on it.Several days later she managed to sell the ornament for three pounds to a value d customer who _________to give it to a neighbour, who loved horses.

The following Saturday, our family was invited to a 21st birthday party, and my father was     __________with buying a suitable gift from the jeweler in town. However, he delayed his __________because he had his car repaired. As a result, he __________a wrapped present from our own store’s stock. Little did he know that it was the __________ .

At the party, as the presents were__________, my mother held my shoulder tightly when she saw the ornament. The__________of our family, the gift’s original purchaser, and the recipient’s (接受者) family were a mix of shock and__________. My father, realizing his mistake,__________that he thought it was a collector’s item due to the ten pound price tag.

The next day, realizing my mother discovered the ornament which had been sold had been returned by Sheila, the recipient’s mother, who __________a ten pound refund , Aunt Florence burst into laughter, though the relationship between the__________owners of the ornament sourced.

2 . Do you find yourself pulling away from others, especially if you’ve experienced a deep disappointment? Maybe the most ______ thing most of us can do is to be with people when we don’t feel like being around anybody.

A man who lost his wife to cancer found himself wanting to be ______ . He dropped out of his community and ______ all of the activities he and his wife were used to for year. He ______ socializing at work and returned ______ home to an empty house after work. He turned down ______ from friends and co-workers.

His friends became ______ . One came by to visit and invite him over for supper the next evening. The two old friends sat in comfortable chairs by a ______ . The visitor extended the dinner invitation and ______ him to come, “You may need to ______ others to share your pain.”

The man responded that he felt better ______ staying with other people. “And ______ ,” he said, “it’s just too difficult to get out anymore.”

They sat in ______ for a while, watching the wood burn in the fireplace. Then the visitor did a(n) ______ thing. He took tongs (火钳) by the fireplace, reached into the fire, pulled out a ______ coal and laid down by itself on the earth. “That’s you,” he said.

The man sat in silence, ______ the red-hot ember. Neither man looked ______ as the once hot coal gradually transformed into a black lump. After some moments, the man said, “I get the ______ , my friend. I’ll be over tomorrow evening.”

We cannot ______ in any healthy way by ourselves. The leaf needs the branch. The branch needs the trunk. The trunk needs the roots. And the roots need the rest of the tree. We are ______ . And in that connection life and vitality (活力) are found.

3 . Juliette Lamour, a university student from Ontario, has won a $48-million jackpot (头奖)，becoming the________Canadian ever to win such a big prize.She bought her first lottery ticket after her grandfather gave her the________. “He said to me: ‘You just________18, go buy a lotto ticket and test your________’. So, I did,” said Lamour, when________her win at a media event.

Lamour said she had________all about the ticket until she heard news that someone from her________had won the jackpot. When she went to________her ticket through a mobile app, a jingle started to play and “Big Winner” flashed________

Now here’s where the story gets interesting. Thirteen years ago, Soo Today published a(n)________ story about two young sisters________their piggy bank to help people in need. It all started when Lamour had recently celebrated her 5th birthday and a catastrophic earthquake had just________Haiti, leaving much of the country in ruins. Lamour was________ to help without hesitation, donating a total of $61.38 in the piggy bank. That five-year-old girl who________donated all her savings to charity is now $48 million richer than any of her peers.

During the check________ on Feb 3, 2023, Lamour was asked about that story: “Is the universe somehow________you now for your childhood act of kindness?” “I don’t know,” she replied. “Everyone that’s reached out to us has made some________comments and I just keep________: ‘You deserve it. Good things happen to good people. Everything happens for a________.’I still don’t know why this happened, but I’m really just so________and I’m planning to do good things with the winnings.”

5 . On the day he almost died, Kimbal Musk had food on the brain. The Internet startup talent and restaurateur had just arrived in Jackson Hole from a conference where chef Jamie Oliver had spoken about the benefits of healthy eating. This made Musk think a lot—how he might make a difference to the food industry—but beyond expanding his farm-to-table movement along with his restaurant, Musk hadn’t yet broken the code. Then he went sailing down a snowy slope (坡) and fell over, breaking his neck.

Musk eventually made a full recovery, but it involved spending two months on his back, which gave him plenty of time to come up with a plan. Since then, he has launched an initiative to put “learning gardens” in public schools across America; attracted Generation Z to the farming profession by changing shipping containers into high-tech, data-driven, year-round farms; and this year, is kicking off a new campaign to create one million at-home gardens.

Aimed at reaching low-income families, the Million Gardens Movement was inspired by the pandemic, as both a desire to feel more connected to nature and food insecurity have been at the forefront of so many people’s lives. “We were getting a lot of inquiries about gardening from people that had never gardened before,” says Musk. “People were looking to garden for a bunch of reasons: to save money on groceries, to improve the nutritional quality of their diets, or just to cure the boredom that came with the lockdown.”

The program offers free garden kits that can be grown indoors or outdoors, and will be distributed through schools that Musk’s non-profit, Big Green, has already partnered with. It also offers free courses on how to get the garden growing and fresh seeds and materials for the changing growing seasons. “It’s not difficult. Anyone can do this, no matter where you come from, no matter where you live. We are all able to grow something,” says Musk.

Henry Tyler made the catch of the year on the weekend. When he saw a young child hanging from a sixth-floor apartment balcony (阳台), Henry ran one hundred metres, jumped over a 1.2-metre fence, and held out his arms to catch the     1     (fall) child.

Eric Brown, only three years old, knocked Henry down when he fell. The boy is in the hospital and doctors say he'll be OK.

    2     Brown family live in an apartment building outside Toronto. On the day of the accident, Mrs. Brown was at work and Eric was at home with his father. They both fell     3     (sleep) while watching TV.

Eric woke up a little later when he heard children playing outside. He pushed a chair onto the balcony, and climbed up     4     (see) them. When he looked down, he     5     (accidental) slipped and fell over the edge. He hung on for a few minutes     6     screamed for his father, but his father didn't hear him.

Henry     7     (fix) his car when he heard the screams. He looked up and saw Eric hanging from the balcony. He quickly     8     (throw) his tools aside, and started running, arms out.

"He saved my     9     (son) life," said Mrs. Brown. "I don't know     10     to thank him.”

"I just didn't want the boy to be hurt," said Henry.

7 . It was already dark. After the jetliner_________safe and sound, it taxied to a stop at its parking slot in Doha’s airport. A small group of_________people gathered at the bottom of the gangway (舷梯) to_________the passengers who were just free from the war. Among those _________was 59-year-old Ahmad Sarmast, director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

He wanted to seem organized and remain_________. After all, the_________of the last few months had taught the director that nothing’s done_________it’s done. But then13-year-old Farida, her violin case in hand, appeared at the_________of the gangway; another to-be _________Zohra, also13, followed. They saw Sarmast,__________down the steps and hugged him. “That’s when I __________ and started to cry.” he said. “We all were.”

With Farida and Zohra in Doha, the months-long, tough__________to evacuaees (撤离人员) of the music school was over after the Taliban’s triumph (胜利) in Afghanistan. The flight’s __________ meant that all those willing and able to leave the capital, Kabul—almost 300 students, faculty, staff and their families were __________ .

But the__________was bitter-sweet for Sarmast. “We’re excited, happy, and__________that we got our community out of Afghanistan, which gives them the opportunity to chase their dreams and __________ musical tradition,” he said. “At the same time, it’s also very__________.You see, everything in Afghanistan is__________, everything for which so many people took so many risks to make music __________.

Fatima Madrigal of California recent gave birth to a boy and a girl. However, which surprises us most is that twins have different birth dates and even birth years. Alfredo was born on December 31st, 2021 at 11:45 p.m. About 15 minutes late, his sister Aylin was born on January 1st, 2022. Fatima said her family, including her partner Robert and their three others children, were happy to welcome the new babies. The babies were suppose to come two weeks later,but their early arrive created a rare set of birth dates and years. Aylin weighing 2.66 kilograms and her brother 2.75 kilograms at birth. The medical center where the twins were born said there are about 120,000 twins born in each year in the U.S. However, twins with different birthdays are rare, and the chance of twins being born in different years is about one in two millions.