2 . For 25 years, Olga Perina lived in the Czech Republic. During that time, she seldom ate any fast food, but enjoyed the local dumplings and cabbage dishes. Then in May 2016, her mom died and she moved to the United States. As she dealt with her sadness and the move, she turned to American food for comfort.

After years of enjoying “delicious” fast food, she became much overweight and caught Stage 3 chronic kidney disease (慢性肾病) in the fall of 2020.

“It was really a shock,” Perina said “I learned online that your kidney s have to work twice as hard when you’re overweight. Then I made a decision.” She stopped eating junk food and drinking soda, and avoided sweets, bread and potatoes while adding more fish, fruit and vegetables to her diet. Moreover, she also reduced her salt intake.

While it felt difficult at times, she knew that eating health y food would improve her quality of life. After changing her eating habits, she began to lose weight. “Within a week, I lost seven pounds, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh dear! Am I sick? Is there another disease?’” she recalled how perturbed she was then. But soon she realized that it was eating more fruit, vegetables and lean protein (瘦蛋白) that helped her get rid of the pounds.

Later she began to walk daily and also tried adding extra movement to her day, like climbing the stairs of her apartment building. To stay motivated and draw her attention from emotional eating, she started spending more time with her daughter outside, writing a book and knitting. Since October 2020, she’s lost 57 pounds, her blood pressure has dropped, and her kidney function has improved.

Perina is pleased with her progress and has found that giving herself encouraging talks has helped her. “I always said to myself, ‘You’re beautiful. You’re lovely. Look at you. You can surely do this,’” she said. “I lost weight successfully by encouraging myself to look at myself and telling myself these things.”

4 . Abigail Adjiri took part in a competition for kids aged 7 through 12. She, at only, has taken Ghana by _______, winning over viewers with her impressive dance moves. It’s not _______for most people to become skilled dancers, especially for little Abigail who is _______.

Abigail has been trained to _______ the vibrations (震动) she feels with her feet,_______ listening to the beat of songs. Her precise calculations have allowed her to _______impressive moves. Still, Abigail’s Mom was _______ about the fact that their goal was to get the 7-year-old a hearing aid — but they needed _______. They made this known on “Onua Showtime with Nana Ama MeBrown”, a talk show in Ghana.

A woman named Joyce, who heard little Abigail’s story, was _______ to come to her assistance. After reaching out to MeBrown, she was able to ________ $ 5,000 for the hearing aid and$ 400 for insurance so that it can be replaced or ________, if needed.

As you can imagine, Abigail and her Mom were ________. In fact, the two of them returned to MeBrown’s show where the 7-year-old happily showed off her new ________, with the help of which little Abigail answered questions from the MeBrown. The pure joy on Abigail’s face is absolutely ________. Folks like Joyce truly serve as a ________ that there is more good in the world than we realize at times.

5 . Every Saturday, Grandpa and I walked to a nursing home. “Whoever visits the sick gives them life,” Grandpa ______ believed.

One day Grandpa was suddenly ______ to hospital. Worse still, we were told he was ______ to recover, deep sadness over our family.

Saturday came. I had not ______ to go there, but Grandpa’s words rang in my head. So alone I went. Everyone was happy to see me but ______ when not seeing Grandpa. When told his ______, they comforted me in tun, “Do your best and God will do the rest.” They all tried in their unique way to cheer me up and ______ for Grandpa.

For days, neither could Grandpa sit up, nor would he speak or eat. The atmosphere was awfully ______. Suddenly the nurse came in, saying, “You have visitors.” I ______. The guys Grandpa and I visited every Saturday were all present.

They all showcased their best to the fullest, thus making grandpa’s day. Visiting hours went so fast that they had to ______ and told grandpa they would come again soon. I was ______ in tears.

That evening, Grandpa sat up and asked the ______ what he could eat. Day by day he ______ for the better. Grandpa’ recovery was a medical ______, the doctors thought. But I knew the truth: His friends’ ______ had made him well.

7 . It all began on a cold, rainy day．

Sarah, a poor single mother, was ________ to make ends meet. While waiting for the bus with her two children, Sarah ________ an old man sitting on a nearby bench. He was shivering (颤抖), his ________ jacket providing little protection against the freezing weather.

Sarah ________ the man and offered him her coat. She knew it would make her cold, but the thought of this stranger ________ while she had something to give was too much to bear. ________ by her selflessness, the man thankfully accepted the coat and gave back a smile. Little did Sarah know that her simple act of ________ would make a huge difference.

A man, who saw the heartwarming ________, took a photo and shared it on social media. The post quickly became a ________, with thousands of people sharing and commenting on Sarah’s ________. Encouraged by her, people began organizing events to ________ those less lucky. Schools added lessons on the ________ of helping others, and businesses started a “pay it forward” project, where people could buy more and leave the ________ meal for those in need.

Reflecting on this unbelievable journey, we can ________ our individual power, which may create an effect that would ________ reach every corner of the globe.

Every October, my neighbor Ollie and I would enter the Halloween costume contest (服装比赛) in our neighborhood park．And each year the theme was different, such as “Superheroes” or “Far m Animals”．But this year’s theme was not so specific．It was just “Be Creative”．

Walking home along the road lined with tall trees, the two of us had a heated discussion about what “Be Creative” meant．We looked back on the themes we had really enjoyed．For “Superheroes”, we made costumes of Super-Force Flying Eagle．And for “Farm Animals”, we were dressed as a cow and a horse．Ollie even put a pair of wings for the horse, saying that he’d love to see a “flying horse” eating grass with a cow on the farm．

“Now that’s the creative spirit we need for this challenge!” I said．“Maybe, since we don’t know exactly what we want to be yet, we should start by choosing some cool costume-making materials.”

Just at that moment, a falling golden leaf happened to have landed on Ollie’s shoulder．“I’ve got it!” Ollie said joyfully, picking up some fallen leaves from the ground．“We can make costumes out of leaves and pretend to be trees．I can ensure, no one will be a tree as great as me.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” I said．“I like your creative idea and I have just got a perfect way to be another tree.”

We filled up two bags with different kinds of leaves: Ollie’s grandma, Abuela, an experienced tailor (裁缝), helped us with tons of excellent costume-making supplies and we started to work．When we were done, we each tried on the self-designed costumes and they were really wonderful．On the morning of the contest, we got up early and spent hours making preparations．We arrived at the park early and waited for our turn nervously and eagerly．

The big time came for us to go onto the stage．

10 . As we all know, swimming is great fun. But it often comes with _________. Drowning (溺水)is a real possibility even for the most _________ swimmers. However, this dangerous situation can be changed with watchful eyes. This summer in Florida, two young men helped to _________ one drowning death.

Griffin Emerson, a 6-year-old child, swam in an apartment block’s pool. He enjoyed the pool’s _________ area. But he began to _________ toward the deeper part slowly, struggling to keep his head above water.

All that came about as no one else, including his mother, seemed to _________ him. Griffin’s frightening _________ in the water happened over the course of a full minute, ending up with the child going down to the _________ of the pool.

However, one young man, Noah, did find Griffin in the pool. He told his friend Weston to call 911 at once. And Noah _________ to jump into the pool to ____________ the 6-year-old.

Noah made it to Griffin, caught him and ____________ him to the surface and then to the side of the pool. Before the emergency services’ arrival, Noah and Weston tried their best to ____________ life-saving steps. ____________, a few minutes later, Griffin recovered his breath.

Griffin’s mother was ____________ to Noah and Weston for their heroic actions. But the two young men thought it was no big deal and hoped that this act of kindness would be ____________.