The instant my family boarded the plane, I felt like every head turned to us, looking at us with a fake politeness. I knew what they were thinking: “Oh! No. Please, don’t sit in the aisle next to me.” In my head I could even hear the flight attendant saying, “You can feel free to store your... child in the overhead compartment (隔层).”

We found our seats. My son sat by the window, my wife in the center, and I took the seat on the aisle. I saw a “cool guy” get onto the plane, a man about my age. He was wearing a concert T-shirt, ripped jeans, and I could hear that he’s listening to rock music on his iPhone. This guy represented who I was as a traveler before I had a child. He took the aisle seat directly across from me. We took off.

Planes are not designed with children in mind. There is no ball hole, no playground. To keep my child occupied, my wife and I took turns walking him from the pilot’s cabin to the tail. Suddenly, we hit turbulence (强气流) and needed to take our seats. The plane was shaking. My son’s ears began hurting from the drop in cabin pressure, and he had a meltdown. This is a child who has difficulty with crowded social situations and excessive stimulation. My wife and I could do nothing but held him to live through this moment.

I looked over at Cool Guy, and he was staring at me, trying to pour Coke. I wanted to say, “Look, Cool Guy, I am sorry if we are ruining your time on United Airlines, but we have a crisis here, and if anyone on this plane needs to drink, it’s me!”

Finally, my son fell asleep from exhaustion. And that wave of exhaustion flowed over my family. I just sat there, listening to the slight sound of the engine and hoping we would start our landing in Chicago soon.

Then, I felt that somebody patted my shoulder.

My son’s eyes lit up, and he eagerly grabbed the toy, delighted.

4 . The summer after my freshman year college, I had to get my first job. This was probably one of the _________ tasks I have ever had to do. I had never held a job when I was in high school because my parents wanted me to put all my _________ into my studies.

At first, it was very hard. I filled out dozens of _________ but got no calls back in the first two weeks. It made sense because I had _________ no job experience. All I could _________ was that being a high school graduate and a year of college.

However, halfway through the third week, I finally got a call back from one of the places I _________. We had set up a meeting time, and after my _________, I was more than ready to start working the following Monday. I was _________ at the chance of working for my wages.

When I started, it was very clear that I was not _________. I made mistakes with orders and often __________ sales promotions (推销). My parents made a bet I would not __________ the first two weeks, and I would be back looking for more __________. However, I stuck with it.

After working a while, I got better at orders, and always __________ the cheaper options for customers. A couple of weeks later, I had been told by the manager that I had __________ the award of the best employee of the month. It taught me a lot about responsibility and gave me the __________ of working.

5 . “On the very first day of 2024, I saw the snow of Kilimanjaro, not from the novel written by Ernest Hemingway, but from the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro!” Xu Zhuoyuan, a 17-year-old mountaineer who’d stood on top of Mount Qomolangma last May, climbed onto the tallest peak in Africa, making herself the youngest Chinese girl that conquered it.

Xu’s passion for mountaineering was motivated by her father, who himself reached many peaks, including Mount Qomolangma. And her mountaineering journey began on a family trip to Xizang and Sichuan four years ago. For many years, Xu devoted herself to rigorous training. She went to the mountains in Yunnan and Sichuan every month, climbing peaks over 5,000 meters and doing daily physical exercises like running, swimming and rope skipping. All that hard work got her ready for the challenges she would face on Kilimanjaro.

Above 4000 meters on Mount Kilimanjaro, the climate is similar to a desert, with big temperature differences. The whole climb took 7 days, during which Xu faced unpredictable weather such as rain and strong winds. Staying warm and avoiding heat loss was the main challenge. Xu had to be very sensitive to any temperature changes and adjust her clothing accordingly. This climb was also a learning experience for Xu. She was climbing with Xia Boyu (aged 74), the first Chinese climber to summit Mount Qomolangma with an artificial leg, who’d inspired Xu a lot.

Mountaineering, Xu discovered, is not just about being strong physically; it is also a journey of self-discovery. “In climbing and life, it’s important to know when to let go of things that are weighing us down and how to re start when we feel ready,” she reflected.

My family had only recently moved into a new neighborhood. All of my neighbors have been very friendly and helpful since we moved in.

However, Mrs Davis, an elderly lady living in the last house on the other side of the road, escaped associating with us, or anyone else. When I asked around the neighborhood why, they warned me not to go after her because they thought she was insane (精神失常的) and preferred staying alone after losing her husband and only daughter in an aircraft crash. After that, she stayed isolated (孤立的) from all the neighbors, refusing all the care and help.

I often saw her on the streets during the evening, but she was always by herself. She appeared weak and I always wanted to help her, but after hearing what my neighbors had said about her, I wasn’t sure whether I should.

One day, when I was on my way to the supermarket, our paths crossed. I was walking past her and overheard her singing a tune. It immediately drew my attention because my parents used to sing the same song with me. I began to sing along with her, and she smiled at me for the first time. But when I smiled back, she quickly hurried her pace and went home.

She seemed very different to me that day. I refused to trust my neighbors’ claims that she had cut herself off from the rest of society because she was insane, so the next day, I knocked on her door. Mrs Davis was home, and instead of letting me in, she just looked at me silently through the window. I noticed her staring at me and was about to walk to the window when she quickly closed the curtains.

The next day, I revisited her house. “Hello, I brought you something,” I called out to her. “It’s the record of the music you were singing yesterday.”

The door opened and Mrs Davis’ eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me standing there.

Several days later in the morning, the doorbell rang at my house.

8 . Ramsay’s heroic act unfolded on April 21, 2022, at Green Lake, where he fearlessly saved a teenage boy from a life-threatening situation. The boy was swimming in the lake when he ________ about 80 feet from the shore and failed to resurface.

________ by shouts for help, Ramsay, a paddleboarder (桨手) seated nearby on the platform, paddled toward the boy. Although the dirty water made it ________ for Ramsay to see beneath the water’s surface, bubbles rising to the surface near his paddleboard led him to ________ that the boy sank at that spot. Ramsay demonstrated extraordinary bravery by diving 15 feet to the lake’s bottom to ________ the unconscious teenager.

Upon resurfacing, he found that his paddleboard was no longer within ________. Ramsay took a deep ________ and repositioned the unconscious boy. He then ________ swam toward the shore.

Ramsay was tired quickly but he ________ to keep both their heads above water. A female paddleboarder in another party then ________ to them at a point halfway to the shore. Ramsay ________ the paddleboard with one arm while still holding the boy. The woman leaned (倾斜) across her paddleboard and paddled until she reached shallow water while ________ Ramsay and the boy.

The boy was moved onto the shore, where Ramsay forced the water out of the boy’s body during efforts to make him ________. He recovered after treatment at a nearby hospital. Ramsay was cold and ________, but he did not require medical treatment.

He was honored for his ________ and selflessness with the Carnegie Medal—the highest accolade (荣誉) for civilian heroism in North America.

9 . Driving lessons are quite normal for teenagers across the country. But for Jessica Parks, a young woman from North Branch, Mich, they mean another great ______ she's eager to overcome.

Jessica was born without arms, but was not ______ wearing prosthetics (假肢). So she has learned to do ______ things with her feet—from eating noodles to putting in contact lenses (隐形眼镜). She is no stranger to difficulties but the ______ remained: How well would she drive?

After ______ her seatbelt across her with her foot and buckling in, she ______ the directions of instructor Larry Klug and makes all of her last-minute adjustments with her ______ , as they prepare to leave the parking lot. Klug talks her through a pre-drive checklist, “Put your blinker (转向灯) on; check your centre mirror; ______ your left mirror.”

Jessica is driving a mid-size car that wasn't modified (改装) at all for her purposes. After seeing her ability to drive Klug decided that she didn't need any ______ devices. It should come as no ______ to anyone that after spending hours driving with Jessica, Klug ______ her a natural, saying she's going to be a great driver.

One of Jessica's main ______   now is to get her driver's license. Jessica says she thinks about the ______ challenges she's faced and overcome, and about why she's here. She said, “I guess I was put here as a(n) ______ to others—just to show people that whatever they set their mind to, they can get it done, and it doesn't ______ what other people say or think. If you want to do something, you can do it.”