5 . Dad and I are watching the Olympic Games in our media room. The screen drops down to cover one wall. We give our robot, Sylvia, our orders for popcorn(爆米花) and juice for dinner. She is only a machine but she looks like a human and helps with the housework.

We are having popcorn for dinner tonight because something is wrong with our oven(烤箱). It is broken and keeps on repeating that it doesn't remember how to cook. Dad thinks the shooting star passing by Earth has caused the problem.

“I did see a shooting star yesterday,” I said,“Maybe that's why I had trouble getting Sylvia started this morning. She turned around and around, hardly stood when she tried to take a step, and almost fell backwards. She finally started moving towards me, but then suddenly turned, and went backwards. I thought she was going to knock into a wall. It was lucky that she got her balance in the end and successfully stood up”.

At last, Sylvia arrives with our popcorn and drinks. I look at the screen and watch the Olympic Games. Sylvia watches it, too. Dad gives her coins as a tip. Sylvia thanks him for the coins and starts to leave the room. Then she turns back to where we are sitting. I hear some clicking sounds. The sounds mean that she is searching her memory chips for information.“During the Olympics, I should get medals, not coins,” she says.

Dad and I just look at each other. Sylvia doesn't seem to know that robots aren't supposed to think. Then we burst out laughing and award Sylvia a gold medal.

6 . Wang Dakang is well-known in his hometown of Leshan City in Sichuan Province for his great life story. He is a model of lifelong learning. Wang, aged 86, was born in 1935. In the 1980s, he became the first person in China to finish a round trip of the country using only a bicycle. From Leshan, he rode to 29 areas between 1981 and 1984. During the 1,278 days, he traveled more than 60,000 kilometers and later was invited to write a book about his experience. However, it didn’t come out because it was too long.

In order to better write his book, Wang, who had only finished middle school, decided to continue his studies and go to university. At the age of 61, he attended Sichuan Normal University to study journalism (新闻学).

His search for knowledge did not stop there. In 2000, Wang began his graduate studies in the same university and studied travel literature. In 2008, he went to Leshan Normal University to study music and graduated in 2012. His purpose of learning had changed from writing a better book to getting more knowledge. Wang’s 560,000-word book about his trip in the 1980s finally came out in 2016.

At present, Wang lives in a village in Leshan. Every morning, he gets up at 4:30 to exercise for half an hour. His study starts at 6:00. He also keeps a diary every day. “Right now I just feel there’s not enough time every day as there is so much to learn,” Wang says. “I want to continue learning even though I’m old and I will study until the very end.”

7 . Felicia Grimmenhag of Sweden doesn’t let anything get in her way — even a life-changing injury. After surviving a serious car accident, Felicia had to _________ getting around in a wheelchair. But it didn’t stop her from _________ her dream as a champion horseback rider and Paralympic (残奥会) hopeful.

Felicia was 17 when she was _________ by a car while riding her motorbike. Despite being legally dead for 15 minutes, she _________ pulled through. When she finally _________ three days later, she discovered her legs had disappeared. While this new reality would be a(n) _________ pill for anyone to take, Felicia focused all her energy on getting back on the horse! She’d _________ as a little girl and decided to try again. And shockingly, about 10 weeks after the _________, she was riding once again! “Horses have meant a lot to me, both _________ and also physically,” she told Great Big Story. “When I sit on a horse, I don’t feel like the __________ Felicia, but the horse-riding Felicia.”

Felicia has since taken part in competitions around the world, proving she doesn’t need __________ to win. In 2020, the 25-year-old won the silver at the Swedish Championships. Now she __________ to compete at the Paralympics! “What I have learned from all this is that you should dare to __________ yourself, and remember that it’s only you who sets your own __________,” she said.

It’s true that when you want something, all you need is the __________ and drive to achieve it.

9 . Here is a story about social media bringing people together. 56-year-old Lucy Shepherd was _______ as an infant (婴儿) in the early 1960s. When she turned 18, Lucy _______ to look for her birth parents. She managed to find her mother ten years later. However, finding her father proved to be more _______.

About her father, Lucy knew few _______ and was only told by a social worker that he was an electrician named Jonah Larson. She tried to find him out but with little information she _______ — until decades later when she saw the _______ appear on the “Suggested Friends” list of the social media site Facebook. After looking through his online profile (简介), she realized she might be indeed _______ her father.

The pair then _______ for several weeks before meeting for the first time last week — and they both said it was like they “have _______ each other their whole lives”.

“It’s ________. I live in Kentucky and she lives 350 miles (about 563 km) away in Cornwall. And we had been ________ for nearly 56 years. The chances of actually ________ were so slim.” said Jonah. The ________ took place in Dorset, roughly halfway between Cornwall and Kentucky. When they first spotted (看见) each other, the father opened his ________ and gave Lucy a big hug. “I love you!” said Jonah, looking straight into her eyes, and they hugged ________.

“Now there is someone else like me, loving me for me. I’m incredibly blessed to find him.” said Lucy excitedly.