2 . While taking a 20-hour train ride along the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in northwestern China, I had the kind of humbling, educational, and above all else, wonderful ________ with a local that all travelers long for. A young Chinese man ________ me on the train. My ________ friend spoke virtually no English, so I happily took the ________ to practice my Chinese.

Over several hours, he would tell me about how he had ________ a two-year professional school to quickly find a job ________ highways in order to help support his family. Perhaps the most ________, however, was the fact that this man spent hours studying every day after hard physical labor. Without batting an eye, he would ________ a translated Emerson passage before asking about the literary influence of American ________ as a whole. ”And what do you all learn about Russian authors?” I ________ him asking at one point.

It would have been easy to ________ my assumptions about this highway builder who had never been more than a few hundred miles from home. But this highly informed, ________ , and admirable person prevented me doing so. In the course of a couple of hours, he ________ me just how much one can gain from ________ with an open mind, and a willingness to ________ with locals from all walks of life.

3 . On July 4, 2016, Kelly Burch was celebrating on a friend’s boat. At that time she wasn’t paying attention to the tide. When she ________ into what has been deep water, she hit the sand bottom, broke her neck and started to drown. Three weeks later, she ________ in the intensive care unit (重症监护室).

________, her parents, grandparents, sister and friends all step in to help her. After she left the ________, she went to six weeks of inpatient rehabilitation (康复), where she was getting three hours of therapy a day.

When the inpatient rehabilitation was over, she wanted to join a gym to ________ quality of life. Luckily, she found a gym that was open to ________ people in California. The first day that she rolled in, she saw a bunch of _________ wheelchairs and people like her pushing their ________.She felt hope for the first time.

But that gym cost $100 an hour. She knew that’s completely unattainable to the many people with the disabilities who are on fixed _________. She decided to take action.

Last year, she _________ a gym called Split Second fitness. The goal of it is to provide affordable fitness ________ to disabled people.

Kelly can now transfer herself from her _________ to the floor or her bed. That makes life _________ for her and her caregivers. She has seen _________ results in the clients going to her gym.

Her life isn’t about who she was yesterday. It’s about who she has to be tomorrow. She wants to help her clients ________ that, too.

“Mom, tell me the story about the black bull (公牛), ” I said when we were driving to my grandparents’ farm.

“You know it better than I do. Besides, you can’t be too careful when driving,” she answered.

“Yeah, but it’s your story and I think that story can remind me to drive slowly.” When she didn’t respond, I touched her arm gently.

“I’ll start it for you: It was a late Friday afternoon, and you were rushing home from work because you, Dad, Shelby and I were going to Dad’s parents’ farm, and it was a four-hour drive.”

Mom carried on from there.

“Once I got home,” she began, “we loaded up and headed out. It took about a half hour to get through the rush-hour traffic, but finally we reached the interstate and headed east. Because I was tired and eager to get to the farm and sleep, I drove as fast as the speed limit allowed—70 miles an hour.”

I rolled my eyes. Mom never drove the posted speed limit; she always went at least five miles over. But if I reminded her of that story, time would come to a stop.

“Time passed, and it got dark. You girls fell asleep in the back, and Dad nodded off next to me. Seat belts weren’t mandatory (强制的) at the time, so no one tied the belts. Hours later, I exited the interstate onto the little state road. The speed limit was 50, but I kept going70. There was no traffic after all, and I knew your grandparents were waiting up for us.”

I’d spent summers with my grandparents as a kid, and they did indeed go to bed early, as farmers do.

“At last, I reached the turn that would take us to the farm. The road was a narrow, less maintained farm-to-market road that locals used. It was completely dark, and the only light was from my headlights. I pressed the pedal (踏板) harder and sped up.”

This was the point in the story that always turned my blood cold.

“Suddenly, a large, black shape appeared in your headlights,” I cut in.

“Luckily, the car stopped but the sudden action awoke all of you,” Mom smiled.

5 . When 34-year-old Sourabh Jain first became a father to his daughter, his view on life changed. Like any parent, his daughter became his world. However, he struggled with establishing a close connection with her in the beginning. “She was so tiny and couldn’t speak. That’s when I realized that games and books are interactive and provide an opportunity to spend hours with her, ” he recalled.

Thus he began the hunt for games and toys that not only helped him bond with his daughter but also contributed to her cognitive (认知的) development. During this search, he realized that not only are these toys and games hard to find, but they can also burn a hole in one’s pockets.

“Another realization was that it is very hard to make toys environmentally friendly. There is some amount of plastic always present and it is harmful to the environment and the little ones, ” he says.

During changing family dynamics, Sourabh observed the increasing challenge for parents who juggle work and home responsibilities at the same time. While he desired to give his daughter the world, he also tried to leave behind a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable world for her. Today, he owns The EleFant — a toy rental company, or in Sourabh’s words, “a labour of love”.

The transition (过渡) from the corporate world for Sourabh was gradual. “The idea began taking shape in my mind in 2022, but I wanted a solid plan of action. I aimed to offer parents a reliable service and an effective subscription model,” he adds.

Sourabh also emphasized the importance of ensuring that the toys provided for children are not just enjoyable but also engaging and educational. In pursuit of this concept, Sourabh enlisted the expertise of a psychologist, a doctor and an ex-school principal to make sure the types of toys would be most beneficial for children.

Currently, the company has a customer base of more than 250 subscribers with over 2, 000 downloads of the application per day.

6 . Last year, Doctor Steve truly understood what it means to be at the right place at the right time. During a half-marathon, he found himself in the position to ______ not one, but two runners. Things had been going ______ up to 3-mile mark, but that’s when Steve noticed a(n) ______ runner named Gregory.

Gregory had just reached the peak of an incline(斜坡) and was ______ to see that he’d get to run downhill for a bit. This was the last thing he ______ before collapsing.

Meanwhile, Steve saw this happen, and he could tell it wasn’t a simple ______ . Steve immediately stopped, performing CPR. Once it was ______ that Gregory was doing well and an ambulance took him away, Steve continued the race.

The rest of the race itself was ______ but, when Steve crossed the finish line, his life-saving ______ was needed once more. A man named Michael began to feel dizzy moments after crossing the finish line. Then, just like Gregory, he ______ .

“I never expected something like that in my whole life to happen again, let alone in the same ______ , ” Steve said.

The ______ of this entire situation is truly remarkable. Had Steve not ______ to help Gregory, he would have crossed the finish line much sooner than Michael, ______ he wouldn’t have been around to save him, too. Thankfully, the events had a happy ______ . Now the three men become good friends.

My little sister, Meg, said that she wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore and she’d be OK staying with Aunt Lily in the country. “As long as you’re there, Mike,” she had said. Still, Mum was worried. Meg had never slept away from home, away from the city. So I told Mum I could handle everything.

Even though we were only staying overnight, Meg had brought six books-all about fairies (仙女). After we unpacked, Aunt Lily invited us to pick some flowers. As we followed her through the forest, Meg held my hand tightly. But once we reached the sunlit grassland, she let go. “Butterflies!” whispered Meg. She screamed with delight when one flew near her.   

Maybe I had nothing to worry about, I thought. I still remembered when I was here last summer, I found some amazing insects, like fireflies (萤火虫) and walking sticks which I’d never seen in the city.

“Fairies are magical. See these beautiful flowers they grow!” she kept telling absolutely everything she knew about fairies. I was glad that if she kept it up until bedtime, then maybe she’d fall right to sleep.

Meg did keep chatting, right through supper. Then the sun began to set. “Does it get really dark out here at night?” she asked. Her eyes were fixed on the window.

“Sure, but we’ve got plenty of lights inside,” said Aunt Lily. She leaned over and gave Meg a warm smile. But I could tell she was still worried. “I could read to you.”

I hadn’t even finished a page when her bottom lip started shaking slightly. “Mike,” she said, her eyes starting to fill. “I want to go home.” I quickly searched through her book for something to keep her from crying.

The book fell open to a page that was dog-eared from use, a page that was obviously one of Meg’s favorites. The text read: “Among the trees deep in the forest, the lights of fairies gleam (闪烁).” Aha! How could I forget those “tiny fairies” out there?

“Meg, there’s something outside I want to show you,” I whispered.

“Tiny fairies, Mike!” she said, pressing her forehead against the window, “Everywhere!”

9 . Christy was helping Mum sort through boxes they’d found in their new home. “Look, ” she held up an old photo, “It says Mabel beside Dream Lake, summer 1910. ” It looked so ______. Christy asked if she could______it. Mum agreed, adding that Mabel was once the owner of the house, but she didn’t know about the______.

Now Christy had a puzzle to______. Where was Dream Lake? The next morning, Christy went to the local______, where she looked through ______ of the town. They showed streets, businesses, but no lakes. Back home, while she was staring out her bedroom window, a ______feeling hit her. Christy quickly ______ Mabel’s photo and ran outside. In its ______, a steeple (尖塔) rose above a border of short trees. It looked much like the one now visible above the line of trees of her backyard. “Mum!” shouted Christy. “It’s the same steeple. This picture was taken in our ______!”

Mum hurried outside to look. “Yeah, the trees have ______ grown, but it’s the same steeple. But where’s the lake?” They finally turned to the historical society. But no one there had ever heard of such a lake. And all the______proved useless.

“I don’t______it, ”said Christy in confusion.

That night, ______came down and cooled the air. Early the next morning, Christy woke up and looked out of her window. “Dream Lake!” yelled Christy. “We ______the puzzle, Mum!”