2 . Seven years ago, my wife bought me a terrific birthday present. For $70, she   _________ me two garden plots of land 20 feet by 20 feet from the Skokie Park District, which come with free _________ to fresh water from faucets, no _________. The football field of garden is a true place of beauty, costing the Park District very little to _________, with the water pipes being the only _________ capital investment.

My _________ is that gardening is good exercise accessible to people far into late middle age and beyond, deeply beneficial and _________ by couples and groups of friends. My garden neighbors and I, once _________, share ideas and encouragement. My daughter loves to help me _________ the wild weed, and the whole family loves the good fresh food, some of which I give to friends and neighbors.

I __________ about $300 to $400 a year but harvest literally 10 times the __________ of fresh produce—and I’m far from the best gardener!

We need to __________ one another while respecting each other as individuals, as carriers of subcultures, as positive people. Human difference is easier to accept with __________ when we know each other and are building something together.

And who doesn’t need to have __________ and get some exercise and eat great food? Community gardening is a wholly __________ activity.

It is a hot sunny Saturday morning on the farm. Maya, Duksie and Doobie are helping Mama K in her vegetable garden. The children work all morning.

Mama K always gives the children a treat for helping her. Sometimes it’s cake or chocolate; sometimes it’s apples, pears or oranges. Mama K has only one rule. “Share it fair!” The children know they must share the treats equally, so they all get the same amount.

Today Mama K has baked a round strawberry cake with pink icing (糖霜) and berries from her garden. The children wait on the grass for their treat. “Here you go!” smiles Mama K. “But remember the rule. Share it fair!”

Maya has the first turn to share the cake. She uses the knife to draw lines in the icing. The others watch her. She does not cut the cake yet. The others must first agree if her way is fair. “I think I will make two cuts down like this. Now we have three slices, all the same!” Maya shows them. There is one line on the left and the other on the right.

“No way!” says Duksie. “The one in the middle is much too big!” Doobie also shakes his head. Maya laughs and tells Duksie to try.

“Pass me the knife.I’ll do it,” says Duksie First she rubs out Maya’s pattern in the icing, and then she makes one cut across and one down. “Look, I have made my three slices!” “That’s not fair!” shout Maya and Doobie together,.

“Why don’t you try, Doobie?” says Duksie. “I bet you can’t do it!”

“I wish the cake was a square, and then it would be easy!” says Doobie thoughtfully. And then! A picture comes into Doobie’s head. He sees the silver badge (标识) at the front of his father’s big red Benz truck. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I know how to do it,” shouts Doobie.

“How did you work it out?” Maya asks. Doobie smiles to himself. For now it’s his secret. Later, he will tell his dad.

First Doobie uses a knife to smooth Duksie’s lines in the icing.

With Mama K’s encouragement, Maya takes charge, expertly cutting along Doobie’s lines to make three equal slices.

6 . The morning commute (通勤) is never fun. But if you pass through Stevenage on your way to work, your morning might be a little ________ thanks to the cat Nala.

Dragging yourself out of bed in the morning and off to work is hard, ________ on dark winter mornings. However, you might ________ to come out of the house with a spring in your step if your commute started at Stevenage station, where you’d be ________ by a cat called Nala.

Usually found sitting on a ticket gate, four-year-old Nala lives close to the station with her owner Natasha Ambler, and often ________ the station at rush hour to enjoy attention from commuters. Ambler ________ a Facebook page called The Adventures of Nala where hundreds of people have voluntarily ________ photos of the adventurous cat.

Recent photos posted by commuters include Nala ________ in line for her canned food at a supermarket, napping on newspaper stands and ________ with commuters at the station barriers to get their attention.

Nala wears a GPS tracking device so that her ________ can be kept track of, and is usually found at the railway station or the ________ leisure park. As well as the usual collar with her name and owners’________ information, Nala wears a tag to let people know that she’s not ________.

According to the BBC, Ambler reported that she’s not ________ about Nala in the slightest: “She’s obviously ________ and she’s very happy doing what she does — I just hope one day she doesn’t actually try to get on a train.”

7 . Christian Bowers, now 24, has Down Syndrome (唐氏综合征) and it’s been hard for him to find good friends. His mom, Donna Herter, said his lack of friends was making him feel ________.

Herter didn’t know who to turn to. So, she posted it on Facebook. “I just basically said that I was looking for a young ________,” she said. “I told them that I’d pay them $80 for two hours to just ________ and play video games with him. All he ________ wants is just a guy friend to do guy stuff with.”

Herter said Christian attends events for people with special ________, but he “desires a friendship with somebody who is ________”.

Herter sent the post at I am and when she woke up, it had about 5,000 comments. She saw parents ________ suggestions, others volunteering to help. “My hands were ________. I was sweating,” she said.

After ________ a few local guys in Wentzville, Minnesota, Donna ________ it down to seven who now visit Christian once a week.

James Hasting was one of the men she ________. Hasting said he works with people with disabilities and it’s something he has a(n) ________ for. He said he had visited Christian three times so far and they had a wonderful time together.

“Though on the ________ we may look different, deep down we have ________ and getting along should be easy,” Hasting said. He hopes to ________ others to form friendships-because you never know how much it means to someone.

9 . Elmer Whitaker sighed as he looked over his muddy crops. A terrible ________ had swept through his farm the night before, and his crops were now covered in ________ and destroyed. His neighbor, a kind young man named Thomas, ________ to offer his help.

"What a disaster, “Whitaker said.” My whole family has always survived on the harvests of this field. I feel ________ and don't know what to do now.

Thomas calmed him down and thought for a moment. “I see this not as a disaster but as an ________ ,” he said. Whitaker looked at him ________. “How can it be?” he asked. Thomas smiled ________, “Now you have a chance to try something new. You’ve always grown beans and cabbages. Why not try planting ________ crops that will also fit in this soil? You can diversify and therefore ________ your farm once again.”

Elmer Whitaker considered this. Thomas was right-he had become set in his ways. This disaster could push him to make his farm ________ and sustainable in a new way. “You have ________ me,” Whitaker said. He clapped Thomas on the back. “Thank you for showing me the opportunity in this difficulty. ”

And so Whitaker ________ new crops and soon, the farm was full of life again. Farmers from neighboring towns were ________ with the wonder of Whitaker’s fields, and they began to ________ their crops as well. Elmer Whitaker’s farm has become a ________ of adaptability and hope, telling everyone that in every storm, there is a chance for new growth.

10 . I was annoyed that my mom had even scheduled the appointment with a doctor for me. As doctors so often do, when he arrived he went straight into the basic small talk about my _______ history.

But then he _______ a question that took me off guard. “So Robin, what are you going to do after high school?” He wrote something at his notes, with not even a glance in my _______. “I don’t know,” I mumbled(嘟哝). I was seventeen. I had no _______ what I was going to do after high school. My high school guidance counselor told me that I wasn’t “college material” and I believed her. Education wasn’t exactly _______ in my family.

“You don’t know? Well, why don’t you go to college to become a _______ like me?” He smiled as he glanced at his watch. I thought he was _______ for even suggesting it. No one in my family had even graduated from college, let alone become a doctor. “I’m not smart enough to be a doctor.”

He looked me straight in the eyes when he _______ said, “Let me tell you something; you don’t have to be smart to be a doctor. You just have to be persistent(坚持不懈的).” Then the doctor hurriedly gathered his things and _______ to his next appointment.

I ________ to think about it when I was at school. What would I do after high-school? Even though I wasn’t college material, that doctor made a(n) ________ on me. I applied to a college and soon found myself walking in the ________ as a new student. I often questioned what I was doing there. Maybe I wasn’t smart enough for college, but I could be persistent.

I was ________ to find that with each individual achievement came newfound ________ in myself. I graduated with a master’s degree in September 2014, two decades after that ________ with my doctor.