1 . One day, a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. The professor ________ the question papers, with the text facing down as usual. ________ he handed them all out, he asked his students to ________ the page and begin. To everyone’s surprise, there were no ________, just a black dot (点) in the center of the page. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s face, told them the following:

“I want you to write what you________ there.”

The students, ________, got started on the inexplicable (令人费解的) task.

At the end of the class, the professor ________ all the answer papers and started reading each one of them aloud in front of all the students. All of them, with no ________, described the black dot, trying to explain its position in the middle of the sheet, etc. After all had been ________ , the classroom was silent, the professor began to explain:

“I’m not going to grade this. I ________ wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the ________ part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot, and the same happens in our ________ . We have a white paper to observe and ________, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a ________ given to us with love and care and we always have________to celebrate: nature renewing itself every day, our friends around us, the job that ________ our livelihood and the miracles we see every day.

________, we insist on focusing only on the dark spots: the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the________ relationship with colleagues, the ________ with a friend, and etc.

The dark spots are very ________ compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds.”

2 . I'm standing in a class of wild 14-year-old girls as they throw paper and howl (大喊) with laughter. They won't _________ me. I was 23 and I didn't know what I was doing. I never wanted to _________. I wanted to be a writer. But when I arrived in London, they were short of teachers.

My efforts at teaching were _________. When the bell finally rang, I rushed to the staff room, red with anger. The other teachers weren't _________. “That's 4B, the worst class in school,” one said.

I dreaded (害怕) our next _________, but I couldn't give up. I needed the job. So. I _________ formal lessons. Instead, I brought _________ for class discussions. One of the liveliest talks was about the arguments they had with their parents. They paid attention and shared about their lives. I was _________. So I had them write about themselves. Most wrote about families with little money and big problems. As time went on, their essays became a _________ between us. I admired their humor, toughness and insight, and I think they ____________ my interest in their lives.

The musical My Fair Lady was playing in the West End, but they had never seen a ____________stage performance. They lived just a few subway stops from the West End, but none had ever been. I asked if they'd like to see the musical. They thought I was ____________. No teacher had ever ____________taking them out. A few weeks later, 4B and I were sitting in a ____________. They loved the music, the costumes and the characters. It was the ____________ of their year, and they talked about it for days.

Near the end of the semester, someone knocked on the door of the staff room. The two most rebellious (叛逆的) girls in 4B were there — with flowers. I was proud to know I had ____________their lives. I enjoyed teaching and getting along with ____________.

When I returned to Australia several years later, I still wanted to be a ____________. For the first time in my life, I stopped ____________ and started writing. My first story was titled. My Fair Ladies. Teaching wasn't the ____________ of my writing career; it was the beginning.

3 . Many years ago, Dad worked as a farmhand (农场工人). At that time, he had a horse. Every Saturday he _________ to the town after dinner and spent a few hours on social_________with other farmhands, such as drinking, chatting, and playing cards in the café. On Saturday evenings, the café was _________ because many farmhands were there. Before midnight Dad returned home on his horse, quite satisfied with his _________. In his words, he _________ thought of changing his job.

At the age of 31, Dad married my mother who was a school teacher. In the following spring I came _________ into the world. Life became hard, so my mother felt unsatisfied. She told Dad that they must make a _________.

My mother had _________ of how some famous persons, especially Thomas Edison who was born in a poor family, fought against fate and achieved greatness and fame. And she _________ that I would some day become a great leader, ruling men or cities and Dad should be a successful businessman. So she persuaded Dad to give up his job as a farmhand, sell his horse and ____________a small business of his own. And I went to high school and college. She even sent me abroad for____________ education when I graduated from college. Under the drive of my mother’s hope, Dad and I ____________ what we have today. Dad runs a big international ____________ and I am a successful lawyer enjoying great fame in my country, ____________ not a leader as my mother expected.

Dad said, without my mother, we wouldn’t be what we are today; at least, he would remain a farmhand. ____________ he got a lesson of life — sometimes we really need drive from outside.

5 . Notre Dame（巴黎圣母院）was on fire, and I was desperately looking for a photo that I took in 2008.

In it, my_______, Jamie, is standing front of the_______and smiling amid a sea of tourists. He’s 23 years old. freshly shaved, and wearing a shiny wedding ring. We’re in Paris on our_______.

On our last night in France, we made a_______to return every five years.

Our promise to return was _______in 2013.

We had a victorious trip that_______ a dinner on He Saint-Louis,_______ by a nighttime walk past Notre Dame. I _______the evening on Instagram with a simple title: “Tonight was magic.”

In 2018, I returned to Paris_______.I carried Jamie’s ashes with me.

Jamie died on February 4. 2017. He was running a half marathon and suddenly ________less than a mile from the finish line, where I was waiting for him. He was 32 years old.

Notre Dame was on fire, and I desperately want it to________.

My 2018 trip to Paris involved a lot of walking and________, trying to make sense of how my life turned out. I didn’t visit Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was on fire, and I________ want to talk to Jamie about it.

I hope to visit Paris and its magnificent churches ________in 2023. If and when I do return, it will be a (an) ________visit.

Everything is ________including the people and places we love. Even our memories ________over time, though some of the saddest images, like Notre Dame in flames, tend to ________us for a long time.

But there’s ________in sadness and meaning in impermanence. Notre Dame will rebuild. And so will I. I’ll keep________ my life, too.

6 . An elderly woman is crediting (归功于) her neighbor's 4­year­old dog with saving her life during last week's dangerously cold temperatures.

Tim Curfman was ______ his garbage with his dog Midnight when he felt its ______ was unusual. It had its ears held up looking at him. It didn't ______ do that. Curfman got the feeling that something's ______. So he observed how his dog was acting and ______ it to a spot on the other side of his house. There, he saw his 87­year­old neighbor, Noreen, ______ in the snow. She was trying to fill her bird feeder when she fell.

Curfman ______ she was out there at least half an hour. She could not get up because she didn't have enough ______ to push herself up, and there was nothing around the corner to get a ______ of, either. The temperature was one degree below zero, but Curfman and Midnight were able to ______ her quickly.

Noreen, who didn't have serious injuries, was lucky to ______ frostbite (冻伤) even though her clothes were wet. Curfman called his wife and they together helped his neighbor up from the snow and into her ______， where his wife helped the elderly woman get into ______ clothes.

Noreen was ______ to Midnight for saving her life. “A dog like this ______ to be proud of because it's not every dog that pays attention to things like this，” Noreen said in an interview.

When my mother took me out of high school, I knew that my life would become difficult because we were taught that you have to have an education to make it in life. I worked to help my mother _________ bills and that was all I could do at the time. Then she started telling me that when I turned 18, I had to get out of the house. I couldn’t understand what was going on because my brother was _________ than I was and she didn’t want to kick him out.

As I started nearing my 18th birthday I was really beginning to feel _________ because I didn’t have a(n) _________ on what I was going to do. One night while I was watching television, a commercial came on about _________ the Navy.

The next day I called the number on the commercial and _________ up an appointment to meet the recruiter（征兵人员）.When he _________ me not having a high school diploma he knew I had a _________ chance. I explained to him that I was going to be _________ in a few months. He told me he would __________ what he could do.

About a month later he called me and asked me to __________ his office. I went in and he __________ to me he would have to pull some strings (暗中施加影响) to get me in the service but I had to promise him that I would __________ the best of this opportunity he was trying to create for me and I did.

He was able to get me in the military and I __________ my end of the bargain by doing eight years and __________ an Honorable Discharge from the service.

Now I have a status in __________ that many don’t and have an ability to make my life a little easier with that __________ I made and the help I received.

Many individuals can feel hopeless and find they __________ do not have family support around to help them __________ their difficult moments. However, my __________ tells me that as long as you don’t abandon hope, hope will never abandon you.

8 . Mr. Dawson was an old and mean person with bad temper, and everyone in town knew it. Kids knew not to go into his yard to pick a delicious apple, ___________old Dawson, they said, would_________after them with his ball bullet gun.

One Friday, 12-year-old Janet was going to stay all night with her friend Amy. They had to go_______ Dawson’s house on the way to Amy’s house, but as they got_________ Janet saw him sitting on his front porch(门廊), so she_________they cross over to the        _______side of the street. Like most of the children, she was_______of the old man because of the stories she’d_________about him. But Amy said Mr. Dawson wouldn’t hurt anyone. Still, Janet was growing more nervous with each step closer to the old man’s house. When they got close enough, Dawson looked _______with his usual frown, but when he saw it was Amy, a broad__________changed his entire face as he said, “Hello, Miss Amy. I see you’ve got a little friend with you today.

Amy smiled back and told him Janet was________ overnight and they were going to listen to music and play games. Dawson told them that sounded ________, and offered them each a fresh picked__________off his tree. They gladly accepted.

Later Janet asked Amy, “ Everyone says he’s the meanest man in town.__________he is so nice to us? “Amy ________that when she first started walking past his house, he wasn’t very friendly and she was afraid of him,__________she pretended he was__________an invisible smile and so she always smiled back at him. It took a while, but one day he half-smiled back at her. After some more time, he started smiling real smiles and then started__________to her. Just a “hello” at first; then more. She said he always offered her an apple now, and was always very kind.

If we remember what Amy said, pretending that everyone wears an ________smile, we too will find that most people can’t__________our smile after a while.

9 . Hunter Shamatt lost his wallet while he was on a flight from Omaha to Denver earlier this month. Upon realizing that his wallet was lost, he _____ the airline to see if anyone had turned it in— but fruitlessly. _______   the wallet contained his ID, a signed paycheck, $60 in cash, etc, he feared the worst.

Two days after the flight, however, Hunter was _____ to receive a package in the mail from an anonymous(匿名的)sender. Inside was his wallet — ______   an additional $40 in cash.

“I found this _______   a flight from Omaha to Denver-row 12, seat F wedged(卡住) between the seat and wall.”   ________   a letter that was enclosed with the package. “Thought you might want it back. All the best. PS: I rounded your cash up to an even $100 so you could celebrate the ____ of your wallet. Have fun!”

Hunter’s mother, Jeannie, posted a photo of the _______ to social media in hopes that they would be able to track down the _______ . All they found out was that the letter was _______ from Applied Underwriters in Omaha and the sender’s initials were signed “T.B”. The sender was later _______   as Todd Brown, who was delighted to   “have a   little   fun”   with   helping out   a hard-working stranger.

“I saw he was just a kid, 20 years old. He had a paycheck in there, so I _______,‘Well, he’s doing his best to make ends meet.’” said Brown. “Hunter was very ____ . He told me he has some student loans to pay within two days so the _______ was right,” Brown added, “He______ it was gone forever. So when he opened it, he just started ______, ‘No way! No way!’”

Brown says that he often tries to do good things without any recognition; that’s why he didn’t sign his _____ on the letter, but Jeannie later insisted on_____ him on social media. “I try to teach my children to help people without consideration of the   __________,” Jeannie wrote on

Facebook, “This story is more about rebuilding _____ in people than anything.”

10 . I had ever been invited to see a performance. That day I met a brave and talented boy I would never_________. The young musician, Mr. Patrick Henry Hughes, was rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair and began to play the_________. His fingers danced across the keys as he made beautiful_________. He then began to sing as he played, and it was even more_________.I was seeing something_________in his face. It was something that I_________can’t explain. And his smile was magic!

He was born with no_________and a pair of paralyzed（瘫痪的）legs. As a child, he was fitted with man-made eyes and_________in a wheelchair. Today, Patrick is a junior. His father_________classes with him and he’s made nearly all As.

But more than his_________musical talent, it was Patrick’s “attitude of gratitude” that_________my soul. On stage, between songs, he talked to the_________ about his life and about how blessed he was. He said, “God made me blind and unable to_________. BIG DEAL! He gave me the ability,the musical_________I have and the great opportunity to meet new people.”

I_________a quote, “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass;it’s about learning to_________in the rain!”

I thought that’s it! We all_________adversity（不幸）in our life. However, it’s not the adversity, but how we react to it that will determine the joy and_________in our lives. During_________times, do we spend too much time we feeling sorry for ourselves, or can we, with gratitude,_________how to dance in the rain?