2 . The Smith’s home was always buzzing with activity, with Mrs. Smith seemingly at the ________ of it all. She often sighed heavily complaining to her son little Johnny, “Your father never ________ a hand. I’m left to do everything!”

One day, little Johnny felt a surge of ________ after hearing his mother’s familiar complaint. “But Mom,” he ________, his eyes wide and earnest, “Dad does a lot.”Mrs. Smith paused, eyebrows wrinkled in ________. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Have you noticed our yard?” began Johnny, his voice ________. “It’s Dad who keeps it neat, pulling out weeds and ________ fallen branches, and that’s not all,” he continued. “He’s always dashing off to bring back ________ and other supplies we need.” Mrs. Smith stood still for a moment, a wave of realization ________ her. She had been so focused on her own tasks that she failed to notice the ________ contributions her husband made to their home.

From that day forward, Mrs. Smith started seeing the housework in a new ________. She realized that the chores weren’t just about cooking and cleaning. They also included ________ the yard, restocking supplies and countless other tasks; not all efforts are ________visible but they are equally crucial. She also realized that it wasn’t ________ to complain about her husband in front of Johnny. She began to ________ more her husband’s silent efforts and made sure to express her gratitude.

3 . 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.

4 . What can simultaneously (同时) tear a community apart and knit it together?My husband and I accidentally found our _________.

While we were away, a(n) _________ caused by a storm hit our neighborhood and damaged our town. In our basement, we tried to pull old photo albums and school yearbooks — years’ worth of _________— out of the water and _________ them into bags. Actually, there was little we could _________. But I noticed a pattern. I found myself shouting, _________, “I forgot we had this!” _________, in a year or two, I wouldn’t be able to keep track of the things lost versus the rescued items.

But there are some things I won’t forget. I won’t forget the coolers full of water, cold drinks and sandwiches neighbors set outside, or the local restaurants generously offering _________ food and drinks for those too tired to make dinner. I’ll _________ the neighbors standing outside our door with masks and buckets, who __________ to help us clean out our basement. They stayed all day until it was __________. Looking around, I felt as though we had lost much but __________ so much more thanks to the __________ of friends and strangers alike. That memory will __________.

I watched members of our community hang a large sign over the most damaged part of town that __________ “Together, we will rebuild.” I know we definitely will.

6 . I arrived in Lunenburg three weeks ago. It took a while to get _______ to the different way of life here. The main reason for coming here is to collect some of the _______folk songs of Canada, but one of the other reasons why I come here _______ is that Lunenburg has been given a protected status in Canada. This means that its buildings, the design of the town, and even certain industries, have to be _______. Even though that is the case, there are still many examples of _______ life, including the ability to send emails.

Lunenburg only really has one community. Most of the _______ know each other and few new people are moving in. Actually, more young people are leaving than are coming in, leaving a(n) _______ population. The people I want to speak to the most are those _______ the fishing industry.

So far, I have made friends with a couple called John and Mary. They both have relatives who worked on the fishing trade, _______ over a hundred years.

Fishing became a key part of Lunenburg in the mid-19th century. Because it ________ the Atlantic, it was an important port for the whole of Nova Scotia. In the 1920s, it became an important place for shipbuilding. Then, during the First and Second World Wars, it was used to ________ ships and submarines. As a result, a lot of different ________ stayed there for a while.

John told me that many of the folk songs he learnt as a ________were from all over Europe because soldiers would sing them in the public house where his parents entertained them. Luckily for me, both John and Mary also have a very good ________ for the old songs that their grandparents taught them. Some of these folk songs are reckoned to be over one hundred and fifty years old. Besides, I went to a ________ yesterday where I heard a local singer sing new songs about the dangers of fishing.

There is plenty more history to learn about this unique town.

7 . “I don’t want to see that cat in our yard again,” my husband said as he shooed the beautiful cat back into the neighbor’s yard. “I don’t appreciate her cat ________ in our yard,” he insisted. Sighing, I sent off a quick________ to our sweet neighbor, Cheryl, informing her of my husband’s ________ of cats. “I’ll do my best,” she replied some time later, “but it’s kind of hard ________ where she goes when I let her outside.”

The following morning, John stood at the window in our bedroom. “You aren’t going to ________ this,” he said in a low voice. “Come look!” “Oh, my God!” I cried ________. Right in the center of our yard were two ________ groundhogs (土拨鼠). John raised the ________, and the two raced into the woods ________. That evening, I happened to glance out the window, only to see a big fat groundhog chewing on the flowers we’d planted. “Something’s got to be done!” John shouted. He surfed the Internet and looked up what ________ the groundhog could cause and how they could be ________. “The groundhogs do not like cats. That’s ________… in fact, they hate the ________ of soiled kitty litter. Um… why don’t you text Cheryl and let her know the cat ban has been ________?” I couldn’t help smiling to myself.

That evening, we spotted the sweet yellow cat in our yard searching mice. The groundhogs were nowhere to be ________. “It’s a beautiful evening, isn’t it?” My husband smiled as we sat on the sofa.

8 . My grandmother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Seeing her condition worsen over time, and knowing I could do nothing, created a feeling of ________ in me.

As the years passed and my understanding of the disease grew, my frustration turned first to anger, then resignation (顺从), and finally ________. Though the disease was bound to slowly eat away at her, there were ways to ________ its progress. Every night the two of us would sit together and ________ while my grandmother would count beans. The exercise could help to keep her mentally ________.

Gradually her counting became slower, and she would lose track of things more ________. While at night we would count beans, in the day I involved myself in studies of ________. My earlier feelings of despair gave way to ________; advances in genetic engineering offered the possibility that one day those like my grandmother could be cured, or ________ from developing Alzheimer’s in the first place.

Seeing my grandmother slip away ________ me to take biology courses to learn more about cells, the nervous system, and genetic information, which helped me better understand how our ________ of this disease has grown in the past decade. ________ I began to see new possibilities for preventing diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Nowadays, my grandmother cannot count beans anymore and doesn’t ________ me at all. Once she used to tell me stories and I whispered to her all my problems. Now I am a ________ to her. How I wish one day I could contribute to a future, where no child has to watch their grandmother count the ________ they have left together.

9 . As I walked to the market this morning, I saw a poorly dressed old man with a towel covering his face sitting in front of a shop. I ____ he was a beggar looking for charity. I made a mental note that on my way back from the market I should give him whatever ____ I had.

A few feet away was a young man on the pavement ____ in a drunken state and no one who passed by took any ____ . I thought in my mind it was some good-for-nothing, drunkard who had ____ all his money on alcohol. I finished all my shopping, and walked back along the same road. When I reached the beggar, I put out my hand full of change ____ him asking him to take it. He shook his head as though saying that he did not need it. I ____ and pushed it into his hand .

As I stood there, ____ of my great act of charity, the beggar slowly got up, walked up to the young man lying on the pavement, and shook him awake, ____ him something close to his ear. I stood there watching with ____ as he walked to the tea shop, where he asked for something for which he paid with the money I gave and ____ a bread. He then went back to the young man, and helped him to ____ and eat the bread.

He noticed that I was still there so he said , “That young boy has not eaten for two days and has no energy even to sit up. That is why he ____   on the pavement.” Suddenly I felt so ____and admired the nonjudgemental ____ of a man who has so little compared to me.