3 . We’ve all had a wrong number text before, but how often do they lead to years-long friendships? For Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench, a mistaken text has ______ a special experience-the seven years of ______ Thanksgiving dinners!

In 2016, the then 17-year-old Jamal Hinton received a text, supposedly from his ______ , asking if he’d make it to Thanksgiving that year. After ______ a few texts, it soon became clear that the text’s sender, Wanda Dench, was not in fact his grandma.

She ______ Hinton to dinner regardless, and after Hinton shared the exchange on Twitter, the pair went ______ .

______ Thanksgiving together has become an annual thing for Hinton and Dench, with this year ______ the tradition’s seventh anniversary. Their ______ has gone from strength to strength, even through events like the Covid-19 pandemic and the passing of Dench’s husband, Lonnie.

Dench has said, “Jamal taught me that age made absolutely no ______ . When Jamal came along, my husband and I and him and his girlfriend, we would go out to ______ together and we would just lose all track of time. One time, we were at a restaurant for three or four hours and I couldn’t believe we were there that ______ . We kept talking! It was just such a wonderful ______ .”

The pair have even gone into ______ together, launching a water company called Blackmp, and Netflix is reportedly ______ a movie of the story.

6 . I decided it was time to learn how to ride a bike. This was not my first_________. I had tried on several occasions but always failed. But this shot (尝试) felt somewhat_________. Determined to succeed, I_________the streets of our quiet neighborhood.

The learning process proved_________. Day after day I would fall, but I went at it anyway. After a whole month of this_________of love and hatred, a day came when I could finally do it. Sweet_________! I began my daily tours by riding in the light traffic of the back streets, all the while being in constant_________. I gradually moved to even_________roads. I had a new cycling_________.

As my anxieties__________, I grew to care for the gust of wind__________fingering my hair, the unexpected drizzle, even snowflakes, on my back. I__________the sight of households tending to their flower beds. I__________the scents(香味) of freshly cut grass and blossoming roses.

__________, I gathered enough courage to ride alongside those youngsters taking crazy chances. I__________not to get in the way of sweaty joggers or speed walkers and learned to__________the street with dog walkers. I__________those neighbors busy stocking their garbage bins, chopping wood or sipping wine in their lawn chairs. I pinched (捏) the bell expertly to__________the many squirrels, raccoons and cottontails of my passage.

Learning to cycle has offered me more than just a new__________. I can now appreciate the small things in the area I live and understand how everything__________in harmony.

7 . I find it humorous sometimes that even the most common occurrences can have an ________on our awareness.

My wife, daughter, and I ________ into our home nine years ago and we spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to get it ________ it does today. We live on a corner, higher than street level, and the entire side of the yard is surrounded by a professionally built rock wall. The front of the house though is another story because ________ a wall along the sidewalk, the rocks appear to be just thrown up onto the dirt ________ someone were in a hurry to finish.

We did the best we could with what we had to work with and ________ this area our “rock garden”. Whenever we had leftover flowers or plants, Denise or I would stick them out front, just to bring some ________ to the area.

I still do all of my own ________ work, even the dreaded weed-pulling. After putting on my knee pads I assume the position to clear the yard of weeds, even in the rock garden.

Last summer I had ________ the end of the rock garden and found a tiny little plant that I could not immediately ________, I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise claimed that she didn’t ________. We decided to let it ________ growing until we could ________ what it was.

Weeks passed and as I ________ my way back to the mystery plant, it appeared to be a Sunflower. It had a tall skinny stalk with only one head on it. I decided to ________ it along and weed around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________. The Sunflower had not started where I saw the stalk begin. It ________ had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.

That’s when I ________ that if a tiny little Sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ________ of doing the same thing. Once our environment begins to see that we believe in ourselves like that little sunflower, we can ________ the same nourishment and nurturing as well.

First, we need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the capabilities in achieving our desires.Like the Sunflower, it knew it had the capability to overcome its obstacle because it trusted in the Universal Truth and had faith it would succeed.

Stand tall like the Sunflower and be proud of who and what you are and the environment will begin to support you. You will find a way to go under or around your big obstacle in order to reach your desires.

8 . When 48-year-old Lamont Thomas became an empty-nester(空巢者), it was the end of aparenting legend temporarily. Back in 2001, this divorced dad of two ______ a foster(代养的)kid named Michael Perez.

“He was a good young man and I just hated to   ______him in the welfare system,” Lamont said. He ______ adopted Michael, who now works as a doctor.

“I don’t believe that I would be the person that I am today without the ______ that he instilled(灌输)in me,” Michael said.

It turned out that Michael was just the ______. Over the next 15 years, Lamont fosteredmore than 30 kids in Buffalo, New York, and adopted five of them. He did this all on his own and with all of his ______.

“Every child I have had, it was my ______ to make a difference in their lives,” said Lamont.

At one time he retired from raising children to spend time fishing and travelling, but that didn’t last for long.

“It really was a shock. I didn’t ______him to restart and to do it all over again. It’s just ______,” Michael said.

Today, Lamont is ______ in the game(行当), in a big way. Not long ago, he promised to be ______ five siblings(兄弟姐妹), all under the age of six. Lamont, who works as a truckdriver, said he did have other ______ for these years. But those plans have now been ______. Lamont decided to foster all five—Zendaya, Jamel, Nakia, Major and Macaela—after he found that they were going to be split up. To guarantee they would stay as a(n) ______, lastmonth he adopted them.

“I had to help them. They deserved to be ______ together,” Lamont said.

______, he has a great ______ system with churches and friends. He is not opposed to ______ a wife to the mix if he is able to find such a good ______. But if not, he is also fine to be ______ for as long as it takes to make a difference.

9 . During the lockdown, my husband, Bob, and I were offered a pingpong table. I am a non-athlete but Bob does well in pingpong.

“What are we going to do with that pingpong table?” Bob asked me.

“The two of us will_______,” I replied.

Bob looked ______ .

I lost every game and I told myself that it didn’t _______that I always lost. I was playing for   ______   and to provide a positive experience in a difficult time. But there were days when I   ______   losing. Once I threw my paddle (球拍) across the yard angrily. Then Bob ______ I play with a handicap (让分) of 12 points. That   ______a lot--I sometimes won! I’d never been interested in any kind of sport. But pingpong became the ______of my day.

We generally played five games. I   ______   won two of them. Knowing that I could win sometimes made the ______   more painful, but I watched a video of high-level players and learned from them. I began to get _____   and won more games. My handicap   ______ to 8.

My husband and I ______the worst of the lockdowns through pingpong. It   ______ me that even a self- described bookworm can learn a new sport. The ______ was my husband’s suggestion that I play with a handicap so I’d have an equal ______ to win. He doesn’t like to lose either, but it’s more fun for him if I actually want to participate and   ______ it. It takes two willing partners to play table tennis, ______and two people with an equal chance in each other’s ______to make a marriage. Simply put, when it comes to table tennis — or any other ______   — there is no ping without a pong.