1 . Hey! You have a hairless spot on the back of your head! " Mom’s alarmed cry hit me like a shock.

I tried to shrug it off. “It’ll grow back.” I worked to sound________.

At first, the loss was minimal. ________the spot with my fingers became the top priority every day. No new hair, smooth as an egg. Weeks later, the spot was a little larger and there was still no________ of any hair poking through the skin. I began to________but continued to try to be cool about it.

As days went by, my hair started to fall faster and more. ________my fingers through it, I would stare at the alarming quantity of hair in my hands, wiling this to________happening to me.

We went to see a doctor, who diagnosed my condition as alopecia (脱发症) . He recommended an injection to try, which would be________to the head skin. I underwent several costly injections over a few months, but in vain.

________the injection began to trouble my sleep, and we finally had to stop the________My hair still didn’t grow back.

I had to wear a wig to school every day, worried it might slip one day and that everything would________Though aware that I should________the fact to my friends, I was scared, not knowing how they would handle the information. ________ hesitantly, I told them what was happening after days of struggle. To my surprise, they all thought nothing of it. This was a(n) ________for me.

I came to realize that what had happened was not my fault, and not something I should feel________of. I am learning that being bald doesn’t change who I am, and if I don’t let it affect my self ________then other people are much more likely to accept me as I am, too.

2 . I used to hate being called upon in class mainly because I didn’t like attention drawn to myself. And ________ otherwise assigned (指定) a seat by the teacher, I always chose to sit at the back of the classroom.

All this ________ after I joined a sports team. It began when a teacher suggested I try out for the basketball team. At first I thought it was a crazy idea because I didn’t have a good sense of balance, nor did I have the ________ to keep pace with the others on the team and they would tease me. But for the teacher who kept insisting on ________ for it, I would not have decided to give a try.

Getting up the courage to go to the tryouts was only the ________ of it! When I first started ________the practice sessions, I didn’t even know the rules of the game, let ________ what I was doing. Sometimes I’d get ________ and take a shot at the wrong direction—which made me feel really stupid. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one “new” at the game, so I decided to ________ on learning the game, do my best at each practice session, and not be too hard on myself for the things I didn’t know “just yet”.

I practiced and practiced. Soon I knew the ________ and the “moves”. Being part of a team was fun and motivating. Very soon the competitive ________ in me was winning over my lack of confidence. With time, I learned how to play and made friends in the ________—friends who respected my efforts to work hard and be a team player. I never had so much fun!

With my ________ self-confidence comes more praise from teachers and classmates. I have gone from “________” in the back of the classroom and not wanting to call attention to myself, to raising my hand—even when I sometimes wasn’t 100 percent ________ I had the right answer. Now I have more self-confidence in myself.

3 . A 70-year-old Air Force veteran (退伍军人) from Salem, Illinois is being praised as a hero for his good deed.

Marshall Helm had been ________ his granddaughter to the bus stop early in the morning when the smoke and ________ arising from the house next door ________ his attention. Helm ________ to the endangered home and threw open the garage door only to find flames climbing up one of the building walls:________ , at that very moment he did not ________ to charge past the flames and into the house so he could make sure his neighbors were ________ .

Gary and Kathy Benjamin had been ________ upstairs when they awoke to hear Helm shouting about the fire. Although they were confused by the ________ and had no time to figure out what had happened, they ________ to run into the hallway and escape with. Helm through the back door just as the flames were swallowing the ________ through which he had come in only a minute before: Thanks to Helm’s quick ________, the Benjamins suffered only ________ smoke intake—and even though they lost their home in the fire, they were simply ________ to Helm for saving their lives.

“Lifesaver—lifesaver is all I can say,” Mr. Benjamin said. His wife added, “Hero, he’s our ________.”

5 . A young man was about to go to the office when he received a phone call from a nurse who told him his father was injured and in hospital. So he _________ to the hospital by taxi. He had gone into the hospital when he found he _________ his cell phone in the taxi. What’s _________, he had forgotten to ask the nurse which ward his father was in. He had to run hurriedly around in the hospital _________ his father. Seeing a nurse, he asked her with _________, “My father is in hospital. He...”

The nurse _________, “Oh, my God. It’s you. Come with me!” She _________ the young man to the bed side of an elderly man. “Your son is here,” she _________ to the elderly patient several times. The old man was too weak to stay awake, only to look _________ at the young man standing beside him.

Throughout the night the young man __________ after the old man, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength. The dying old man said nothing. The nurse__________ the young rest for a while but he __________ her advice.

Sunrise __________, the old man peacefully died. The young man placed the lifeless hand on the bed and informed the nurse. After the nurse did what was __________, she just found the young man had left, leaving a letter __________ “Thank you, lady! My father is fine. I knew right away the old man was not my father. But I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. So, I stayed.”

6 . My father was the gentles and most loving dad in the world — until we had an argument. During those moments, he transformed into a ______ man who never considered that there could be a side other than his own. My words surely never reached his “open mind” because his ears were ______. When he spoke with such ______ that it was easy to begin to doubt my own point of view. He always had the last ______. I could never win.

So when he denied my senior class trip to Montreal, I could do nothing but race from his room in despair And just then a thought ______ my mind. If I couldn’t get him to listen to my side of our arguments, maybe I could get him to ______ it.

With the hope that his eyes would be more open than his ears, I began to write a note that began with “Dear Daddy” and ______ with how much I respected his opinion, how much I hated to fight with him and, _____, how much I loved him. I folded my note into an envelope, ______ it under the door of his bedroom and raced back to my own room where I ______ on my bed.

It was only minutes ______ I heard a knock at my door. Seeing the look on my father’s face, I knew my note ______ his temper and touched his heart.

The victory of winning my dad’s permission was sweet. ______, even sweeter was the discovery of a strategy that enabled me to have an argument with my dad that didn’t end in tears, but instead with a hug. My “Dear Daddy” notes became a ______ to many of our arguments. When his “I’m your father, that’s why!” left me ______,I knew just how to get through to him.

7 . I was unemployed in 1994. Fortunately, I_______that it wasn’t going to last forever. I returned to my_______life and got a Master’s degree in animal behavior in 1998. For 55-year-old then, it just_______as if it were something I could and should do.

My wife and I came to Tasmania on holiday in 2000. We went into a wildlife park because I wanted to_______Tasmanian animals. During that time, as we were sitting in the cafe looking outside, a(an) _______went like this “Oh_______I could spend the rest of my life here.” “Well, I see it’s up for sale.” my wife answered.I knew she would support me.

We_______the park in 2001. When we arrived, we realized it was messier than_______. So immediately we had to_______out the park. We were 58 when we_______, but we were working 16 hours a day, finally building the park up and_______many animals’ lives. We_______the rules on animal protection with local authorities, and tried to get other wildlife park_______to join in it.

In 2007, I ran the London marathon to raise funds for the project with my family. I_______completed it, with_______funds collected. As people always say, life isn’t rehearsal, but a mission. If you don’t do it now, you’ll never do it.

9 . Julia, a 27-year-old TikTok user from Chicago, has been making dresses that her grandmother designed at fashion school to share on the platform.

According to Julia, her grandma, Georgie, went to fashion school in the 1940s and dreamed of being a fashion designer, but _______ before completing her studies because she needed to _______ some sick family members.

One day in 2021, when Julia was visiting her grandma, _______ old sketches (草图) of dresses that Georgie designed when she was a teenager, she thought they were _______.

“I knew my grandma was _______, but these are really much better than what I was _______ in my head. And she mentioned that when she died, she wanted them to get _______ at her funeral,” she said.

“But,” Julia added. “I just thought, why wait until she’s _______?”

Then, Julia posted a video displaying some of her grandma’s _______ on TikTok, which became her first post on the platform to spread quickly and widely, receiving 2.7 million views.

________ mostly old material left over from her grandmother’s own collection of cloth, Julia has now made four designs, trying to stick to a ________ of under $300 per gown (长礼服).

Julia thinks her story of inter generational bonding has ________ viewers.

“Lots of old people say they love seeing someone younger ________ something from their generation,” she said, adding, “And then younger people, who maybe don’t have the best   ________ with their grandparents, or lost their grandparents, say seeing my videos ________ them of their grandparents.”