1 . It was 2002. It was suggested that I should learn to drive, so my father decided to teach me. Easier said than done. The driving plan was quietly ________ after I almost crashed his car into a stone wall. My next ________ was in 2006. This time, the ________ was a very nice friend. But after three sessions, he ________. “I can’t teach you,” he said. “You have no ________ at all.” To be honest, that was ________ to me. Actually, I thought I was afraid of many things—thunderstorms, forest fires, bears, but these were not the ________ kind for driving.

Nine years later, I had a life partner — Graeme Gibson — and a baby. One day, Graeme got his ________ seriously bitten when he helped ________ a dog trapped in the wire fence. Even so, he had to drive himself to the hospital ________ thanks to my inability to drive.

This accident ________ me and awoke my desire for learning. “That’s it,” I said, “I’m learning to drive.” I must qualify myself to ________ and protect my family. This time, I ________ a professional instructor. Despite various   ________, I got my license finally. I was pleased with myself: it seemed I now had the appropriate kind of fears. Learning to drive makes me a more grown-up and ________ adult.

3 . When Kirk Alexander went missing for 11 days, an unlikely savior came to his rescue: his neighborhood pizza store.

Almost every night for more than ten years. Kirk Alexander, 48, of Salem, Oregon ordered a late dinner from his local Domino’s pizza store. He had no signature order. Sometimes he would call for a salad, sometimes a pie, sometimes chicken wings. The only sure thing for the staff of the Silverton Road Domino’s was that they would see Alexander’s name show up on their online ordering site sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight several times a week.

Until suddenly, for nearly two weeks at the end of April 2016, they didn’t.

It was a slow Saturday night on May 7th when Domino’s general manager Sarah Fuller felt she could no longer ignore Alexander’s recent absence.

“I went and looked up to see how long it had been since he last ordered,” Fuller told KATU.com. It was 11 days, which was not like him at all.

Fuller knew Alexander worked from home, and neighbors said he rarely left. She also knew that he had suffered some health issues in the past. Something, Fuller worried, was wrong.

Around 1 a.m. on Sunday, May 8, Fuller sent longtime delivery driver Tracey Hamblen to stop in at Alexander’s home. Hamblen approached Alexander’s door as he had countless times before and knocked. He could plainly see that Alexander’s TV set was on, as were his lights; but after several minutes, Alexander still didn’t answer the door.

Hamblen rushed back to the store to relay the upsetting developments to Fuller. She encouraged Hamblen to dial 911. Soon, officers were on their way.

When deputies from the Marion County Sheriff’s office arrived at Alexander’s house, they heard a man calling for help from inside the residence, deputies said. They broke the door down, and found Alexander on the floor in need of immediate medical attention. One day later, and they might have been too late.

Alexander was rushed to Salem Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition shortly after the dramatic rescue. In the following weeks, Fuller, Hamblen, and other store employees went to visit him with flowers and cards, noting that Alexander greeted them with knowing smiles.

4 . At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started________out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling ________, she started jumping with both her hands ________ trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was so strong that everyone in her group also got ________. The lady finally________to push the cockroach away but it ________ on another lady in the group.

Now it was the turn of the other lady in the group to become ________. The waiter ________ forward to their rescue. In the relay of ________ , the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, calmed himself down and________the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was ________ enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Drinking my coffee and ________ the amusement, my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering if the cockroach had the ________ for their acting behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not ________? He handled it near to perfection in a calm state.

It is not the cockroach, but the ________ of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.

After school, I was about to enter into my apartment then I saw a little dirty dog lying beside the dustbin. He looked extremely weak. Immediate the homeless dog filled me with sympathy. So I decided to take him home. I gave him some food and bath. After the bath he looked energy and refreshed. What a lovely dog!

When my parents got home, I asked that I could keep the dog. To my surprised and joy, they agreed. Up to now, he has become a member of our family and everyone had enjoyed his company. Looked at the cute and happy dog today, I realize that I was right to help him. We offered him a shelter and he has brought ourselves great happiness and laughter.

7 . The sun was setting and the farm would be closing soon. I dressed our three daughters quickly as my husband started the van. Cutting down our own Christmas-tree had been a family tradition. As our family grew, so did our excitement for going out to find the perfect tree.

As we walked through the rows of trees, my youngest daughter Kimberly shouted excitedly, “There it is, the perfect tree!” The other two agreed. My husband and I looked at each other, puzzled. Its branches were misshapen and the trunk was visible through the spots where there were no pine needles.

We tried to persuade our daughters into changing their minds, but in vain. We had to tie the tree to the roof of our van and headed home. As we reached our house, Heather jumped out first. Suddenly she shouted, “The tree isn’t there!” We thought she was kidding. However, it wasn’t there.

The girls were so disappointed. “We’ll get another tree tomorrow”, I said, secretly hoping the new tree would be prettier. But the girls gave us the look that no parent could resist. We had no choice but to go back and find that tree.

After driving for about five minutes, we saw our tree on the side of the road. As we got closer, it was apparent that it had been run over by a truck. As we lifted the tree, we saw that a big part of the tree was ripped off, but we took our little broken tree home anyway.

That night, as we decorated our tree, something magical happened. We didn’t realize it at that time that we were making a very special family memory. By the time we were done, I had to admit, it didn’t look sad at all. This is the best tree we have ever had. “It’s perfect!” my second daughter Samantha said excitedly. My husband and I couldn’t have agreed more!

Now we always recall that little broken tree! Year by year, we tell the story of that very special Christmas almost twenty-five years ago.

9 . On September 2nd, BUAA (北京航空航天大学) welcomed its first 2021 student. His name is Xing Yifan, coming together with his parents ahead of time.

"Yifan is 18 years old, but he weighs only 18 kilograms. When 6 months old, he suffered from LAMA2 (渐冻症), a type of disease that no more than a hundred people have got in the country. However, with his strong will, he made one amazing achievement after another in learning. In this year's college entrance exam, he entered BUAA with a score of 645.

Because of the illness, Yifan can only sit alone for a while, unable to stand and walk like other children. In class, he could only put his head on the table and his eyes can only scan half the pages of the book. He couldn't turn over the book with one hand. And he could only sit and listen to a class for up to 30 minutes, with the remaining 15 minutes to lie down to listen to his teacher.

But these did not scare Yifan, with only a little muscle strength left in his hands, he finished one test paper after another, more than 20 a day, often till one or two o'clock in the morning. Finally, he successfully completed the 2021 college entrance examination.

To live is much more difficult than others. Why does he have to learn? The family said because of the serious disease, he was deprived (剥夺) of the right to walk, run, jump, but he can no longer be deprived of the right to education. Xing Yifan decided to let himself be Hawking of China, and change his life with knowledge.

He came to BUAA and stayed in the love dormitory on the first floor. Xing Yifan said he was feeling particularly warm with all the help. He was expecting new college life and hoped to know more students, and take part in lots of activities. Life kisses him with pain, but he sings.

10 . A friend of mine was sitting in the living room one day when his cat dragged in a little “gift” in its mouth — a dead animal of some sort. Taking a closer look, he was surprised to _______ it as the bunny that _______ Mary, the young daughter of the family next door. My friend felt _______, believing his cat had killed Mary’s bunny.

My quick-thinking friend came up with a plan. _______   from the cat’s mouth the dead animal, which by now was a _______   mess, he put it in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to _______ the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer and blow-dried the bunny _______ it looked pretty good.

Finally, under the cover of darkness, he crept into the next-door garden and placed it _______   in the cage. He managed to make the bunny look very _______   there in his little box.

The next morning, my friend looked out of the window and noticed a crowd of people ________ around the rabbit hutch. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. My friend ________ to go over and act like any normal ________ neighbor and find out what was going on.

When he got there, Mary’s mother said to my friend, “You won’t believe this! It’s a(n) ________ thing! Mary’s bunny ________   a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there...”

Have you ever tried to cover up one wrongdoing with another? Covering up only makes matters ________ .

When we get caught doing something ________ , for example, we may ________ to cover it up with a lie. But just like Mary’s bunny, the result is ________ what we expected. We ________ looking foolish. We would have been better off admitting we were wrong and accepting the ________ . What do you think of it?