Years ago,19-year-old Xie Lei said goodbye to her family and friends and boarded a plane for London. It was the first time that she     1     (leave) China.

To help with her     2     (adapt) to the new culture, Xie Lei chose to live with a host family, When she missed home, she felt    3     (comfort) to have a second family.

The first time that she had to write     4     essay, her tutor explained that she must acknowledge     5     other people had said if she cited their ideas. Xie Lei was confused because she thought she knew     6     (little) than other people.At first, in class, Xie Lei had no idea what to say    7     what surprised her was that she found herself speaking up in class after just a few weeks.

Everything strange before appears quite normal to Xie Lei now.     8     (engage) in British culture has helped her a lot. As well as studying hard,she    9     (involve) in social activities.

British people are fascinated by Chinese culture and eager to learn more about it, so she is keen     10     (share) it with them. She is acting as a cultural messenger building a bridge between China and the UK.

4 . A daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable. She didn’t know how she was going to ________ it. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon________. She was always worried and ________ of fighting and struggling all the time.

Her father, a chef, took her to the ________. He filled three pots with water and ________ each on a high fire. Once the water began to boil, he put potatoes, eggs and ground coffee beans into the pots ________. After twenty minutes he________ the burners. He put the potatoes and eggs in a bowl and dished the coffee out into a cup.

“Look closer”, he explained the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same ________ the boiling water. However, each one ________ differently.

The potato became ________ and soft in boiling water. ________ being fragile(易碎的),the egg became hard inside. However, the ground coffee beans were ________. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and ________ something new, whose rich sweet smell makes people ________

The father asked “When trouble knocks on your door, are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?” These words made the daughter lost in thought and seemed to cast________ on her attitude to life.

When the Gilberts first moved to the city, they began looking for a new home. For their daughter Elise, aged 12, her dream-like house will have a big backyard with grass and flowers.

“I hope it will have a tree where there birds can play.” Elise’s brother Frank, a bird-lover, echoed her more than once.

But it was not easy to find a house that pleased them. For six weeks the Gilberts hunted and hunted. At last, they found one and moved into the new house. However, there was not a blade of grass anywhere, or even a small bush. Smooth concrete only! Out of expectation, in one corner of the yard stood a tall white flagpole. At the foot of the pole was a low place filled to the edge with clear, sparkling water.

“I don’t suppose that we shall be able to make friends with the birds...” Elise was in low spirits. Frank, biting his lips, said nothing.

The next day was Saturday. Elise and her Mum went out shopping as usual. Frank went out into the yard and examined the flagpole for a long time. As he stood looking at the hard concrete, he thought to himself, “It does seem lonesome.” Then something made him look up, two little birds fluttering above the bead around the top of the flagpole! “Well,” cried the surprised boy, “I do believe birds would come here to live if they had only half a chance!”

Hearing Frank’s excited voice, Mr. Gilbert stepped out of the house and neared him. As a matter of fact, his father had already read through Frank’s mind those days. “Do not forget tomorrow is your sister’s birthday.”

“Of course not!” Frank nodded firmly, “I’ll give her a big surprise and would you please lend me a hand?” “My pleasure!”

The two smiled and went down into the cellar.

The next morning, high up on the pole was a neat little bird house.

7 . Dr Prit Buttar, a retired physician, went viral on Twitter by explaining why he broke social distancing rules to hug a grieving patient at the height of the second lockdown.

At a clinic in Dumfries, during last year’s winter lockdown, a woman in her sixties told him her husband had died of cancer a week earlier. The woman, who had ________ from England to Scotland just before the pandemic began, had been ________ to deal with his death and ________ arrangements alone because her family were not ________ to cross the border. “She clung to me and wept, and spoke frankly about her ________,” Buttar wrote. “So I ________ to break the rules about social distancing. I ________ in my chair and put my arms around her,” he added.

Countless others shared their own ________ of breaking the rules. Matt Sims rushed to ________ seven minutes of emergency tretment on his father after receiving a call from his mother to say he had ________. A nurse allowed a family to take their protective gloves off to ________ the hand of their dying mother.

Just as Buttar ________ in his post, “The bottom line is, as I am a ________ and believe in science... I follow the rules, but seeing this ________ woman, I had to do something.” He said he was filled with guilt after the ________ but still decided to write his Twitter post.

8 . In 2016, inspired by a challenge called the “16 for 16”, where a mother gave her daughter $1,600 when she turned 16 if she stayed off social media, Lorna Klefsaas decided to up the ante (赌注) to two extra years and $200 more for her son, Sivert Klefsaas.

As a 12-year-old, Sivert wasn’t using social media much. The only app he had prior to the bet was Snapchat — which he deleted a day after trying it out. So it wasn’t too difficult to live without social media, and he didn’t think about it much during the six years. “I wouldn’t say there was ever a time when I thought I was about to break,” he said. “As it went on, it was more of a pride thing.”

Lorna never had to check for any secretly downloaded apps. “I got to avoid all the unnecessary drama that was on there. I had my friends to keep me up to date on the latest information or trends.” Sivert said. “It meant I had more time to focus on my grades and sports instead.”

On February 19, 2022, Sivert claimed his prize. Now $1,800 richer, Sivert hasn’t thought about what to buy, but it’ll likely be something for his dorm room at the University of St. Paul, which he’ll attend in the fall.

After Sivert’s success, Lorna turned to Facebook to share the challenge. She said it was some of the best money she ever spent. Other parents seemed interested in trying it out too. “We are certainly not against social media, but it’s the healthy using of it,” Lorna noted. “It’s about not letting yourself get weighed down by it, or addicted to it, or affected by things that people post.”

Now Sivert has a new perspective on staying off social media. “It was awesome. Ah, what about 6 more years? Thank you, Mom.”

9 . One summer afternoon decades ago, Dad and I explored a recreational park on a boat. The gentle lake around and the clear sky overhead provided slight relief from the August ________. Sitting back with my eyes closed, I ________ Dad rowing (划) quietly.

Suddenly a(n) ________, desperate buzzing (嗡嗡) came from the right side of my head. I sat up straight and looked around instantly. On my ________ landed a bee marked by bright black and yellow bands on the body. I, frozen in extreme ________, sat there with my eyes ________ as big as saucers.

"Don't move and it'll not bother you." Dad kept rowing skillfully, both hands ________. "It's tired and needs ________ for a hot day. Once it's back to himself, it'll keep on going."

"What? Was Dad telling me to just let a terror sit on my shoulder?" Gradually I gained my ________ and turned my head slowly, giving it a look. There it sat, wings folded neatly against its body. I was ________ by how perfectly formed it seemed. Finally, my curiosity ________ my fear and I relaxed. No sooner had I done that than it began spreading its wings and ________ off.

"I've told you." he simply said.

My father is no longer alive, but the ________ of that moment has taken root in my heart. For the first time I've ________ the fact that we are all one, all part of the same ________, small or big, human or insect.

10 . My husband, Russ, and I drove through our neighborhood, the place we’d called home for 28 years. The Sierra Nevada foothills, once ________ with towering trees, were unrecognizable.

Two weeks earlier, we’d got an early-morning call telling us the wildfire tearing through Northern California had ________ and was heading our way. We’d jumped in the car with our cats and a few ________. For days, we’d bounced from hotel to hotel,________ for news. What finally came was that our house had been right in the fire’s________.

Eventually we’d been given ________ to return. We drove slowly through the ruins, where chimneys marked where homes once stood I wasn’t prepared for what awaited us. Our house was ________ rubble (碎石). Mementos, photos, my precious collection of inspirational books — all ________.

Tears rolled down my cheeks as we ________ through the ash and rubble. “How will we survive this? How will we go on?” I wondered. It felt as if our lives had been ________ out.

We called it quits in late afternoon. I turned to get in the car. That’s when I noticed something ________ to my boot I picked it up. It was a scrap of paper. Its edges were singed (烧焦的), yet the words were surprisingly ________: “If life seems difficult, I pause and reflect on the ________ sometimes hidden within every circumstance. With renewed faith and courage, I begin again.”

Words that must have come from one of my books, a passage I couldn’t ________ but now said everything I needed to hear. I framed that scrap of paper. I kept it on the nightstand in every hotel we stayed in over the coming months. It now sits in a place of honor in our new home, a ________ that we can begin again.