1 . After I made it to the city center, I started to feel it might be easy for a foreigner to deal with the great size of Beijing. With growing confidence, I decided to take the subway to the hotel, not realizing that the network didn’t go that far. Impressed with the cleanliness of the station, I bought a ticket and boarded the first subway that came along.

After a few minutes I asked in English a young man seated next to me where I should get off closest to the Friendship Hotel. Wearing a smart business suit and tie, he would surely speak English, wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand me but seemed very friendly. I showed him the room card with all the information of the Friendship Hotel in Chinese characters. He looked at it, and then his eyes moved quickly to the carriage (车厢) subway map. Next, he raised three fingers of his right hand.

In Australia, raising fingers at someone is not usually nice, but this man wasn’t smiling. At the next station he showed me two fingers. Now in Australia, that’s really rude, but I got the message. When we stopped at the third station, he didn’t just point to the door, but got up, took me out of the train, and led me to the top of the stairs, and out onto the street. Then he stopped a taxi and told the driver where to take me.

All this came from a man who couldn’t speak my language, and I couldn’t speak his. I was now speechless, especially when he refused my offer of money. I felt a little embarrassed having even thought he would accept a tip.

This experience made it clear I had to learn some Chinese quickly or my adventures might start turning into misadventures.

2 . My father was a strong fisherman. He loved the sea and would stay out until he caught enough to ______ the family.

When we met ______ weather, he would drive me to school with his old track. And after we arrived, he would bend over and give me a ______ on the face and then tell me to be a good boy. I always felt very shy in front of so many other ______. I was already a twelve-year-old young man, but my father still kissed me goodbye!

Then on a rainy day I ______ to tell him my feeling. When we stopped at the school gate, the ______ big smile appeared on my father’s face. I ______ what would happen next. I ______ put my hand up and for the first time said “No” to him. The smile on his face immediately changed into a ______ look. He looked at me for a long time, and tears began to appear in his eyes. I was shocked. I had never ______ him cry! Then he said, “You’re right. You are a big boy... a man. I won’t kiss you anymore.”

Not long after that, my dad went to the sea on a bad day. Most of the ______ stayed at home, but not Dad, because he had a big family to feed. But after that day, be ______ came back. Later his boat was found with its nets half in and half out. He must have ______ a strong wind and was trying to save the nets.

How I wished I hadn’t ______ my father’s kiss! And from this I have learnt that we should take every chance with our family and friends as the last one in our lives. We can have ______ regrets(遗憾)by doing this.

3 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of ________. Very often when we have flowers, Denise or I would plant some between the rocks, just to add some ________ to the area.

Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.

We decided to let it ________ growing until we could find out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the ________ plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to ________ the weeds (杂草) around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________.The sunflower had not ________ where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the ________.

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 ability of doing the same thing. If we ________ ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we ________ to go and get what we need for growth.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the ________ to achieve our goals. Like the sunflower, it knew it had the ability to get over the rocks because it had ________ in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be ________ of who and what we are, and then the environment will begin to ________ us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.

4 . One night, as I was driving down the road, I found something was sitting in the middle of the road. A few seconds later, I realized I was looking at a large turtle (海龟). Afraid of it being crashed by cars, so I pulled over, ran across the road and dragged the turtle to safety. But I’d made one big mistake.

I had heard that the best way to pick up a turtle without hurting it was picking it by the tail in order not to get bitten. So I’d made that big mistake. While the turtle turned out OK generally, I was determined to figure out how to move a turtle properly. I needed to find someone who dealt with turtles. I found the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre. I talked to Dr. Sue, its Executive and Medical Director.

Dr. Sue told me that the organization dealt with a number of aspects of turtle conservation, including rescue, settlement, birth programs, research, and education. Sue explained that southern Ontario is home to a vast majority of turtles in Canada, but is also one of the vastest road networks of the country.

“Ninety percent of injured turtles brought in are caused by cars. These turtles spend a lot of time on land. And they do travel many kilometers on land for a variety of reasons, to find a nesting spot, or to hang out for the summer or winter. Turtles know where they want to go. So, just keep them going in the direction they want to go and you may have saved a turtle’s life,” Dr. Sue said.

Once an injured turtle arrives at the center, there are medical facilities (设备) ready to go, including an X-ray machine. That’s when the team gets to work with healing injuries, and help their patient.

5 . Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita is an elite (精英) climber and has climbed Mount Qomolang-ma and Chogori (the second highest mount in the world). In 2016, she was chosen as Nation-al Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year. Since the birth of her son, her climbing has taken a back seat, but she would like to set out to inspire him.

Pasang is a skilled climber, having climbed Mount Qomolangma and Chogori. But to get there she had to overcome unbelievable adversity, as in Sherpa culture climbing is seen as a male activity. People would say she shouldn’t be with men and climb that rock.

Then when she had her first child, Eichan Nurbu, she faced fresh challenges because she was expected to stay at home and look after him as this was viewed as the mother’s responsibility. It’s difficult for her to balance (平衡) this with the climbing. But Pasang said that she wanted to inspire her son and show him that he should follow his dreams, so on his second birthday, November 14, 2019, she climbed Cholatse — a 6,440-meter-high mountain in the Qomolangma region.

Pasang said, “I learned so many things from my mother. She was single. She raised two kids by herself. She never went to school. From her, I saw how a woman can be strong. I have big respect for all the mothers, because the mothers are very strong. They’re always there for their children. They sacrifice (牺牲) their dreams for children. Everybody should have their dreams. Now, I’m a mother, but I’m still having my dreams. Everybody has a right to realize their dreams. Most importantly, I want to inspire my son to follow his dreams.”

6 . It is getting hot. It’s time to put on ______clothes and open up the windows.

Yesterday brought a(n) ______visit to the kitchen during the brief time we were out. Two daring sparrows(麻雀) had ______our kitchen.

When you come across such sudden visitors, you are ______to sense it as an action of intruding (入侵) into your comfort zone, or you might ______it as a lovely shining moment of life. We ________ the second option, without thinking twice. After all, we’ve never stopped feeling eager to strengthen the relationship with our sparrow each day.

We can’t stop ______and celebrating their dance from our window. We fed them with the ______ on our tablecloth after every meal. And we have ______ them with every kind of bases and stands on our terrace (露台).

______, they feel at ease in our backyard. And that has led them to ______courage to slip into our house. Perhaps because they have the feeling that we ______them as friendly neighbors who only leave some wastes from time to time.

The presence of our dear sparrow holds magical consistency(一致性) with real life. And we’ve been having lovely sparrows coming over lately, whose presence ______ us out of our boring daily routines and shows us the hidden beauty and charm.

Like different human beings, these sparrows often take different forms. We’ve met sparrows like those, of all shapes and colors. And they’re everywhere. Perhaps all of them are willing to call our _______, making us know they are there. They only ask from us not to be afraid of them or feel uncomfortable with their ______.

8 . I was never very neat while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but my always hid somewhere. She even labeled (贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Overtime, Kate got neater and I got my merriser. She moved to push my dirty clothing over and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

Who broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! why under my bed!” Suddenly I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up. She quickly crawled (爬) under her covers, crying. Obviously. that was something she could not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy (同情) rose up in my heart.

Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bad. Cleaned the suckers and swept the floor even on her side. I got so absorbed into my work that I even didn’t notice Kate had sat up. She was watching. Her tears dried and her expression was such disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me. “Thanks.”

Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

9 . One day, I was preparing for an important exam in the library and people kept disturbing me. I was getting more and more _______ and of course, the more upset I got, the less I was able to _______. The last straw (稻草) was when I heard someone singing _______ me. I turned around and saw a girl who seemed very interested in what she was reading. The fact that she looked like a friendly girl didn’t _______. However, it made me even angrier. I _______ my books, glared at her and whispered angrily, “because of your noise, I’ve been unable to study. You’re so _______!”

I left the library _______ hurriedly that I left my most important textbook behind. It was only when I got home two hours later _______ I realized it. I was so _______ that I almost cried. Just then, the phone rang. A gentle __________ introduced the speaker as Jenny. Jenny said that she had __________ I’d left my book in the library and, as my name was in it, she’d asked a __________ to get my phone number from their files (档案). She said that she could bring it around for me.

Of course you’ve guessed who Jenny was. She was the girl I had shouted at for singing. When I recognized her in the street, I was filled with __________ and apologized several times for my rude behavior. Jenny just laughed and told me she was glad to see that I’d __________ left my glare in the library! I couldn’t help __________ at this and invited her back to my apartment for a cup of tea.

We got along really well and ever since then we’ve been best friends.