1 . Making it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee (a spelling competition) is an amazing achievement for any kid, but for 11-year-old Neil Maes, being born deaf made his journey especially unlikely.

After receiving cochlear implants (人工耳蜗) in both ears as a baby, he had to train his brain to understand spoken words. It took countless hours of speech therapy (疗法).

“We didn’t even know that he’d be able to talk,” said his mother, Christy Maes.

Now the soft-spoken kid from Belton, South Carolina is officially one of the nation’s top young spellers. He earned the right to take the stage in the final rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Neil’s parents have always given him a tip, coaching him to always ask the pronouncer for the meaning of a word, so that he can be sure he heard it correctly. Most contestants do this anyway.

“He’s able to spell very difficult words. You tell him, ‘Spell this word,’ and he’s able to actually imagine what that sounds like in his head and spell the word. It’s actually quite impressive,” said Dr. Michael Hoa, who performed Neil’s cochlear implantation. “There’s a lot that goes into training your brain to do that.”

Neil’s parents didn’t know he was taking part in a spelling bee with his third-grade class until he came home and told them he had won. He made it all the way to his regional (地区的) bee that year, finishing second. Now a naturally shy fifth-grader, Neil is already worn out from the busy bee-week schedule, but he seems happy.

“Our main hope out of all of this was to encourage people that are going to be facing what we had to face,” Christy said.

But Neil said coming to the bee has motivated (激发) him to study even harder, so he can return next year.

“It’s just fun and I want to do it again,” Neil said.

2 . Spring Festival means a lot for Chinese people. However, given the sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks in different places, many cities ________ residents in any city with confirmed COVID-19 cases not to travel during the holiday in order to prevent any more outbreaks. ________, I stayed in Beijing during the Spring Festival of 2022. It was my first Spring Festival in China. I ________ it with my Chinese friends.

Several of Ralph’s coworkers came to our apartment to have ________ with me. They brought the meat and dough (面团) to make the ________ dumplings. While I was not ________ in making them, I certainly did enjoy eating them. As soon as all the food was ready, we ________ to enjoy the delicious foods.

Linda brought me Spring Festival couplets ________ good wishes and asked me to paste them on the door. Scott ________ me with many firecrackers. Some students gave me paper cuts to ________ my windows.

Eric invited me to ________ his family to spend New Year’s Eve together. Among the many ________ at dinner, they served a ________ fish. However, I was told we would only be eating half the fish that night because the ________ of it would be eaten the next day. This was done to ________ the good fortune over into the following year since leftovers are thought to be a ________ of prosperity. After dinner, we watched the Spring Festival Gala together. A martial art performance ________ me deeply. The show entitled “Walking Clouds, Flowing Water” starred three tai chi ________ practicing their moves on top of landmark buildings in three cities: Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou of Guangdong province, which was amazing. I went to my ________ at midnight.

It was a very happy time and we have many good ________ of this festival holiday.