1 . Once a year, around the time when Christians celebrate Easter, Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Jews celebrate Passover, I often invite my 24-person team to a joyful and special dinner at my place. To _______ the needs of all my team members, I usually _______ different kinds of typical food from different religions.

I think this _______ reflects the wider philosophy of my science lab: we aim to be a _______ yet united group of people working in a global scientific network. My lab _______ people with different _______. One of the most obvious _______ is our religions. Yet when people _______ my lab, they gather together, first through their common _______ for science, and then as they get to know one another and enjoy spare time activities, we become a cohesive (有凝聚力的) team. I am ________ this cohesion (内聚力) and the new friendships in my lab, and do my best to encourage them.

I’m also really ________, while looking for new members. I interview many people before I ________ the right ones for my lab. They must be ________ capable of course, but it’s just as important that they’re friendly, interesting and interested in others. They should be prepared to ________ various points of view and cultures.

As the person in charge of the lab, I see preserving a variety of cultural backgrounds as an important part of my job. Such an accessible, varied and supportive ________ promotes new ideas and scientific breakthroughs.

2 . In a national spelling contest in America, an 11–year–old girl was asked to spell a certain word. But with her ________ voice the judges were not sure if she spelled the word with the letter A or E. They talked it over and finally decided to simply ask her what she had said. By now, the girl knew she had ________ the word. But instead of lying, she told the truth that she had said the ________ letter — so she lost the contest.

As the girl walked off the ________, the entire audience stood to their feet clapping to applaud her _______ Later, dozens of newspaper reporters wrote about this 11– year–old girl’s honesty, even when it _______ her the contest. But the fact is that she won the biggest contest that day: the contest of her _______

Probably the biggest test of our character and honesty is what we would do if we knew we would never get _______. This young girl could easily have ______ and nobody would have known it but herself. But that’s just it: She would know she did wrong. It’s been said, “If you ______, you make yourself cheap.” This young girl was strong and smart enough to prize her own conscience and character more than the prize from a spelling _______

. Her respect for herself was more important than any ________ others might give her for winning a contest. She knew she would have to live with herself and the ________ she made in that moment will have long–lasting influence.

It’s so true that the choices you make today________ what you are tomorrow. Our children will follow our behavior much more than our advice. So if we want them to ________ to be honest, we must show them the way by being honest ourselves.

3 . I had a perfect childhood. _______ I saw was new, wonderful and exciting. I was _______ whether it was rainy or dry, whether it was hot or _______. I just wanted to _______ all the things around me.

But I can’t _______ time. When I reached my teens, I started to realize there was a different _______ of life. I no longer had enough time for little things－discovering a rainbow was not _______ , looking at a giraffe in the zoo was normal, and _______ a building with 50 floors was not amazing. A rainy day was a _______ day because the traffic was slow, and the first day of spring ________ me of aller­gies (过敏). Life moves on again. The first day of the month is not just the ________ of a new month; it’s the time to ________ bills. Going to the supermarket is a ________; it is not just fun walking around, looking for things and seeing the people around me.

Life is a ________ in which everyone has many obligations (责任), but if everyone tried to see life through the eyes of a child, I am sure that every day could be ________.

8 . In our living room, we have a bookshelf. We call it the “______ treasury” because any of our guests can take any book from it and ______ any book to it. Our home often hosts events with hundreds of different people passing through it. But no one ______ where the books come or go; it’s all based on trust.

These books are typically of the ______ types--from Jack Canfield’s Chicken Soup For the Soul, self-help books like Power of Now, to Romain Rolland’s The Biography of Celebrity. You can’ really be ______ what you’ll find on a particular day.

The other day, I ______ a red book. It stood out because it had special little white hearts on it and no title. I checked out Page one. It ______ a hand-written inscription (题词) in black ink:

I quickly opened up a ______ page in the book. I spotted a quote, with a crossed out word written in the seemingly ______ handwriting of elderly Grandma or Grandpa Burrowes. Then I couldn’t wait to explore the inside. ______, every page had a hand-written quote by DJ’s grandparents. It was a(n) ______ of Grandparents’ quotes going back over many years! They had given it to their grandson and now, DJ had given it to us. It was this gift that ______ all of us!

A couple of weeks back, DJ decided to leave America to go on an open-ended trip to China. Before leaving, he came for an ______ at our place, putting this book on the shelf without letting us know. He offered his silent ______ in this way for what he benefited from our sharing. We stood in ______ of the Burrowes for what they left us.

9 . The other day I was shopping at a local store and met a lady. She was squatting (蹲坐) on the floor looking for a _______ product on the bottom shelf. She jumped up when she saw me as if to _______ my way. Apologetically (抱歉地) she _______ that she was a _______ at a nearby store and was on her lunch _______, trying to get a few needed items.

I reassured (使消除疑虑) her, “I am in no hurry. Go ahead and do what you need to do. ”

_______ she searched for a particular brand she said that sometimes _______ were rude to her at the store and she really _______ my kindness. I told her that I had noticed cashiers being treated rudely. I explained to her that I was a retired nurse and _______ some of what she was saying first hand. Sometimes, the sick people could be rude.

She thanked me for being so nice and friendly. I told her, “The world would be a ________ place if we all acted ________. Those who are rude may have bad karma(因果报应) coming after them eventually for ________ people badly. ” She nodded and broke out in a big smile.

In a brief ________ I showed her there are good and kind people in the world and may have boosted (增进) her ________ in humanity. Maybe she ________ that later in the day, perhaps when someone was treating her unkindly.

10 . As a teenager, I was pretty lazy when it came to doing things for my family. I found myself refusing to _______ at home with even the simplest things. 

Every Wednesday afternoon, for example, my mother _______ me to another town for a piano lesson. During my two-hour lesson, she’d rush to the nearby store and buy a week’s worth of _______. Given the fact that my mom had driven me twelve miles there, twelve miles back, and _______ for my lesson, you’d think I’d be very _______ to help her bring the groceries into the house. But I wasn’t. I generally just brought in an armload and left the rest for Mom as I ran to my room and shut the door. 

Don’t get me wrong. Back in my room, I felt _______ about not helping my mother more. Deep inside, I wanted to change my _______. But I also realized that once I took on more responsibility, my parents would start _______ more from me. At age 15, I sensed that this one small change would mark something much bigger: my personal change from a spoiled (宠坏的) child to a more _______ young man. 

I’ll never forget the Wednesday when I made a(n) ________ to try and see what would happen. Returning home from the lesson I disappeared into my room, as usual. But once inside, I felt that deep and burning ________. Throwing my school books on the bed, I suddenly opened my door and ________ back to the garage to help my mother. How happy I felt that day! Surely, over time, I continued to help out with more housework. The more I helped out, the ________ I felt about myself. As Mom and Dad realized they could ________ me more, our trips became far less stressful, too.  

Sometimes the little things we put off doing for the longest time ________ out to be the simplest things to complete. Feeling happy beats feeling guilty any day.