1 . The most affectionate memory of my childhood is about a round table. When I was still little, my entire family would ______ on almost every traditional festival to have dinner. While the ______ were discussing something beyond our comprehension, we kids would play hide-and-seek.

The round table is a ______ of a reunion of our families and an ______ to our families. But as a matter of fact, in China, almost everything can be solved over a ______ table. The marriage bells between a loving couple and the ______ between business partners can all happen on the same round table. ______ , I start to wonder what this round table is to us, and its true significance starts to ______ in front of me.

The food on the table may ______ with time. The reasons why we come together may be ______ , but the sensation behind it remains the same. And that is our tolerance of different people or willingness to ______ different cultures.

In less than two months before the Spring Festival, a(n) ______ epic migration: would take place in China. The power that ______ us to do so has been sustaining Chinese civilization for thousands of years, and even the history of our nation has been the stories of ______ or running to the round table to which we ______ . The round table is and will always be a symbol of the Chinese sensation.

2 . Once there was a little girl who had many misfortunes in life and was struggling with problems. One day she felt so upset that she couldn’t help ________ to her father why her life was so ________.

Sensing her ________, her father, a chef, took her to their ________. He asked her to just ________ till he finished everything. He filled three small pots with water and placed each on a burner. Once the water began to ________, he placed a potato, an egg, and some ground coffee beans in each pot. Curious, though, she kept ________ as her father instructed her to do so.

About twenty minutes later, he turned off the ________. The chef turned towards his daughter and said, “See, the potato went in strong and hard but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was ________, but now the egg became hard. ________, the ground coffee beans were unique. After being ________ the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.”

Seeing the little girl was still confused, he then ________, “The potato, the egg and coffee beans had each faced the same ________-the boiling water. However, each reacted ________. When hardships come your way, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?” Hearing these words, the girl made her choice inside-she would be the ________, which could not only change the whole situation but also change in its own way. After all, life is 10% what happens to you and 90%how you react to it.

3 . 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(哲学) 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 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(有能力的)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.

4 . Winter goes and summer comes. The tides_______; the tides withdraw. All nature is a circle of moods and I am a_______of nature. It is one of nature’s_______, little understood, that each day I_______with moods that have changed from yesterday. Inside me is a wheel,_______turning. Like the flowers, today’s full blossom will_______, yet I will remember today’s dead flower carries the seed of tomorrow’s blossom.

And how will I master these emotions so that each day will be_______? Trees and plants depend on the weather to_______, but I make my own weather. I_______it with me. If I bring enthusiasm to my customers, they will________with enthusiasm and my weather will produce a harvest of sales and a lot of gold for me. I will learn this secret: weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who________his actions to control his thoughts. Each day I will follow this plan of battle before I am________by the forces of sadness,________and failure. I will know only those with inferior(较次的) ability can always be________, and I am not inferior. If I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel________I will remember my goals.Yet, some emotions approach me with a smile, which can also destroy me. If I become overly proud, I will remember my weaknesses. If I feel my skill is________, I will look at the stars.

With this new knowledge I will make________of a person’s anger of today, for he doesn’t know the secret of controlling his mind. No longer will I judge a man on one________. This secret will be my key to great wealth. From this moment I am________to control whatever personality awakes in me each day. I will control my fate, which is to become the greatest________in the world!

5 . Many years ago, I was living with my best friend and we had many happy moments together. But there was one night that ________ our lives forever.

On the night of November 25, 2011, I got into a fistfight with my best friend in our kitchen. It all started because I was trying to help him. He was drinking a lot, arguing with everyone and ________ himself from others by keeping silent most of the time. This had been going on for weeks and finally I decided it was time for a(an) ________ I told him that he needed to stop drinking so much and tried to ________ his alcohol and he got angry and started ________ with me. It was scary, but by the end of the night, we were able to calm down and talk to each other.

I thought alcohol ________ was his main problem. But he was just using alcohol to ________ himself through. He was lonely, heartbroken and struggling to connect with people. So during the Christmas season a few weeks later, I gave him a ________ that I didn’t even know I had.

That Christmas my friend didn’t have any place to go, so I invited him home to my parents’ house in Lancaster. They ________ cleaned up our guest room for him and even bought him some Christmas gifts. I’ll never forget the night we arrived at my home. My parents were already ________, but my mom had prepared dinner for us, baked some cookies and left us a note. My parents are known for their ________, so I wasn’t surprised by this warm welcome. But when my friend read my mom’s note and saw all that she had prepared, he broke down and cried. That’s when I ________ how much I took my loving family for granted.

That year my friend and I both received gifts that we would ________ forever. I gave him the gift of a warm, loving, safe place to spend Christmas. And he gave me the gift of a new ________ on life. If I hadn’t shared my home with him, I wouldn’t have understood how ________ I am.

6 . Growing up, I was fortunate to have dinner with my family almost every day. Sometimes, the family dinner circle_________to include relatives stopping by. Yet, I knew some friends whose parents got home after dinner or even_________the entire evening. So I_________the quality time around our kitchen table, which witnessed countless valuable_________in my life.

_________,my kids cannot relate to my childhood memories. They have been left to_________with babysitters more times than I would like to admit. My husband and I have_________careers. And we often end up staying at the office way past dinnertime. When this happens too often, it_________the balance of our family.

Apart from suffering from_________,what else can a hardworking family do? I think we can all try to__________our own ways to spend time together. Surely there are days when I’m too busy to share a meal with my family. But I would make efforts to__________and chat later that day,__________       setting aside cellphones every time. And I even find a bedtime reading with my kids much__________.I am also proud to have our “big breakfast” routine every Saturday. My husband serves as the head chef, and my younger son__________       him to make the breakfast.

I am aware that my sons are growing up quickly and will be out of the__________someday. But now, I am happy to have so many wonderful things on my plate.

7 . The other day,Jenny and I went to a cookbook launch party at our friend Odette’s apartment. We stood in her_________and drank Prosecco. While eating pasta salad, we chatted about work and fantasy vacations to Italy. After a couple of hours, it was time for me to head_________for the boys’ bedtime,so I turned to Jenny.“Okay, let’s_________behind the kitchen is-land,”I said, noting Odette’s position on the other side of the room.

Jenny looked at me in_________.“But we have to say goodbye.”

Oh, right! I_________that not everyone ghosts after parties. Meanwhile, I’ve been happily ghosting for the past_________.It started 10 years ago,when my husband Alex and I_________a big holiday party. Fifty friends squeezed into our tiny apartment, and everyone was having a_________ time until something started happening.

For the entire second half of the party,friends kept coming up to say goodbye and_________ us a happy rest-of-the-weekend. It just felt like a mass leave because we were consumed with saying goodbye to every__________person who was heading home. It felt like the__________was already over. The next morning, Alex and I made a decision: We would never say goodbye to the   __________of parties. We would__________slip out the door.

Goodbyes are, by their very nature, at least a mild disappointment. So I__________people to leave parties without saying goodbye. What if your friends wonder where you’ve gone?They probably won’t even__________that you’ve left.

8 . A relative invited me to come and live in his house. With complete _________ in his promises, I loaded all my worldly possessions onto a ship _________ India in November 2001. Everything had gone _________ in the run-up (准备阶段) to the trip. I was confident that this _________ was the next big step I had to take.

When I arrived, he said, “Things have _________. There is no place here for you.”

I was stunned. I was so _________ that I couldn’t speak. Like a frozen statue, I stood perched on the edge of the vast _________, not sure of what to do. The anger _________. I could not go back to England as all my worldly possessions were on their way to India.

In order to live, I submitted articles to magazines in India and, occasionally, they _________ me for them.

Those years of __________ left a permanent impression. I was searching for an appropriate place to __________, but only later did I realize that the movement itself was meant for my __________ development. If I had only stayed in his house, I would never have learned many valuable lessons. One such lesson was that through __________ and commitment to one’s ideals in life, any adverse situation can be __________. I am writing this story from my __________ in India.

9 . Columbia high school girls’ soccer team had lost every game in the season until a new ______stepped in two years ago.

Stuart Henley, a former soccer player and now a truck driver, ______the team and started training hard in February 2020. He ______the progress of the girls to team-building activities to help them bond on and off the field. He focused on the basics of football like passing, ______, and movement to try and bring the girls up to a good standard. His ______: coaches could give them guidelines, but girls ______what they felt they needed to work on.

Obviously, the girls were onto something big in the new season. They ______the skills they had learned and teamwork into their ______, which led them to an ______run of eight games, until they were sadly beaten 3-2 by Wyrley Pumas Team. Although this means they have been _____ the league title, the team have still exceeded (超出) expectation by earning the ______to the county’s top division.

“Whatever brings you down will ______make you stronger, especially for girls.” Captain Chelsea said, “Stuart has really ______our girls the philosophy of playing soccer. We’re going into next season full of confidence and ready to compete against tougher ______, but for now we’re still very much enjoying our ______.”

10 . When I was a boy, I spent much time playing alone. I didn’t _________ too much, though. I lived outside town, next to a forest where oaks (橡树) were my _________. I would sit in their shade and enjoy their peace.

Therefore it was so _________ for me when I was in _________ in a wood processing factory. It wasn’t just the back-breaking work, long _________, and low pay. It was also seeing trees being cut. The red oak tree were _________ affected because they made the prettiest hardwood flooring.

One afternoon after a long day’s work, I decide to take a walk in the _________. As I wandered, I was filled with _________ for childhood days. Feeling so down, I dropped my head and that was when I _________ it: a red oak acorn (橡子) that had somehow ______________ hungry animals all winter long. Something I’d read once ______________ me at that moment “An acorn ______________ a forest eventually if it wants!” I smiled, and carefully ______________ that little acorn. Then I headed home, no longer______________, for I also realized in our life we all ______________ as an acorn, but whether our future is a forest or not is up to us.