1 . A boy lived with his family on a farm. They had a beautiful dog. To prepare for the duck hunting season (猎鸭季节), the boy and the dog kept ________ every day.

Duck hunting season finally __________. At the pond, only a few minutes passed before the two heard ducks flying overhead. The boy ________ three times, killing a duck, which landed in the center of the pond. The dog, at a signal. ________ toward the pond. However. ________ swimming in the water, it walked on the _________. The boy was ________ His dog could walk on water!

He knew seeing is believing, so he returned and led a neighbor to the _________. Shots fired and a duck killed, the boy   ________ to his dog again to get the duck. Magically, the dog walked on the water again.

The boy was bursting with ________ when asking his neighbor. “Did you see that?” The neighbor replied, “Yes, your dog can’t ________ swim.” The boy sat in disbelief as his neighbor pointed out a weakness of the dog rather than ________ he had witnessed a wonder.

People often downplays (轻视)others’ achievements which they’re ________ to achieve themselves. Don’t let this bring you down. Just move on and improve yourself. Moreover, do give ________ when people accomplish something worthy of it. Pointing out other people’s shortcomings doesn’t make you _________.

2 . Fredric Roi Marquez joined a program to give out food to people at a retirement community. By doing so, the high school student hoped to earn a(n) _______ at college. But the program gave him more than he _______, including lessons that would _______ him in the rest of his life, like the qualities of being focused, patient and highly-efficient.

Roy and Lynn moved to the community 12 years ago. They _______ what these young people brought to the community. Roy said, “As you go in and have your dinner offered by young people who are _______ and considerate, you just feel great _______ and strength.” Lynn said the students truly _______ about the people in the community.

For Marquez, the experience was new. He said, “Wow, I’m _______ doing this like I’m working. I get close with ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa’.” Marquez also began _______ special relationships with the residents. Many students kept the residents ________ about their lives.

They talked about school projects, exams and even family issues. They ________ their hopes and sought advice from the residents.

Experts say the experience is good for both ________. Courtney Benhoff is a spokesperson for the community. She said the program offered students the ________ to gain an amount of money. “And through communication, the residents can also better understand these young people that have made their lives more ________,” Courtney Benhoff said. “The program is a good ________ between the young and the old.”

3 . Ben was bothered every time he went through the kitchen. It was that little metal contain on the shelf above his wife Martha’s cook stove, which he had been repeatedly _________ never to touch. The reason, she said, was that it contained a “secret _________” from her late mother, and since she had no way of ever _________ the container, she was _________ that if Ben picked it up and looked inside, he might accidentally drop it and spill its _________ contents.

Ben never saw Martha cook a dish without taking the container of the shelf and sprinkling (洒) _________ a little of the contents over the ingredients. Whatever was in that container, it surely _________ Anyone who ever ate at their house felt Martha was the best _________ in the world. Looking into that container became increasingly _________ for Ben, but he never allowed himself to do so.

Then one day Martha became ill and was kept overnight in the hospital. Feeling lonely and bored in the house after returning home, Ben __________ the kitchen, and then the container on the shelf immediately came into view. It __________ his eyes like a magnet, and he quickly looked away, yet his curiosity brought him back again. He carefully took the container off the shelf, and opened it. Ben became __________ when what was inside came to I his sight. The container was empty, except for a little folded slip of paper at the bottom. He carefully picked it up and slowly __________ it under the kitchen light. Ben immediately __________ the handwriting as that of Martha’s mother. Very __________ it said: “Martha to everything you make, add a dash of love.”

4 . After a whole week of rain we finally had a comfortable, beautiful summer day outside. My family and I were driving to a nearby town when my daughter _________ a yard sale. Then, a few miles down the road, we saw another, and another, and another, We saw tables full of knickknacks. We saw plates, glasses, and silverware. _________, we saw lots of smiling people talking, laughing, sitting, and standing in the sunshine.

Seeing all of this brought back _________ of my childhood. Most of the clothes in my closet back then came from _________. My mom was a talented yard sale-shopper. When I was little, she would drag me along with her. I used to _________ going to them, until one special day when I saw that they also sold old _________. After that, I always browsed through the books until it was time to _________. Sometimes mom would _________ me one too. Soon, a large part of my home library came from yard sale books. For me, these books were more _________ than their first editions.

Why do we have yard sales? It certainly isn’t for the ____________. For all the time and ____________ people put into them, they would hardly make minimum wage from the sales. I think, rather, it is yard sales that ____________ us together. We ____________ our old things and we buy “new” old things. We talk and ____________ old friends and new neighbors. We get a ____________ to give and share. We ____________ through kindness and love among all the old stuff. It’s all about ____________, both in goods and between people.

I think yard sales teach us something about ____________ too. We can’t really ____________ anything here, after all; all we get is ____________ possession of our stuff, then it comes time for us to let it go and pass it on.

5 . On sunny and warm days, I love to wander through high mountains. I also love it when fog goes down and _______ me in a state of quietness.

One day while I was visiting a mountaintop, the fog blew in. I was _______ because I’d gone there to take some photos and needed a clear shot of the mountains in the _______. Instead I was _______ the middle of a gray cloud. I carried my camera and made my _______ back to the car to wait, hoping the fog would _______.

As I sat there, I began to see things that I’d never _______ before. I spied an old tree with rough branches of interesting _______. I observed the cliffs behind me. All this new­to­me scenery _______ me back out of the car, and soon I was happily ________ a part of this landscape I’d never seen before.

As I ________ home, with a camera full of images and a heart full of ________ for the nature, I thought about what had happened.

The nature has used those times when everything around me seemed like ________ to show me things I wouldn’t have seen ________. I experienced that especially when my son was in the military. Often the weight of what he was facing covered me with ________. It was in those times that nature revealed itself most warmly.

6 . My career as a chef started at the age of 25, but my ______ for cooking started at an early age, when I was about 5 years old — by watching my grandmother and my mom in the kitchen ______ daily meals for the family. I was also ______by going with my grandfather to markets to ______ the freshest ingredients. My grandfather taught me the art of picking and recognizing “the ______.”

From my youth, I have had this passion for food. Growing up in Morocco, I witnessed the most amazing hospitality and ______ through my grandparents. They opened their ______ to everybody, and fed and sheltered the poor, travelers, family and friends.

I remember as a young kid coming home from school to the ______ of fragrant (芳香的) fresh bread coming out of the oven. Those smells stimulated (刺激) my senses at a young age. The ______were fresh and seasonal — they were very simple dishes but delightfully ______.

Food is almost as ______ as it is necessary. Food makes people feel things. I really think that food tastes its best when there is a ______ behind it. It shapes cultures, religion, politics and health. Food brings people together, and goes straight to the ______.

In my kitchen, I try to duplicate (复制) smells and flavors that make me think about more than what I’m actually smelling or ______ — it makes me think of life, my family, and my history. I love to cook food that ______ people’s emotions and memories; my philosophy is to “keep food real and simple.”

7 . I experienced a day when I was extraordinarily _______. I’m never a picture of grace, but on this particular day, I seemed to be _______ everything. It’s an old church, and the floor is _______ in some places, so my fall was the floor’s fault. But when I fell again on my way out to the car, and yet again in my own home, I began to grow _______. Had I let myself get so stressed out that I had _______ become sick?

Having been raised by devoted Christian parents who also worked in the mental-health field, I tended to look for spiritual and emotional reasons before I headed to the local _______. I have the calming practice that _______ a yoga pose with a breath prayer. I went to _______ more comfortable clothes for the exercise, and as I removed my shoes, I was _______!

I wasn’t having a stroke at all. I had completely worn out my favorite pair of sandals. The soles (鞋底) of both shoes were split in two! I had ________ all the possibilities to figure out what was causing my clumsiness. It never occurred to me to check my soles.

So often when we start to feel ________, we look for ways to make things better. But just as it never occurred to me to check the soles of my shoes, our own souls are the very ________ thing we think of to check. Take a moment to remember the last time you sat still, meditating. If you can’t remember when that was, it might be a(n) ________.

The local cobbler (鞋匠) said my soles were irreparable. We had a good ________, but it was time to let them go. Fortunately for us, our souls can be mended and restored — once we realize they are in need of ________.

8 . It was December 30. My friend Mel Olsen and I_________ to climb 11,250-foot Mount Hood in Oregon. I loved the_________ of overcoming something bigger than me.

It’s_________ to start winter climbs at night when there’s less risk of the sun _________ a snowslide (雪崩). After about five hours, we_________ Devil’s Kitchen, at about 10,000 feet, just before the final_________ to the top. By this point, the wind conditions were_________. Other climbers we met along the way turned back, but Mel and I_________.

When we arrived at the path with ice stairs, I volunteered to go first. Confident that I was safe, I put my full weight on it. Suddenly, a big piece of ice broke off the_________, right under my foot. In an instant, I fell backward. I stuck out my arms and legs, trying to____________ anything. But I was still sliding. After a few seconds, I came to a____________ on a shallow slope (斜坡). I’d fallen 600 feet. My left leg was broken. Before I was rescued I had been lying there for four hours.

The fall has made me more____________. I learn to watch my step while climbing. One____________ on a mountain can change everything. But it has also made me____________, becoming more complete and fully developed. I’ve climbed another 60 mountains since then. One slip won’t____________ me from doing my favorite thing in the world.

9 . Dr. Smith of New York works at a center for children who can’t learn well. One day a father brought his son to him for________ at his office.

The father told Dr. Smith about his son. “My son has ________ in learning and can’t even play baseball. He isn’t doing well because he doesn’t try. I have done everything for him. I have even shouted at him. But nothing ________. ”

After Dr. Smith tested the boy, he ________ his father. He asked the father to sit in front of a ________ and then gave him a pencil and a piece of paper. There was a ________ on the paper. He asked the father to look only in the mirror and ________ the lines of the star with the pencil. The father made the same ________ anyone makes. Every time he ________ the pencil, it went the wrong way. The father’s face became red.

At this ________ the doctor shouted at him, “Hurry up! Why are you ________ so long? You can’t do such an ________ thing! You don’t know left from right!” These ________ made the father very angry.

“Now you can ________, can’t you?” The doctor said to him. “Your son has felt just like that all the time. You scolded (训斥) him too often, so he didn't try any more. He was afraid of making mistakes. ”

________ the father understood everything. He put his face down. Now he felt so sorry.

10 . “Are you really going to eat another piece of pizza?” It was at my fourteenth birthday party that I received my first _________ related comment. After that day, comments like this _________ in my head longer than they should have. I was _________ picking flaws (缺点) in my figure in the mirror.

I decided that I couldn’t eat like this in order to be _________. It started out as just a little extra _________ every day, like running, but it quickly turned into _________ meals and working out every night before bed. As I _________ the calories, the comments started to change. Perhaps my _________ comment was “You’re so skinny.”

Maybe others didn’t know it, but their comments were _________ my social construction of beauty. However, my condition slowly became worse. My caloric intake was less than that of a child and I no longer had the __________ to do the things I once enjoyed.

Everything changed when I got a call from the director at my dance studio. She __________ me that she had wanted to move me to the advanced level, __________ she noticed I was too skinny. I then realized I nearly __________ my role in The Nutcracker. I was determined that I wasn’t going to let society’s idea of beauty be the death of me.

I want to get better for real this time. Mirrors and scales (秤) have no __________ of who I am. Social constructions of beauty will always be __________ in the world that I live in but I’ve decided not to let them rule over me.