1 . “Man up.” That’s the “advice” that some guys hear from their family and friends when they’re not _________ “manly” enough because they’re showing “too many” emotions.

And, frankly, it’s the kind of advice that ends up doing great _________. Love and support are what strengthen a person; toxic masculinity (有毒的男子气概) is what _________ some problems in the future.

A 16-year-old boy told his _________ about how he cried after not getting into a soccer team. It was a pretty big _________ to him and, naturally, he was upset. And _________ his mom and his sisters comforted him, his dad had a _________ attitude towards the entire situation. A big fight followed full of accusations of the boy not being enough of a man.

The boy’s dad _________ him for “not doing enough” to get into the soccer team. He then went on to give the boy some _________ on how to be more athletic and take care of his diet more.

__________, the dad said that it was stupid to cry over a thing like this, and that it was time that he “manned up”. What followed was a long __________ and afterwards, the boy ignored his dad for a week.

The boy’s behaviour can be __________. Men, just like women, experience depression and anxiety. However, men are __________ told to control their emotions and not to __________ their problems with others, as it’s seen as being weak. Actually, for men, it is good to __________ their emotions properly.

2 . A woman is volunteering in ashelter. It all started because she missed her own _________ .

Sandy was at a loss when her beloved Angus died last year — terribly lonely, yet not quite______for a new dog in her life. ________, she decided to volunteer at the local animal shelter and spend some quality time with furry friends who, like her, were ________ their old buddies (伙伴).

Remembering that her dog had loved being read to, she brought along a ________   there.

It's now been 18 months sinceSandy first began ________ her chair beside the dog house. Shelter workers say it really calms down the dogs, but Sandy says it does more ________ to her than it does to the dogs.

Sandy was ________ that photos of her reading to dogs were spreading on the Internet until the media started calling. Kathleen, a fellow shelter volunteer was so touched by the sight of her     ____ to an old dog that she took a photo and posted it on the Internet. She was so ______ with the dogs — I watched her read to several — and they just loved being ________ by her, "Kathleen said.

Inspired by Sandy's style of _________, the shelter has announced that a reading marathon is being ________ for next September. The plan is to get kids in the neighborhood ______ in reading to the animals, with the added benefit of reading practice for the two-leggers, along with plenty of friendly _______ for the four-leggers.

3 . I ran into a friend a few days ago and greeted him in the familiar way. He gave the usual _____________ --“I’m doing fine”, but he _____________ two words “I guess” to the beginning of his greeting. That totally changed the meaning. His _____________ expression matched the two added words._____________, he wasn’t doing well. So I dug a little deeper and found he really was _____________ with some big issues.

In today’s world of fast and quickly _____________   social media, we are given the _____________ that the people there have near perfect lives. Look at anyone’s personal blog and you’ll see all these fun pictures and comments. Much of what we see is the good _____________. Of course there is really nothing wrong with that, but it can make a lot of people feel or _____________ that their own lives are full of challenges and various problems, ______________ self-pity and depression.

The ______________ is that nobody’s life is perfect. Just looking from the outside, you might be ______________ thinking that other people are doing much better than you. If you look on a deeper __________, you will see that the surface view can be very ____________ . That is because most of us don’t show our problems but prefer to show our ____________.

So, don’t admire other people’s near perfect sides any more. No matter how ______________ their lives look from the outside, they have their problems and ______________ too. Try to understand yourself better and ______________ the self-pity or feelings of “not as good as other people”. It can make your depression ____________ . Even better, you can see yourself in a(n) ____________ angle and have higher self-esteem(自尊).

4 . Last week we encountered a minor water crisis at our home. A water pipe (管子) had been leaking _______ within a bathroom wall, which my husband and I _______ for long. Consequently, we woke up one morning to a pool of water on the bedroom floor. We _______ the bedroom sofa that shares the same wall and located the _______: Water had spread from a break between the wall and the floor.

I got down to clearing up the _______. Initially, I used towels to absorb the water. When seeing the break was not huge, I tried _______ back the water with a mop (拖把). But the _______ quickly became bigger, making more water constantly well out. This was a sign that something deeper within the wall needed our _______.

We acted decisively, _______ the main water line, opening up the wall and beginning the chaotic work of ________ the broken pipe. Despite quite a bit of wall repair and painting to do, we were ________ that it was no longer leaking and our water supply was back on track. Later, we were told by an architect friend that such a small leak can become a ________ break and eventually do serious structural damage to our home.

Big problems usually start small. I’ve been reflecting: How many times we don’t bother to ________ small issues that demand our attention until they grow into big ones that almost ________ our life. With more care and earlier action, we can save ourselves much time and ________.

5 . A few weeks ago, I received a package containing a small batch (一批) of seeds from my friend. When I asked her what it would grow_________ , a flicker of a smile crossed her face. “Just plant them and be patient. You'll see for yourself_________”she said.

I sowed the seeds in a beautiful flowerpot. In the first few days, I was excited to search for the slightest_________ of germination (发芽). But nothing happened. With_________ homework, I began to feel frustrated and a little bit disappointed. How much I_________a splash of color in my fast-paced life!

I watered the plant carefully. I placed the plant in the sunlight and rotated (旋转) it for a_________ illumination (光照). On the fourth day, to my great surprise a few light green sprouts (芽) _________.

Bending down and carefully studying the seedlings, I could almost_________them growing. More days passed, the flowerpot soon became_________with coriander (香菜) plants.

Now they are taller than the edge of the pot,__________shaking their verdant (青翠的) leaves in the gentle__________of the wind, as if they are merrily singing a song of __________ and freedom.

I am certain that after a few more days, my coriander plants will be ready for__________. Thanks to my friend and my patience, these plants have played a crucial part in__________my everyday life. They may not be a main food on our table, but sprinkling some will surely add a__________of flavor to our dishes to spice up (为…调味) our busy days.

6 . Every Christmas, we get “The Box” from my uncle, who owns a local sporting goods store. He _______ uniforms to the sports teams and does T-shirt printing for parties. Every Christmas, instead of _______, he sends us the rejects(废品)from his shop.

One year, we got caps that sported a company’s misspelled _______. It was “Lovie’s Mower Service” _______ “Louie’s Mower Service”

Another year, we got a birthday party T shirt for a woman’s ninety sixth birthday when _______ to be her ninety seventh birthday. And another time we all got green football socks that weren’t exactly the _______ color for the football team that had _______ them.

You never know what you’re going to get out of “The Box”, so we play a _______ with it on Christmas Eve. My father _______ one item at a time, and each of us has the ________ to keep it or not. It goes around the whole ________, and if someone wants it, he ________ it, if no one wants it, it goes in the pile to charity.

We have had a million ________ over the years, with family reunion shirts, baseball pants, and different minor league baseball teams’ clothes with colorful names. “The Box” never ________ us.

I’m not sure what we will do if my uncle runs out of things to send us! It’s a ________ , if a bit wacky (古怪), Christmas tradition.

7 . It’s just one little valve (阀门). I’m just guessing that it takes about 42 seconds to walk from the couch to where the valve is in our front yard, _________ it and return to the couch. And yet I didn’t.

Not that I wasn’t _________ to do so. The city already warned unpleasant results could follow our _________ to turn off that valve. My wife, Anita, also talked about it several times. Each of those _________ went something like this: “Joe, have you turned off the valve to the watering system?” she would ask sweetly. “Oh, that’s right,” I would say. “I _________ to do that.” “It would be great if you could do it before the ground freezes,” she would add, _________. Then I would _________ sincerely that I would do it tomorrow. But I didn’t. In my mind, there was no great rush to complete the task because we were having such a _________ fall followed by a usually warm winter. I kept telling myself that if it got really cold, I would do it. _________, it would only take about 42 seconds to do it. And it was such a(n) __________ thing.

And now we’re __________ it, with a couple of broken valves, a flooded basement floor and probably some __________ to the wall through which the water travelled on its way to the basement floor. The repairs to our watering system and the room have cost us several hundred dollars, not to mention the great __________.

So delaying is not simply putting off an action or a decision. It will have its own __________. Doing __________ is, in fact, doing something.

8 . I love my father. He’s the parent who I thought understood me. But when I was growing up, he was ______ home. He worked overtime as an accountant, late into the evening during the week, all day Saturday and most Sundays. Even if he was home, and wasn’t working at his desk, I had to ______ him, because I was one of three daughters. All those years in my childhood I longed for my father’s ______.

One day my father was working at his desk. I ______ him there and stood beside the desk. ______ in his writing, he didn’t notice me. To let him know I was there, I lifted my plastic water gun and shot him in the face. This frightened him and he roared like a tiger. I dashed out of the room and down the stairs. I was so _______ because I’d never seen him angry before.

Moments later, he appeared at the top of the stairs, ______ his arms and laughed; his arms and laugh invited me to run back up the stairs and into his huge hug. Comforting me softly, he ______ for scaring me. I kept replaying the _______ in my mind for a thousand times.

My sense that I couldn’t reach my father stayed with me even when I was grown. Well into adulthood, I felt that I could never ______ the father time I’d missed as a child. But it turned out that I could. And I did.

The ______ started when my father retired. One day, I called when my mother was out. My father answered the phone, and he couldn’t hand me over to my mother, ______ we started to talk. He told me he’d been thinking about his grandfather, and I asked about him. He began telling me. I ______ that when I asked him about his past, he stayed on the phone. And the older he got, the more ______   my father was to talk about his past, especially his childhood. In his detailed descriptions, I felt he was recreating the world of his childhood, and ______ me in. The stories he told became a world we inhabited together. He introduced me to the people he knew there, and to the child he was.

I really cherish my father’s stories and will pass them on to the next generation.

9 . Driving on the mountain road where I live can be both a delight and an adventure. Yet, you should also watch for deer and squirrels _______ the road as well as fallen trees and rocks that may break loose from and _______down the side of the hill.

I _______ upon one big rock just the other day. I saw a car just ahead of me narrowly turn around it. But the stone was _______ there, which might cause traffic accidents. I turned round and then _______ over to a wide spot. I knew a rock of this _______ would break parts of a low riding car like mine if the driver didn’t see it _______. So I walked over and moved the huge stone. It must have weighed 50 pounds, but with all my strength, I removed it. I felt relieved and walked back to my car.

The happening reminded me too of an old _______ I had read once: In a faraway land, a king had placed a huge rock on the way to his palace. Many nobles walked by and surrounded it, complaining that the king didn’t keep the road up better. Finally, a _______ farmer pulling a cart (马车) of vegetables arrived. He ________ and pushed the rock off the road. Then he saw under it was a bag of gold coins that the king had left for the one who ________the path for those who came after. Later, he was not as badly off as before.

Now while there wasn’t any ________ under the rock I moved, my heart did feel more ________as I was driving back home. Maybe the real ________ is the joy we spread, and the ________ we share.

10 . Liu Ping is a blog post author. Every day, she uses Wi-Fi to _________ and read updated information. She _________   shopping software to buy discounted things and pays with her online account instead of _________.When missing friends residing distantly, she _________ videos to chat with them. To keep in shape, she exercises with sports_________. The Internet has brought her so much _________ that she even does charity work and has writing conferences online. She _________ social network so greatly that if her phone couldn’t function _________, she would go through tough times.

Now that she often shares her daily life on her blog posts, many people _________ to her blog know she only has a cat keeping her company. Sometimes, some people use __________ words to make fun of her, which makes her a little upset.

One day, while she was away, a thief broke into her house and stole many precious things. She pressed the alarm __________. After investigating the case, the police __________that the thief kept track of her information from her __________and got familiar with her routine. They gave her some guidelines:   the more privacy she gave out, the more likely she would be __________. From then on, Liu Ping has taken the policemen’s tips into account, seldom __________ her personal information.