2 . I was always a reader. As a kid, I walked to the library several times a week and _________up late reading with a flashlight. I checked out so many books and returned them so _________ that the librarian once roared, “Don’t take home so many books _________ you’re not going to read them all.”

“But I did read them all,” I said.

I was an English major at university and went on to get a masters in literature When I created my online dating _________, I made my screen name(网名) – “missbibiliophile59595. Filling out the “favorite books” section, I let my taste in literature _________ for me: One Hundred Years of Solitude, A Moveable Feast, White Teeth, How to Read the Air.

_________, I realized it had been more than two years since I had read most of those _________. I had stopped reading gradually. I tried to _________my bookish persona (人设) .I joined book clubs that I never attended. I requested a library book everyone was reading, only to return it _________.

I still __________ the idea of reading. __________ I found a bookstore, I would linger__________   the shelves for hours as if __________ up with old friends, picking out books I had read and buying new ones. But it was __________ to me: I was becoming a person I did not know.

David was my first online __________. His profile (简介) said he liked to read, so I asked him about his last book. His face __________ and his fingers danced. David read much more than I did, about a book or two a week. We seemed a (n) __________ couple: me, a five-foot-three black woman__________   to a Caribbean mother, and him, a six foot-four white guy from Ohio. But as we got to know each other, our __________ faith and mutual love of books __________ our gaps.

3 . One day when I was 12, my mother ordered me to walk to the public library and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to ________ my strange problem — ________ to read.

In the library, I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf________ . The beagle (比格猎犬) on the book’s cover   ________   my eye. The first and only animal companion I ever had as a child was a beagle.   ________, one morning, he was given ________ to someone who had the space and money to care for him. I never ________ my beagle.

The beagle on the cover looked   ________ to my dog. My eyes ran across the ________, “Amos, the Beagle with a Plan.”   ________, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I   ________   it from the library for the summer.

I started to read about Amos very slowly and with ________ . It was about a dog who, like mine, had been   ________ from his family and found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final scene of   ________ until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.

My mother’s call returned me to the   ________   world. I suddenly ________ something: I had read a book and loved it. Everyone knew I couldn’t read, but I had read it! Books were ________ , and I was going to read them.

I ________ told my mother about my miraculous (奇迹般的) experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable ________ in my classroom performance during the next year. Years later, she was   ________ that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction.

5 . I had a bad habit of skipping to the last pages of a book. I just wanted to see how it ended ______ I was still in the middle of it. This habit ______ first my mom, then my friends, and ______ even my own daughter. Often my ______ wouldn’t be limited just to the books I read but also to what others were ______ as well. Then one day my daughter told me in anger, “Dad, please just read a book one ______ at a time like everyone else!”

At times I didn’t ______ this bad habit to just books either. I also tried to skip ahead in my own life and ______ out what to do months and even years from now ______ enjoy each day at present. Although I knew that the ______ of my life wasn’t done yet and that I had many pages ______ to go. I still couldn’t control my burning desire to write the ______ of it half-way through. Time and again, I would ______ jump ahead and try to solve every potential problem before it happened. Life, ______, doesn’t work like that. It loves to ______ us, and you never know what new problems, changes or opportunities each new day will ______.

Recently when I found myself living in the ______ again, I felt a voice that gently told me I needed to “live one day at a time.” When I heard those words, I ______, turned the book of my life back to the ______ page, and thanked God for today.

Each of us has to ______ the book of life line by line, moment by moment and trust that our story will be brought to its perfect end.

7 . It's often said that you can judge a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. Well, when I asked myself this question a few years ago, I made a (n) _________ discovery. Pretty much all the books on my bookshelves were written by British authors, and there was _________ in translation from other languages. What a shame! So, I decided to launch my _________ reading project.

But how could I find books from much of the rest of the world? I had to ask for _________. So in February 202I, I posted a short _________ online. Within hours, people began to _________. At first, it was friends and colleagues. And soon, it was _________.

Four days later, I got a(n) _________ from a woman called Rafidah in Kuala Lumpur. She said she _________ my project and went to her local bookshop to __________ my Malaysian book. A few weeks later, a package which contained one book—Rafidah's choice from Malaysia reached me. At the time, I was __________ that a stranger more than 6,000miles away would help someone she would probably never __________.

Rafidah's kindness __________ to be the pattern for that year. A writer from Spain __________ emailed me an unpublished translation of his novel to me. Thanks to the kind strangers, I could read books from over 70 __________ .

9 . Those youngsters were a great concern for Ngurang Meena. The social-science teacher found many children _______ to online games. She runs the Ngurang Learning Institute — an adult literacy centre. She says that she feels _______ every time she reads student papers. “The graph of student _______ is falling every year. It _______ my heart whenever I see answer sheets — basic grammar skills are missing and there’s a/an _______ of any cohesive(连贯性的) expression. They lack proper _______ and reading culture is almost zero,” Meena says. When her school and the centre she _______ had to close due to the Covid-19 Lockdown, she was determined to do something to _______ the problem.

Searching for ideas online and _______ by a similar proposal, __________ Meena set up a bookshelf with around 80 books on the side of the road, where __________ could spend time reading. The __________ include motivational books, biographies and novels as well as comics for young children. “I often __________ the younger ones with sweets to sit and read, but that is okay,” she laughs.

Meena’s library became __________ among youngsters who spend hours in the reading corner. Within two months, her effort became the __________ of the town. Generous contributions of books flood in from the public and she is even __________ receiving requests to set up such libraries in other parts of the state.

“I never __________ this would become such a big hit,” Meena says. “Since childhood, we have been told that books are our best friends and the __________ of success. I don’t want the present generation to __________ games and head on the wrong track. This library is a reminder that knowledge is __________ power.”

10 . It's often said that you can judge a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. Well, when I asked myself this question a few years ago, I made a(n) _______ discovery. Pretty much all the _______ on my bookshelves were written by British authors, and there was almost nothing in translation from other _______. What a shame! So, I decided to begin my _____________ reading project.

But how could I find books from much of the rest of the world? I had to ask for _______. So in October 2011, I started my blog, and I _______ a short appeal (呼吁) online. Within hours, people began to _______. At first, it was friends and colleagues. Then it was friends of friends. And soon, it was _______.

Four days later, I got a(n) _______ from a woman called Rafidah in Kuala Lumpur. She said she loved my project, ________ if she could go to her local English-language bookshop and choose my Malaysian book and post it to me. I ________ accepted, and a few weeks later, a package ________ containing nothing but two books — Rafidah's choice from Malaysia, and a book from Singapore that she had also ________ for me. At the time, I was ________ that a stranger more than 6,000 miles away would go to such lengths to help someone she would probably never ________.

But Rafidah's kindness ________ to be the pattern for that year. Time and again, people went out of their ________ to help me. And books often came from ________ sources. A writer even emailed me an unpublished translation of his novel to me, allowing me to become one of the ________ people ever to read that book in English.

That year, thanks to kind strangers from the four ________ of the world. I read books from over 100 countries.