As a child, I lived on a college campus with my parents. Their students often visited and did jigsaw puzzles (拼图) with me, for which I quickly discovered my_______.I would sit alone for hours_________building a puzzle. My college “friends” would be_________next time they came.

Soon I_______ up from 500-piece puzzles to my highest _______:a 3,000-piece one. I was so_______at the thought of tearing it apart that I moved the finished puzzle_______ onto a large board and kept it as it was until we moved away and I _______ playing with puzzles.

Recently I can't help but_______my old days, when I could spend hours looking at small, oddly shaped cardboard pieces and ________them into appropriately spaced positions, enjoying myself.

I now live in a world of divided________, constantly jumping from one form of entertainment to another.________，I dislike it when I open my phone to send a quick text, but only to find myself, an hour later, clicking on countless YouTube videos that leave no impression on me. I miss being someone who didn't________ to be bombed with so many flashy external stimuli to be ________ .

I think a puzzle or two would force me to be another version of myself, a less impatient one. When I get home this summer, I'll________ the box of old toys somewhere in our basement. Maybe I'll find what I'm looking for.

My cousin Andrew is crazy about DIY.

He loves to repair things and decorate his house.But when he finishes，the house always looks _______！

He once tried to put in a brighter light in his bedroom，but he made a mistake.Then his whole house had a power _______．Another time，he wanted to _______ a picture on his bedroom wall，but he hit a pipe and filled the room with water.

Last month，he thought the living room in his house was boring，so he painted it blue.His mum said，“Stop it.”But he kept on painting.Now the living room has _______ blue walls but also a blue ceiling and floor.Even his cat is blue now!

When I wanted a shelf above my bed，he said，“_______！”He then spent five hours making the shelf on the wall.Then I put my books on the shelf.Whoops! They couldn’t stay there because one end of the shelf was much higher than _______！

I _______ some books about DIY for him and I also advised him to take a _______ in DIY.But this just made him angry—he says he already knows _______ about it.So，I am reading all the books myself and   ________ lessons every Saturday.Now I know much more about DIY than my cousin!

With almost all the spare time spent watching television and playing video games, many of today’s children have never experienced the rewards (回馈) of a hobby.

Not long ago, _________ to a large audience, I asked, “How many of you, when you were children, had a hobby?” Nearly everyone _________ their hands. I then asked them to keep their hands in the air if at least one of their children had a hobby. Most of the hands _________ down.

Thirty years ago, almost every kid in my neighborhood had some kind of hobby. Collecting and trading baseball cards was a(n) _________ hobby, as were coin and stamp collecting. One of my friends was into photography. He’s now a well-known _________. Another enjoyed building radios and he’s now an electrical engineer. So you can see, hobbies often _________ lifelong interests, even careers (事业).

Hobbies benefit children in many ways. Because they are _________ of personal achievement and a way of self-discovery, hobbies help build _________. Hobbies are actually educational _________, too. For example, a child who becomes __________ making rockets learns about propulsion (推进力) and aerodynamics (空气动力学). By working on hobbies, children learn to set goals, make __________, and solve all kinds of problems.

Some parents __________ that hobbies will not influence the kids’ lessons positively. However, studies have shown that children with an active hobby __________ do better in school. Hobbies sharpen their focus and open their minds, __________ kids academically (学业上).

In a word, having a hobby outside of school will enrich kids’ lives and can provide many extra benefits you might not be __________ of.