People use their mouths for many things. They eat, talk, shout, ____ and smile. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word ____.

For example, if you say ____ things about a person, the person might protest (抗议) and say “Do not bad mouth me.”

Sometimes, people say something to a friend or a family member that they later ____ because they hurt that person’s feelings. The speaker might say “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.”

Another ____ is when someone falsely claims another person said something. The other person might protest, “I did not say that. Do not put ____ in my mouth.”

Information is often spread through our mouths. This is general ____ between people, like friends talking to each other. “How did you hear about that new ____ ?” someone might ask. “Oh, by word of mouth.” The ____ means the person has been told about the movie by others.

Sometimes a person has a bad or unpleasant ____ with another person. He might say that experience “ left a bad taste in my mouth ”. Or the person might have had a very____ experience, like being chased by an angry dog. He might say, “ had my ____ in my mouth.”

Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very ____ family. There is an expression for this, too. You might say such a person “was born with a ____spoon in his mouth. However, some people live from hand to mouth. This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most ____ things in life, like food.

Born in America, I spoke English ,not Chinese, the language of my ancestors. When I was three, my parents flashed cards with Chinese _______ at my face, but I pushed them_______. My mom believed I would learn_______ I was ready. But the_______ never came.

On a Chinese New Year’s Eve, my uncle spoke to me in Chinese, but all I could do was_______ at him, confused, scratching my head . “Still can’t speak Chinese? ” He_______ me, “You can’t even buy a fish in Chinatown.”

“Hey, this is America, not China. I’ll get some_______ with or without Chinese.” I replied and turned to my mom for_______ . “Remember to ask for fresh fish, Xin Xian Yu,” she said, handing over a $20 bill. I _______ the words, running downstairs into the streets of Chinatown.

I found the fish ______ surrounded in a sea of customers. “I’d like to buy some fresh fish,” I should to the fish man. But he______ my English words and turned to serve the next customer. The laugh of the people behind increased _____ their impatience. With every _____, the breath of the dragons (龙) on my back grew stronger—my blood boiling— ______ me to cry out. “ Xian Sheng Yu, please.” “Very Xian Sheng,” I repeated. The crowd erupted into laughter. My face turned_______ and I ran back home ______ , except for the $20 bill I held tightly in my pocket.

Should I laugh or cry? They’re Chinese. I should feel right at______ . Instead, I was the joke, a disgrace (丢脸)to the language.

Sometimes, I laugh at my fish_______ , but, in the end, the joke is on _______ . Every laugh is a culture_______; every laugh is my heritage (传统) fading away.

I’ve always been fascinated by languages, but I’ve never been any good at learning them. I remember sitting in my French lessons, I never _________ what I was being taught. My teacher wasn’t _________.

But one of my A levels was English Language, and that was where my interest in _________ started. Over the last few years, I’ve started learning more languages than I can _________. They include Latin, Russian, Spanish, and probably several others. None of them stuck.

And then came lockdown. While I was _________ enough to still be able to work from home, on evenings and weekends, I found myself getting _________ and looking through video websites for something to watch. That’s how I _________ a Chinese fantasy drama filled with complex relationships.

But by the time I got about halfway through the show, I _________ that in some cases, the words being spoken in Chinese didn’t match the words being said in the English translations. _________, a character was being called shijie instead of by her name. I went online, did some __________ and met a difficulty.

Shijie, which I learned can be translated as “martial sister”, introduced me to the complexities of Chinese __________. So many different words for “aunt”, “uncle” and “grandfather”! Characters with more than one name!

I was __________ by the way the language is so connected with the culture, and how poetic and __________ it is. I wanted to be able to __________ the source material, even if it was going to take me a long while __________ I got to that point.