Recently I was invited to a friend’s house for supper — and had a meal I have never had before.

All the friends invited were a little _______ It’s not that Ben is unsociable, or a bad cook, but it’s just that he never _______ more than he has to. So how come he was inviting us round for a meal? Had he bought something _______ for his friends? He greeted us at the door and showed us into his dinning room where a _______ table was waiting for us. “Nothing but the _______ for my friends!” said Ben. We all sat down and looked _______ at each other — what did he _______ to?

Ben returned with four bowls of hot soup. “It’s a _______ of carrots, potatoes and tomatoes,” said Ben. The next _______ was also a little strange in that we didn’t quite know what it was again. It’s just ____________ mixture of vegetables.

As we ate we chatted and finally the ____________ turned back to what we were eating. “Was there a recipe (食谱) for this,” asked Marina , “or did you ____________ it up?” Ben put his fork down. “What I cooked ____________ what I could find.” Marina was surprised. “But you can find anything in supermarkets these days.” “But there’s ____________ choice in what you can find ____________ supermarkets,” he replied.

____________ that we had all finished the food, Ben decided to tell the truth. He had read recently that supermarkets usually ____________ away 5 percent of their food every day. So Ben decided to look inside his local supermarket bins. There he found food that was slightly out of ____________ , boxes of throw-away vegetables and fruit.

So Ben had ____________ provided a decent (不错的) meal for his friends, and made us aware of the fact that there are many poor people who need the food, but the amount of food thrown away is enough to ____________ millions of people.

I seldom cooked before the isolation (隔离). I thought little of cooking either. But in troubled times I’ve been _________ to cook every day and thus _________ my feelings about it.

First, I’ve realized how the _________ of cooking goes beyond food itself. We exchange recipes and _________ cooking experiences in the group chat of our community. There’s always a shared _________ when we help each other and cook a dish successfully. In other words, we are _________ to each other during the lockdown.

However, the deeper change came from’ ’my understanding of cooking. When I tried to bake biscuits, what started out as a simple thing _________ a three-hour’ struggle, from preparing ingredients to putting the finishing touch on the biscuits. And the dough! A heavy hand or wrong timing can _________ its failure. All these remind me I was so _________ before, taking for granted (认为理所当然) the effort, creativity and skills which cooking routine meals __________. Cooking __________ is a fun and novel experience, but cook every day and you __________ the importance of organization, preparation and efficiency.

I’ve recently learned nine different countries __________ our dinner ingredients. So we also need to appreciate the __________made by so many people across the world! It’s their work that helps to offer us nutritious food.

Now I’m grateful for everything prepared for dinner. To __________ is an exercise in patience, commitment and creativity.