Spring Festival means a lot for Chinese people. However, given the sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks in different places, many cities ________ residents in any city with confirmed COVID-19 cases not to travel during the holiday in order to prevent any more outbreaks. ________, I stayed in Beijing during the Spring Festival of 2022. It was my first Spring Festival in China. I ________ it with my Chinese friends.

Several of Ralph’s coworkers came to our apartment to have ________ with me. They brought the meat and dough (面团) to make the ________ dumplings. While I was not ________ in making them, I certainly did enjoy eating them. As soon as all the food was ready, we ________ to enjoy the delicious foods.

Linda brought me Spring Festival couplets ________ good wishes and asked me to paste them on the door. Scott ________ me with many firecrackers. Some students gave me paper cuts to ________ my windows.

Eric invited me to ________ his family to spend New Year’s Eve together. Among the many ________ at dinner, they served a ________ fish. However, I was told we would only be eating half the fish that night because the ________ of it would be eaten the next day. This was done to ________ the good fortune over into the following year since leftovers are thought to be a ________ of prosperity. After dinner, we watched the Spring Festival Gala together. A martial art performance ________ me deeply. The show entitled “Walking Clouds, Flowing Water” starred three tai chi ________ practicing their moves on top of landmark buildings in three cities: Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou of Guangdong province, which was amazing. I went to my ________ at midnight.

It was a very happy time and we have many good ________ of this festival holiday.

My kids were surprised when they discover a stuffed cat. Gee stands beside them, quietly explaining each ________. She tells me that she and Tom built their ornament (装饰物) collection ________. She smiles as we leave with the box. Their precious heirlooms (传家宝),________ over a lifetime, have found a new home.

We first met the couple in the early days of our marriage. Someone had been ________ our garbage cans to the garage (车库) each garbage day, and Jim and I had ________ who. Then one day we ________ him: an elderly man who lived across the street.

I baked cookies and ________ them in a chair outside the garage ________ a thank-you note. When we got home from work that day, a ________ had replaced the gift. The letter was from Tom and ________ how he had come to walk the neighborhood on garbage day, returning cans or his neighbor. Back when he’d been fighting a war, his ________ Gee was living alone.

Neighbors had taken the time to ________ her garbage cans, and he never ________ Now he paid it ________ by doing the same for all of us.

A few years after we’d moved in, Tom died. We photocopied that letter and ________ it to Gee. We told her how special Tom had been to us and how ________ we were to have known Him. She wrote back and told us she still talked to Tom every day.

When Gee invited us over to select a Christmas present, I realized how ________ it must be to part with that box, a piece of Tom. This Christmas, we’ll ________ our tree with Gee’s ornaments. Maybe I’ll ________ to Tom just as Gee still does. Thank you, I’ll say. For teaching us what it means to be a ________.

Tim was working in his office when he was asked to check on Tony. Feeling _______, Tony had taken himself off to a quiet meeting room to _______ . When a colleague (同事) found him, something was _______wrong.

When Tim walked into the _______, he saw Tony sitting in a chair, looking poorly and breathing very rapidly. He _______ that Tony was having a heart attack.

Tony was in his fifties and generally a _______ man. But the symptoms of a heart attack were there. He was sweating and _______to breathe. He was also complaining of chest pains, so Tim called for a(n)_______ .

Tim offered Tony an aspirin pill to _______ slowly, which can help to thin the blood and may help someone who is having a heart attack. He made sure that Tony continued to ________ in a comfortable position. For peace of mind, he asked a colleague to find an automated external defibrillator (自动体外除颤器), ________ Tony became unresponsive and stopped breathing. ________ he didn’t need to use it.

Tim continued to ________ Tony until the ambulance arrived and Tony was then taken to hospital where he had emergency surgery on his heart. Despite the ________ of the situation, Tony was saved and is now fully recovered.

“Without the first aid skills I learnt, I don’t know if I would have been so level headed when this happened.” Tim said when asked about his ________ actions.