It was Wednesday afternoon and Jennifer McCarthy had a lot of questions. Her college freshman son had just _______ home. The reason was that Vanderbilt University would move _______ online because of the coronavirus (新冠病毒). His return is not just a fun homecoming. It’s _______ and confusing for everyone, _______ for her.

_______ thousands of parents of college students across the country, McCarthy isn’t sure what comes next. Does she make sure her son is out of _______ before 11:30 in the morning, his typical spring-break rising time? Does she adopt a study rule or class time, _______ online classes have started? College students don’t _______ to be told what to do, but there have to be some rules.

For many parents, this sudden return isn’t just _______ their young adult’s life; it’s changing theirs. The quiet ________ they had gotten used to is back to chaos. And for people like McCarthy, whose 83-year-old father lives with them, this ________ comes with new rules that will be hard for a college freshman to observe or even fully ________, such as no parties and no sports.

This isn’t the natural ________ of things. Babies are born and they grow into children who are taught how to be ________, they move out and on and it’s back to a quiet house. There is________ normal about this time we’re living in. But if everyone stays healthy, this is all temporary.

Cruz Genet, 11, and Anthony Skopick, 10, couldn’t agree. Was the bird out on the ice a duck or a goose? There was only one way to find out. So on a chilly January evening last year, the two friends _______ onto the frozen pond near their homes in Frankfort, Illinois, to get a _______ look. First they threw a rock onto the ice to _______ it, Cruz told NBC 5 Chicago. “Then we stepped on it.” _______ the ice would support their weight, Anthony took a few steps, then ... FOOMP. He crashed through the _______ frozen surface. “There was no sound, no crack,” he told ABC7 Chicago. “I just fell through instantly.”

Cruz rushed to help his _______ friend. FOOMP—the pond swallowed him too.

Cruz managed to _______ himself out of the freezing cold water and onto a more _______ section. He then _______ worked his way toward Anthony. But the ice didn’t ________, and he fell in again. This time, he couldn’t get out. The boys were up to their ________ in icy water and quickly losing feeling in their limbs (四肢). Any possibility of their freeing themselves was ________ away. Cruz was sure he was going to die.

Anthony’s older sister had seen the boys fall through the ice and started screaming for help. John Lavin, a neighbor ________ nearby on his way to the grocery store, ________ her. He quickly pulled over. Seeing the boys, he grabbed a nearby buoy, ________ off his shoes, and ran into the slushy water, ________ his way through the ice with his free ________. “It was kind of a ‘Hulk smash, ’” Lavin told NBC 5 Chicago.

Lavin made his way to Cruz and Anthony and hauled them back to ________. They were taken to the hospital, where doctors discovered that their five-minute ________ in the water had lowered their body temperature nearly ten degrees.

Fortunately, the boys have fully recovered, though they are still a little awestruck by their ________ neighbor. “Just to think,” says Cruz, “if he wasn’t there, I could have died.”