“What would Ms K do?” was in my playlist of the top 10 questions as I was taking books and files in my office. Reports had been ________ over the last few weeks about the growing ________ of COVID-19. My husband, a physician, informed me that I should make plans to begin working from home. But who was Ms K? Why did I ________ of her when faced with a global ________?

Ms K was a(n) ________ education teacher. She taught my daughter, Dorian, for 3 years. Dorian suffered from autism (自闭症). When I met Ms K, Dorian was in kindergarten, and in spite of our efforts to ________ her in a regular classroom, it was ________.

Dorian’s multiple ________—ranging from hearing, speaking and mental problems—left us all tired at the end of each day. Most of all, they left Dorian with an inability to express her needs. For Dorian, her ________ way of interacting with others was pictures. It was Ms K who ________ the communication puzzle for us all. Ms K and her instructional assistant both were ________ in sign language and taught Dorian and ________ the rest of the family how to ________. Within three months, Dorian’s sign vocabulary greatly improved, and she started to sign three-and-four word sentences.

Our world changed greatly because of the three years spent with Ms K. I firmly believed Ms K would ________ herself to the problems in the COVID-19, and develop ways of distance learning for students and families in the same ________—with a positive attitude, patience and a mass of resources.

In the mid-20th century, boys could study technical subjects while girls were expected not. However, Bell Burnell’s parents challenged these ________, which enabled her to study science. Bell Burnell knew before leaving school that she wanted to be a radio astronomer. That ________ led her to go to the University of Glasgow, where she was the only ________ in her class. After graduation, Bell Burnell went to Cambridge University, where she yet again had to prove that she ________.

Her first project, working with her thesis supervisor (论文导师) Hewish, was ________ certain objects called quasars (类星体). It was ________ to have a female student on this project. Bell Burnell herself has said that the only other females ________ were secretaries. At this stage, it was she who ________ the telescope and analyzed the data.

One day, checking on the data, Bell Burnell saw a signal that she couldn’t ________. To understand what it was she ended up bringing this ________ to Hewish, who said it was interference. He thought that Bell Burnell had wired up the radio telescope ________ and that is why the new signal had appeared. However, she saw the signal again afterwards. ________, she tried to reach Hewish. Once he ________ the pulse with his own eyes, he knew it wasn’t interference, and a new research project began. But, with just one pulse it was hard to have a(n) ________ discovery.

A couple of days later, Bell Burnell was in her study, and she saw something ________ to the first pulse, and thus 2 pulsars were discovered.

Three years ago, a friend of mine lost her dad. One night, I found her sitting alone. I knew it’s easy to say the wrong thing to someone in _________. So I started with how I grew up _________ a father. I told her my dad had drowned when I was 9 months old and I _________ him. I wanted her to realize that she wasn’t alone and that I could totally understand her _________.

But after listening to my words, she _________ me angrily, “Okay, Celeste, you _________. You never had a dad, and I at least got to spend 30 years with mine. I guess I shouldn’t be so _________ about my father’s death.”I was _________. She walked away and I stood there helplessly.

From that day, I started to _________ how I responded to stories of __________. When my son told me his fighting with a kid, I would talk about a girl I had a __________ with. What they needed was for me to __________ them and admit __________ they were going through. Instead, I forced them to listen to me.

These days, I’ve tried to listen more and talk less. I had a __________ conversation with a friend who was going through a failure. In the end, she said, “Thank you for your advice.” But I __________ said a word. I knew she just needed to be heard.