A 90-year-old has been awarded “Woman Of The Year” for     16    (be) Britain’s oldest full-time employee—still working 40 hours a week. Now Irene Astbury works from 9am to 5pm daily at the pet shop in Macclesfield,     17     she opened with her late husband Les. Her years of hard work have     18    (final) been acknowledged after a customer nominated(提名) her to be Cheshire’s Woman Of The Year.

Picking up her “Lifetime Achievement” award, proud Irene     19    (declare) she had no plans     20    (retire) from her 36-year-old business. Irene said, “I don’t see any reason to give up work. I love coming here and seeing my family and all the friends I     21    (make) over the years. I work not because I have to,     22     because I want to.”

Granddaughter Gayle Parks, 31—who works alongside her in the family business—said it remained unknown as to who nominated Irene for the award. She said, “We don’t have any idea who put grandma forward. When we got a call     23    (say) she was short-listed, we thought it was     24     joke. But then we got an official letter and we were blown away. We are so proud of her. It’s     25    (wonder).”

At that time, I was a housewife raising three small children. My life_______around taking care of my children and finding ways to stretch a dime into a dollar to pay the bills, but money was always_______.

I really loved being with my kids and I was willing to make whatever sacrifice for my kids , but I wanted to go to_______ and get my archaeology degree. For several years, I had always said I was going to learn it_______no one believed I actually would. So I eventually decided to give up my_______.

One day my brother came to visit and talked about our future. While chatting, I mentioned my_______dream. Looking into my eyes with great expectation, he said, "Why not?"

Over the next few weeks, I just kept_______our conversation in my head. Yes, I could make a long list of reasons why I couldn't become an archaeologist. Strangely, however , these reasons seemed more like_______.

I started questioning why I was so willing to_______a challenge. Finally, I realized that if I didn't at least try to__________my goals, I was going to regret my__________for the rest of my life.

So I started taking university classes. I got a part-time job on weekends so that my husband could watch the kids while I was working. I even took a few late -night classes so that my children would not require day care and would never come back to a（n）__________house.

Seven years later, I__________a graduate degree and became an archaeologist.__________, I found that as I reached towards my goals through__________and difficulties, I became happier and more confident. In this way , my brother changed my life. Perhaps, you can also change your life by asking yourself "Why not?"

Born on April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou had a hard childhood. Her parents got divorced when she was very young. She was a single mother and being a single mother was very hard for her.

It was finally in 1949 that she started to find her place in the world when she changed her name to show her Calypso dance performances at the night club where she worked. It was there that she won a scholarship and trained in African dance and modern dance. She formed a group and they traveled all over Europe with an opera production. As she traveled, she studied different languages and became excellent in several of them. During this time, she made her first album, Miss Calypso, and it was a success.

In the 1950s, she moved to New York and started to work more on her writing. She heard Dr Martin Luther King speak in 1960 and began organizing different benefits for Civil Rights. In 1961 , she began to play a large role in the Civil Rights Movement and was remembered for her work around the country.

She later moved to Ghana with her son and worked in the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama. It was there that she became close friends with Malcolm X. She returned to the US in 1964 to help Malcolm X with a new Civil Rights movement. Shortly after she returned to the US, Malcolm X and Dr King were both assassinated. To deal with the deaths of her friends, she wrote her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which finally made her famous around the world. The 1970s were some of her most productive years as a writer, poet, as well as a singer.