【推荐1】I wanted to build rockets and airplanes. Ever since age 11, I had _______ to become an aerospace engineer. I even picked my activities and summer _______ in middle school based on that goal. It also helped me to _______ my high school. I went to Wheeler High School in Marietta, where there was a program that _______ science, math and technology. It was out of my school _______, so I rode the bus for an hour every morning from my home. But I knew that was the most _______ school for me and my goal. So I made it happen and so did my parents.

Wheeler offered an aerospace-engineering courses. Then, for college, I _______ attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which was especially _______ in aerospace engineering. That exactly fit my goal. They’ve _______ so many astronauts and even have astronauts as professors.

Along the way, my biggest ________ was that I didn’t truly believe in myself. It’s something that we all go through at some point in our lives. And it’s a ________ that I fought up until I attended MIT. Even though I was ________ , I always thought I didn’t have the ________ to achieve my dreams. I finally started to believe in myself and realised I was able to do this work. And I looked in the ________ and said to myself, “I believe in you.”

Today, I’m a ________ structural engineer at Boeing and have helped design vehicles that may in time shuttle(运送) people to the moon or Mars.

【推荐2】The first time 9-year-old Jake Bohm came into the barber shop it was a _________.

Jake, who has autism (自闭症), _________ with his parents to run outside the moment he entered the shop. I ended up walking around the shop with him that day. I got in a few cuts _________ stopped the haircut when I saw Jake was _________. Cutting hair can be _________ for some children with autism. Jake was no different. I felt I’d _________, and it made me _________ to learn more about autism so I could connect with him and take away his _________.

After the first _________ haircut, I suggested to Jake’s parents they bring him back every two weeks at closing time. That went on for a few months. His hair was long. I could __________cut it properly. I’d get a couple of cuts in, and then he’d just go crazy. That was a really __________ time. But I knew we had to just keep going.

I even went to his house to give it a try. No __________.

Then the owner of the barber shop__________ me for allowing a customer to come in after closing time. Discouraged, I __________that job, and soon opened my own shop. Every two weeks, Jake would __________ my shop after it was closed. This lasted about eight months.

A few weeks ago, we made __________. I sang “The Wheels on the Bus” to him. I didn’t know he was __________ nursery rhymes (儿歌). I was just trying to __________him. He looked at me as if he were mesmerized (迷住). I gave him a full haircut for the first time. I realized our slow, two-year effort had __________.

Two weeks later, Jake let me do it again.

I often don’t charge them the cost of the haircut. Maybe the reason I do something like this is to increase my __________ of the kids like him.

【推荐3】I first started writing in the summer of 1998. Back then I was a teacher. After years of dreaming, I decided it was finally time to write a book. For 10 years I wrote, __ four middle-grade novels and six pictures books almost only to editors. This was __ in the snail-mail age. Remember the ____ you experienced as a child waiting for birthday presents to arrive in the mail? That was me for the better part of a decade.

In Spring 2009, at the last minute, I decided to hand in a middle-grade historical novel-in-verse(韵文) to enter for a(n) __ at a local writing conference. I knew in my heart that it was my __ work, but I wasn’t sure how it would be __ alongside pieces meant for the adult market. But then ----I won. My prize __ a one-on-one interview with an editor who, after __ my manuscript(原稿), asked, “Why don’t you have a(n) __ yet?”

Not long after that, I __ with my first agent. Then in 2013, after parting with my first agent, I was again faced with the ___ for representation. This time I submitted to three agencies and got two __. Over the span of 20 years, I’ve got 18 completed manuscripts and was ___ almost 350 times. It took me 14 years to see my first book __ the shelf. You could look at these numbers and get pretty __. I can look at these numbers and feel the same. I know plenty of people with a __ apprenticeship(学徒期). I have friends who have been more __ and they have published far more than I have. But here’s the __ thing I’ve learned in the last 20 years: My process is mine. My journey is mine. Each book finds its way on its own.

The writing life is a long-term journey. There is no right way. There is no short _____. There is no easy road. There is a lot of frustration and ______, but there is joy and satisfaction, too.

【推荐2】When I look back at my decision to be a working mom, I realize that I didn’t think I had any other choice. Hubby and I had been a two-income family _________ the time we were married. It didn’t occur to me that we would be anything else though it’s hardly news that the choice has its _________.

Hubby traveled a lot when our kids were young, and I often was a weekday single mom. I had an understanding boss, who allowed me to work a(n) _________ schedule for about 12 years. My 32-hour work week provided the chance to _________ in my kids’ kindergarten classrooms.

The woman who cared for the kids in our _________ was truly a gift from God. Nan and I _________ values and parenting styles.

Never underestimate (低估) the value of _________. When Dad was away, the kids knew the drill. Though sports activities and piano lessons _________ interrupted our schedules, generally we got up, fed and out without much commotion (混乱) and back in, fed and _________ with a little time left over for a game or a favorite TV show. Mom got a few minutes of ____________ before crashing herself (睡觉).

Looking back on the past, I realize we could have made other ____________. We could have been vegetable gardeners. Lots of families ____________ on one income. But I think we would have lost something just as important as my ____________.

My work at the News Sentinel has been ____________ and exciting. I’ve worked with people I never would have met had I been at home. I’ve spent my career ____________ sentences and stories and learning and passing along information about our community. My coworkers are my Tennessee family.

My work has been ____________ to me in important ways, and I think it has made me a more interesting and satisfied ____________ and parent. And our family has learned to __________ the time we do have together.

____________, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change my decision to be a working mom. And I wouldn’t change a single thing about the kids who ____________ it.

【推荐3】My phone rang. It was my adviser calling to tell me a preprint (预印本) had just been posted that identified wrong data in a ________ we’d published. My heart sank as he said the article would be retracted (撤回). We couldn’t ________ long—the plane soon took off. I spent the 16-hour flight processing a mix of ________—disbelief, embarrassment, frustration—and ________ what this would mean for my career.

After the plane landed, I found I received a flood of messages. Some were from supportive coworkers, but many ________ of our work. I felt embarrassed by the criticism.

By that point, I had ________ a position. Coworkers encouraged me to ignore ________ that seemed to be directed at me ________. But it was hard. I struggled with self-esteem, started to ________ meetings and deleted my Twitter account to protect my ________ health.

When it became clear that a retraction was ________, I offered my resignation to my department head. He didn’t ________ it, saying a resignation wasn’t needed, considering the ________ in the article were honest mistakes.

I decided to ________, in hopes that I could eventually recover my ________ by publishing sound science and demonstrating I’d learned from my mistakes. But that has turned out to be a ________ path: I’ve had trouble getting my articles ________ and had problems securing funding for new projects.

Despite (尽管) these ________, I don’t regret our decision to ________ my paper. It may have been embarrassing, but it was the ________ thing to do. And the experience helped me grow as a scientist.