I dreamed of becoming a teacher when I was little. However, I didn’t go to college after high school because my family was poor. Instead, I found     1     job and started working. But I didn’t want to give up my dream. In order to make my dream     2     (come) true, I returned to college. When I was 28 years old, I     3    (final) obtained my college degree.  

One day, I     4    (give) an opportunity for an interview at a primary school. I thought I’d surely get the job, but the fact that I lost the job made me     5    (surprise). I called the head teacher,     6     gave me the interview, and asked why. He said he thought highly     7     me until the end of the interview. He noticed a hole in one of my socks. He said, “If someone doesn’t take the time     8    (present) her best image at an interview, what kind of teacher is she going to be?” Because of carelessness, I failed     9    (get) the job I wanted. Meanwhile, I remembered the head teacher’s words. So far I     10    (find) another job and I love it very much.

Nick was born without limbs(四肢), so life was not easy for him. At school many students played jokes on him because he looked different from everyone else. He     1    (refuse)to be others’ friend. He always felt lonely     2     others were chatting together. However, he faced that     3    (brave). He learned     4    (type)and write with two toes at the age of six, and he could even surf and play golf. Now Nick is one of     5    (popular) speakers in the world. And his spirit has moved lots of young people. He has traveled to many countries and given     6    (speech)about his stories against difficulties. ”Living life fully is about looking at what you have, not what you don’t have,“ he said. He     7    (use)his stories to touch thousands of hearts around the world already. And he is going to continue to share his stories     8    others in the rest of his life.

“I tell people to keep on     9    (get)up when they fall down and always love     10    (they).” he said, “If I can encourage just one person, then my job in this life is done.”

Why don’t we choose to be positive like him?

When I applied to join an expedition, Shackleton turned me     1    .But I secretly went aboard his ship, the Endurance.

The journey had not been easy. Endurance became     2     (stick) in the ice and we had to abandon the ship. Shackleton     3     (calm) called us together and told us to rescue our most essential     4     (supply).We were camped on the ice and we had been managing to survive, but spring     5     (come), and the ice would soon begin to melt. Things on Elephant Island were going from bad to     6    . Shackleton left us to find help on South Georgia Island, 1,320 kilometers away—the voyage was too dangerous and difficult for all of us     7     (make) it in our small boats. If Shackleton failed, would we have any hope of rescue? No.

Bless Frank Wild, the kindest man there was after our leader, Ernest Shackleton. Without Frank and Ernest, we’d all be     8     (die) by now. Their genuine concern for others, their     9     (persevere), and their resolve filled me     10     hope.

Perhaps there was a chance we would return home, after all.

More than 20 years ago, when Gao Zhongtai was a reporter in Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu province, he started     1    (follow) news about the research and development of China’s deep-sea     2    (man) submersibles at the China Ship Scientific Research Center.

The Wuxi-based center, China’s largest ship and ocean engineering research institute, is behind the success of the country’s three deep-sea manned submersibles: Jiaolong (Sea Dragon), Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior) and Fendouzhe (Striver).

Gao     3    (conduct) interviews with the key scientists and engineers. However, his reporting was never going to get the story behind the story, or the intricate details about the research and development.

That is why Gao, in his 60s, wrote the book Shenqian (Diving Deep),     4    (publish) earlier this year, in which he recorded how scientists and engineers     5    (develop) the world’s most advanced deep-sea manned submersibles in the last 20 years,     6    (start) from scratch.

Before Shenqian, Gao published nonfiction works like Dying to Survive, about a leukemia patient trying to save himself and other cancer patients by illegally     7    (buy) generic drugs from India, and history novels set in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He is also a TV series screenwriter.

Since Fendouzhe, China’s most advanced deep-sea manned submersible, successfully traveled to the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, the deepest natural frontier on Earth, in 2020, Gao has always wanted     8    (write) a book about this feat.

Although he had been following the news for decades, he still found it difficult     9    (understand) the science and technology used on deep-sea manned submersibles. He spent a great deal of time trying     10    (figure) out. To better discuss the motivation of exploring the ocean, he also researched more about the sea.