Why open a school? If you ask Nadia Lopez this question, she would simply answer: to close a prison.

Lopez is the founder (创始人) of Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a public school in Brooklyn, One of the ______   neighborhoods in New York City. It faced many ______: a lack of money, teachers, and parental education, as well as competition from neighborhood gangs (帮派). The greatest challenge is to contact with (接触) children

______ hope. At first, Lopez only had 45 kids to start. If she asked a 13-year-old, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” the answer would be, “I don’t know ______ I’m going to live that long.” Or to have a young woman say to her that she had a ______ goal of working in a fast-food restaurant.

These students had no idea that there were opportunities ______ their neighborhood, said Lopez, who shared the story in a TED speech.

Fortunately, Lopez and her coworkers didn’t ______ , and have made every effort to keep their students active and ______ .

“We call our students ‘scholars’, because they’re lifelong learners. I chose the royal colors of purple and black because I want them to be ______ that they are children of great peoples, and that ______ education, they are     ______ engineers, scientists and even leaders who can and will take over this world,” Lopez said.

A popular New York blogger (博主) heard about the school and wrote a post about it, telling ______ the children struggled, and why people must make ______ a priority (首要事情). The post reached millions of people, about 1, 4 million dollars were raised for the school and is students got to take field trips to colleges and universities, ______ study in a STEM program.

“To date, we have had three graduating classes, at a 98 percent graduation rate (毕业率). This is ______ 200 children,” said Lopez.