Did you know that vocabulary（词汇）is more important than _________? If you have a wide vocabulary, you can communicate well, even if the grammar is not completely perfect. That’s why we say a large vocabulary is very _________ to successful language learning.

Every language learner wants to increase vocabulary. For those who have a good _________, it’s not difficult to learn the vocabulary. It seems that they _________ work hard at vocabulary, but they can _________ remember most words and hardly forget them. However, for most of the learners, it’s difficult. The survey shows that _________ learners can remember the words for a long time. When you want to use a word, you find you’ve forgotten it. Does it often happen to you? This is because most learners have no idea about how to truly remember the words. They don’t know it’s impossible to remember the words _________ just reading them and spelling them.

So is there any _________ to helping us learn vocabulary and remember the words successfully? The answer is “Yes”. The best way is to write and use the words right away. Every time you learn a new word, write it on your notebook and make sentences with it. You can find and write the example sentences from the textbook first. Then _________ your own example sentences. It’s best if your example sentences are true to your life, because this help to __________ your life with the new word. The next day, try to add one more example sentence using the new word. These two simple steps—writing the word and using it right away—help you remember and use new words.

When I was little, I was really little. But my dream was big. I dreamed of being a basketball player. I tried out for the teams at school, but I was never given a chance.

As I got older, I did grow a little bigger, but not a lot bigger. On my 12th birthday, I decided to try a new sport: running. I told Grandpa, “I’m going to be an athlete（运动员）.”

“Dave,” Grandpa began gently, “if you can’t be big, you can do something big.”

I ran 12 miles on my 12th birthday. On my 13th birthday, I did it again, but I added an extra（额外的）mile. On my 14th birthday, I ran 14 miles. 15 on my 15th, 16 on my 16th, and you guessed it—17 miles on my 17th birthday.

All this running inspired（激发）another big dream. Someday, I’d run the Boston Marathon（波士顿马拉松赛）. I told Grandpa about my decision.

“But, Dave, you haven’t trained for the marathon. Are you sure you’re ready?” Grandpa asked. But he still promised to walk over and cheer me on.

I ran fast that day, but I fell at Mile 18 and was driven to the hospital. Later that night, I called Grandpa and told him I failed.

“No,” he said calmly, “you didn’t fail. You discovered something.”

“I did?” I asked.

“Yes, you discovered that big dreams don’t just come true. They take work. If you train and work hard, I promise to wait for you next year and cheer you on.”

I trained every day, running miles and miles. Sadly, just one week before the Boston Marathon, Grandpa fell ill and had to be in hospital. He couldn’t come for my second Boston Marathon. I decided I’d run for him.

That day, I ran fast. “Keep going! You can do it!”His words filled my head as I forced my legs to make each painful step. As I crossed the finish line, I threw my arms in the air and cried, “Grandpa, we did it!”