Jeremy’s school is a foreign language school. Every year, his school holds Language Week and several activities take place,     1     storytelling, speeches, performances and competitions.

This year, one competition     2     (catch) Jeremy’s attention. It was a Haiku writing competition. Haikus are a type of Japanese short poems with 17 syllables (音节). Students who took part had to hand in a few haikus written on a page.

Jeremy told his father about the writing competition as soon as he got home.     3     (hear) that, Jeremy’s father said, “Son, you should have a try. You’ve always     4     (score) well in your Japanese tests. And the competition sounds interesting!” Jeremy,     5     , was not so sure. He said, “I don’t think I’m creative. What if I can’t even win a prize? I don’t want to waste my time or effort.”

Faced with Jeremy’s negative (消极的) way of thinking, his father planned to educate him wisely. He said, “The result is indeed important. But the journey that one takes to get to the end makes more     6     (mean). If you can’t make the     7       (decide) which direction to go, consider if you are interested in it and learn something from it.” Jeremy listened to his father carefully and was encouraged by his words. Then he made up his mind     8     (write) some haikus and take part in the competition.

When     9       result came out, Jeremy was surprised at it. The first place was really beyond his     10     (expect). He said he would continue to write more haikus in the future.