1 . Jenna, a popular girl from Westwood Middle School, had graduated first in her class and was ready for new_______ in high school.  

_______, high school was different. In the first week, Jenna went to tryouts for cheerleaders. She was competing against very talented girls, and she knew it would be _______ for her to be selected. Two hours later, the _______ read a list of the girls for a second tryout. Her heart _______ as the list ended without her name. Feeling _______, she walked home carrying her schoolbag full of homework. 

Arriving home, she started with math. She had always been a good math student, but now she was_______. She moved on to English and history, and was _______ to find that she didn’t have any trouble with those _______. Feeling better, she decided not to________ math for the time being. 

Later in math class, Jenna devoted herself to figuring out the problems that had given her so much________. By the end of class, she understood how to get them right. As she gathered her books, Jenna decided she’d continue to try to ________ at her new school. She wasn’t sure if she’d succeed, but she knew she had to ________. High school was just as her mom had said, “You will feel like a small fish in a big pond ________ a big fish in a small pond. The challenge is to become the ________ fish you can be.”

2 . For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines; a never-ending flood of words. In getting a job advancing, the ability to read and comprehend ____ can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are ____ readers. Most of us develop poor reading habits at an early age, and never ____ them. The main shortage lies in the actual stuff of language itself – words. Taken individually, words have little____ until they are combined together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs. Unfortunately, ____, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He read one word at a time with difficulty, often regressing to ____ words or passages. Regression, namely, the tendency to look back over what you have just read, is a common ____ habit in reading. Another bad habit which ____ the speed of reading is vocalization –sounding each word either ____ or mentally as one reads.

To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an accelerator, which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined speed. The bar is set a slightly ____ rate than the reader finds comfortable, in order to “____” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast, making word-by-word reading, regression and sub-vocalization, practically ____. At first comprehension is ____ speed. But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, but your comprehension will improve. Many people have found their reading skill ____ improved after some training. Take Charles Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute before the training, now it is an excellent 1,378 words a minute. He is delighted that now he can go through a lot more reading material in a(n) ____ period of time.

3 . British brothers James and Thomas Lindesay have spent months traveling across the Great Wall of China on foot. They ______ 3,263 kilometres, a remarkable achievement at any time.

Their ______ to complete this adventure came from their father, William Lindesay, who______ along the Wall decades ago and attracted a great deal of media attention. Born in 1956 in Liverpool, William became ______ about the Wall later in his life. In 1987, he made the ______ in China by hiking the Wall. He has committed over 30 years to the protection of the structure, and has ______ 10 books on the Wall based on his knowledge and experiences.

His action and books influenced his two sons, who now share his ______ in the Wall. In 2016, the Lindesay brothers flew drones (无人机) at many ______ along the Wall and edited video works on the ______ of the Wall, hoping to keep it safe from damage. Not ______ with merely documenting parts of the Wall, the young brothers ______ wanted to find a new way to experience the structure and finally they ______ hiking its length, following in their father’s footsteps.

The brothers’ trip was ______ than they had imagined. They met many difficulties. But______ the great wonder was life-changing, which gave them a better ______ of the structure and the history behind it.

4 . Devon Gallagher, a college graduate from Philadelphia,wants the world to know where she’s been during her great worldwide vacation in a special way.

The traveler, who was _______ with a bone disease, had her right leg _______ at the age of four. Although the amputation (截肢) caused difficulties for Gallagher early on, she, in her 20s now, _______ it as an inspiration for making the _______ of her life.

To spread that _______, Gallagher turns to social media,where she _______ photographs of her travels across the world, but instead of _______using a geographical tag, she draws her location across her artificial leg before taking a picture.

Now she has been taking pictures across Europe. “I get a new leg every two years and I can choose the design on it. One day I had a sudden _______ that my new leg could be used as a blackboard,” Gallagher said. “My mum and grandmother weren’t too _______ the idea, but my friends thought it was great and told me to go for it, so I did.”

Gallagher said people often stare when she’s __________ on her leg, but that once she shares the photos, she receives only praise and encouragement. “My leg __________ me from doing anything I’ve wanted to do,” she said. “I don’t know whether it is my determination to __________ to myself that I can do it, but anyhow, I’ve been able to __________ my peers and lead a pretty great life.”

Gallagher shows us that you should never let anything stand in the __________ of your dream. And if you meet with an obstacle (障碍), get __________ with it-if life gives you an artificial leg, make art.

5 . Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches (沟) along the highway I travel daily to work.

For 2 weeks, there is one particular blue flower that has always ________ my eye. I’ve noticed that it blooms (开花) only in the ________ hours. The afternoon sun is too warm for it.

This spring, I started a wildflower ________ in our yard. I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the ________ and see the flowers. I’ve often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ________ would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers. Every day I ________ the flowers thinking, “I’ll stop on my way home and ________ them.” Gee, I don’t want to get my good clothes ________. Whatever the reason, I stopped to dig them ________.

One day on my way home from work, I was quite ________ to see that the highway department had removed the ditches and the ________ blue flowers were gone. I thought to myself, “Way to go, you ________ too long. You should have done it when you first saw them in flowers this spring.”

A week ago we were shocked to learn that my oldest sister-in-law died from cancer. Unfortunately, ________ age and distance, we haven’t been as close as we all would have liked. I couldn’t help but see the connection between the blue flowers and the ________ between my husband’s sister and us.

And yes, if I see the blue flowers again, you can bet I’ll ________ and transport them to my wildflower garden.

6 . Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. We loved basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. Paul's favourite ______ was Tyrone Bogues, a guy who played for the Charlotte Hornets.

Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the ______ player ever in the NBA. Guess what? Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! Paul knew that being shorter than other players meant that he had to ______ more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his ______. Paul once said, “If Bogues could make it, why not me?”

Our coach was not so ______. Paul had to try out many times just for making the ______ . He was still ______ on the bench, being just someone taking the place, and just an under dog. Everyone knew Paul had real ______, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn't get a chance.

This week, The Lions were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team whose ______ this season had been ______ . They hadn't lost a single game. Paul didn't know he'd soon get the chance that he'd been waiting for.

Suddenly, a player and I crashed (碰撞) into each other. My knee hurt badly. The team gathered around, looking worried. The last ______ was about to begin, and my team was ______ by 10 points. I asked the coach to let Paul play.

The coach finally agreed. Paul ______ the chance and rushed onto the court. And ______, all the extra hours that he'd spent practising alone ______. The other team just couldn't keep up with his energy and speed. He made shot after shot, and the crowd couldn't stop clapping and cheering. When the game ended, our team had won by two points.

9 . The Pygmalion effect (皮格马利翁效应) means that positive expectations lead to better performance while negative expectations lead to worse performance.

I used to teach maths at a summer school. There I had a student who taught me a lot more than what I could ________ have taught him. Let’s call him Joey.

Though he ________ with maths at first, his eagerness and ________ never changed. I quickly ________ him as a star pupil. Joey shared with me one day that his mother passed away when he was young. Neither of his parents finished high school, so his mother’s ________ was just to see him graduate. His dad was a cleaner who worked long hours for low pay. Joey said he wanted to get his diploma ( 文 凭 ) so that he could get a better job because he ________ to see his dad happy.

From that day forward, I promised him to ensure he would pass. I taught him how to understand some of the ________ topics in maths. On the last day of the class, Joey ________ the final test. After all the students left, I ________ to help clean up. The head teacher told me that he was amazed at Joey’s ________ in the test, for he did a really good job _________his disabilities (缺陷).

The teacher went on to explain that Joey had learning disabilities and that some experts said he would never be able to do maths. I was ________ to hear this because I had never found it when I worked with him!

If he had learning disabilities, then how was he able to solve the problems related to difficult maths concepts ________ after some lessons? This question has ________ me for some time. After spending ________ hours searching, I have found the best explanation is the concept of the Pygmalion effect.

10 . There are about fifteen hundred languages in the world. But _______ a few of them are very _______. English is one of these. Many people use it, not only in England and the US, but in other parts of the world. About 200, 000, 000 people speak it as their own language. It is difficult to say how many people are learning it as a _______ language. Many millions are _______ to do so.

Is it easy or difficult to learn English? Different people may have different _______. Have you ever _______ the ads of this kind in newspapers or magazines?

“Learn English in six month, or your _______ back... ” “Easy and funny? Our records and tapes _______ you master your English in a month. _______ the first day your ________ will be excellent. Just send... ” Of course, it never ________ quite like this.

The only language that seems easy to learn is the mother tongue. We should ________ that we all learned our own language well when we were ________. If we could learn English in the same way, it would not seem so difficult. ________ what a small child does. He listens to what people say. He tries what he hears. When he is using the language, talking in it, and ________ in it all the time, just imagine how much ________ that he gets!

So it is ________ to say that learning English is easy, because a good command of English ________ upon a lot of practice. And practice needs great effort and ________ much time. Good teachers, records, tapes, books, and dictionaries will ________. But they cannot do the student’s work of him.