2 . When I was a young boy, our whole family lived in my grandma’s old house right beside a set of railroad tracks. I can remember the whole house would ________ when the trains rolled by. These trains hauling (运；拉) coal cars were few and far between, so I often spent my summer afternoons walking down the ________. I can remember the first time I tried to ________ myself and walk on a single rail. The steel rails were very narrow and quite slippery ________ I didn’t have much ________. First I tried ________ my arms and watching my feet as I walked. This only ________ to me shaking and falling off after a few steps. I decided to walk backwards once but quickly slipped off and skinned my ankle on the rail. It was only when I started looking ahead down the length of the tracks ________ I was able to walk the rail. Keeping my eyes forward, I put one foot in front of the other and was soon walking with ease.

Looking back on this time, I now ________ that it also gave me a ________ lesson about living. You can’t go through life watching and worrying about every step you take or ________ you make. This only leads to second guessing yourself and you soon go off the rails. Looking behind you is even worse. ________ your eyes on the past, you can’t see the way ahead. You can only stand still and stay ________ in your regrets. It is only when you look ahead that you can really move forward and see the life you want to lead. Then each step you take and the choice you make is ________ with love and enjoyment for life and you will walk on with a ________ heart.

We all need to keep our eyes forward. We all need to look ahead with love and enjoyment for life. We all need to see with our hearts the life we want to live.

3 . I have been afraid of heights for as long as I can remember. When I was 11, my school built a leadership training center that had various challenges. The most ________ of them all was called “The Leap of Faith”, where you had to climb a ________ to a platform 11 meters high. Once there, you had to ________ the platform and reach out to grab a rope. I had seen students do it and had sworn there was no way I would ever ________ it.

One day my teacher asked me, “Are you going to try?” I ________ it off and told him that he couldn’t pay me to do it. ________, he encouraged me until finally I agreed to do it.

I climbed up and when I got to the top, I was in shock and couldn’t move. Seeing this, my teacher ________ that instead of jumping off the platform and grabbing the rope, I just sit on the edge and then slide down. I sat down, but still couldn’t bring myself to slide off the ________. I sat there for 20 minutes. Finally, with the encouragement of my class, I slid down.

When I finally reached the ground, I heard two boys ________ me about it behind my back. So, I decided I wanted to ________ again.

Over the next two weeks, I did all sorts of things to ________ myself. I jumped off tables and did some high ropes stuff. One morning before school I went down to the center, climbed to the top of the ladder, encouraged myself and then...I DID IT! I had never before felt so ________ of myself.

I learned so much during that time. The most important thing was that sometimes situations are ________ but that doesn’t make them impossible. People will doubt you in life, but I have learned that ________ is the best way to reply to people like that.

So, always keep dreaming and don’t let your ________ get in the way.

4 . It is the eighth time this summer that Guo Xiunan has failed to grow vegetables without chemical pesticides.

“I will not give up _______ and next time, I shall conduct the _______ with mustard oil” the 29-year-old farmer says.

Covering 0.67 hectares of farmland and 1.33 hectares of woodland and wetland, his farm is located on the outskirts of Hefei, Anhui province. He is trying to turn it into a(n) _______ farm, cultivating fruits and vegetables with the same _______ of those from his childhood memories.

“Growing tasty and healthy food has been my dream since I was a teenager. I know how _______ it can be. However, if you take the soil seriously, I believe it will _______ ” Guo says.

He adds that farming is not a business that can make money in a short time, but for him, it became an _______ issue when his father was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year, ringing an alarm bell over food safety. Guo says overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is _______ farming. It does not only damage the soil, but also people’s health.

As well as _______ different strategies for cultivation on the farm himself, he has to develop ________ channels for his products. In March, he ________ his first post online to introduce his business. His account now has nearly 6,000 ________ , which is beyond his expectations. As people around him ________ his decision to till the land instead of working in the city, his followers were there to ________ him, just like they did through hard times on the farm.

“Maybe it is because I’ve realized their dream life, one that they dare not ________ ” Guo says.

5 . Growing up in the USA, I always wanted to experience another culture. The _________ came when I was 15. After a few months of planning and _________, I was ready to spend the second semester of my first high school year as a(n) _________ student in Australia.

_________ in Perth was one of the most exciting moments of my life. I realized then that there was no turning back. The family I would live with was _________ me, and it would only be five days before the new school year. The _________ I attended was different from my school back in the States. I was quite _________ at first, especially never having been to a new school — even in the US. Everything went without _________, though. The teachers were welcoming and the students were friendly.

The most _________ time was travelling with other exchange students around Australia during our semester break. The few weeks we __________ together were full of amazing activities.

At the end of our __________ in Australia, we had three weeks to share our stories and help each other deal with leaving. It was only __________ that our last day together was filled with tears. We packed our camp, exchanged e-mail addresses and __________ together for a final good-bye. Upon coming home, an open mind was again important. Resettling home took time and __________, but at last I made it. All the while, I was thoughtful to letting my family and friends know how __________ I was to be home and how much I had missed them — though the experience is still unforgettable with me. So, if you have the opportunity to study abroad, you most certainly should.

10 . As a teenager in the 1960s, growing up in suburbs south of Boston, I fell under the control of the very pleasantly ________ mysteries (谜) of the Chinese language. Someday, I told myself, I would ________ the meanings of the mysteries.

So, entering college, I decided to ________ the study of Chinese. But my small college in Maine offered no courses in that language. Following graduation from college, I entered an evening course at a language center for adults, and thus ________ my personal journey in the study of Chinese. That journey ________ George Washington and Georgetown universities, the Department of State’s Foreign Language Institute’s early mornings classes… and after a 15-year ________, restarted in tutoring classes starting in 1999 and later in independent study at George Mason University without ________ From 1983 and through the following decades, a dozen business trips to China ________ my study of Chinese, I experienced the amazing change of China.

In 2012, I retired. I began to attend weekly presentations about Chinese affairs sponsored (主办) by George Mason’s Confucius Institute, where by late 2014 this casual (偶然的) contact had led to the ________ of a Chinese Reading Club. By mid-2016 six experienced Chinese learners could read and discuss difficult, ________ literary shorter works of such ________ Chinese authors as Mo Yan, Liu Zhenyun, and Su Tong.

Under the teachers’ guidance the ________ and joys of the group meetings to understand the secretes of the short stories I read, in Chinese, have brought me to a deeper understanding of China. I am personally ________ for the opportunity provided. I can only suggest George Mason Confucius Institute consider ________ the model of this reading group to others, as the world’s most spoken and read language is ________ popular among the Westerners who have started the wonderful voyage to it.