1 . Rejection doesn’t always hurt. Sometimes rejection may _________ a more certain path to our final goals.

This year football fans have been watching to see how Joe would _________ in the playoffs(季后赛) this season. Joe dreamed to play in the National Football League (NFL), but his journey wasn’t a(n) _________ one. He applied to several colleges, but none _________ him. Later, he got into Ohio State, but he sat on the _________ for three years. Ohio State had a great football program and coaches, who didn’t think Joe had _________. But Joe thought differently. He _________ Nebraska and got rejected once again, but he didn’t quit. Then he applied to Louisiana State University, which accepted him. The rest is history.

Joe became the Heisman Trophy _________ during his senior year, then he was admitted to the NFL, and later, his team participated in the World Championship.

Joe’s story reminds us that there are _________ paths to our final goals and that it __________ strong endurance and determination to reach them. No single __________ is going to prevent you from __________ your long-term goals. Be sure to__________ the pain that comes from disappointment and face it bravely. Try to focus on goals rather than the __________ outcome of being rejected and remember that the hurt of rejection comes from how we __________ it.

2 . I cleared the dishes from the kitchen table, with Mama following close behind to carry our tableware to the kitchen. There was no stopping her. Despite everything, she still wants to _______ , I thought.

My mama had _______ in moving around and had lost much of her speech to Parkinson’s disease. After a recent fall that left her with a broken arm, the _______ suggested she use a wheelchair. It was _______ to see her like this. From the time I was a kid, Mama had always been an active person with a positive _______ . I could still see her in my mind, cooking and cleaning in the house I grew up in, sometimes humming (哼唱) while _______ .

Now I did my best to _______ her like she’d done for me. I made the long drive as often as possible to _______ her and help around the house. Independent as ever, she never _______ working. “You’ve done ________ , Mama,” I said when she took the towel to clean the table. Where does she get the ________ ？

I turned on the tap to wash our dishes and noticed a ________ coming from Mama’s direction. I turned off the running water. Mama was humming! I ________ as she moved around the table, her happy song filling the room. “What’s it that you’re humming, Mama?” “Count Your Blessings (常怀感恩),” she ________ with a smile on her face.

________ , it was where Mama’s strength came from. There was no stopping her from being thankful, always.

4 . I’m obsessed (迷恋) with music. As a teenager, I couldn’t leave the house without my ____. My summers were filled with festivals, and my shelves with ____.

But one day last year something changed. I became aware of a faint tapping sound in my left ear. It wasn’t loud enough to be ____, but the next day it turned into a whooshing sound. By the weekend it had started to become hard to ____ in my left ear.

I was then sent to see specialists. They said it was the mitochondrial disease that caused the ____, but they couldn’t say for sure. So ____, I am still undiagnosed (没有确诊). 

I was given hearing aids, but they didn’t work. I’ve signed up for a lip-reading course and am ____ British Sign Language. My friends have been ____, some have offered to learn BSL, but I feel it’s really me who has to ____ this new life.

Other deaf people have warned of feeling isolated (孤立) and I’m determined not to make that my ____. I do get ____ when I have to go out of my comfort zone. Going to a bar and asking for a drink is fine ____ they start making small talk—at that point I’ll declare I’m deaf.

I’ve always preferred to ____ ahead, but since this happened I take life day by day. The doctors have speculated (推测) that my ____ might come back. The future is ____, but I’m at peace with that.

5 . It was a September day. Today was the first day of high school for a freshman, Kayla. Kayla had always been a bit of a shy kid, but she had always ______ her studies. She was determined to make full use of her high school years.

As she walked down the hallways, Kayla couldn’t help but feel ______. The older students seemed so confident, while she felt small and unimportant, But Kayla was determined to succeed, no matter what ______ came her way.

It wasn’t long before Kayla’s determination was put to the ______. In her first week of school, she was assigned (分派) a (n) ______ project that required a lot of research and planning. Kayla did her ______, but she soon realized that she was in over her head. As she struggled (努力) to complete the project, Kayla began to ______ herself. She wondered if she was cut out for high school. But then, something ______ happened.

Kayla’s classmates began to notice how ______ she was working, and they started to offer her help and ______. They gave her advice on how to ______ her time better, and they shared their tips for ______ assignments. With their help, Kayla was able to complete the project on time and with great ______.

From that day on, Kayla ______ that high school was not a challenge to be faced alone. With the help and support of her ______, she was able to deal with any difficulty that came her way.

6 . When the weather starts to warm up, we love heading to the beach for a few days. During one such trip, after a few days of being _________ on the beach and spending too much time walking the boardwalk, we decided to go for a _________.

We _________ a car for the day and drove to Key West. Our _________ was to enjoy a scenic drive on Highway 1 and maybe try some pie and head back, but the day _________ to be more memorable than that.

It was a breathtaking drive and we kept our eyes glued to the window. The scenery was _________ and felt like we were driving over water. When we were closer to Key West, _________ my husband-stopped the car, grabbed his camera, and ran out looking up at the sky—_________ me looking at him confused (困惑的).

After a few minutes of looking and pointing at a shiny object in the sky, he was pretty _________ to announce he’d spotted a UFO. I should __________ here that he loves sci-fi movies and UFO shows and strongly __________ we are not alone.

We eventually got back in the __________, stopped at a nearby store, and asked someone in the parking lot, “Do you see that shiny thing in the sky?” The man looked up and __________, “Do you mean that weather blimp (气象飞艇)?” The shiny object in the sky was not an unidentified flying object or alien craft but a weather blimp.

It is one of the short funny travel __________ that always come up when we talk about our __________. It starts with one of the kids saying “Remember the time when Dad thought he saw a UFO...?” and always makes us laugh.

7 . People often use “Choubaguai” to play jokes on others’ looks. However, at first, this word did not refer to ________ people. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a special group of eight painters in   Yangzhou: Jin Nong, Zheng Xie, Huang Shen, Li Shan, Li Fangying, Wang Shishen, Luo Pin and Gao Xiang. Most of them were born into poor families. So they put their feelings about life into paintings by ________ how common people lived.These paintings were different from ________ of other artists.

Other artists didn’t like their paintings. They dismissed (对……不屑一提) them as “Yangzhou Baguai”. Their paintings ________ “Choubaguai” by some artists. However, common people     were interested in their paintings. Their painting styles still have a great ________ on painters in   modern times.

9 . William Dunn is the founder of Take a Kid Fishing, which teaches fatherless kids through fishing. Ten years ago, William noticed his six-year old neighbor, Camran, seemed___________ . He’d storm out of the house, shouting at his ___________. One day, William saw the boy outside and started a conversation. Camran_________that his dad wasn’t in his life.

William asked Camran’s mother for___________to take him fishing. Camran was interested from that first trip. The two fished together several times a week, and William saw ___________changes in Camran’s behaviour. Soon William ___________more kids in the neighbourhood in his activity.

William and other volunteers___________take 20 to 25 kids out fishing on a boat on weekends. Besides the neighbourhood, William___________local orphanage to invite the kids to spend the day on the water. Many have never been fishing or even on a boat, so William starts by teaching the___________. Then come the life lessons that fishing ____________: patience, teamwork and the simple joy of ____________in the outdoors.

So far, this organization has taken more than 600 fishing ____________with almost 2, 000 fatherless kids. Many kids choose to catch and____________, but on a recent trip, they kept the fish and enjoyed their delicious fishmeal that night.

Fishing did have a huge impact on children.____________, if you know a child who you get on well with, introduce them to fishing. The activity doesn’t matter as much as your____________in their lives.