1 . Thirteen can be a challenging age. Not only did I have to _______ my changing body, I also had to deal with the _______ move from my country home to a crowded suburb.

When we moved, my beloved _______, a small brown pony, had to be sold. Feeling alone, I couldn’t eat or sleep. I missed my friends and my pony. My father realized that and _______ an old horse for me in the market. I named him Cowboy.

Cowboy was without a doubt the _______ horse in the world, and he was pigeon-toed and knock-kneed. But I didn’t _______ his faults. I loved him beyond all reason. I joined a riding club and _______ rude comments about Cowboy’s looks. I never revealed how I felt, but deep down inside, my heart was _______. When Cowboy and I entered the events _______ the horse is judged on appearance, we were ________ out of the game. This ________ experience made me determined to do something.

And then I realized that my only chance to ________ would be in the timed-speed events. I chose barrel racing (绕桶比赛). For the whole next month I woke up early every day, rode Cowboy five miles to the arena (比赛场) and we ________ for hours in the hot sun.

My turn ________ came. At the signal, we dashed toward the first barrel, quickly whipped around it and with perfect precision ________ the second and thundered on to the third. We tore around the final curve and shot for the ________ line. No cheers filled the air. The end of our run was met with surprised ________. With the sound of my heart pounding in my ears, I heard the ________ call our time. Cowboy and I had beaten other fancy horses and won the blue ribbon!

________, I gained much more than a blue ribbon that day. At thirteen, I realized that no matter what the difficulties, I’d always come out a ________ if I wanted something badly enough to work for it. I can be the master of my own destiny.

2 . In an international spelling contest (竞赛) in America, an 11-year-old girl was asked to spell a certain word. But with her _________ voice the judges were not sure if she spelled the word with the letter A or E. They talked it over and _________ decided to simply ask her what she had said. By now, the girl knew she had _________ the word, but instead of lying, she told the truth that she had said the _________ letter — so she lost the contest.

As the girl walked off the _________, the entire audience stood to their feet, clapping (鼓掌) to applaud her _________. Later, dozens of newspaper reporters wrote about this 11-year-old girl’s good quality, even when it _________ her the contest. But the fact is that she _________ the biggest contest that day: the contest of her _________.

Probably the biggest test of our character and honesty is what we should do if we knew we would never get __________. This young girl could easily have __________ and nobody would have known it but herself. But that’s just it: She would know she did wrong. It’s been said, “If you __________, you make yourself cheap.” This young girl was strong and smart enough to __________ her own conscience (良知) and character more than the prize from a spelling __________. Her pride was more important than any __________ others might give her for winning a contest. She knew she would have to __________ herself and the choice she made in that moment will have long-lasting influence.

It’s so true that the choices you make today __________ you what you are tomorrow. Our children will __________ our behavior much more than our advice. So if we want them to __________ to be honest, we must show them the way by being honest ourselves. Remember, our kids are __________ what we do and how we live even when we don’t think they see or know.

3 . When my dad finally finished the triathlon (铁人三项)in Montauk, the crowd cheered. It showed me how his hard work paid off and it excited my_________ . I wondered whether a small boy of my size could _________ something like that. I found myself _________this out loud and my father overheard me. He _________me and said I could train with him.

Training with my clad turned out to be very_________. We would get up very early for a morning jog or go for a swim in the pool after school. After a few weeks of training, I _________ my first triathlon. Before the competition, I nervously waited for the_________.

When someone fired the gun. I was off,_________towards the distant buoy (浮标)that marked my turn. I finished the half-mile swim and ran towards my _________. I was dripping wet,trying to __________it. Once on the bike, I experienced an excitement specific to __________. I went through the transition zone and__________ my running shoes. At the start of the run part of the triathlon, my__________ already felt like they were made of cement (水泥).

For me, the real competition began during the run, because now I could see each competitor as a target. No matter my__________in the field, each racer was either following me__________ being followed. The run part of the race was in fact__________tolerance.

“Shut up, legs”, one of my favorite sayings, kept me from thinking about the__________feeling. Then I crossed the finish line. I took a breath and then began a(an)__________with the other finishers. The sense of__________was there for all of us.

Looking back, I remember the small boy on that day in Montauk who doubted whether he could__________it, like his dad. Now, that same boy is not only a huge fan, but also a training partner as well.