4 . It was 4 o’clock in the morning when I received the phone call.

“This is the emergency room calling and your son was just ______ in with serious burns on his face, neck and arms.” The doctor described the ______ , which caused the burns. At 6 am, our son and his friends decided to barbecue hamburgers in the courtyard of their apartment. Unfortunately, the charcoal (木炭) burst into flames because they had sprayed too much petrol. The flames ______ my son’s shirt tail and shot from his waist to well over his head.

______ , one of the boys was quick-minded, grasped my son, and ______ him on the grass. While it saved his life, there was not enough ______ to save him from fearful burns and the terrible scars (伤疤).

After he recovered from the treatments, the doctors told him they would not do plastic surgery (整形手术) for 6 months ______ it took that long for the skin to stop shrinking and wrinkling. So he had to return to college with typical scars of burns.

When I was a child, my mother told my sister who had a very ______ 10-inch scar on her arm, “Nancy, if you ignore the scar, other people will ignore it. It does not mean they will not ______ it, but it means it will not matter to them if it doesn’t matter to you.”

I ______ this wisdom on to my son. He took my advice to heart and returned to school with his head held high — glad he was alive. By the end of the six-month waiting period, he decided that the scars did not ______ , so he made the ______ to give up any plastic surgery.

We all have “scars” that we believe will ______ people to keep away from us. And we spend a lot of time thinking that if we looked differently, or dressed differently, people would like us better. But you see, people will only judge you by your looks, or your clothes, if you are judging yourself by these same ______ standards. Put your imperfections out of your mind and concentrate on what you value ______ yourself, and your beauty will shine through.

5 . I met my art teacher Ms. J in the seventh grade and she changed me.

In her first class, she encouraged us to ________ what art meant. During the discussion about facial structure and paintings, she________ the “golden ratio (黄金比例)”, a beauty standard and explained how Da Vinci applied it to his works to ensure they were visually (视觉上) attractive.

I couldn’t help but think that if my ________ had been measured against the “golden ratio”, my score would have been low.

I was born with a facial disfigurement (缺陷) and my face looked ________. After several appointments with ________, my face was changed many times with little improvement. I ________ seeing myself in the mirror.

People’s strange words and curious expressions kept telling me that I was different. Worse still my photo appeared in a magazine with big letters “Face similar to works of Picasso” right below. I felt ________.

I told Ms. J about my ________ and how my face was compared to Picasso’s painting. “Art isn’t about what you see but about what you ________.” She comforted me and told me that our ________ appearances were our signatures that we left in the world, which set us ________ and made us beautiful. And then she showed me a picture of an old man with long white hair. “You see, Da Vinci doesn’t look too pretty, but his works ________ beauty on us,” she added.

I was touched by her words, and I wondered why I had never thought this way. “Being compared to Picasso may seem like a shame, but it’s a(n) ________. You are unique and you are a masterpiece.”

Today, when I look into the mirror, I will remember the words of my teacher, “Beauty is subjective” and I get to know my appearance is my ________.

It takes me years to ________ that beauty is more than a cold calculation(计算).

6 . Afraid to have a start, I was walking slowly into my first school in America. I had _______ a long way from India in order to join parents. They had been here for three years, and hoped America would help my future. My father decided that I would go to school here, so I found a local high school in my new town.

With _______ on one hand and fear on the other, I arrived at the classroom. Everyone’s eyes were on me as I entered the classroom. Without paying attention to them, I went straight to the _______ and asked if it was the right class. With a _______ voice, he answered, “Yes.” His voice comforted (安慰) me a little. He gave me a piece of _______ called “course requirements”, which I would never get in India. Then he asked me to choose where I would sit. I chose the _______   closest to the door instead of the corner where all of the boys were sitting. I didn’t _______ want to pick a seat. In India, the teacher _______ the seats, so I never needed to worry about that. I spent the rest of the class taking notes from the picture produced by the overhead projector (投影仪).

_______ it was my first day, I was confused (困惑的) about which hallway (走廊) to use, but I ________ to get to my classes without asking anyone. I was very confused about when I would have ________. It was noon when I went to my next class and the bell rang as I entered. I went through the normal process of asking the teacher if I was in the right class. Feeling ________, she said, “That is the lunch bell.” I felt a little awkward. Without another word, I headed for the cafeteria (食堂).

At the end of the day, I was on my way to the bus stop. I realized that all the ________ was like the difficulty I had to ________ to reach my goal. I ________ my bus and sat down inside happily. I said to myself: Today isn’t so bad.

7 . Having worked at a 7-Eleven store for two years, I thought I had become successful at what our manager calls “customer relations”. I firmly believed that a _________ smile and an automatic greeting would see me through any_________ that might arise. But the other night an old woman _________ my belief that a simple response could smooth over the difficulty of dealing with all kinds of customers.

The moment she entered, the woman presented a sharp _________ to our shiny store with its bright lighting and neatly arranged shelves. Walking as if each step were _________, she slowly pushed open the glass door. She coughed dryly, and _________ noisily with each breath. On a forty-degree night, she was wearing only a faded dress, a thin sweater too _________ to button.

After _________ around the store quietly for several minutes, the old woman stopped in front of the rows of canned vegetables. As I stood close to her, ready to help, my smile became harder to _________;her red-rimmed eyes were __________ closed by an old wound and the unpleasant smell of sweat rose from clothes.

“I need some food, but I can’t pay” she muttered in reply to my bright “Can I help you?” For a second, I wanted to say, “Take the can of corn.” But the employee rules __________ into my mind: Remain polite, but do not let customers get the __________ of you. Let them know that you are in control. I responded dutifully, “I’m sorry, but I can’t __________ anything for free.”

Moments after she left, I rushed out of the door with the can of corn, but she was nowhere in __________. For the rest of my shift, the image of the woman kept coming to my mind. I was __________ to realize how weak we are to stick to our better instincts (本性) when facing a moral dilemma.

9 . I embarked on an overnight bus journey from Kolhapur to Aurangabad in India. The bus—an ordinary, non-air-conditioned one—was more than _________. All 55 seats were taken and there were some 20 people ___________ in the aisle(过道). The hot day_________ the discomfort of the 10-hour journey. Because I was travelling on a student bus pass I had no choice but to stand.

After approximately two extended hours, I was wet with ___________ in the noise of the bus. I suddenly ___________ a hand tapping my hand, asking for ___________. Turning around, I found a middle-aged man with a smile looking up at me. He stood up and said I could take his ___________ for a little while. I was pleasantly ___________ and immediately accepted his offer, my entire body feeling a sense of relief. And the man just stood next to me, looking around. After about 20 minutes, I signaled him to ___________ his space. Another man, who was sitting by the window on the other side of the bus, had observed our ____________.

Just then, something ____________ happened. Our observer stood up and offered his seat to another standing man. All of a sudden, we had unexpectedly caused a chain reaction: almost all the standees got a(n) ____________ to be seated. More surprisingly, people even started chatting with each other while exchanging their positions, and soon began sharing jokes. Needless to say, the rest of the journey was quite ____________.

The bus reached its destination the next morning. I stood in the early morning light, waving goodbye to the groups, who went their separate routines. But this extraordinary experience has stayed with me after all the years. I am always ____________ of an important life lesson—that we can all ____________ what we have, including our burdens, and help our co-passengers in the journey of life.

10 . When I tried out for the football team during the summer before 9th grade, I never imagined how important this sport would become in my life. Football is a _____ sport, at times almost painful, and practices really _____ a team’s physical and mental limits. Without trust in my own ability and a strong sense of commitment, I would never have managed to continue after years of hard work as a player, and with countless _____.

In the first year, I played on the defensive line. This was an amazing _____ that gave me a great sense of achievement. But in the last game of the season, I was seriously injured. I was prohibited from any physical activities for six months. After going _____ a series of physical treatments, I returned to the field as a team captain. I practiced harder than ever to make up for my _____ time.

In September, during my junior year, my name was mentioned in the local newspaper as the key defensive lineman on the team. After playing a fantastic season, I was given the _____ of the Most Valuable Player.

_____, my skills in football do not magically extend to other sports. During the winter break, I went on a snowboarding trip and seriously injured my right shoulder. I had to have four _____. Since I could not use my right arm for two months, I had to learn how to write and eat using my left hand.

______ life must go on. I knew that my own present efforts would decide my future, so I ______ the strict training program to build up strength and improve flexibility in my ______. After an eight-month recovery, I was back to the field playing football, the sport I ______.

In this sense, the world of football has taught me an important life lesson: ______ and commitment make what seems impossible ______. This lesson from football is the one that can be applied to every part of life.