1 . I’d love to have been a journalist, but I wasn’t _________ enough. I was always able to write a good letter — I just couldn’t stare at a blank sheet of paper and _________ a story. But I went into advertising after university and _________ fell in love with it.

I always had the _________ of speech. I was schooled at the dinner table. My father used to _________ arguments, saying we needed to learn how to make our case. It could get pretty _________. At school I ended up being captain of lots of things, not because I was the best player but because I could _________ people to do things. I learnt that you don’t have to be the most academically _________, or even the most original thinker — _________ is a big part of the battle. No wonder I felt at home in advertising.

People ____________ to stay in one company almost for life; I was always looking for the next ____________ to learn. I got into the advertising industry at Ogilvy, then went to Grey to ____________ experience on the Procter & Gamble account, and to Y&R to get creative experience. It ____________ me new-business director. Later I started my own business, HHCL, which was an amazing ____________.

My next move will be to ____________ all my skills in pioneering work. I know there is no end to learning. I will live and learn.

2 . I devote myself to music because of my grandmother. My mum and I lived with my grandparents from the time I was two until I was eight. And even then, I was at their house before and after school every day while my mother was _______. 

Grandma loved music. It was she that first _______ me to Elvis Presley as a very young child, and once I heard his music, I was truly in_______with it. Most five-year-olds ask for toys for birthdays, but I wanted Elvis’ albums. I would play them non-stop and _______ to the music in my grandma’s family room though my movements didn’t look_______. 

Grandma played the piano and _______ me to sing “America the Beautiful” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. I finally started playing music on the piano, and soon grandma was paying for me to take piano lessons from a lady living in the _______. I would come home from_______ and walk there for my lesson. I _______ took about nine months of lessons, but it was enough to give me a foundation and allow me to continue to teach myself. 

Last month when I came home to visit grandma in the hospital, I brought along my guitar with me. She was in great pain, but the music seemed to__________ her soul. She had me sing some songs and when I started to sing “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, her weakened voice__________ in with mine for a few lines. That experience was one of the most __________ of my lifetime and one I will certainly cherish forever. I told her of my music career and she was very __________ and said, “That’s wonderful!” I __________ to play for her throughout the week I was home. 

My grandma passed away two days ago. In my opinion, part of her will live on through every __________ I write or sing for her in my life.

3 . Four years ago, I felt great joy after freeing myself from one of those 2-mile gym fitness runs.I ______ running with a passion (热情), it was just something that never came ______ to me. At that time, I never ______ that I would one day run a marathon.

Everything ______ when I met my neighbor Mrs. Gray. She was fifty years old, going through cancer and still __________ to run 30 miles a week. Encouraged by her, I thought I could run at least one or two. In February, I started to walk a 2-mile route (路线) and would ______ to add in a short distance of running. Two months later, I finished 6 miles. I felt ______, but I felt great.

Over the next several years, I continued to push each run for a few extra minutes. The physical and mental fight never stopped, ______ I loved every minute of these runs. I didn't need to compete against other runners. For me, the _________ competitor was myself.

Slowly, I ______ entering some local road races. After continuing to ______ myself and finishing two half marathons, I ______ I would train for the Detroit Free Press/ Flagstar Bank Marathon. My summer was filled with many long 6 AM runs to beat the summer heat. I loved my ______. I knew I was finally on the road to success.

Race day finally came, and I was filled with ______. The experience was hard but it ended up being unbelievable. As I crossed the finish line, I experienced the strongest sense of ______ I ever had in my life

4 . One warm spring day, a small creature followed my girls home after school. She was so _______that my girls begged me to keep her.

So we named her Molly and she_______everywhere my girls went. But one day, a particular ad caught my attention and my heart_______ at what I read. Someone was searching for a lost puppy near our grade school.

I wanted to ignore the ad. However, my conscience was _______me. With _______feelings, I picked up the phone. Secretly I was praying no one would_______, but a woman did. As I described the dog to her in detail, her voice shook with_______. and she wanted to come right over._______ minutes I heard a vehicle pull up at the driveway and some _______ stop at the door. A thousand thoughts_______ my mind: I could pretend I wasn't home or tell her,“I'm sorry, you have the wrong address." But it was too late: the bell rang and Molly was _______.

Opening the door, I saw a woman with a little girl sitting in a small wheelchair. When looking at Molly, the little girl's face_______.“Here,Lucy,”she yelled,“Come here!”Molly instantly obeyed,wagging her tail wildly. Seemingly sensing my feelings, the woman explained that Lucy(Molly) was more than just a puppy to her daughter. Suddenly I felt _______.God has blessed me with so much,I thought. As they pulled out of the______,I smiled, knowing I had done the right thing - that puppy was_______where she belonged.

5 . In eighth grade, I was fascinated by a legend from Japan. ________ you fold one thousand paper cranes, the gods will help realize one wish for you. I took it as a challenge and started folding paper cranes.

I folded cranes at home, between classes, and in the car. My fingers were ________sticky from the glue.

________with a pack of colorful pencils, I decorated each piece of paper individually. Slowly, my collection grew.

With more confidence, I started ________. How small was it possible for a crane to be? Smaller than a golf ball? Smaller than a coin? Soon I could finish a crane in fifty seconds with my ________ closed.

By six hundred cranes, the increasing demands of high school academics caused my ________ to slow. I despaired. I wouldn’t let this be another ________ project that I couldn’t finish. My cranes mattered to me. As an outlet for expression, they ________ as a way to overcome frustration and sadness.

So, I pushed myself to keep working and to keep folding one crane at a time. My determination ________ off. One month before the end of junior year, I folded my thousandth paper crane. As I ________ the open drawer filled with cranes in a huge number of sizes and colors, I felt a rush of ________. I proved to myself that I can finish what I start.

Looking at them, I realized the fact that there is a lot of beauty in tiny things. I have ________ away cranes to my friends as a pick-me-up on ________ days, and I have made cranes to ________ people, such as the dark green crane I made the day my grandmother died. They are a symbol of hope to remind me what I have accomplished. It turns out, I didn’t need the ________. I learned I have the power to make things happen for myself.

6 . I’ve always been fascinated by languages, but I’ve never been any good at learning them. I remember sitting in my French lessons, I never _________ what I was being taught. My teacher wasn’t _________.

But one of my A levels was English Language, and that was where my interest in _________ started. Over the last few years, I’ve started learning more languages than I can _________. They include Latin, Russian, Spanish, and probably several others. None of them stuck.

And then came lockdown. While I was _________ enough to still be able to work from home, on evenings and weekends, I found myself getting _________ and looking through video websites for something to watch. That’s how I _________ a Chinese fantasy drama filled with complex relationships.

But by the time I got about halfway through the show, I _________ that in some cases, the words being spoken in Chinese didn’t match the words being said in the English translations. _________, a character was being called shijie instead of by her name. I went online, did some __________ and met a difficulty.

Shijie, which I learned can be translated as “martial sister”, introduced me to the complexities of Chinese __________. So many different words for “aunt”, “uncle” and “grandfather”! Characters with more than one name!

I was __________ by the way the language is so connected with the culture, and how poetic and __________ it is. I wanted to be able to __________ the source material, even if it was going to take me a long while __________ I got to that point.

7 . Last semester, I worked in a restaurant in my spare time. In the beginning, it was very _________ for me to learn the rules and remember the recipes. I had to stand there and _________. At the end of the day, I was so tired that I almost could do nothing.

After a few days of working, the head waiter told me that I could take charge as a chief. I knew if I worked hard, I would take charge of a room. It meant I could get more _________. I was glad to do that.

As new, it was not an easy thing to _________ all customers well. Sometimes, I dished up wrongly. Or I forgot the customer’s requirements. What was _________, I overturned the plates twice. However, I could not be _________ because of these difficulties.

One day, I was about to be off duty when three foreigners came here. It was my first time to talk with a _________. Suddenly, my mind was blank even though I had memorized 3500 words. I began to speak slowly, but think _________.

“Excuse me, what can I do for you?” I said it word by word. At the same time, I showed them the _________. “No, we order ... with some rice.” They said so quickly that I could hardly understand what they wanted.

“Pardon?” I asked with embarrassment.

“Hum, there is no rice left. How about noodles? Like this and this.” I felt   __________ embarrassed. I could not __________ the dish name to them and just showed the picture in the menu to them.

On the way to school, I saw them again and we went the same way. They were students too. They talked to me. I stumbled to respond to questions. I __________ about why I couldn’t remember any words. However, I __________ to this atmosphere gradually and began to talk to them more fluently. I restarted to pick up my confidence again. They praised me for my self-confidence.

It is memorable, for it was the first time to make a dent in my heart. __________ self-confidence means half success. I believe in myself and won’t __________       confidence any more.

8 . Life became dull when social distancing began in March due to the coronavirus. The_________all faded (消逝) together into what felt like one unexplainable long day. Not only did I have no opportunity to_________with my friends, but as more time passed in solitude (独处), I lost any_________to be around people.

That is, until July, when one of my_________from another state asked me to go camping with her family. I agreed, although somewhat_________. Once you have forgotten the pure_________of being among friends, the idea of driving six hours to live in a tent in the middle of a bug-infested (虫子滋生的) forest doesn't hold much_________anymore.

I don't remember the drive there, and even the scenery slowly_________from my mind. What I do remember is the_________feeling of happiness that washed over me. Within seconds, I remembered what it was like to live each second to its__________. I slept under the stars,__________from cliffs (山崖) into the crystal-clear water and walked through a night so__________that I couldn't see 2 inches (5cm) in front of me. I made new friends that are among my closest friends to this day. I instantly fell__________in love with the liveness of life.

The coronavirus brought on the hardest couple of months of my life. But I wholeheartedly__________that it was worth it.__________the advantages of the past gives you a greater appreciation of them when they finally return. Those five days in New York will forever be among my happiest.

9 . I spent my teenage life in Sichuan province. Outside, there was the Sino-Japanese war. However, it could not hold back my ________. What lay ________ the war? I was eager to explore.

I always lost myself in ________ thoughts by looking at maps with eyes ________ to countries with seacoasts and islands. I felt I could easily satisfy my thirst for the outside world by drinking the seawater on those islands, watching the river flow southward, I ________ when the water would carry me to the sea. ________ drawing maps was my favourite, I was recognized as a map-maniac of my class. My ________ even spread to the teachers. One would ________ turn around to check my response whenever he drew a map on the blackboard.

One winter afternoon when I was 14, attracted by a map of Turkey, I spent all my pocket money. I ________ it was a symbol of intelligence, a code of beauty and a cheque ________ by the wealth of the world. I wished I could explain the symbol, ________ the code, and restore the map to the magic lands it represented. Later, I went to America. Wherever I went, I only had highway maps to discuss my travel with. The relationship I felt towards them was not different from what I felt towards a/an ________. As my interest in traveling ________, the American maps in my collections slowly ________ those from various European countries. As if walking in my sleep, I entered another world I seemed to have come across long ago.

The map that I owned in youth did not lie to me. That beautiful cheque was finally ________ when I visited Europe.

10 . On Sept. 1, Paul Miller, a teacher in America, _________ a video on YouTube where he does his take on “I’ll Be There For You,” a song from Friends.

“No one told me school was gonna be this way," Miller sings in a classroom, in _________ to the pandemic and the nationwide _________ of in-person teaching. “I got my lessons ready but students are absent. Though they are _________, we can still have a great year. 'Cause I'll be here for you when you're learning at home."

“_________ our social distance, school will still be great.” Miller continues. Having _________ the reasons why online learning has its _________ Miller jumps into the chorus, telling his students what they can _________. “When back,” he sings. “You really start to shine. No matter what, I'm here for you.”

Miller's video has received over 25,000 views and lots of _________ comments. One wrote: "Teachers are __________ on earth in human form.”

In an __________ with WMTV Miller said he __________ starts off every school year with a song. This year, however, he had to be more creative. The teacher said he's been __________ by the positive responses he's gotten. “Really the __________ we are getting this year is completely beyond __________,” he said. “I have gotten messages from Arizona to India. Apparently, Friends is a very popular show. ”