1 . I used to be the shyest person in the world. I hid behind my elder sister whenever I had to speak to a stranger. When asked to speak in class, I could ________ breathe, much less speak.

Then in the seventh grade, my sister ________ I take voice lessons. After thinking carefully, I did and tried to keep it secret.

I began a series of exercises, making ________ so strange that I couldn’t help laughing. I learned how to howl (吼叫) like a cowboy and snort (讥讽) like an old lady. By playing around with sound in the class, I gained ________ in the part of me that had been a point of embarrassment before: my voice.

A few months later, I was asked to ________ for some old people, I thought I would do better than before because of the voice lessons. I ________ my mouth and — nothing. I couldn’t remember the lyrics! My face turned ________.

Then the ________ struck me: I’ve already embarrassed (尴尬) myself enough in front of this crowd. There’s really nothing else to lose. So in my second song, I just relaxed and felt the energy of the song lift me. And I did much ________.

After that, I started singing to myself as loudly as I could in my own room. That’s something I would never have done before.

I am not a ________ person. Singing has made me more outgoing.