2 . Blackburn high school had a reason to be optimistic this season. For one, they had a famous coach Palus. They also had a promising football _______ named Gary. Although he was a green hand, he had the _______ to play football and could give the team a spark (火花). Palus liked Gary so much that he would often give him a _______ home. However, it was _______ at the same place.

“Then one day, he opened up to me that he had to stay with his sister from place to place,” _______ Palus to CNN.

Gary said that after his father passed away, the family couldn’t _______ to live in an apartment. When he understood his mother’s_______, he knew he had to do something. From that point on, Gary said he was couch (沙发)-surfing from friend to friend, not knowing where he’d _______ each night. And he had to do a part-time job after his football _______every day.

Palus was ________ after hearing his story. After some ________, he decided to have the boy sleep in his house and ________ him as a family member. Gary trained even harder and became the best one in his team. His story ________ his teammates so much that the team won the first national championship for the school in 2022. When asked, Gary gives all ________ to the one thing that he thought he would never have, “They’re my ________ and I can’t imagine where I would be without their support.”

Gail Devers, an American athlete and also a three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field, got her first one in 1992.     1     made Devers’ win so special was not just the nature of the race but also the journey she had taken     2     (get) there.

In the years leading up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Devers experienced a series of     3     (extreme) unpleasant health complications (并发症) which brought her close to retirement before her athletics career had even begun. It was not until she visited many health experts     4     Devers finally learned she had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder (自身免疫紊乱). She cried the moment she knew it. Luckily, somebody appeared and had a     5     (solve) for her.

Thirty years went by. Today, Devers wants to raise awareness for the disease and     6     (it) symptoms (症状). “If there are 10 million people who could have Graves’ disease, then our job is to make sure that 10 million people can     7     (treat),” says Devers.

She also says, “My Graves’ disease has made me who I am. Therefore, I always tell people that if I had my life to live over, I would ask for this disease again,” she says. “I believe I’m stronger at     8     (have) to go through what I went through. Everybody is faced     9     challenges. We all feel like sometimes walls are closing in on us     10     there’s no way out. What do you do? You remember that strength and resilience that you have when you step on the line.

From homeless to Harvard … it’s an unlikely turn of events. Liz Murray’s life is a triumph (胜利) over misfortune, and an amazing example of the importance of Dreaming Big. Murray’s upbringing in the Bronx, as the child of addicted parents, was filled with severe challenges. There was never enough food in the house, the apartment was dirty and drugs were everywhere. By age 16, Murray’s mom had died and she was homeless — sleeping in parks, riding the subway all night, and living as a high school dropout on the streets of New York City.

Suffering this pain, Murray always imagined her life could be much better than it was. “I knew I had to change my situations for the better, and that no one could do that for me. But, I quickly found that I also could not do it alone. I had to take responsibility first, and then I had to find help — a community of caring people to help me get there.” Determined to change her life, Murray finished high school in just two years, and with the help of devoted mentors (导师) and teachers, she was awarded a full scholarship (奖学金) by the New York Times to Harvard University — all while camping out in New York City parks and subway stations.

Her story sounds like a Hollywood movie — and it practically is. Lifetime Television produced a movie about Murray’s life story entitled Homeless to Harvard, which was nominated (提名) for three “Emmy Awards”. Murray received the White House “Project’s Role Model Award” and Oprah Winfrey’s first-ever “Chutzpah Award”. Her memoir (回忆录), Breaking Night, landed on the New York Times best-seller list after it came out and it quickly became an international best-seller published in twelve countries, in eight languages.

7 . Rebecca, who I met at a business conference in Las Vegas, is one of the _________ people I have ever known. So sharp in mind was she that she made a deep impression on me. Even if you were around her for an entire day, you probably wouldn't notice her _________.

She was born with severe dyslexia—a slight disorder of the brain that causes difficulty in reading and spelling. _________ her learning disability, she had to be in _________ education classes for most of her elementary and middle school years. Despite the _________, she refused to let dyslexia _________ her life. Every day, she worked on _________ her disability with the help of her parents. Her dad would spend an hour every morning _________ her with math. In the evenings her mom would have her read books out aloud and then her mother would _________ her on the content.

__________, in her effort, Rebacca's hard work __________. By high school, she had __________ from special education classes all the way to honor classes. “When I was young, no one thought I could ever attend __________.” she said. Not only did Rebecca __________ going to college, but she graduated as the top of her class.

“I always had a vision,” says Rebecca, “of one day being a __________. But it seemed like such a crazy __________ that I never told anyone.” Today, Rebecca's vision is a __________. She graduated from law school and is __________ working her up in one of the largest law firms on the East Coast. Rebecca says: “I wouldn't change a thing. My learning disability __________ brings challenges to me now, but it also gave me the __________ to make my childhood dream come true.