1 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of _______. We often plant some flowers between the rocks, just to add some _______ to the area.

Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.

We decided to let it _______ growing until we could find out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the _______ plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to _______ the weeds (杂草) around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to pull the weeds, I noticed something _______. The sunflower had not _______ where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the _______.

At that moment, I _______ that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stop its way of developing, we also have the ability of doing the same thing. If we _______ ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we _______ to go and get what we need for growth.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the _______ to achieve our goals. Like the sunflower, it knew it had the power to get over the rocks because it had _______ in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be _______ of who and what we are, and then the environment will begin to _______ us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.

I was studying English literature in Italy, and I had to study in an English-speaking country for one year as part of the course. I     1     (offer) a chance to go to Boston University and I took it.

As soon as I saw Boston, I fell in love with it. I live in a small city, and I’ve always wanted to live in a big city. Boston was exactly    2     I needed for my first-time-away-from-home. Boston is     3     (definite) a big city but not big enough     4     (make) you feel overwhelmed. The weather is also great and you get to enjoy all four     5     (season) in true New England style.

I stayed with a family.     6     (They) house was on Commonwealth Avenue,     7     is one of the busiest streets in Boston. It was great to be there as Boston University is spread out along Commonwealth Avenue. The only bad thing is that it’s a bit busy. One of my friends had to wear a cast for months after he was hit by a car trying to cross Commonwealth Avenue — Boston is famous     8     its horrible drivers.

Boston is a(n)     9     (attract) place to live as a college student. College students make up twenty percent of Boston’s population. This increases the energy of the city,     10     (make) it a wonderful place to live and study.