1 . On a bright afternoon, Jordan, Mahir and Mahir’s father gathered at the foot of a mountain. “Hey, Jordan, over here!” Jordan’s best friend, Mahir, waved his hand, pointing to a crack in the side of the mountain. “We could ________ this!”

Jordan tied his safety harness (系带) and checked his rope. He weighed one of them in his hand, determining its weight. Then he looked for ________ locations, considering the difficulty of the task. “That crack is ________ narrow. I don’t think we’d get up very high.”

“At the time of a test, a person rises or falls.” said Ghanim, Mahir’s dad. Shaking his head in ________ over the foreign proverb (谚语), Jordan examined the crack. It was nothing more than a sliver in the solid face of the cliff. He shifted in his harness as Mahir gave the proverb his own explaination: “If you’re not reaching the ________, you’re not trying hard enough.” Jordan recognized the bit of advice from a previous climbing lesson.

His own father’s voice resounded in his thoughts, as if in a half-forgotten dream. “Climb a mountain, son, and you climb the insecurity in your own life. You climb over your shadow, climb over your ________.” That was five years ago, before the automobile ________ that took his dad’s life. Jordan’s father swiftly turned his car and effectively ________ a car from going over a cliff. The sudden move had saved the people in that car. But his father’s car went off a cliff. ________ with the difficult situation, Jordan’s dad had never hesitated before making the decision.

And now Jordan wouldn’t either. ________ on his balance, he took a deep breath and began to climb. Finally, they made it to the peak of the mountain.

2 . Emily checked her shoelaces(鞋带) and began to jog in small circles _______, waiting for Sierra. She didn’t mind the brief lateness; she was so grateful to have a running _______. Practically the first thing Emily had done after enrolling in this new school was to sign up for cross-country running.

“Hi, sorry, I’m late. It’s a good day for a run, don’t you think?” Sierra _______, talking nonstop as was her habit. Sierra ran every day, which encouraged Emily to take her own training more seriously. The regular practice had helped both of them to _______ their times over various terrains (地形).

Continuing her warm-up, Emily asked, “Are you racing next week in the big regional meet?” “Yeah, the coach encourages everyone to _______.”

“Oh.” Emily followed after Sierra just a bit, thinking about this information as they ran across the field. Knowing Sierra was easily the faster runner, Emily was very _______. She worried that her own time might _______ the team.

Race day arrived, and Emily gathered with the other team members to receive a colored wristband(手环) that showed their school. “Sierra, where’s your band?”

“You’re running in my place today because your times will _______ the team as much as mine, and I want you to have the _______ to show your stuff to the team. I’ll be your water girl at the end.” Sierra smiled and gave Emily a high-five.

“Wow, you’d give up a race for me?” Emily gave her friend a quick hug and thought this ________ would be her best performance ever.

3 . Chinese opera

Chinese opera is one of the three oldest dramatic art forms in the world. During the T ang Dynasty, an emperor established a(n)_________school named Pear Garden. From that time on,_________of Chinese opera were referred to as “disciples (弟子) of the Pear Garden”. Since the Yuan Dynasty it has been_________by court officials and emperors and has become a traditional art form. During the Qing Dynasty, it became fashionable among_________people. Performances were watched in tearooms, restaurants, and stages.

Many of the features that characterize modern Chinese opera developed in Northern China, including the use of certain set_________like Sheng (the man), Dan (the woman), Jing (the painted face) and Chou (the clown).

It developed from folk songs, dances, talking and especially distinctive (独特的) dialectal music. Gradually it combined music, art and literature into one performance on the stage. Accompanied by_________musical instruments like erhu, gong (锣), and lute (琵琶), actors present unique melodies as well dialogues which are beautifully written and of high literary value. For Chinese especially senior people, to listen to this kind of opera is a real_________.

Beijing Opera is considered to be the essence of Chinese opera, but actually, the language of Beijing Opera is not the dialect of Beijing. In 1790, four famous opera performing teams traveled to Beijing. They created the Beijing Opera by_________their local opera with the operas in Hubei, Shanxi and Zhejiang. It was_________to create a new opera based on the operas from these parts of China. At the beginning, the Beijing Opera was only popular in royal families and before too long, it had__________to every part of a China. Now, people from all walks of life like it.

4 . It was an unexpected call for Aranza Delgado from the shelter, Peewee’s Pet Adoption World, 800 miles away in Texas. She was so pleasantly ________ when learning her dog “Puppies” was picked up by a passerby after it went missing four years ago. Since he was ________, the shelter called the chip company and got the name and telephone number of his ________.

However, Aranza had a limited window of time, and could only come to pick up Puppies one week later. Ernie Cochran, a volunteer of the shelter, replied that they were more than ________ to provide the dog with a place to stay for several more days.

“If we can get a dog back to his family, it’s a wonderful thing,” thought Ernie. Ernie and the other locals teamed up with a plan to get Puppies back home as ________ as possible.

“Everybody has been amazing, from the shelter to the people who are helping me transport Puppies,” Aranza told Kris News. She was happy to be ________ with her old friend soon. “I didn’t ________ how friendly everybody in Texas was and how helpful they’ve been. I’ve had a lot of ________. Actually, the lady that I’ve been in contact with is picking Puppies up tomorrow and she’s going to ________ him overnight and then will send him back home.”

Although she may never completely know what Puppies went through during the four years, Aranza hopes that her story ________ the kindness of Texans.

5 . Jahiem Morgan knew he was too young to be living on his own at 15 years old, but he didn’t have much of a choice. His parents died when he was 12, and he lacked a reliable home. So he slept on the streets. “It was dangerous but I did what I had to do in order to _______,” said Morgan.

Morgan was among the nearly 1.3 million young people across the US. Some of them are runaways; others_______abusive（施虐的）homes. They are out on their own, and many end up in _______ situations--- living on the streets or in abandoned buildings.

“Most people don’t even_______ these kids exist,” said Vicki Sokolik, who helps these teens in Florida. “There’s shame that goes with being a homeless youth. So they hide what’s going on with them.” Sokolik was first introduced to this population in 2006, when her son told her about a classmate who was in danger of becoming_______. Sokolik helped the girl, finding her a place to live.

The experience encouraged Sokolik to do _______. In 2007, she founded “Starting Right, Now,” an organization that helps homeless youth get permanent housing, graduate from high school and move on to their next goal. “They come in so broken; they cannot_______ others,” Sokolik said. “The _______ of these kids is great. And it’s great that they can be happy again.”

Morgan, who has been with the group, will soon graduate from high school and head to college. “I am so _______Miss Sokolik,” Morgan said. He has big ideas for his future, with the hopes of being a teacher.

“These kids’ voice matters. Everyone should look for them and ________ them.”