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.

3 . 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.

6 . It had been a crazy day at school. Jordan walked in and slid his backpack off his shoulder. He collapsed in a chair   _______ and swallowed a glass of milk. Jordan asked his mom to pass the cookies to him. “Please,” insisted Mom. “PLEASE pass the cookies,” _______ Jordan. He told his mom that he wished he never had to worry about _______. “Interesting,” said Mom as she left the room.

The following day at breakfast, Jordan sat down to a plate of bacon and eggs. Jordan thought the food was yummy, and he piled the pancakes on his plate. Suddenly Dad reached over and _______ the pancakes right off Jordan’s plate. Jordan was shocked. He was wondering what had happened to the “_______”. Jordan noticed a black cloud covering his dad’s face Jordan muttered (嘀咕) that something strange was going on. A few seconds later, Mom downed a glass of orange juice and burped (打嗝) loudly. Jordan was _______. That was so unlike his mom. A black cloud covered her face as well.

Jordan knew for sure that something was wrong with all the teenagers in his world when he showed up at school the next day, and David, one of his classmates, _______ his way through line cutting in front of a bunch of students. The other students looked disgusted, and Jordan _______ as another black cloud floated up (漂浮) in front of David.

“Poor David,” thought Jordan. “If only he would remember to use his manners!” Jordan _______ stopped in the line. Thinking about his words and these two days’ observation, he felt surprised and ________ he was just like an adult who talked about manners everywhere.

7 . 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.

9 . Brothers Cole and Blake Meyer are aged 10 and 8. They were on their bikes headed to go fishing in June when they saw something _______ down the road from their northern Iowa home.

There were a bunch of dead baby turtles, _______ by cars on the main road between two wetlands, Ventura Marsh(沼泽) and Clear Lake. The two boys felt sad for them, so they climbed off their bikes and began helping other small turtles that were _______ crossing to the other side of the road. Pretty soon, the brothers were joined by three friends and the boys _______ they would spend as much time as they could this summer giving turtles a _______ across the road.

The boys are still at it, spending at least an hour or two a day picking up Western Painted Turtles that _______ between the marsh and the lake. They safely watch for turtles from a nearby bike path and cross the road themselves _______ there’s no traffic. But occasionally, they’ll hold up their arms to stop a car if there are turtles on the move. The boys estimate they’ve _______ more than 200, and they don’t seem to mind that it’s cut into their fishing time.

“What these kids are doing is _______, and I hope their love of __________ stays with them throughout their lives,” fisheries biologist Grummer said.