3 . Hey! You have a hairless spot on the back of your head! " Mom’s alarmed cry hit me like a shock.

I tried to shrug it off. “It’ll grow back.” I worked to sound________.

At first, the loss was minimal. ________the spot with my fingers became the top priority every day. No new hair, smooth as an egg. Weeks later, the spot was a little larger and there was still no________ of any hair poking through the skin. I began to________but continued to try to be cool about it.

As days went by, my hair started to fall faster and more. ________my fingers through it, I would stare at the alarming quantity of hair in my hands, wiling this to________happening to me.

We went to see a doctor, who diagnosed my condition as alopecia (脱发症) . He recommended an injection to try, which would be________to the head skin. I underwent several costly injections over a few months, but in vain.

________the injection began to trouble my sleep, and we finally had to stop the________My hair still didn’t grow back.

I had to wear a wig to school every day, worried it might slip one day and that everything would________Though aware that I should________the fact to my friends, I was scared, not knowing how they would handle the information. ________ hesitantly, I told them what was happening after days of struggle. To my surprise, they all thought nothing of it. This was a(n) ________for me.

I came to realize that what had happened was not my fault, and not something I should feel________of. I am learning that being bald doesn’t change who I am, and if I don’t let it affect my self ________then other people are much more likely to accept me as I am, too.

4 . This fall marks an especially memorable time for one family celebrating three generations walking onto Carthage College together. Samantha Malczewski, 19, the sophomore nursing student recalled. “It was really __________. I didn’t expect it.” However, Carter aged 18, said she had a(n) __________that their mom Amy Malczewski and grandmother Christy Schwan were interested in going back to school.     

Calling herself “Carthage’s biggest fan”, Amy Malczewski has a deep __________to Carthage College. “And Carthage has this amazing __________for the master’s degree in business and design, which is really __________ all the things that I love,” said she.

Meanwhile, when Christy heard of her daughter’s __________, she quickly realized they could __________on the journey together. The 71-year-old __________three years ago after working in employee benefits consulting. Amy said, “I think you ought to __________it too.” And I’m like, “OH, I think you’re right, we should do this __________,” Christy recounted. “It’s helped fill a(n) __________space for me.”

As the four settle into classes and busy __________, the two sisters said they’re __________to accompany them to class, have this little study group, or get dinner together in the cafeteria.

In a statement, Carthage College __________the family and their educational goals. “Spanning three generations, this family reminds us of the power of __________learning,” the school said, “Age isn’t a factor-we can all continue to learn.”

5 . What’s the difference between having a dream and making the dream come true? Hard work and perseverance. Wanda Smith always wanted to be a ______, but sometimes meeting life’s demanding realities can mean a dream ______.

Smith, a mother of three, had to care for her mom, ______ her family responsibilities, she took jobs as a bus monitor and gatekeeper for Brenham Independent School District in Texas. The time was ______ for her. But rather than let her dream die, at the age of 37, with the ______ of her husband, she added night classes to her ______. Nine years on, she ______ graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State University.

Smith’s story came full circle when she was ______ as a first-grade teacher back at Brenham Elementary School. “When I stand in the front of my classroom, I know I am ______ my dream finally,” Smith said during a show celebrating Teachers’ Day.

During the pandemic, as some of her students ______ to take up distance learning, Smith stepped up to help them. She risked her life to deliver schoolwork to students to ensure that the learning could be ______ as smoothly as possible, which really ______ her students and their parents.

Smith’s life is an example as well as a(n) ______ for us. With great ______ and effort, she graduated from cleaning classrooms to ______ classrooms.

6 . MacArthur’s love for sailing started when she was just 4 years old, when she first got the opportunity to have a try on a boat. “It kind of _____ me that this boat had everything we needed to take us anywhere in the world. And as a child, that opened up everything and made me feel the greatest sense of _____,” she explained.

This experience _____ a passion within MacArthur that she wanted to sail around the world. Growing up in the countryside, she had no idea how to _____ it. However, she knew that was what she wanted to do at some stage. So she acquired knowledge and _____ for years to seek her dream in sailing. Having merely potatoes and beans every day for eight years, she _____ could afford the right equipment. By reaching such _____ goals and asking technical questions about _____ MacArthur felt as though she was getting _____ to her ambition.

“The impossible could be possible and _____ high is not necessarily such a crazy thing to do,” she said. And it seemed that MacArthur’s _____ to become a navigator went beyond her expectations. At the age of 28, she started to _____ media attention after winning the second place in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed non-stop yacht (帆船) race that goes around the world.

Four years later, MacArthur chose to sail for 71 days and 14 hours, _____ more than 40,000 miles. This led to her setting a new record. _____ this record has since been surpassed, MacArthur is still considered as Britain’s most successful offshore racer.

So when you know where you’re going, you can actually get there — even if it seems _____ !

10 . On December 20, in Newdale, a series of huge waves caused by an undersea Earthquake raced across the ocean near Goldshore. Worse still, it _______ thousands of deaths. Goldshore Beach was the only local beach to _______ the disaster without any loss of life. A 10-year-old girl, Sabrina Andron, helped around 100 people escape danger with her _______ of tsunamis.

The day began like any other on Goldshore Beach. People were walking, running or simply sitting on the sandy beach, _______ the warm sea air and enjoying the soft _______ that brushed their hair. Sabrina was one of the happy tourists until she noticed something _______ . “The water was like the bubbles (气泡) on the top of a beer,” she later explained. “It wasn’t _______. I mean it wasn’t going in and then out as usual. It just kept coming in and in and in.” It struck her that these were the _______ of an upcoming tsunami, which Sabrina had just learnt about in a geography lesson.

Sabrina was _______, but she soon calmed herself down. She warned her parents of the ________, though at first they thought she was just ________. However, Sabrina was certain that a terrible disaster was ________ and kept asking her parents to talk to a safety officer. To her great relief, the officer ________ realized the coming danger. Soon, all the people on the beach was rapidly ________ just before the huge waves ________ into the coast.