1 . Mother Hen

From the moment my husband brought home a box of six chicks, our nine-year-old, Sophie, hasn't let them _________ her sight. She named them Trixie, Bearty, Sweet Pea, Speedie, Captain Flint, and Adrian and was very _________ when we wouldn't let them sleep in her bed.

Sophie takes at least one chicken everywhere we let her and has done_________ things with her chickens. One hot day, she wanted to take Captain Flint to the creek(小溪). I wasn't so _________ about it: Could chickens swim? Sophie balanced a stick on her river tube (游泳圈)for Captain Flint to stay on, and the two_________ down the creek.

_________, Sophie dressed as a chicken for Halloween and _________ us that Trixic had to come. The reactions from neighbors were _________＂Wait,is that a real chicken you're holding?" Trixie cooed (咕咕地叫)the whole time.

The chickens are teaching us about love as well as _________ and grief.Sadly,Captain Flint faced an untimely death after an eagle attack. We had a chicken funeral, said a few words about what a good chicken she was, and thanked her for the __________ she brought to our lives before we __________ her. Sophie painted a lovely picture __________ it and has worn a pendant（坠饰） with Captain's picture ever since.

The chickens weren't__________ in the house until one morning when Sophie told me,＂There's nothing to feel happy about." Since then, we've allowed one chick inside at a time if Sophic promised to__________ immediately. The chickens brought a glimmer of joy back to our lives. In a few short months, they have taught us to__________ situations we can't change and find joy where we can. I am so grateful.

2 . One person worked long and hard for making a great career. One day he decided to _______ from the work and to live in _______ his pleasure, which he could _______ because of his wealth. Just when he made this decision, an angel of death came to him. Being a very _______ person, he decided to buy some more time from the angel of death at any _______. He _______ for a long time but the angel was unmoved.

_______, the rich man made the last _______ to the angel: Give me just one hour of my life,_______ I could admire the beauty of this earth for the last time and spend some time with my family and friends whom I haven’t seen for long time, and I will give you all of my wealth.

________ the angel refused again.

Finally, the man asked if the angel could give him at least one minute to write a(an)________ note. His wish was ________ and he wrote note:

“Spend your time, which was given to you, in the right way. I couldn’t buy ________ an hour of life with all of my wealth. Listen to your heart and ________ if the things ________ you have a true value. Cherish every minute of your life.”

3 . I'll never forget the day Marilyn came in my office. She said, “I am too old to learn how to use a computer.” I _______ my head in disbelief.

Here is a woman who has raised 6 children, who has _______ smoothly in her career telling me that she was too old to learn something _______！ My own philosophy on life is that you are NEVER too old to learn. Having new knowledge is a(n) _______ and can open new doors.

Needless to say, she did learn how to _______ the computer! Marilyn is now retired and leading a very _______ life volunteering in her community. She helps anyone who needs help and is using her computer skills! This woman has all amazing talent _______ making people laugh and feel at ease.

Now she is well into her 60s and she calls me and says she is going to make a CD. You can _______ my surprise and delight！！ All her life she has played the _______ and taught others. Now she has her own CD. My mind ________ back to the day when she told me she was too old to learn！！！！

To produce the CD, she had a lot of learning to do. It was not just sitting at the piano and playing. She had to research the ________, learn about copyright issues, and learn about marketing. Pretty amazing for someone who once said she was too old to learn!

Marilyn's story ________ my beliefs that no matter what your ________， you can learn and do whatever you set your mind on. Congratulations to you, Marilyn; you are a(n) ________！

It is my hope of ________ Marilyn's story with you. And it will inspire you to take action to learn and do the thing that you have thought about but have never done!

4 . My life as a tax-paying employed person began in middle school, when, for three whole days, I worked in a baking factory.

My best friend Betsy’s father was a manager at Hough Bakeries, which, at Easter time, _________ little bunny (兔子) cakes for all its _________throughout Cleveland. It happened that the plant downtown needed eight kids for _________ help during our spring break, for which I had no_________ beyond listening to my favorite records. I’d _________ minimum wage. I’d see how a factory_________. My parents thought all of this was a grand idea and called Betsy’s dad with their _________.

Our_________in the factory were simple: Place cakes on a moving belt. Attach icing (糖霜) ears. Apply icing eyes and nose._________ bunny from the belt. This was ____________ than it sounds.____________ a bit and the cakes pile up. As I told my parents at dinner that first night, it was all a little more high-pressure than I’d   ____________ .

Dad __________. The son of a grocer, he’d spent the summers of his childhood____________ food in Benardsville, New Jersey. This was the sort of work that made you____________ the dollars you earned and respect those who did the work, he told me.

5 . Many creative people grew up feeling alienated from their surroundings. That was the _________ for Jennifer Doudna. In the third grade, she felt so ostracized（排挤）that she had trouble _________ . She had all sorts of digestive problems. She turned to books and _________ a defensive layer. "There's a（n） _________ part of me they'll never touch," she told herself.

Jennifer Doudna's father was a book-lover and he would _________ a book for her to read. And that was _________ a used paperback copy of James Watson's The Double Helix _________ on her bed one day when she was in sixth grade, waiting for her when she got home from _________ .

The _________ led Doudna to understand something about ____________ that was both logical and awe-inspiring "When young, I had always liked hunting with my dad for ____________ things in nature. The book made me realize you could also   ____________ the reasons why nature worked the way it did." she recalls.

Driven by a passion to understand how nature ____________ and a competitive desire to make ____________ , she co-discovered a gene-editing technology, putting her at the forefront of a ____________ revolution that gives humans control over the evolutionary destiny（命运）of their own species.

6 . As desperate parents of a daughter born with cerebral palsy (脑瘫), we were quick to try any suggestion that we believed could help her. One day, we were travelling to a village for _______ when we had a(n) _______. So, there we were — a family of three — stranded.

_________, there were several restaurants where I sought help. I _______ a middle-aged Muslim man in plain pyjamas passing by and explained my _______ to him. He said he knew of a _______ centre close by, and then gently added, “Ask your family to wait here. The roads are not safe.” My anxiety _______, but we had no choice.

He noticed that our 9-year-old daughter couldn’t walk, and called a woman from a food stall to help. Sensing my fear at leaving them alone, he quickly _______, “I can go and get the flat tyre fixed.” I tried to pay him for the _______ but he only said, “We can figure it out later.”

After waiting for what felt like hours, I wondered if he would ________ return. What if it was all a trick? The woman who helped earlier ________ us, “Don’t worry. He’ll be back soon.” But her words were of little ________. Two hours later, with midnight approaching, we finally heard the sound of a bike. “The shop is ________ fifteen kilometres away. We didn’t tell you, because that would have increased your ________,” said the man. He then put the wheel ________. I took out a 500-rupee note to pay him for his pains, but he refused.

“Thank you, brother,” was all I could say. Choked with gratitude, I didn’t even remember to ask his name.

7 . Mr. Thompson was my biology teacher in Grade 5. On the first day of school, he introduced us to an animal called the Rabbitervore, which _______ during the Ice Age. While he described it, he _______ around a set of skeleton(骨架). We listened carefully, took notes and later had a _______.

When I had my paper back, I was greatly _______. None of my answers was right! There must have been some _______. I did nothing wrong! I wrote down _______what Mr. Thompson said. Then I realized that _______ in my class failed the test. What happened? The answer was simple. Mr. Thompson said he_______ the whole story about the Rabbitervore. There had never been such an animal! So, our notes were tally _______. How could we expect grades for wrong answers? We were very ________. What kind of test was it? And what kind of teacher was he?

Later, Mr. Thompson said we had tons of chances to find out the truth: the skeleton was,________, a rabbit’s. But he was passing it around, he kept telling us that all this kind of animals died in the Ice Age, nothing of which________.But he told us about its amazing speed, its soft fur and other________which were impossible to know. He even gave us a(n) ________ of the animal beginning with “Rabbit”, but we still didn't question. The ________we got would be recorded in the grade book, he said. And they were.

Mr. Thompson said he hoped this experience could teach us an unforgettable lesson-teachers are not ________right. Actually, no one is. He warned us not to let our ________ fall asleep and encouraged us to speak up bravely ________ we thought he was wrong.

Although I haven’t ________ any great scientific achievements, I find something so important through Mr. Thompson’s class: the courage to look people directly ________ the eye and point out their wrongs. He also showed us that it is fun to do so.

8 . Some kids dream of being superheroes that can save our planet from evil but believe it or not, even a small kid like YOU can help save our planet.

When I was a _________ , my mom and dad would push me in a baby jogger. We would pick up soda cans while my mom and dad ran. Before I could _________, whenever I saw a can I would point to it. It was fun picking up cans. We ran a lot miles and _________ up many cans.

When I was five, I went _________ with my mom, dad, and a friend at Bastrop State Park. The first night we went for a bike ride. I _________ on my dad's bike. There was so much _________ that the road did not look pretty. The second day, when we went for a _________ along the same road, we picked up all the cans—about one hundred of them. The road looked much _________ when we went home.

I am now too _________ for the baby jogger. But I still pick up cans wherever we go, and my mom and dad still bring back cans from their walks. We ____________ the cans behind and inside our garage. When I was very young, we would ____________ the cans to a can cruncher in a store park. It was fun____________ all the cans crunching(压碎), but it was untidy.

Now we store the cans ____________ we get a lot of them, then we take them on our friend's big truck to the recycling place. One time, I sold 410 pounds ____________.

I have sold over 1, 000 pounds of cans, and I am only nine years old. I ____________ the world by making the roads, the lakes, and the trails prettier, and because all my cans are recycled.