1 . I entered this world with Poland syndrome, a disease that prevented the formation of my right arm and muscles. My parents believed playing with Lego could enhance my_______and gifted me my first kit when I was five. Initially I _______to piece the the components together but finally I crafted my first Lego work – a car. By the age of nine, I had _______my first prosthetic arm (义肢) using Lego– a simple box that perfectly accommodated my right arm.

This early creation sparked my drive for further _______. Years later, I developed another prosthetic arm called the MK-1, which had fingers, a motor, a pressure sensor, and a grabber capable of _______things. Before constructing it, I was against traditional prosthetics as they were too _______. My parents had looked into getting one years earlier, only to be discouraged by the prohibitive price. So, I concluded that I might not need one because I was managing well without.

As the years passed, my _______evolved from MK-1 to the more advanced and comfortable MK-V. One day, a couple with their eight-year-old son, who lost both_______in an accident, reached out to me after learning about my story. Short of money, they couldn’t afford well-functioning prosthetics. “Daniel,” the father_______asked, “we were wondering if you could help build a set of prosthetics for our son.”

It would be a _______task, but I responded with a “yes”. Without any delay, I _______ the task. The subsequent days witnessed how I carefully selected the Lego piece and intricately integrated practical components to enhance its dexterity(灵巧). Days _______into weeks, and the boy-customized prosthetics finally took shape. It’s time for them to fulfill their intended purpose.

I rushed to the boy’s home and _______the prosthetics onto him. They worked! The room erupted with cheers! The boy expressed his gratitude and sprinted to his parents to _______them in the biggest hug. Never had I imagined that my creations, born out of mere _______, would someday make such a difference.

2 . When it comes to emergencies, children are sometimes unsure what to do. _________ 9-year-old Aria Lamen was fully _________ when she faced such an emergency. Her mother collapsed in the house and her quick _________ saved her mother’s life. She immediately called her father and then called 911.

However, she has been _________ most for her calmness. On February 2nd, 2023, when Aria was finishing her homework in the dining room, her mother, Caron Lamen, collapsed. “Out of nowhere, I just _________ ... I was on the floor and couldn’t move or feel my entire left side,” said the mother.

“In the ambulance, they _________ to know my allergies (过敏症), medications and all that,” said Caron. “Aria said, ‘Well, here I have my mother’s phone. I know all that _________ is on her phone; let me _________ it.’” At that moment, all that _________ to Aria was that her mother needed __________.

Even the police were __________ to hear Aria was so calm on the call. “I’ve taken calls for 30 years,” said Tracie Whalen, the 911 dispatcher (调度员). “I don’t see most adults do as well as Aria did.”

After getting to __________ about what Aria did, Mayor (市长) Richard Irvin rewarded her for her __________, “Your courage and calmness made all the __________. Congratulations, young lady.” Hearing that, the 9-year-old is __________ that she knows what to do in emergencies.

3 . As HalleeMcCoombes approaches the finish line of the 800-metre run for kids with disability, the crowd is cheering wildly and chanting her name. The ten-year-old paralysed-athlete had spent months preparing for the ______ in Brisbane. Now she has the hyper-focused ______ that has become her trademark; anyone who has seen her ______ knows that nothing will stop her now. With only ten metres to go, Hallee ______ all the noise and pushes forward with every ounce of her ______. She doesn’t have any ______ in her waist or below her knees, but pain sears her thighs. When Hallee crosses the finish line and ______ an exhausted heap, her twin, Jada, scoops her up in her arms. “You came in third!” she whispers to Hallee.

Hallee McCoombes has matched up numerous Australian track-and-field ______ in events for athletes with her type of impairments and has set her ______ on the Paralympics. It’s an amazing ______ for someone who wasn’t even expected to walk. Hallee was born with spina bifida (脊柱裂), a neural-tube defect that ______ how the spine and spinal cord form in the womb.

Her mother, Christine McCoombes, 38, shudders when she ______ learning about Hallee’s diagnosis. “The doctors also told us they didn’t know what kind of brain function she would have because she had hydrocephalus,” she recalls. “Fluid in the brain is ______ with spina bifida. We really didn’t know how much she’d be able to ______ physically and mentally.”

It’s no wonder that, regardless of how many times Hallee’s parents watch their ______ daughter compete, their hearts burst with pride. “I cry everytime, especially when people start cheering for her,” admits her dad, Gavin, 51.

4 . I grew up in a small North Dakota town. Dad was a farmer, so we kids were taught _______ to drive farm vehicles. I started driving the tractor (拖拉机) at age 15 .

One summer day, Dad asked me to back his truck up. _______, I backed it into a tree, damaging the truck. I was _______ because I wasn’t sure how Dad would react. Luckily, Dad wasn’t _______, and moved the truck himself.

As a teenager, I usually worked part-time on Uncle Jim’s farm in my _______ time. One day, I drove the tractor to get gas from the farmyard fuel tank, which was _______ on a big metal shelf 12 feet high. I _______ the shelf, bending one of the vehicle’s wooden bars. I stopped the vehicle anxiously and got off. I _______ Uncle Jim would help me. To my _______, he said, “Get back up on that tractor and you can do it.” And I did! During harvest, Jim had me do farming chores with that tractor, which made my confidence ________ greatly.

The “can do” ________ Uncle Jim had toward me carried me through ________ times in life. Whenever I encountered difficulties, the ________ on the summer day on the farm came flooding back to my mind and my spirit wasn’t ________ ! It just goes to show what a huge impact can be created by small gestures of ________ in a person.

5 . Jonathan Tiong came into the world with a rare disease that gradually damages muscles over time. A doctor _________ a prediction to his parents that he wouldn’t live beyond his second birthday.

Yet, Tiong not only surpassed (超出) the doctor’s _________ but also made great achievements. On the day of his 24th birthday in October, he gave a speech _________ at his graduation ceremony. What’s more, Tiong got a(n) _________ as an editorial writer at a famous wealth fund. However, all these amazing honors were not easily _________, for which Tiong went all out.

Beginning his _________ journey during the rise of remote work has also _________ the effect of his disability. Tiong finds _________ in the virtual field, stating, “Having everyone work online feels really great. Because when everyone is together online, I don’t feel like there’s actually much of a _________.”

Despite the __________ he has earned, Tiong remains a supporter for reshaping society’s opinion of success. “We must admit that living with a disability is a (n) __________ challenge in itself. Every day, countless individuals with disabilities __________ difficulties all over the world without media coverage, fighting their battles __________,” Tiong stresses.

His goal is not to lower expectations for individuals with disabilities but to __________ the traditional idea about success. “If we reconsider what it means to succeed, you’ll find that everyone out there who is doing their jobs quietly is __________.”

6 . A few days before my high school ended, I was sitting in my English class. My classmates were talking about who would be the first person to shed tears at _________ . Then, everyone looked at me, and I began to ________ right then and there. I am not an emotional person,but the _________ of leaving this place hit me hard. I never knew how much this building and the people in it ________ to me, until my last days.

High school isn’t for everyone, but there is something for everyone in high school. You just have to ______ out what your“thing”is. I ______ found my “thing” in high school and that was Student Government. For once I had a(n) ________ . I served as the representative of my class, and it gave me a ________ to convey not only my own, but my classmates'_______ to teachers and our school.

But there were a lot of times when I felt ______ . I sat in the classroom looking at the clock, ______ for the end of school day. I ______ the days until summer like it was my job. But now I ______ I could take back all of those moments.

My biggest ________ to anyone still in high school is to make your school a place where you want to go. High school goes by very quickly. You only get one chance to be a high schooler, so take ________ of it.

7 . It was the end of the school day, and I was tired. I grabbed a pile of about 130 exam papers to _________ on the train ride home. I’d bring them back the next morning.

My principal (校长) pushed her head into my classroom and said, “Friendly _________! You need to make sure your word wall is _________ by tomorrow morning.” She then moved on to the next classroom to _________ the message. I sighed and thought, “Are you making a(n)_________? What a waste of my time!”

My principal was _________ about making our school beautiful, while my goal was to get my students to pass the Algebra Regents Exam. She wanted every classroom to have a word wall, where student’s works on creative projects would be _________. She brought in beautiful planters (花盆) that _________ the hallways with greenery. However, I assume that school and classroom _________ aren’t important when it comes to learning. To me, spending time and money making our school and classrooms beautiful was just a distraction (使人分心的事). Those things don’t __________ my students with math.

However, after three years of teaching, I went to graduate school in part to study how resources __________ teachers and students. What my research found __________ me: When teachers __________ their classroom environment resources, their students did better on standardized tests. My principal was __________. She was creating more than just a beautiful __________—she was building a welcoming and positive environment for students to learn and teachers to work.

8 . I used to stutter (口吃) quite badly. I felt very ________ , like I was less of a human being.

I didn’t have any ________ when I left special school. So I got a job as a trainee hotel porter. I enjoyed it because I was meeting new people and earning my own ________ . I felt like a proper adult. But the other men ________ me mentally because of my disability. They’d imitate (模仿) me ________ because of my speech impediment (障碍). I got very down. I was ________ inside.

The stepping stone to self-belief for me was ________ I got help from KeyRing—an organization which helps disabled people to live ________ . I couldn’t write very well, but I could ________ that. Apps on computers meant I could dictate (口授) my emails. I got the government ________ for disabled people in work. It paid for me to help with paperwork two mornings a week.

________ I heard about a job going at the human rights charity CHANGE. I got an ________ that got me the job of international project consultant. I travel all over the world to ________ professionals to work better with people with learning disabilities. This builds my ________ . I lost my stutter in the end.

My learning disability was a bit of me, but it doesn’t ________ me. It’s just a label people put on me. It hasn’t stopped me having a life.

9 . My PhD project is to protect a tiny species of fish, whose color is greenish. To ______eggs, Clanwilliam sandfish (沙鱼) swim to ______tributaries (支流) of the Doring river system in South Africa. Local people say it was once a ______event: The water seemed to change ______ as thousands of sandfish migrated to the shallower tributaries. Now, ______those numbers have reduced to dangerous levels.

My PhD project at South Africa’s University of Cape Town is in ______with a nongovernmental organization in saving sandfish. Human activity, climate change, etc, are drying up the rivers. As newly young sandfish try to ______to the upstream (上游), they now get ______in shallow tributaries. The sandfish population has decreased by more than 90% since we began keeping count. They’re now regarded as ______species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.When the river starts to dry up, we ______young sandfish and put them into buckets of water, then move them by truck to prepared fish nurseries (鱼种场) ______ by local people. The support from local people is amazing. Once the sandfish are large enough to be less threatened, we will ______them to the natural ecosystem.

The data so far show the project has been ______. We’ve ______ about 36,000 young sandfish over the past three years. I’m looking forward to ______those numbers next year.

10 . When we think of a grocery store, we usually picture aisles of food and everyday necessities. But sometimes, it’s also where unexpected ________ are formed, turning a simple store into a backdrop for heartwarming human connections.

Ellie Walker, ________ at a British grocery store, was known for her friendly demeanor. Ellie enjoyed the daily chat with customers but never ________ how deeply these interactions could impact her life.

It was during one of these ________ conversations that Ellie encountered Edwin Holmes, an elderly regular customer, who ________ that he had no one to spend Christmas with.

This revelation ________ a chord in Ellie’s heart, as she couldn’t bear the thought of Edwin spending the festive season alone.

Edwin had lost his wife in 2006 after 45 years of marriage. His family, including a daughter and grandchildren, lived in Australia, making it ________ for them to be together during the holidays. This left Edwin facing the prospect of a ________ Christmas.

Upset about Edwin’s situation. Ellie decided to ________ a gesture of kindness. She invited him to join her for a Christmas meal, hoping to ________ a memorable and joyous experience for both of them.

“I thought, if it was my granddad and he was alone, I would want someone to talk to him.” Ellie’s invitation to Edwin was more than just a kind ________ it was a start of their friendship.

From that memorable Christmas dinner, a beautiful friendship ________. Ellie and Edwin began meeting regularly for coffee, sharing stories and enjoying each other’s ________.

Their relationship, which started with ________ conversations in a grocery store, had ________ a meaningful and enduring friendship.