6 . Lv Zeyi, a 17-year-old boy from Nanjing, is crazy about taking photos of _______. He has taken hundreds of photos of insects and shared many of them on the Internet.

When Lv was three, he became _______ in insects in his grandmother’s garden. Whenever the boy saw an insect he had never seen, he would do research into _______ right away. As he grew up, his interest in insects grew as well.

Lv _______ taking photos of insects when he was in Grade 6. He learned about a person who was good at taking photos of insects by _______. “I was surprised at his beautiful photos,” Lv said. He liked the photos so much that he decided to take his own ones. He _______ goes outdoors to take photos, but he also keeps some insects in his room. Over the years, he has taken hundreds of photos of insects. “I record their growth with my camera. It’s very _______” Lv said. Also, he once noticed _______ some butterflies changed when they grew. “When they grew _______ and were ready to fly, I felt really excited. That was the most amazing ________. I didn’t know when this would happen, so I had to watch often and ________ patiently.”

Lv tries hard to make his photos ________, so he often talks to good photographers(摄影师) and reads books to learn how to take better photos. He also ________ backgrounds to match the insects with the pictures. For example, he once added leaves and grass ________ the insects to make them look more beautiful.

Lv dreams of ________ a professional photographer and taking photos of more insects in the future.

7 . Our family was sitting on the porch swing enjoying the summer breeze when my husband pointed to something on the swing’s chain next to him. We _______ forward to see a large praying mantis (螳螂) attaching to the chain. We held our _______ and watched, not wanting to scare it away. We sat and _______ chatted for the next half hour as we watched the insect _______ up and down the chain. It seemed _______ by our presence, and we were _______ to observe its slow, precise movements.

We wouldn’t have _______ it if my husband had not pointed it out. Too often, we move through life, _______ of the beautiful blessings surrounding us each day. The _______ of sitting and watching an insect for half an hour is something I do not want to ________ for granted. Too often, I define myself by my productivity. I start my morning with a checklist and ________ my worth by how much I get done by the day’s end.

I’m learning to ________ my tireless striving for productivity and simply ________ the gifts of this beautiful world when I see them. Each creature displays a small ________. To sit and watch a unique bug like a praying mantis is an act of admiration. I think I’ll ________ and sit for a while in search of another beautiful bug just to appreciate the beauty of nature.

8 . Spanish class scared me in the freshman year. I knew little Spanish before starting the class, and I thought it would be ________ for me. However, Mary, our honored Spanish teacher, who was full of creativity, made her class fun from the beginning. I knew what to expect with a schedule for each week, but there was always some slight ________.

Before the exam, Mary often asked us to ________ our lessons by ourselves. But I could remember one day she said, “This time, let’s play a game before going over what you’ve learned.” The game was so interesting that we all ________ ourselves. After the exam, Mary gave us opportunities to make up for our ________. After each error correction, she would check again. She took things so ________ that she wouldn’t overlook any detail. No wonder she was ________ by us.

Mary was ________ and willing to help, within reason, on everything. We could ask her questions at any time. She encouraged everyone to speak Spanish in class. Because of that, I was ________ enough, and then I could communicate with Spanish speakers outside of class. When she knew our problems, she would give advice. When someone was struggling, she would ________.

Mary’s ________ teaching eventually transformed my ________ into fascination. She infused (灌输) foreign culture into lessons, using music and dance to ________ our language skills. Her personalized attention to each student’s needs fostered a(n) ________ environment. At the end of the term, my Spanish improved, and my confidence soared. Mary left a lasting impact on my ________ for new challenges.

9 . Biar Kon, a 17-year-old student, whose parents were working in neighboring Sudan, moved to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to attend school. Once he _______, he needed to get some documents from the Sudanese embassy(大使馆). But when he went to look for the embassy, he couldn’t find it. He asked a few people for _______, and no one knew where it was. Then an older woman tapped him on the back.

The woman told Kon that she had seen him asking questions of multiple people as they _______, and she wondered if he needed money for food, or a place to stay. Then Kon realized that the woman thought he was _______.

They cleared up the _______, and the woman was able to offer her help. The woman’s _______ left a deep impression on Kon. And it inspired him to _______ five years later, when he moved to Boston, Massachusetts. One day, outside a coffee shop, he _______ a man who was begging for change. Kon _______ that moment five years earlier, when the woman in Nairobi had ________ him for a homeless person. So he went up to the man to see what he could do. “He told me why he was on the street—because he made a（n） ________ mistake when he was in high school, and he couldn’t get a ________ now,” Kon recalled. Kon bought the man some breakfast, and gave him a little bit of money.

Today, it’s an encounter he ________. For him, it is a ________ that you never know what people are going through unless you talk to them ________ — the way the woman in Nairobi made an effort to talk to him.

10 . As a first-generation Asian immigrant (移民) who had grown up in poverty, I knew I was beyond _________ to be admitted into Harvard. I loved books, but it never crossed my mind to become a(n)_________ of any sort. I didn’t _________ to have unrealistic dreams.

Still, something _________ me. My deskmate had _________ our friendship recently. There wasn’t a dramatic fight or disagreement. He had _________ moved on to new friends. I felt an ache in my chest that _________ night. I started doodling (涂鸦) on my notepad and then, suddenly, my hand started writing words. I’d written a poem about him. There on the page was the truth about how much it hurt to _________ him.

That tiny poem was a _________that rooted in my heart. I realized I could possibly become a writer and from that moment on, it was all I __________to do. So I changed my field of study to English. I __________ my first short stories while I was still a student. I went on to write my first novel, Girl in Translation, which became an international __________ and is taught in schools around the world.

That night, I learned that art isn’t a __________ . It’s at the core of what makes us human. Although I’d believed that immigrants couldn’t afford to be __________, I understood then that we had always been the ultimate artists,__________ourselves again and again as we try to adapt to a new landscape.