1 . “Hi! How are you?” A woman smiled as she took the seat beside me. She had to lower herself slowly, squeezing her fat body into the seat, ________ all available space. I ________ a little towards the window, feeling worried silently about the long hours of ________ I was going to experience with this monster (巨物) beside me.

She said, “My name is Laura. I’m from Britain. If we’re going to spend six hours side by side on this ________, we’d better be friends.” Then she started a conversation with me and didn’t ________ my unfriendly reactions. She talked ________ about herself and her trip to Hong Kong.

I gave her one-word answers to her questions about me. Not affected by my ________, she nodded as she made ________ about my answers. She was warm and considerate, ________ that I had room to stretch in my seat.

I couldn’t help but let down my ________ slowly. Laura was an interesting conversationalist. During our conversation, Laura ________ to make every crew member on the plane who ________ us walk away laughing at her jokes.

I asked Laura, “Have you ever ________ losing some weight?” “No. I don’t trust the advertisements from slimming centers at all.” “You aren’t worried about the diseases that come with being ________? Not at all. You only ________ the diseases if you’re worried about your weight all the time. I eat ________ and walk regularly; I’m this size ________ I was born to be big! There is more to life than worrying about weight all day long.” She drank her wine. “Besides, God gave me so much ________ that I need a bigger body to hold all of it! Why would I lose weight to lose my happiness?”

________ by her unusual reasoning, I smiled. I suddenly ________ that Laura was the most beautiful woman I had ever met in my life.

3 . A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet website called a “blog”. The word “blog” is a_________way of saying “web log”, or “personal website”. Anyone can start a_________, and they can write about anything they like.

There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They_________news, information and ideas for people who read them. They contain_________to other websites, and they provide a place for people to write their_________and react to the ideas of others.

A research company called Perseus has_________more than 3,000 web logs. It says that blogs are most_________with teenage girls. They use them to_________their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study_________says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year.

__________, some people develop__________blogs to present political and other ideas. __________, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their__________.

At the same time, some longstanding blogs have__________. Last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service “weblogs. Com”. He said the site became too expensive to __________. He started the blog four years ago, and thousands of people had written on it. They were upset that the site had been closed.

4 . After graduation I managed to work at a news organization. As I was new to the world of________ I was often sent to finish ________assignments, but I was eager to________myself in tough things. All I wanted was to make a ________ impression on my seniors.

I________a senior colleague named Joy to let me follow him to his meeting with a major leader. Joy________ me with recording the process on tape. It was simple, but I was ________. I. would learn a little about how inter- views were done.

After we got back to the office, Joy asked me to ________ the tapes for editing. To my ________, they were all blank! Was this going to cost me my job? Tears welled up in my eyes, with my hands   ________ I didn’t know how I’d face Joy. He had ________ me, but I’d let him down. I could imagine him angry at my________and asking me to leave.

When Joy ________ and asked me for the tapes, I________ and cried, apologetic and embarrassed. “ I think I saved them, but. . . ” I said. However, Joy, with a lot of ________as a journalist, had strange________on his face. He sat down and looked me in the eye. “You have to make ________to learn how you can do the job better next time, right?” he smiled.

I stared at Joy ________ . He taught me the most important lesson in my life: Mistakes are ________, and what we learn from them is what ________the course of our success.

5 . Students in high schools can be cruel (残酷的) and we certainly refer to a young man named Matt who was in my class. We laughed at him about his _________. He was at least fifty pounds overweight.

One day he sat near me in a _________. Someone pushed him and he _________on me and hurt my foot quite badly. With the whole class _________, I had to choose either _________ it off or have a fight with him. I chose to fight in order to keep my _________.

I shouted, “Come on, Matt, let’s fight.” He said he didn’t want to. But peer pressure (同伴的压力)_________ him into the fight whether he liked it or not. He came toward me with his fists (拳头) in the air. With one _________ I bloodied (弄出血) his nose and the classroom became _________. No one dared to say a word. Just then the teacher walked into the classroom. He saw that we were __________ and sent us out to the playground.

He followed us with a __________on his face and said, “I want you two boys to go out there and run that mile holding each other’s hands.” The room broke into laughter. The two of us began to feel a bit__________, but we went out to the track and ran our mile —__________.

During the course of our run, I looked at him, with blood still flowing from his nose and his __________slowing him down. It hurt me that here was a person, not all that different from myself. I no longer saw Matt as fat. It was amazing what I learned I was forced to go hand-in-hand with someone for only one mile.

For the rest of my life I have never __________ a hand against another person. I know it is wrong to do so.

6 . I’ve heard such a story. On a Friday _________, a poor young artist stood at the gate of the subway station, playing his violin. The music was _________, and many people who hurried to go home _________ and put some money into the hat of the young man.

The next night, the young artist took out a large piece of _________ and laid it on the ground. Then he began _________. The music sounded more pleasant. Some people gathered and they found the _________ on that paper, ”Last night, a gentleman put a (n) _________ thing into my hat. Please come to get it back.“ When the people saw that, they felt very curious and _________ what it could be. After about half an hour, a man _________ there in a hurry and said, ”It can’t be true! You... you...“

The young violinist asked, ”Did you __________ something?“ ”A lottery ticket (彩票),“ the man answered __________.

The violinist took out a lottery ticket. “Is it?” he asked.

The man was too __________ to say a word. He __________ a lottery ticket a few days ago. The awards (奖) opened yesterday and he won $ 500, 000. So lucky and excited did he feel that he __________ 50 dollars and put it into the hat when hearing the music. However, the lottery ticket was also thrown into the hat without being __________. After the violinist finished his performance, he found the lottery ticket in his hat. Thinking that the owner would probably return to look for it, he came back to where he was given the lottery ticket.

Someone asked the violinist why he returned the lottery ticket to the man. He said, ”Although I don’t have much money, I live happily; but if I lose honesty, I won’t be happy forever."

9 . “A bird with a broken wing will never fly as high.” I’m sure that John would agree with this saying,________ he felt this way almost every day in school.

By high school, John was the most famous ________ in his town. He was always absent, didn’t answer questions and got into ________. He had failed almost every exam by the time he entered his senior year, yet was passed on each year to a higher grade level. Teachers didn’t want to ________ him again the following year. John was moving on, but definitely not moving ________

I met John for the first time at a weekend leadership training program since John was one of 405 students who ________. At the start of the training, John was just standing ________ the circle of students, against the back wall. He didn’t ________ join the discussion groups. But slowly, the interactive games ________ him in.

The ice really melted when the groups started building a list of ________ and negative things that had occurred at school that year. John________ some constructive ideas on those situations. The other students in John’s group ________his comments. All of a sudden John felt like a________ of the group, and before long he was ________ like a leader. By the end of the training, he had ________ the Homeless Project team. The other students on the team were ________ with his passionate concern and ideas. They ________ elected John co-chairman of the team.

John started ________ at school every day and answered questions from teachers for the first time. He led a second project, ________ 300 blankets and 1,000 pairs of shoes for the homeless shelter from house to house.

A bird with a broken wing only needs ________. Once healed (治愈), it can fly higher than the rest.