1 . I was halfway across Indiana headed home to Kentucky when my car broke down. My phone was ______, too. I managed to get to a gas station, but it was Sunday in the early fall, and there was no ______ on duty. I was working my way through university then and had little money for ______ the car.

I sat alongside my car for several hours trying to ______ the heat when an older gentleman ______ to fuel his car.   He asked about my car, and I ______ my predicament (困境). To my ______, the gentleman told me that he had a daughter my age, and then he opened his trunk and ______ a tool set.

Right then and there, this total ______ examined my engine, explaining as he worked that my spark plugs (火花塞) hadn’t been charged for so long that they were ______ to function.   After about an hour, he ______ that my car was safe to finish the trip.

______ came at the hands of a stranger. ______ his clothes, working on a hot September afternoon, this man ______ a college student from disaster, just because she could have been his ______ .

4 . Back in 2019. I had the pleasure of traveling to China. My friend who was accompanying (陪伴) me on this trip and I ______ our flights and hotels online, excited about the adventure we planned for weeks. During our trip, we had so many exciting ______ . A week later, it was time to ______ home, and this is when my anxiety started to kick in. My friend’s flight was a day before mine, which ______ I had to go back home alone.

By the time I ______ my way to the airport, I was tired. Carrying my luggage and making sure I didn’t get ______ , I just wanted ______ to accompany me during this journey. Then the ______   happened. I got on the wrong train to the airport. This made my ______ even worse, and I started crying.

It was at that point a (an) ______ approached me. As I was trying to ______ how I got lost, he sat down next to me and ______ if I was a traveler. I told him I was a traveler going back to the United States and ______ the wrong train to the airport. He told me he knew ______ where I was going and asked me to follow him.

We finally reached the ______ stop. And to my unpleasant surprise, more stairs were in front of us. This was when he ______   my luggage and heavy suitcase up the stairs. It was at that moment I knew he was an angel. We ______ our goodbyes, and I expressed my ______ to him for helping me. After having a moment to myself, a sense of appreciation came into my mind for what I just ______ . Three years later, I still look back on this experience and the ______ that stranger showed me will never be forgotten.

5 . Let’s face it, studying is hard work. But if you’re honest with yourself you know that all the effort will _________ in the end. Doing well in school will mean you have a _________ chance of getting the career you really want. Okay, so you knew that already.

_________ did you know that someone who studies harder is far more _________ to become a better person too?

Here is a real story for students to read.

The story becomes special when you see what troubles she overcame.

She had a _________ childhood. She was once stabbed (刀刺) in the face by the young gang(帮派)member, and at times eating only ice because her family couldn’t afford _________.

You can conclude that she lived in a poor neighborhood where _________ was a common thing.

On top of that she was very bad in school, _________ at math and chemistry. That didn’t stop her from going on to graduate in the top five of her college class with a degree in _________.

After the __________ in which she got stabbed, she __________ to a new school. But she couldn’t afford to move to a(n) __________ neighborhood. Now she was two hours away from her new school, going every day through two very __________ areas.

She was interested in the people in her new school. An interesting fact is that her English was “good” __________ to kids in the new school. She meets mentor (辅导老师) that teaches her math so she could get __________ grades. Through this process, she __________ how actually smart she is and the only thing that was stopping her was fear.

To make the story __________ she started to teach math and later she got an offer to work for NASA on real rocket design.

The only thing that stops you is the __________ of unknown. __________ is that hard that you can’t learn or overcome. I __________ you to check her book called Mathaphobia: How You Can Overcome Your Math Fears and Become a Rocket Scientist by Olympia LePoint.

7 . When I think of my childhood, I remember cycling with my friends and buying orange candies, but most of all, going home to see my grandma waiting at the doorstep and asking, “How was your day, bunny?”

Nana (I call my grandma Nana) saw me _________. She left me many great _________. She told me stories of the fairies and princesses but also of the wars and how she _________ those days.

Nana was born during the Second World War with a very different lifestyle and childhood from me. She didn’t get _________. In fact, she had to help with the housework. Even when her siblings (兄弟姐妹) got the opportunity to learn, she would only watch them read and write. But she never _________. That is the most important lesson she had taught me.

She taught me to be _________ whatever things I had in my life. When I _________ to be selected in my school’s cheerleading team, I was very upset, but she made me realize that, if not in the cheerleading team, something else was out there in the world that was going to happen to me, and it did. I _________ a state-level gymnast.

As years went by, Alzheimer’s disease (老年痴呆症) ate her from the inside. The _________ who once refused to call me by any name but her “little bunny”, now didn’t even remember what my name was. Soon, she forgot who I was until l sang Frank Sinatra’s Fly me to the Moon. The tiny spark (火花) of __________ in her eyes was what I __________. The little glimmer (微光) in her eyes meant that I was her “bunny” once again.

One day, the glimmer __________ disappeared from her eyes and that was the day when I knew I had lost my nana. On her last day on this earth, as I sat beside her bed watching her fall in and out of sleep, I heard her hum Fly me to the Moon __________. That was the last time when I heard her __________, but I will keep it in my heart forever.

Nana took a piece of my childhood with her when she __________. She is my world, and I know she is proud of me.

8 . Of all the stories of Olympic medalists, the most touching one is that of weight-lifting champion Oscar Figueroa.

During his athletic _________, the 37-year-old man had the chance to _________ in the Olympic games four different times. But he met with plenty of heartbreak and _________ before he finally succeeded.

In the 2004 Olympic games, Figueroa made his first _________. Because he wasn’t satisfied with his result, he looked _________ to competing in the Beijing 2008 Olympic games to prove himself. _________, just two weeks before the event, his hand was _________, which set him back in his weightlifting and _________ him the chance. By the London Olympic games in 2012, Figueroa took home the silver medal.

In spite of all, he’d already _________, he still aimed higher. In 2016, he headed to Rio to __________ the highest prize and he did. After his final lift, he __________ his shoes and put them on the stage, indicating that he would __________ from the Olympics. Amazingly enough, he took home the gold that year!

No matter how hard he felt, he never gave up, serving as a __________ example of hope, perseverance, and determination. Oscar Figueroa is the __________ Colombian man to have even taken home the gold in his field. He said he was __________ for the whole country in the competition in an interview.

9 . Surgery (外科手术) can be frightening at any age. However, one ___________ is working to reduce patients’ fears in a unique way. Modesto Medical Center in California has two___________ cars for its smallest patients to ___________ into operating rooms to help calm their nerves.

Modesto Medical Center has two cars for its ___________ surgical patients: a black Mercedes and a pink Volkswagen Beetle. The center bought the first car, but the second was generously _________by an employee and her family.

Employees of the center ___________ the cars reduce kids’ _________, anxiety and fear before they go into the operating room. “When the children find out they can ride in a cool mini car, they _________ and in most cases, their fears ___________,” Nurse Kimberly Martinez, who __________ up with the idea, said.

“In addition, when ____________see their children put at ease, it puts them at ease as well,” Martinez added.

Martinez said she notices an immediate difference since they’ve __________ the cars, and said she hopes the __________ have a lasting influence. “It can be difficult for a young ____________ to be taken away from their parents as they ____________ into surgery,” she said. “This truly helps everyone involved.”

According to Martinez, the cars are __________ made just for kids, aged 2—7. Both are__________ with a stereo (立体声系统), which has a variety of preloaded music and an MP3 player, as well as functioning headlights, taillights and dashboard lights. They can be __________ by the kids themselves, or by remote__________. The cars are very____________—they have working doors, a seatbelt and a horn (喇叭).