2 . Snowy wanted to be a show jumping horse. Every day she would _______ her mum to allow her to jump. Finally, her mum decided she was _____ enough and they went into the jumping arena (竞技场).

Snowy was very excited, but when she saw how ______ the jumps were, she started shaking." I can't jump that high. It's a good idea that we ________." she said. Her mum said,“I wouldn't expect you to _________ that high. There's a log (原木) on the ground. Why not start jumping over that?" Snowy gathered (积聚) her ________, walked to the log and then managed to jump over it.

“I did it!" she shouted happily. _________, her mum said,“You can't just jump over logs if you want to be a show jumper. ________ the low jump over there."

Again, Snowy was ___________but she tried it and found she could do it. As time went on, Snowy progressed to taller jumps, until finally she ________ the arena and looked at the tallest jumps. Over the past few weeks, something had _______. These jumps seemed much less ______ to Snowy. She jumped over them easily. Her mum looked with ________ at her and said,“This is what happens when you start ________ and build your way up."

So never be afraid of ________   in life, but start small and keep trying. Then you'll be able to do anything.

3 . Life can give you so many choices and opportunities, but in the end it is up to us to take the first step. It’s _________ to turn your back on the rest of the world after experiencing a lot of pain.  

Before becoming involved with Hestia (a charity founded in 1970), I often felt that I just wanted to be left _________. I then volunteered to help distribute Hestia’s newsletter. I was _________ a small amount for my involvement and it was a great financial help at the time. During this time I met some wonderful people — staff and other service users within Hestia and it _________ that I actually had a good time. I felt respected and appreciated for my _________. If I had not decided to help out, I wouldn’t have realized the benefit that I gained both financially and _________.  

I was still unwilling to become more _________ though. However, when I realized that sitting within the four walls of my room wouldn’t help much, I knew I had to _________ myself. By helping other service users I started feeling _________ about myself and throughout it all I have ____________ my confidence and created good and lasting ____________ with other people. This has encouraged me and given me strength to take on other ____________ within Hestia.  

I later learned about other volunteering opportunities at Hestia and ____________ in the reception area gave me a sense of belonging. After a while I joined the finance department where I was part of a team and where I was shown ____________— something I was not ____________ to. For the first time I felt I could be “Me”.

4 . Robin was 12 years old when his mother sent him to me for his first piano lesson. I preferred that students begin at an earlier _______ . I explained it to Robin that he was too old, but he said it had always been his mother's _______ to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student.

_______ Robin tried very hard, he didn't seem to have the basic sense of music. However, he _______ and at the end of each lesson he never forgot to say, “My mom's going to hear me play someday. "   But it seemed impossible, and I was _______ by his slow progress. One day, he _______ me that his mother was sick and he couldn't come to my class any longer. I was glad that he stopped coming, since he was really a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several months later when I was preparing my students for a music show, Robin came to my home and said he had to _______ the show. I don't know what led me to _______ him to do that. Maybe it was the _______ in his eyes or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right. I was even more ________ when Robin announced that he had chosen one of the most difficult pieces of Mozart. I was not prepared for what happened next.

However, on the show his fingers danced ________ on the keys. He played so well that everyone ________excitedly when he was leaving the stage. In excitement, I ________ up to stage to congratulate him.

“How could you do it?” I could not help asking him a few days later.

“Well, I kept practising at home. My mom had cancer and just passed away the day I went to your ________ to ask for your permission to take part in the show. It was the first time she could hear me play on the stage. 1 wanted to make it ________ . ”

5 . Last summer, we went to Hawaii for holiday. During my _______ trip with my husband, we spent most of our time _______ during the day in the sea, and then enjoying walks along the beach in the evenings.

We didn’t take any _______ because we had enough. We had visited the island many times _______. On our way to the _______ we joked that other than our sunburnt skin, we had no way to show that we had _______ there!

As we stood in line at the check-in, we noticed the _______ who had been on our plane the week before. _______, they all had tear-filled eyes this day. On the plane, we sat directly behind them: a mother and her four children without Dad’s _______. We learned that the father had been ____________ in a jet-skiing accident that week, and his wife and children had to ____________ make their way home without him.

We watched the children become ____________ while they were playing cards. But the mother stared at her knees, ____________ to believe her husband’s death. We could ____________ feel her pain as we realized that this could have happened to any of us. ____________ we were laughing and playing in the water, this poor family had been ____________ the sufferings. The vacation they had dreamed about had ____________ the terrible dream they would never forget.

I suddenly ____________ that we had no pictures for this vacation together. I closed my eyes, ____________ that my mind had recorded all the wonderful moments that I had ____________ with my husband that week. What a trip!

6 . One rainy afternoon I was sitting at home feeling so bored. _________feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to meet people and have new _________. So I decided to start volunteering. I found a website where I could volunteer on a farm in France.

Volunteering offers so many opportunities to have fun and share _______ stories. It was the first time for me to work on a farm. It was almost a free holiday as food and accommodation were provided. It was not one _______holiday, however, as I had to _______fifteen horses and sheep! I soon discovered that I was a(n) _______   farmer but it did not matter because I made some great friends and also improved my French.

However, you do not _______ go abroad to volunteer. I have had plenty of adventures at home as volunteering can become a _______. For example, I love singing so I had a good laugh waving my arms in order to _______ my local choir (合唱团). At university, I organized a concert for charity with my friends. It was really ________ to find bands and raise money for a cause.

It is true that you feel good volunteering but there are also other________. I once volunteered as a steward (干事) at a charity sports event where the organizers generously gave me cupcakes from an expensive London bakery to thank me for my ________. I also volunteered in a charity shop so I found loads of nice cheap clothes to ________my wardrobe (衣柜).

While this is all fun, my favorite aspect of volunteering is ________and sharing stories. My terrible ________at farming has given me funny stories to tell!

7 . Afraid to have a start, I was walking slowly into my first school in America. I had _____a long distance from India in order to join parents, who had been here for three years, hoping America would help my future. My father decided that I would go to school here, so I _____a local high school in my new town.

With _____on one hand and fear on the other, I arrived at the classroom. Everyone’s eyes were on me as I entered the classroom. Without paying attention to them, I went straight to the _____and asked him if it was the right class. With a _____voice, he answered, “Yes.” His voice comforted me a little. He gave me a(n) _____called “course requirements”, which I would never get in India. Then he asked me to _____where I would sit. I chose the _____closest to the door instead of the corner where all of the boys were sitting. I didn’t _____want to pick a seat. In India, we had _____seats, so I never needed to worry about that. I spent the rest of the class taking notes from the _____produced by the overhead projector (投影仪).

____it was my first day, I was confused which hallway to use, but I _____to get to my classes without asking anyone. I wasn’t quite sure when I would have _____. I thought it was time for my next class and the bell rang as I entered the classroom. I went through the _____process of asking the teacher if I was in the right class. Feeling surprised, she said, “That is the lunch bell.” I felt a little _____. Without another word, I headed for the _____.

At the end of the day, I developed some friendships and started to love my new school. On my way to the bus stop, I realized that all the _____seemed like the obstacle(障碍) I had to _____to reach my goal. After I got on my bus and sat down inside _______, I said to myself: Today isn’t so bad.

8 . The story I’m going to tell you happened two years ago when I was in high school in Poland. I came to school early on a sunny day, ____ I felt that there was something wrong. Students from my class were behaving ____.

I noticed that Tom was absent from school that day. Later, I ____ what happened. Tom had got sick and he had lung cancer, a very serious disease. It was _____ for my friends and me. I couldn’t believe that this had happened to him. He was so ____ and he was good at sports.

____ he had lung cancer, so he had to have an operation. It was successful. After that, he returned to school and felt very good. Twice a month he went back to the ____ for medical examinations just to make sure that everything was going well.

One day, the doctors noticed that the cancer had ____ to his brain. When I heard this ____, I felt like bursting into tears, “God, why do you do this, it is not ____.”

A lot of my friends ____ their faith and hope, and they even thought that there was no ____ for him to live, but he was strong. Tom was eager to live, and he said: “No way, I’m not going to ____. I will fight!”

The doctors made another operation on his brain. The operation ____ well and now he feels great and everything is fine. From Tom’s ____, I learned that whatever happens in our lives, we can’t give up or lose heart.

9 . I used to be a very self-centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed. I have started to think about other people _______ I think about myself. I am happy that I am becoming a _______person:

I think my _______started when I was at Palomar College. At first, I just wanted to get my _______, and be left alone. I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so I hardly ever _______to anyone in my classes. By the end of my first semester, I was really _______. It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun. So I tried a(n) _______. I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble I _______to help. That was really a big _______for me. By the end of the year, I had several new friends, and two of ________are still my best friends today.

A bigger cause of my new ________, however, came when I took a part-time job at a Vista Nursing Home. One old lady there who had Alzheimer s disease became my ________. Every time I came into her room, she was so ________because she thought I was her daughter. Her real daughter never ________her, so I took her place. She let me ________. That making others feel good make me feel good, too. When she died, I was ________, but I was very grateful to her.

I think I am a much ________, person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not ________these experiences. They have ________e to care about other people more than about myself. ________who I am today, and I could not say that a few years ago.