1 . Nathalia, from Liberty High School, was so nervous for her final scholarship interview Friday morning that she couldn’t sleep.

The 17-year-old _______ at 4 am and began preparing for whatever questions her principal, Harrison Bailey, might throw at her during the _______ for East Stroudsburg University. Nathalia left home confidently and _______ herself of the coming success. When arriving at school, she was _______ to find her family, teachers and representatives from East Stroudsburg all waiting for her. Actually, it was a surprising trick for: Nathalia. She’d already won the scholarship. “I was not expecting this at all,” Nathalia said, fighting back tears.

The scholarship — valued at about $34,000 over four years-is to pay for university and remove students’ financial _______ to higher education. Nathalia plans to major in nursing at East Stroudsburg, and she agrees that the scholarship is _______ for the first-generation college students like her. “I feel like that an unbelievable dream comes true,” her mother Diana said with tears of joy.

The epidemic has made gaining scholarship extra challenging. Nathalia _______ found a way to earn college credits by taking three online courses and in this way she has _______ herself a lot. “Nathalia is always self-motivated and I don’t have to _______ her,” Diana said.

“I want to help patients with better hospital experience. It is my __________ that pushes me on toward success.”

2 . I love my father. He’s the parent who I thought understood me. But when I was growing up, he was ______ home. He worked overtime as an accountant, late into the evening during the week, all day Saturday and most Sundays. Even if he was home, and wasn’t working at his desk, I had to ______ him, because I was one of three daughters. All those years in my childhood I longed for my father’s ______.

One day my father was working at his desk. I ______ him there and stood beside the desk. ______ in his writing, he didn’t notice me. To let him know I was there, I lifted my plastic water gun and shot him in the face. This frightened him and he roared like a tiger. I dashed out of the room and down the stairs. I was so _______ because I’d never seen him angry before.

Moments later, he appeared at the top of the stairs, ______ his arms and laughed; his arms and laugh invited me to run back up the stairs and into his huge hug. Comforting me softly, he ______ for scaring me. I kept replaying the _______ in my mind for a thousand times.

My sense that I couldn’t reach my father stayed with me even when I was grown. Well into adulthood, I felt that I could never ______ the father time I’d missed as a child. But it turned out that I could. And I did.

The ______ started when my father retired. One day, I called when my mother was out. My father answered the phone, and he couldn’t hand me over to my mother, ______ we started to talk. He told me he’d been thinking about his grandfather, and I asked about him. He began telling me. I ______ that when I asked him about his past, he stayed on the phone. And the older he got, the more ______   my father was to talk about his past, especially his childhood. In his detailed descriptions, I felt he was recreating the world of his childhood, and ______ me in. The stories he told became a world we inhabited together. He introduced me to the people he knew there, and to the child he was.

I really cherish my father’s stories and will pass them on to the next generation.

3 . It was an unexpected call for Aranza Delgado from the shelter, Peewee’s Pet Adoption World, 800 miles away in Texas. She was so pleasantly ________ when learning her dog “Puppies” was picked up by a passerby after it went missing four years ago. Since he was ________, the shelter called the chip company and got the name and telephone number of his ________.

However, Aranza had a limited window of time, and could only come to pick up Puppies one week later. Ernie Cochran, a volunteer of the shelter, replied that they were more than ________ to provide the dog with a place to stay for several more days.

“If we can get a dog back to his family, it’s a wonderful thing,” thought Ernie. Ernie and the other locals teamed up with a plan to get Puppies back home as ________ as possible.

“Everybody has been amazing, from the shelter to the people who are helping me transport Puppies,” Aranza told Kris News. She was happy to be ________ with her old friend soon. “I didn’t ________ how friendly everybody in Texas was and how helpful they’ve been. I’ve had a lot of ________. Actually, the lady that I’ve been in contact with is picking Puppies up tomorrow and she’s going to ________ him overnight and then will send him back home.”

Although she may never completely know what Puppies went through during the four years, Aranza hopes that her story ________ the kindness of Texans.

4 . When I was ten, we moved to a new house across town. Mark, one of the_______boys, came over with his Star Wars action figures. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber lit up and he could swing his arms and say, in a tinny voice, “Use the Force!” I didn’t think the figure looked much like the real Obi-Wan at all. Together, we watched him repeat this performance five times on the coffee table.

“Can he do anything else?” I asked.

Mark was_______by my question. “Look at all the details,” he said.

I looked at the details. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say.

Mark was disappointed by my response. “Show me your toys.”

I didn’t have any toys_______my paper menagerie. I brought Laohu out from my bedroom. By then he was very worn, patched all over with tape and glue, evidence of the years of repairs Mo m and I had done on him. He was no longer as nimble (敏捷的)and _______as before. I carefully sat him down on the coffee table. I could hear the skittering steps of the other animals behind in the hallway, timidly peeking into the living room.

“Xiao laohu,” I said, and stopped. I switched to English.“This is Tiger.” Cautiously, Laohu strode up and purred at Mark, sniffing his hands.

Mark_______the Christmas-wrap pattern of Laohu’s skin. “That doesn’t look like a tiger at all. Your Mom makes toys for you from trash?”

I had never thought of Laohu as_______. But looking at him now, he was really just a piece of wrapping paper.

Mark pushed Obi-Wan's head again. The lightsaber flashed; he moved his arms up and down. “Use the Force!”

Laohu turned and pounced, knocking the plastic figure_______the table. It hit the floor and broke, and Obi-Wan’s head rolled under the couch.

“Rawwww,” Laohu laughed. I _______ him.

Mark punched me, hard. “This was very expensive! You can’t even find it in the stores now. It probably cost more than what your Dad paid for your Mom!”

I stumbled and fell to the floor. Laohu growled and leapt at Mark’s face.

Mark screamed, more out of fear and surprise than_______. Laohu was only made of paper, after all. Mark grabbed Laohu and his snarl was choked off as Mark crumpled him in his hand and tore him in half. He balled up the two pieces of paper and threw them at me. “Here’s your stupid cheap Chinese garbage.”

After Mark left, I spent a long time trying, without__________, to tape together the pieces, smooth out the paper, and follow the creases to refold Laohu. Slowly, the other animals came into the living room and gathered around us, me and the torn wrapping paper that used to be Laohu.