1 . I’m a mother of three and a psychologist. Recently, I come to understand what makes childhood valuable in its own right.

One day, when I went to get my 7-year-old son from soccer ________, the kid ________ me with a downcast face. The coach had ________ him for not focusing on his soccer drills. He walked out of the school with his head and shoulders ________ down. He seemed wrapped in ________. But just before he reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching (蹲伏) down to ________ something on the sidewalk. His ________ went down lower and lower, and then, with complete joy he called out, “Mum. Come here. This is the ________ bug (虫子) I’ve ever seen. It has, like a million ________. It’s amazing.” He looked up at me, his features overflowing with energy and ________. “Can’t we ________ here for just a minute? I want to find out what he does with all those legs.”

The traditional view of such a moment is that it is ________, or a waste of valuable time. Yet at that moment it suddenly dawned on me that what sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance (无知) but their ________ for joy. Children’s ability to become deeply ________ in something and get great pleasure is what adults spend the rest of their lives ________.

2 . A young Mexican-born girl _________ for what was right and achieved the unexpected. Her name is Erica Fernandez. Erica was born and _________ in Michoacan. Mexico until the age of 12. At that time, her family _________ to an American agriculture city. Oxnand, California to make a fortune. One of the biggest _________ at the time was that neither her parents nor herself could speak English. Therefore, she worked hard at English for several years and _________ from Chicago University with good grades._________, a light life and racial prejudice (歧视) forced them to _________ Mexico, where she started her new career.

One day Erica was invited to attend a meeting as a translator. She _________ got news that the richest mining company in the world would build a chemical factory in her hometown. The reason why they chose Michoacan was that this _________ was refused in those developed areas. It would cause 280 tens of air __________ each year, not only affecting the __________ of Oxnard settlers, but also their harvests. Some local people were __________ to celebrate for more chances of making money because they didn’t know the truth. Seeing that her hometown was going to be __________, Erica decided to do something about it. Erica joined forces with __________ environmental protection organizations, and reached out to the media to report this unfairness to __________ this programme from going through. She also __________ more than 250 high school students marching on the street. All her efforts became __________ after her exciting speech. The project didn’t go through. It was Erica’s courage and determination that __________ their success.

Erica saved her hometown from a bad __________ at her young age, but most __________ she is teaching us how to live life in the right way: Care about our homeland and we can make a difference!