1 . If life were a book and you were the author, how would you like the story to go? That is the question that _______ my life forever.

One day I went home from the training of snowboarding with what I thought was a flu, and less than 24 hours later, I was in a _______ on life support with less than two percent _______ of living. It wasn’t until days later that the doctor diagnosed (诊断) me with a _______ blood infection (感染). During the course of 2.5 months, I lost the hearing in my left ear and both my legs below the knee. When my parents _______ me out of the hospital, I _______ that I had been put together like a patchwork (拼缝物) doll and I had to live with _______legs. I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken, _______ running down.

But I knew in order to move forward, I had to let go of the Old Amy and _______ the New Amy. It was at that moment that I asked myself the important ________. That is when it hit me that I didn’t have to be five-foot-five anymore, but I could be as tall as I wanted. And first of all, I can make my feet the size of all the shoes. So there were ________ here.

Four months later, I was back upon a ________. And this February, I won two Board World Cup gold medals, ________ me the highest ranked snowboarder in the world.

So instead of looking at our challenges and our limitations as something ________ or bad, we can begin looking at them as a wonderful ________ that can be used to help us go further than we ever know we could go.

2 . When I was young, I loved and really did well in drawing and art. I won awards, got constant attention, and even saw my face in the _________ and on television because of my natural ability to _________.

Most people who happen to come across something that they are good at are _________ to take it and run with it. Of course, my life was no _________. From teachers, to principals, to family members, everyone seemingly had a ton of advice to give me in regards to art.

All the while, my true desire was _________. I entered poetry, essay, and short-story contests and _________ them all. It was such a contrast from my artistic _________ experience! It was so bad that I _________ a good friend who told me once, “If you are so good at drawing, why do you even care about writing? _________ drawing!”

Though well intended, eighteen years later I’m __________ I didn’t take his words to heart. Years went by with me still writing and still occasionally entering __________. It wasn’t until my first year in college that I finally got honorable__________ in a poetry contest. As a writer I’ve truly __________.

I’m sure there are things in your life that are __________ and yet, rewarding. Endurance (忍耐)，especially when it comes to things you truly love is essential. Take some time to devote some more energy to the“thing”that didn’t come __________ and see what happens.

3 . Erjiu

A video of a 66-year-old man ______ Erjiu has gone viral (走红、火了) on Chinese social media after his nephew Tang Hao shared the man’s brief but ______ life story on short-video platform Bilibili on Monday.

In the video, Erjiu is shown as a “young ______” who always performed well academically at school during childhood. ______, while he was a teenager, a high fever was misdiagnosed (误诊的) and he ______the wrong medicine, _____ resulted in Erjiu losing the use of his left leg. Erjiu, who _____ in bed in low____ for one year afterward, then learned carpentry by watching a carpenter (木工、木匠) going about woodworking tasks _______ three days, and he later did woodworking in the village and the town.

According to Tang, it would be inaccurate to merely define Erjiu _____ a carpenter, since he demonstrated his _____ skills by fixing an electrical socket patch panel (插座接线板), a gas stove and a toy car during the three days the video was shot in the village. He also _____ erhu — a traditional Chinese musical instrument-with wood, using fishing line for strings _______ snakeskin as covering.

Erjiu, who said that he _____ felt sorry for himself despite his difficulties, now _____ his 88-year-old mother. At the end of the video, Tang shares a sentence that Erjiu found in a book decades ago: “Be _____ and not afraid of sacrifice to _____ all difficulties and win the final success.”

The man, who uses a cane (拐杖) due to a longtime ______, is portrayed as a common hero ______never bows to life’s difficulties, but struggles instead ______ a full and meaningful village life.

5 . After one night of partying in college, drinking and taking pills prescribed for my arthritis (关节炎) and migraines (偏头痛), I woke up the next morning and remembered nothing. I started hiccupping (打嗝), and it wouldn’t ________. After a week, I went to the campus hospital, but they said ________ was wrong. How much I would hiccup ________. They would get worse if my stress levels were up, or if I hadn’t had much sleep.

When I first spoke to my family, they thought I was ________ it. It was only when I saw them in person that they started to believe me. They could hear me hiccupping all night, so they knew it was ________. The doctors thought it was all in my head. It made no ________ that I would lie about such a thing — it was painful and annoying.

I got kicked out of class because I was ________ others. I wouldn’t go to the movies because I thought I would ________ everyone. The problem was physically and mentally ________.

Then I stopped taking pills and drinking. My life got back on track, but the hiccups didn’t ________. Over the years, I’ve been given lots of different ________. I thought things might never get better. After eight years, my hiccups never stopped completely, but the medication eventually made them less ________. I’ve now been living with hiccups for 12 years. I feel mentally ________ for going through this, as well as a more patient person. I’m so ________ to having them that it’s like blinking to me, ________ my daughter does still laugh when she hears me hiccup.

6 . A year ago I paid no attention to English idioms,____my teacher said again and again that it was important.

One day, I happened to_____an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to____. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner shook his head, saying, “You don’t say! You don’t say!” I was______, I thought, perhaps this is not a_____topic. Well, I’d _____change the topic. So I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall?______the way, have you ever_____there?”

“Certainly, everyone back home will_____me if I leave China without seeing______. It was great.” I said, “The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world. It is a place of______.” Soon I was interrupted again by his words, “______!” I couldn’t______asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?” “Well, I didn’t ask you to do_______”, he answered, gently surprised.

I said, “Didn’t you say ‘You don’t say’?”

Hearing this, the Englishman_____into laughing. He began to explain , “‘You don’t say’ actually means ‘really?’. It is an expression of surprise.

7 . The event happened many years ago, but I will never forget it. The memory of it remains _______ in my mind. The _______ occurred on a hot, humid May morning in 1947.

When I was six years old I was in the first grade in Miss Butler’s class. She was well _______ for her strict discipline(纪律) in class. We all were kept busy _______ all day. There was always so much homework to do. Anyone who had done something wrong would be _______ punished by the long stick she carried. You can imagine the fear I felt when I drew in a deep breath—I accidentally _______ a strange sound. Miss Butler immediately stopped her class and _______ the classroom. Seeing my _______, she asked, “Jenny, did you do that?” I managed to find my voice and _______ to the boy close to me and said, “No. Leandro did it.” Leandro’s explanation was ________; in a moment the ________ came down, and Leandro was crying into his old shirt.

Somehow, I had known she would ________ me. After all, I was a nicely dressed little white girl, and my mother was ________ in the Parent-Teacher Association, while Leandro was a fat little Mexican boy. He had ________ speaking English and his mother had too many children to care for and no time to attend meetings. He was never dressed in new clothes.

Leandro, how I ________ that I could ask for your forgiveness! Please accept my apology, my old deskmate.

8 . I used to think my life was perfect. My mom had her dream job and a beautiful office, and I had my own room with a computer and a garden to ________. But one Sunday, everything changed. A hurricane ________ our neighborhood while we were visiting my grandparents in Raleigh. Our kitchen was damaged, and our clean and comfortable home was in ruins.

But something ________ happened. Our neighbors, the Flores family, came to our help. They helped clear broken pieces and ________ us a place to stay. Their ________ was most impressive. We had ________ spoken to them before, but they ________ their home to us and made us feel like family.

We started a new ________ of having weekend dinner together. We invited other families from the neighborhood to join us, and our ________ were filled with laughter and delicious food. It was a beautiful thing to see our ________ come together in a disaster.

I never knew Rosica, their daughter, ________ the hurricane. But she quickly became my friend. She had a gift for ________, and our evenings together were filled with adventure and laughter.

Looking back, I realize that the hurricane ________ unexpected advantages. It brought us closer to our neighbors and ________ our lives in ways we never could have imagined. Sometimes, it takes a(n) ________ to bring out the best in people.