1 . Gurnah, growing up in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

He is the first Black writer _________ the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993, and some observers saw his _________ as a long delayed corrective (矫正)after years of European and American Nobel laureates (获得者). In his 10 novels, Gurnah has often explored the _________ of exile(流放), identity and belonging. They _________“Memory of Departure” “Pilgrims Way” and “Dottie,” which all deal with the immigrant(移民)experience in Britain.

Gurnah’s first language is Swahili, but he _________ English as his literary language. He drew on the imagery and stories from the Quran, _________ from Arabic and Persian poetry, particularly “The Arabian Nights.” The news of Gumah’s Nobel _________ by fellow novelists and academics who have long argued that his _________ deserve a wider audience.

Gurnah was born in Zanzibar, which is now _________ of Tanzania, in 1948. Then, in 1964, he fled to England. __________ , poor, homesick, he began to write scraps(片段)in his diary, then __________ entries, then stories about other people. In his 20s, he started __________ fiction. Then he finished his first novel, “Memory of Departure,” about a young man who flees a failed uprising, at the same time he was writing his Ph. D. dissertation(论文). __________, he became a professor of English.

Though Gurnah hasn’t lived in Tanzania since he was a __________, his homeland always inspires him of his imagination. __________, he said “my homeland always asserts myself in my imagination, even when I deliberately try to set my stories elsewhere”.

2 . Just before New Year, the principal (校长) called me into his office and asked me to read a poem written by me at the New Year party. “Sure,” I said with a smile, my dreams of being a famous ________ floating in my mind.

For weeks, I worked on my poem, ________ bettering the structure, sound, and voice. I reread my Emily Dickinson and William Wordsworth for ________. I practiced reciting it aloud. I revised, revised, revised. By December 30th, the day of the event, I was ________.

Well, I was confident until I looked around and realized how many people were there. And how big the hall was, and how ________ I felt about myself. How could I ________ a piece of my poetry to 800 people? My heart was beating so hard I thought everyone around me could ________ it. I was nervous. I could feel cool shakes run down my back. I couldn’t remember why I had said yes to the ________. Then the light darkened, the crowd quieted. It was starting.

Suddenly, I was on stage with the bright white lights blinding my view of the audience and the feeling that my ________ was closing up. I leaned in to the microphone and tried out my ________ as I read the title: “Let There Be Light.” My voice boomed (声音低沉洪亮) from the speakers loudly and sounded much more confident than I felt.

The room was ________ as I began my piece, and I tried to focus on the words and ________ the people. The words somehow ________ in the right order, the lines flowed together properly, and I even remembered which words to ________. I finally came to the last line of the poem and breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was over.

The room was dead silent. Maybe no one liked it. I felt like I was going to faint. Then out of the silence there was ________, cheering, and smiling. I had done it. I had shared a piece of my poetry with the world.

3 . Last year I ruined my summer vacation by bringing along a modern convenience: the iPad.

Instead of looking at nature, I _______ my e-mail. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading _______newspapers each morning. And that was the problem: I was acting as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation but my _______ wasn’t.

So this year I made up my mind to try something _______: getting away from the Internet. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, _______ I’m not good at self-control. But I was _______. I started by handing the iPad to my wife. Then, a stroke of luck: The mobile phone _______ at our cabin was worse than in the past. I was _______, forced to carry out my plan. Largely cut off from e-mail and my favourite newspaper websites, I had little way to _______ the world. I had no ________ but to do what I had planned to do all along: read books.

With determination and the strong support of my wife, I succeeded in my vacation struggle against the Internet. I finally ________ that it was me, of course, not the iPad, that was the ________.

I knew I had ________ when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi. “Don’t need it,” I said. ________, as we return to work, a test begins: Can I survive when I’m back at work? I don’t plan to ________ my iPad completely. But I hope to resist the temptation (抵抗诱惑) to use it every five minutes.

4 . I love and enjoy playing the piano. So when the recital (音乐演奏会) was ______, I was disappointed. I had expected it for long and already ______ my best songs.

However, Mom turned this ______ into something worthwhile. “You should ______ at Carriage House Manor. I’m sure the ______ there would really appreciate the music.” To me, this was a win-win situation because not only would I play more songs, but I have the chance to ______ the residents, some of whom tragically didn’t have families.

The much-anticipated day ______ arrived. Stepping into the dining area, I saw several gray-haired people seemingly enjoying a dinner and the ______. Despite on-going conversations at tables, ______ still hung like a dark cloud in the room. After introductions, I sat down in front of the piano, butterflies in my stomach. But my ______ melted away as I played on.

The dinner hour flew by. One woman got up and began to cheerfully ______ about the room to the beat of the ______ while others snapped their fingers (打响指). I was ______ to see how music brought big smiles to their faces.

Calling off the recital was a blessing because it led to us ______ the gift of music with those who needed it most. Go spread ______ whenever possible.

5 . Post-It Notes and poster board may seem like nothing more than standard school supplies. However, in Erin Castillo’s hands, they are a powerful mental health ______.

Here’s the way it ______: About once a week, the high school teacher ______ the “mental health check-in board.” The board instructs students to write their ______ on the back of a sticky note and then ______ it next to one of six coloured hearts. The hearts are ______ “I’m great,” “I’m OK,” “I’m struggling,” “I’m struggling and need a check-in,” and “I’m in a dark place,” and allow the students a ______ way to describe and share their feelings before class starts.

Then, during independent study time, she ______ one-on-one with students about their sticky notes. Some kids just need ______ or a listening ear, but for those who are more ______ or dealing with a serious issue, she says she has a variety of ______ ready and waiting to help them, such as the school psychologist they can see that very day.

She got the idea for the ______ after a couple of weeks where many of her students kept telling her they were having a bad week. While she was ______ they were sharing, she needed more ______ to help them—and the board was born. “I didn’t want to miss any student that might be struggling, and this was a way to easily ______ how everyone was feeling,” she says.

6 . Afraid to have a start, I was walking slowly into my first school in America. I had _______ a long way from India in order to join parents. They had been here for three years, and hoped America would help my future. My father decided that I would go to school here, so I found 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 if it was the right class. With a _______ voice, he answered, “Yes.” His voice comforted (安慰) me a little. He gave me a piece of _______ called “course requirements”, which I would never get in India. Then he asked me to choose 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, the teacher _______ the seats, so I never needed to worry about that. I spent the rest of the class taking notes from the picture produced by the overhead projector (投影仪).

_______ it was my first day, I was confused (困惑的) about which hallway (走廊) to use, but I ________ to get to my classes without asking anyone. I was very confused about when I would have ________. It was noon when I went to my next class and the bell rang as I entered. I went through the normal process of asking the teacher if I was in the right class. Feeling ________, she said, “That is the lunch bell.” I felt a little awkward. Without another word, I headed for the cafeteria (食堂).

At the end of the day, I was on my way to the bus stop. I realized that all the ________ was like the difficulty I had to ________ to reach my goal. I ________ my bus and sat down inside happily. I said to myself: Today isn’t so bad.

7 . When Marion Sheppard was unable to see in her 40s, she cried. Wasn’t it _______ that she’d been partly deaf since childhood? That struggle and the _______ that usually came with it didn’t defeat her, but made her _______.

Sheppard had always been an enthusiastic dancer since childhood, but now she was so scared that she _______ left her apartment. She worried about the way she would _______ to the world. Hard as it was, Sheppard later _______ herself to go out.

At 61, Sheppard attended a camp organized by Visions for blind people, where she taught her first dancing class. She _______ to teach her class there after that. But she was _______. She soon convinced Visions to let her teach on a _______ basis. About four years later, her classes won so much ________ that Visions hired her to be on staff. Sheppard’s students were mostly seniors whose eyesight had ________ as adults. With confidence-building praise, Sheppard also ________ dignity and independence into them. As a way to combine movements with her faith, Sheppard ________ a group called The Blind Sisterhood. What is her ________ for maintaining both physical and mental health despite ________ life throws at her? “Keep it moving!”

8 . 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.

9 . I was doing a year of voluntary service abroad for people with learning disabilities. It was set in an English village, quite different from my home in Sweden.

One of my fellow volunteers, a girl from Tanzania, seemed a bit ______, so I asked what the problem was. She told me she had a ______ back home who was really ______ with her university studies. It seemed that ______ difficulties would make it impossible for her to complete her course. So this friend of mine had done something unbelievable: she had sent all her pocket money for the month to Tanzania to ______ her friend! This meant that she didn’t have much food to eat and had no money to go anywhere outside the village.

I was so ______ that she did this for her friend and I felt I had to do something. ______, during my next trip to one of the towns near by, I walked into a shop to buy some food for her. I started ______ to the woman working in the shop and ______ told her about my friend. The woman looked at me, ______. “Does she eat pasta (意大利面)?” she asked. “Yes” I replied. She immediately ______ loading a bag with pasta, cookies, sweets and other things until the bag was full. “Give this to her for me. It’s my ______!” I couldn’t believe it but cried with happiness.

Imagine my friend’s face when I ______ the gifts on my kitchen table and ______ her from her room to see! I have never seen her so happy! She told me that due to the generous help, she could definitely ______ the month.

10 . 23-year-old Taleigh Loven walked downstairs to her graduation party last October. She was ______ balloons, treats and congratulations from her family. What didn’t cross her mind was her ______ wearing the same graduation cap as she did. ______ him carrying a certificate (证书) with his name on it, she instantly burst into tears.

Mike Loven, 47, decided four years earlier that he was going to restart his study in Grand Canyon University, the ______ school his daughter had just been ______ to. A few weeks later, Mike was taking his first______ course while Taleigh was getting settled in her dorm — with no ______ that Mike was a fellow freshman.

“There was no real reason for ______ it a secret from the family—I merely thought the _______ would be fun,” Mike said. “I work a lot and I’m always on my computer, so no one ______ knew that I was working on stuff (材料) for ______ all those years.”

The ______ part about the whole thing, Mike said, was during ______ midterm seasons when his family would constantly ask him for help with tricky (棘手的) school-related issues. He had his own ______ as well, but he couldn’t tell them. That, he said, ______ many late nights at the computer.