2 . I was blind, but I was ashamed of it if it was known. I refused to use a white stick and hated asking for help. After all, I was a teenage girl, and I could not bear people to look at me and think I was not like them. I must have been a terrible danger on the roads. Coming across me wandering through the traffic, motorists probably would have to stop rapidly on their brakes. Apart from that, there were all sorts of disasters that used to occur on the way to and from work.

One evening, I got off the bus about halfway home where I had to change buses, and as usual I ran into something. “I’m awfully sorry,” I said and stepped forward only to run into it again. When it happened a third time, I realized I had been apologizing to a lamppost (街灯柱). This was just one of the stupid things that constantly happened to me. So I carried on and found the bus stop, which was a request stop, where the bus wouldn’t stop unless passengers wanted to get on or off. No one else was there and I had to guess if the bus had arrived.

Generally in this situation, because I hated showing I was blind by asking for help, I tried to guess at the sound. Sometimes I would stop a big lorry and stand there feeling stupid as it drew away. In the end, I usually managed to swallow (吞下) my pride and ask someone at the stop for help.

But at this particular evening no one joined me at the stop; it seemed that everyone had suddenly decided not to travel by bus. Of course I heard plenty of buses pass, or I thought I did. But because I had given up stopping them for fear of making a fool of myself, I let them all go by. I stood there alone for half an hour without stopping one. Then I gave up. I decided to walk on to the next stop.

3 . A little girl created a perfect gift for her mother’s birthday. It was a drawing of a ___________ on white paper with the words “For mom: love, love, love” decorated with hearts. She folded (折叠) her letter, but then she ___________ it.

For most people, that would be the ___________of this story, but this story had a different result. James Carrell found the letter. He had just___________ his mother, wishing her a happy birthday. After he hung up, Carrell saw the___________ on the ground outside of a hardware store in Manvel. “I___________ it was a gift,” said Carrell. “I opened it up and saw the flower and hearts. It really___________ me.” Carrell thought the letter would___________someone’s day and that maybe he could find the owner, so he posted it on the Internet. The message moved a lot of people,___________one man.

“I was sitting at my friend’s house and saw a man’s______________,” said Carrell. The comments (评论) included one from Robert Alvarado. He wrote, “I can’t ______________you found my baby’s letter.” Carrell reached Alvarado to______________ the letter. It took a few days, but the men finally met on Thursday night.

“Eventually the letter made it home,” said Alvarado. “We are______________ for what James Carrell did. We often forget the power of ______________ things, but for this family from Alvin, Carrell’s small act left a(n) ______________ impression.”

6 . I believe that everything can be achieved through hard work and devotion. In life I had a______ that taught me this belief.

What______me of this belief is my Lewandowski jersey (运动衫). It has been an important______of my life for a long time. In college, I______it on many occasions to play soccer. The day when I_____ hard work and devotion could get a person successful was just the______day when I received my jersey. One day, my dad_____ me to first Polish International Friendly. This was the soccer______that was played in Poland. My dad______me my Lewandowski jersey before we entered the_____. Lewand-owski is a world famous footballer and is Poland’s______goal scoring striker (前锋).

The day when we went, Poland was playing against Germany. Germany was the ______team in the world, and Poland about the twentieth. _____, it was obvious that Germany was going to win easily. However, Lewandowski didn't_____ it that way. He was determined to work hard and score some goals, and to hopefully win. Lewandowski_____ alone and he together with his teammates continued to fight_____ hard. At last the Polish team won. I found Lewandowski extremely_____ after the incredible (难以置信的) game.

I saw what hard work look like. I made up my mind to become the best that i could be. The______for me is a sign of what it takes to be _____.It shows me that it takes hard work and determination to______the goals that we want to achieve.

7 . I was born in a poor community on the north side of Boston, US, raised by a single mother who didn’t finish 3rd grade, lived each day on food stamps and attended what the media called “the most dysfunctional (功能失调的) public school district”. Not many people expected much of me, so I had to expect.

On my 13th birthday, I bought a poster of Harvard to hang in my room. Being at Harvard became what I dreamt about. Even if my electricity was cut off, I still woke up at 5:30, because I knew that my poster of Harvard was still hanging only two feet away from me.

Reminding myself of my goal each day made it easy to say no to the same choices I saw my peers making, because those paths wouldn’t have had me closer to my goal. Being poor could not take away my power to decide what I choose to do with my day. The poster gave me the courage to send emails to about 50 Harvard students to ask for feedback on my application essays; it gave me the energy to study just one more hour on my SATs when my friends were asleep; and it gave me the determination to submit just one more scholarship application when 180 others had already turned me down.

Every day, I could feel myself getting closer and closer to my goal as my writing got better, my SAT score increased, and my scholarship checks started coming in. Finally, an email arrived from Harvard. The first word was “Congratulations!” A month later, Harvard flew me up to visit the campus where for the first time I stepped onto my dreaming land.

Who you are today is the result of the decisions you made yesterday, and who you will be tomorrow will be the result of the choices you make today. Who do you want to be tomorrow?

When Marco was a boy, he tried everything to get his father’s love and attention. He worked hard to earn exceptional marks and always tried to behave well. But he was so sensitive and shy that he always hid behind his hair, which he wore long around his face. To make it worse, Marco was naturally shorter than the other kids. This added to his already low self-confidence.

At 14, he and his younger sister Sandra moved in with their dad and his new wife. His father was busy and their communication was nonexistent. The only time his dad ever spoke to him was to be demanding or critical. He began to fear coming home from school every day, feeling desperately alone and isolated.

One day his father, tripped over Marco’s bike in the garage. The angry reaction left Marco in despair, thus crying out, “That’s it! I’m going to kill myself.”

“You don’t even have the guts!” replied his father.

For two days, all Marco could think of was wanting to die, but he didn’t want to prove his father was right. Angry and sad, Marco was stuck.

Two days later, his aunt called him. This seemed like a miracle. Aunt Ginette usually only called on his birthday. She said she had just seen some young teenagers participate in a public speaking contest and she thought about him. She told him she firmly believed he could perform on stage like those kids, since she had seen him do skits (幽默短剧) for the family at Christmas.

Marco was shocked. Him? In a public speaking contest, which was contrary to his shy personality? But Aunt Ginette was sure it was something he could do. Feeling her strong belief, Marco agreed.

All that winter, twice a week after dinner, he took three different buses in each direction for the three-hour round-trip to practice in the place where the competition would take place. Marco was taken by a feeling he never felt before. The hours and the obstacles no longer counted. The criticism from his father around his absence for after-dinner chores didn’t matter.

Four months later, the big night arrived.

With the championship, Marco’s new life started.

9 . I was talking to my friend Sandy about our children. Sandy had recently moved into the neighborhood with her four kids: Jane, Joe, Christopher, and her youngest, eighteen-month-old Kim. She seemed happy to have kids nearby, until she saw our dog, Sam.

Sam, our shiny black dog, loved to play with the kids and protect them. But Sandy had a fear of dogs, and she started to back away as Sam approached. I grabbed Sam’s collar and made him sit, trying to ease Sandy’s discomfort.

Sandy mentioned that she needed to get her kids ready to go to their grandmother’s house. Just then, her door opened and her kids rushed out. Sandy shouted at them to stay away from Sam.

The kids huddled (蜷缩) around their mom, looking at Sam cautiously (谨慎地). Emma, my daughter, showed the kids how to approach a dog slowly and properly. The kids were won over by Sam’s friendly nature, but I knew it would take some time for Sandy to change her viewpoint.

After that incident, we made sure that Sam didn’t go near our neighbors without me present. One day, when the kids were playing across the street, I noticed the eighteen-month-old baby heading towards a small hill. I saw a car approaching and shouted to everyone to watch the baby. Without hesitation, Sam rushed out the door and ran across the street towards the baby. He ran to the boy in time to gently push the baby away from the oncoming car. The kids cheered, completely unaware of the danger. They thought Sam had come to play.

Within a year, Sam had made friends with all the neighbors. Even Sandy started to warm up to Sam and would occasionally come over to give him a hug.