1 . Our church has a way of helping those who have_________difficulties without making the receiver feel shame or guilt. Money is dropped into a green box with_________only the name of the receiver on the envelope.

There came a time when my husband and I were among those who needed_________. Just as we reached the point of despair, our church_________us a large envelope that had been left in the green box. We were_________to receive a very big amount of money, enough to bring us through that hard time.

A year later, our seventeen-year-old son who_________from high school was applying for a student loan for college. It was then that we discovered his savings account was almost_________.To both of us, it was so_________. We had trusted him to put part of his wages from his part-time job into the bank towards his_________. From nine years old, he had worked very hard for his small earning. I asked him repeatedly to tell me what had happened__________. I was nearly mad. Where has all the money__________?

Finally, in tears, and with great reluctance (勉强), my son__________that the year before he had put his__________in the green box for his father and me during that toughest time. I stood there__________, tears filling my eyes. It had taken my son years to save that money. He had given it to us willingly__________telling us what he had done.

3 . I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball. I watched in wonder as she ran circles around the other kids. She managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net. The boys always tried to stop her but no one could.

I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone, sometimes until dark. One day I asked her why she practiced so much. She looked directly in my eyes and without a moment of hesitation she said, “I want to go to college. The only way I can go is if I get a scholarship. I like basketball. I decided that if I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the best. My daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count. Then she smiled and ran towards the court to repeat the routine I had seen her over and over again.

One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled in her arms. I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly, I asked what was wrong. “Oh, nothing,” came a soft reply, “I’m just too short.” The coach told her that because of her height she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team — much less offered a scholarship — so she should stop dreaming about college.

She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked whether she had talked to her dad about it yet. She lifted her head from her hands and told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just didn’t understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college, if she truly wanted a scholarship, that nothing could stop her except one thing — her own attitude. He told her again, “if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.”

The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was seen by a college recruiter. She was indeed offered a full scholarship to a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s basketball team. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years.

It’s true: If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.

5 . There was a boy who was sent by his parents to a boarding school (寄宿学校)______being sent away, this boy was the______student in his class. He was at the top in every______always with high marks.

But the boy changed after______home and attending the boarding school. His grades started ______ He hated being in a______. He was lonely all the time. And there were especially dark times when he______committing suicide (自杀). All of this was because he felt______and no one loved him.

His parents started______about the boy. But they even did not know what was______with him. So his dad decided to travel to the boarding school and______him.

They sat on the bank of the lake near the school. The father started asking him some casual questions about his classes, teachers and_______After some time his dad said, “Do you know, son, why I am here today?”

“No, no,” his dad replied. “I am here to tell you that you are the most______person for me. I want to see you_______ I don't care about grades. I care about you. I care about your happiness. YOU ARE MY LIFE.”

These words______the boy's eyes to be filled with tears. He______his dad. They didn't say anything to each other for a long time.

Now the boy had______he wanted. He knew there was someone on this earth who cared for him deeply. He______the world to someone. And today this young man is in college at the top of his class and no one has ever seen him______!

7 . In a post on Love What Matters, Hanss Mujica, 24, explains how he surprised his family by announcing he’d be graduating from college.

Mujica says he wasn’t a hard-working student in high school, but was able to pass his classes. “ In high school, teachers are always on top of you to see if you turned in your work or if you read the assigned book,” Mujica writes on the post. But when he went to college, that wasn’t the case.

“Professors tell you the work that needs to get done and it is up to you to decide if you want to do it or not. After all you are the ones that are paying to be there. That, I believe, was my downfall as a college student. My behavior caused me to be suspended(被暂时停学)from the university.”

Mujica says that at that time, he had a 1.47 grade point average. “When my parents got the news, the looks on their faces completely broke my heart.”

Then Mujica explains how he got his schooling back on track: he went in with a different attitude, applied himself, and worked at a company to pay for school.

“Since I was suspended from the university, my federal aid was suspended as well. I was paying out of pocket and it got to the point where I had to get emergency loans(贷款) from the university. Summer 2015 came by and I could not pay back the loans so I was dropped from my fall 2015 courses. I got out another year from the university and in summer of 2016 I decided to work upstate(在州的乡野地区) to raise the money I needed.

Fortunately, with help from the university dance program and the money he earned at work, Mujica returned to school in fall 2016.

In 2018, Mujica was ready to graduate. He left his parents a letter and two tickets for graduation to surprise them with. “I spent six years in and out of the university but seeing the reactions on their faces was worth every sleepless night,”says Mujica.