Emily was a shy and quiet student in Greenfield High School. Emily was known for her quiet behavior and her love for literature, often found lost in the pages of a book during lunch breaks.

One day, as Emily walked through the hallway, she noticed a colorful poster announcing an upcoming English poetry competition. Her heart raced with excitement at the prospect of showcasing her talent, but her mind was immediately flooded with doubts. “What if my poem is not good enough? What if everyone laughs at me?”she thought to herself, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

As the days went by, Emily found herself caught between her desire to participate and her fear of failure. She talked with her best friend, Sarah, who had been by her side since they were little. She was known for her outgoing personality and her ability to make everyone feel included.

“You have a gift, Emily, ”Sarah said reassuringly, her blue eyes filled with encouragement. “Don’t let your fears hold you back. You never know what might happen unless you try. ”

With Sarah’s support, Emily decided to take a leap of faith and submit her poem for the competition. As the day of the event drew near, she felt a mix of nervousness and expectation. She spent hours perfecting her poem, carefully choosing each word and line to convey her emotions. She practiced her poem in front of the miror, trying to perfect her delivery and expression.

But despite her newfound confidence, Emily couldn’t shake off the feeling of doubt in her mind. These thoughts consumed her, making it difficult for her to focus on anything else.

It was during one of these moments of self-doubt that Sarah came to her rescue once again. “You’re an amazing writer, Emily, ”she said, her voice filled with warmth and sincerity. “Your poem is going to be incredible. Just believe in yourself. ”With Sarah’s words in her mind, Emily felt a renewed sense of determination.

On the day of the competition, Emily took a deep breath and stepped onto the stage.   

In the end, Emily’s poem won first place.

2 . I just had the most beautiful experience with Woolworths in Gladstone Park Shopping Centre. I did an online ______ for my family and went into the store to pick it up. It was ______ for it was my youngest daughter’s second birthday. The young man Adrian was lovely and ______ my order hurriedly. I was happy and ______ with my trolley (购物车) full of groceries and my little kid.

Five to ten minutes later I got four missed ______ from a number in Sydney; clearly it must be a cheat call as I live in Melbourne, I thought. Luckily the online gentleman left a ______ as he knew I would not call back. When I ______ this, I had got home and put my daughter down for her afternoon sleep.

The online gentleman ______ that Gladstone Park Shopping Center was trying to contact me to let me ______ that they left the cold drinks out of my order by chance. I told the gentleman online that I had just put down my kid to sleep and that ______ , I could not return to the ______ to collect my remaining groceries. The online gentleman was so ______ and said he would contact the store and see if they could send them to me for free. I was ______ to hear that.

Half an hour later, the lovely Adrian from Woolworths, who had ______ me earlier, dropped off my order, which totally touched my heart. He even ______ me a box of chocolates to say sorry.

3 . When I was younger, I had been a top student with a strong desire to attend a top university. But things started to go downhill for me in high school after my parents divorced. Torn between wanting to be with my mother, who moved to Canada alone with no support, and with my beloved aging grandfather in Pakistan, I moved back and forth, struggling with my studies. I barely graduated from high school and entered an ordinary college, feeling that I had already failed.

I got discouraged, and began to suffer from severe depression. The death of my grandfather was the final straw. With no real hope for the future, I dropped out and returned to my mother and sisters in Canada.

Then I was riding with a trucking company to help support my mother and sisters. During those long hours on the road, my grandfather’s last words came back to me: “Please accept the challenges of life and work harder. It is now or never. I hope you will never disappoint us.” With his words ringing in my ears, I discovered a newfound resolve. My path suddenly became clear: I had to finish what I had started and go back to school.

To get back on track, I needed to take a full course load while continuing to work enough part-time hours to help pay the bills. After graduating from high school again, I began university engineering cooperation program, in which I worked as a paid intern (实习生) every other term, allowing me to keep my student loans in check. At the same time, I tried my best to focus on my studies. After completing my university, I went on to a master’s and now a PhD, wining several research awards along the way.

My path to this point has made one thing clear: Never fear failure. I hope I have made my grandfather proud.

One day my friend Lily and I were talking about some parties that we had attended. Then suddenly I remembered that our best friend Emma’s birthday was next Saturday and we had not planned anything for her birthday!

At once we started discussing what we could do for Emma’s birthday. It suddenly came to my mind that we could throw a surprise party for her. I suggested that we could do it at my house as my parents and my brother were going to a farm and I was going to stay home. We also realized that nobody’s parents would allow their children to throw a party at their own houses as they would get dirty.

After that, we started deciding what things we could do at the party and what we could give her as a present. Finally, we agreed to give her a bunny (兔子) house as Emma has a baby bunny but she did not have a house for it.

The next day after my parents and my brother left, I invited Lily to my house. While Lily was coming, she ran into Emma, which made Lily nervous.

She thought that Emma would get suspicious (怀疑的) but thankfully Emma did not suspect a thing. Until the time Lily arrived, I gathered all the decorative (装饰的) items (物品) I had. I saw the cake which Lily had baked and it looked amazing.

I started decorating, while Lily began sending the invitations to our friends, and then she also joined me to decorate the room. When we finished decorating, we got very tired. So we decided to do the rest of the things the next day.

Finally, the day came. Everybody started coming and they were very excited about the party. Then I called up Emma and told her that a cat was stuck in (被困在) a tree in my back yard so that she would definitely (一定) come to my house to help me rescue (拯救) it. Later, we all hid (藏) in different places at my house.

Finally, when Emma entered my house, we jumped up and shouted, “Surprise!”

After everybody left, I turned around and noticed the whole house was a big mess.

5 . When Diana Trujillo was just 17 years old, she left her hometown of Cali in Colombia (哥伦比亚) and immigrated (移民) to the United States. All she had with her when she _________ in the US was US $300 and a _________. Since Diana’s childhood, she had always _________ to look at the stars in the night sky, and her dream was to _________ for NASA.

Diana’s path was not _________, and she faced many obstacles (障碍). She didn’t _________ any English before arriving in the US, _________ she had to take classes. She worked as a house cleaner to pay for her _________. After working three more jobs, she had enough _________ to attend space science courses at a university. She finally __________ studying aerospace (航空航天) engineering at the University of Florida.

While studying in Florida, she __________ applied to the NASA Academy, becoming the first Latino (拉丁美洲人的) woman to do so. On the __________ of a NASA robotics expert, she then transferred (转学) to the University of Maryland. In 2007, all her hard work __________, and she graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering. She was immediately offered a __________ by NASA, proving that dreams can come true if you work hard and never __________. In 2020, Diana became one of the four flight directors on the Mars Perseverance Rover project.

7 . Shi lives with her family in Fuxin, a city in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province. Shi and her ________, Li, have devoted themselves to providing ________ education to their students. They encourage their students to attend after-school activities related to science, technology and innovation.

During the past dozen years, Shi has ________ her students as they have taken part in various contests. Several of Shi’s students have received ________. Given her achievements, Shi has been named the most excellent teacher.

Li has a(n) ________ impressive resume (履历). He is a professor ________ coal mining (开采) in a university. He often goes into the most ________ places in the mines while conducting scientific research. He measures data and collects samples, and then he ________ above ground to complete his analysis and calculations, and to design plans to solve the problem at hand. He ________ to his students in how to concentrate on one’s work and overcome difficulties.

Encouraging their students to ________ various contests is one of the ways Shi and her husband have tried to ________ their students. In this way, the students have obtained a sense of achievement, and their ________ has driven them to study harder.

Shi says education is like a ________ one takes in search of “treasures”. She believes it is important for teachers to discover each student’s interests and advantages, learn to ________ their interests and advantages, and encourage the student to live a ________ life he or she longs for.

10 . It was more than two years since I’d been biking home from work and someone had opened a car door into the bike line, sending me flying like Superman. It caused my ________ damage.

After that, I worked part-time at my full-time job. I could ________ only 20 hours a week. I’d hoped I would return to work ________ . But I didn’t. After four hours of work, I’d go home and take a three-hour nap. ________ , my employer, unable to let me work part-time for long, ________ me.

When I told a friend I might never ________ , he responded, “Well. .. your base intelligence is twice that of a normal person, so it sounds to me that you just can’t be a(n) ________ anymore. ”

I knew he meant well, but I was still ________ . He assumed that suffering brain damage meant I was less ________ than before. And I worried: Is that what everyone else thinks, too?

About nine months ago, I was at a gathering of maybe a dozen ________ , and one man mentioned he’d just left his job ________ a disability. He mentioned his disability and kept on talking, as ________ as I might say, “I ate bread for breakfast. ” Nobody showed a reaction except I felt really ________ that he had the confidence to say it at all.

I could ________ my disability at ease, I thought. That’s a(n) ________ I could make.