1 . In a bustling city in Arizona stood a high school where most of the students live in poverty. Among them were four sons of Mexican immigrants, Juan, Oscar, Luis, and Alfredo. These boys, coming from ________ backgrounds, often found themselves overlooked and underestimated. Bonded by fate and friendship, they shared a common passion for ________. Two science teachers there decided to enter their high school into a complicated ________ robotics competition sponsored by the NASA and the Naval Research. Excited for the news, these four boys signed up for the competition.

With enthusiasm and energy, they started calling mechanical engineers for design help. They were ________ that these kinds of robots require glass syntactic flotation foam, a type of floating material used in various marine applications.________ money, all they could afford was some PVC pipes and duct tape (强力胶布).________, they searched the city for various spare parts, gathering whatever they could to bring their vision to life. With the teachers’ guidance and encouragement, they ________ together a robot with no more than metal and wires.

As they worked on their robot, the boys also faced personal challenges. Juan struggled with the weight of family responsibilities; Oscar ________ a deep-seated fear of failure; Luis’s heart ached from the constant peers’ mockery (嘲笑) for his ________ accent, and Alfredo longed for acceptance and belonging.________ these obstacles, they persevered, leaning on each other for support and inspiration.

After a few test runs of their robot, they piled into a second-hand van to head to the competition. Upon entering the main pool area, they noticed the college teams wearing matching outfits, with robots sponsored by big companies. Feeling a bit nervous, the boys put the robot in the water for a test run.________, the PVC didn’t hold up, causing the robot to leak and sink.

However, instead of letting this ________ ruin their spirits, the boys put their heads together and came up with a brilliant solution. 12 hours later, armed with 8 super-absorbent pads to plug the leak, the robot was ________ into the pool again. This time, their robot performed admirably. Gliding gracefully through the waters, it navigated the course with precision and speed,________ the judges and audience alike. This underwater robot, a symbol of their determination and ________, conquered the waters, defeated engineering powerhouse MIT and ranked first in the country. This was not just a win for those four but a victory for every underdog with a dream.

2 . It started with a bit of casual discomfort on the head, but after a week it had spread to the back of my neck, enough to lead me to my laptop. Annoying as it was, I was ________ to take up my doctor’s time with such a silly complaint and then have a wasted journey only to be informed that it would clear up by itself and that ________ would be of no use at all.

As soon as I’d tapped in ‘online self-diagnosis’, the search engine provided me with over 11.5 million results. And during the time normally spent in the clinic’s waiting room reading the Women’s Weekly, I was able to find a site that would provide a free ________ in the comfort of my chair, and with no need for an appointment,

I answered all the questions until I eventually reached a description exactly matching my ________. As I clicked on ‘More Information’, I was hit with what I’d never anticipated. The worst case scenario was complete hair loss. I couldn’t have been more ________.

I headed off to the doctor for what I thought would be a blood test but which turned out to be a valuable lesson in not ________ everything you read on the internet. It took him less than a minute to guess at and locate head lice (虱子). I was relieved to know that I would be ________ my hair, and horrified to know that it was being occupied.

I learnt my lesson, but for some the worry caused by ________ every ache has led to a new form of hypochondria (疑病症). Named ‘cyberchondria’ by the print media back in 2000, this particular condition has ________ greatly. Although most people’s main point of call is still the doctor’s surgery, it’s estimated that ________ worries are now the second most researched topic on the web. This is truly a serious concern when about 25%of the medical information online is thought to be ________.

Once upon a time, hypochondria required time and effort: you had to go to the library to research your diseases and ________ go through the books. Now it’s just a matter of a few clicks of a mouse. But while your doctor will make a diagnosis ________ your age, appearance and medical history, a search engine will rely simply on algorithms (算法). These come up with results graded according to popularity or numbers of key words. So the most highly ranked hits might actually be for very genuine disease, which are nonetheless extremely ________. One minute you think you’ve come down with the flu, the next you’re under attack from sub-tropical, flesh-eating bacteria. Time spent going to the doctor’s for ________ of mind suddenly seems fair enough.

3 . So many of us are terrible at being terrible. As our children venture off to school, sports, dances and music lessons, we urge them: Just try something, keep practicing, you’re only a beginner. And yet, faced with our own failure, we become less confident, and quit altogether.

Images of perfection fill our social-media feeds, along with advertisements assuring us we wouldn’t be so _______ if we just bought this thing or tried that product. Parents often add to the pressure, _______ their kids will end up sliding down the socioeconomic ladder.

What if we’re _______?

“It’s such a _______ not to have to be good,” says Karen Rinaldi, who refers to herself as a horrible surfer. After 20 years on the board, she is still bad, and she loves it. There is the excitement of being out on the water, but there is also the _______ of not having to be the expert, the freedom to _______ help and rely on others in a way she never would at work. Back on land, she says she is more understanding and _______others’ mistakes. “The benefit of not _______ myself every day,” she says, “is that I get to surf every time I want.”

Ms. Rinaldi, whose experience led to a book about what you can learn from failure, recommends asking yourself: “What is it that you’ve always wanted to do or try but were too _______?” Whatever it is, she says, start doing it. Should you struggle, ________ the fact that you’re a beginner. “Go in there with the ________ to say, ‘I’m new,’” she says. “People want to help you learn. It makes them feel good.”

Take myself as another example. I started yoga lessons this summer. When I ________ Syd Schulz, a professional mountain biker, that I was terrible at the poses, her response was “what did you expect?” “It’s a little ________ to people who have spent years and years of their lives acquiring skills to think that you should have those overnight,” says Ms. Schulz. Years spent working on her cycling have taught her that improvement often comes in ________ steps, following long stretches of inactivity or even getting ________.

4 . When a famous commentator (评论员) advised gentlemen over fifty get a PSA test, I called my doctor’s office and made a(n) _________ to have it done.

Ten days later, I got the bad results: my prostate (前列腺) cancer was _________. My doctor explained to me the various treatment _________. I decided to have the prostate removed and get rid of the cancer _________, as it had not spread outside the prostate yet.

My surgery was successful and all the cancer had been _________. The next day, I was _________ from the hospital with post-operative instructions and directions. I soon learned that all the body functions were working _________ and my PSA level was zero.

One morning shortly thereafter, my wife and I _________ a sign by the road requesting _________ for Suncoast Hospice of Florida. We decided it was time to give back for our good ____________. After six informative classes, we became volunteers for Suncoast Hospice. After saving myself, it was now time to help others by regularly visiting nursing-home ____________.

Now, years later, I am still cancer-free, and we are still hospice volunteers. Our days volunteering for Suncoast Hospice have been very ____________ for us. Our first few visits with a nursing-home resident are to give him/her a(n) ____________ to get to know us. Sometimes, our visits with the resident are very short, but sometimes they are quite ____________.

The license plate on the front of my car is from Suncoast Hospice, which reads, “Every Day’s a ____________.”

5 . Bruno went into the kitchen and got the biggest surprise of his life. He could barely believe his eyes. “Shmuel!” he said. “What are you doing here in my kitchen?”

Shmuel looked up and his terrified face ______ a broad smile when he saw his friend standing there. “Bruno!” he said. “They asked me to polish the glasses. They said they needed someone with tiny ______.”

He held his hand out and Bruno noticed it was like the hand of the pretend skeleton. In reply, Bruno held his own hand out so that the tips of their middle fingers were almost touching. Bruno’s hand appeared ______ and full of life. The veins weren’t visible through the skin, the fingers weren’t little more than dying twigs. Shmuel’s hand, however, told a very ______ story.

“Shmuel! Here!” said Bruno, stepping forward and putting some slices of chicken in his friend’s hand. “Just eat them.” The boy stared at the food in his hand for a moment and looked up at Bruno with ______ but terrified eyes. He threw a ______ in the direction of the door and then thrust all the slices into his mouth ______ and gobbled them down in twenty seconds. “Thank you, Bruno.” said Shmuel, giving a faint smile.

Bruno smiled back and was about to offer him more food, but just at that moment Lieutenant Kotler reappeared. Bruno stared at him, feeling the ______ grow heavy, sensing Shmuel’s shoulders sinking down.

______ Bruno, Lieutenant Kotler marched over to Shmuel and glared at him. Shmuel looked up at Lieutenant Kotler, who frowned, ______ forward slightly and tilting his head as he examined the boy’s face. “You have been eating,” said Lieutenant Kotler. “Did you steal something from that fridge?” Shmuel looked toward Bruno, his eyes ______ for help.

“Answer me!” shouted Lieutenant Kotler.

“No, sir. He gave it to me,” said Shmuel, tears welling up in his eyes as he threw a sideways glance at Bruno. “He’s my friend,” he added.

“Do you know this boy, Bruno?” he asked in a loud voice.

Bruno’s mouth ______ open and he tried to remember the way you used your mouth if you wanted to say the word “yes”. He’d never seen anyone look so terrified as Shmuel did at that moment and he wanted to say the right thing to make things better, but then he realized that he couldn’t because he was feeling just as ______ himself.

“Tell me, Bruno!” shouted Kotler, his face growing red. “I won’t ask you a third time.”

“I’ve never seen him before in my life.” said Bruno immediately, “I don’t know him.”

Hearing that, Shmuel wasn’t crying any more, merely staring at the floor and looking as if he was trying to ______ his soul not to live inside tiny body any more, but to ______ away and sail to the door and rise up into the sky, gliding through the clouds until it was far away.

6 . Stephen Hawking remembered by his research student

Stephen was not so famous when I began my PhD at Cambridge in 1972, but his brilliance was already clear to his peers. On becoming his research student, I found it rather discouraging when I was informed by one of my tutors that Stephen was the brightest person in the department. ___________, it soon became evident that my relationship with him would not be the usual type of supervisor-student relationship. In those days, before he had his caretakers’ group of nurses and assistants, students would necessarily have to help him in various ways___________ his disability. This was not an tough task, but it did mean that my relationship with him became quite ___________. Indeed, I shared an office with him, lived with his family for a while and ___________ him as he travelled around the world, giving talks and collecting medals.

I soon discovered some of Stephen’s unique ___________. The first, of course, was that he was very smart. Students are probably always in respect of their supervisors and with Stephen the respect was even greater. Indeed, on matters of physics, I always regarded him as an oracle(圣人), just a few words from him generating insights that would have taken weeks to___________on my own. However, Stephen was only human and not all encounters led to inspiration. Once I asked a question about something that was ___________ me. He thought about it silently. His eyes then closed and I was even more impressed with myself because he was clearly having to think about it very deeply. Only after some time did it become clear that he had fallen asleep. Nowadays, I also sometimes fall asleep while talking to students, so I recall this incident with ___________.

I also learned about Stephen’s stubbornness and ___________ to continue doing things for himself as long as possible, despite the continuous progress of his illness. For example, because he had an office in both the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics and the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, I also had offices in both places. I recall that he sometimes gave me a lift (probably illegally!) between the two places in his three-wheeled invalid car. I found this rather ____________ because I thought he drove faster than was safe. Later, he had to discontinue the use of the car but he never lost his drive and the desire to travel as far and wide as possible. One ____________ is he didn’t live long enough to achieve his dream of going into space.

I’m often asked where Stephen stands in the pantheon(名流群) of great physicists. There are many ways of being a great physicist and they cannot be ____________ like runners in an Olympic race. Stephen himself never ____________ to have the status of Newton or Einstein, but I strongly disagree with people who suggest that his scientific contributions have been ____________ because of his symbolic status. His disability was clearly a factor in his becoming so famous, but I doubt any other ____________ physicist will achieve the honor of being buried next to Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey after his death.