1 . When I was 15 years old, I was a straight-A student. I was always _______ with a great group of friends, and I would hang out with them every weekend. Then I moved to a new place just before high school and everything _______ overnight.

While trying to _______ to my new surroundings, I also started the tenth grade. Going to a public school in a big city, _______, was harder than before.

I didn’t _______ well in class. Although I tried hard, my mind would go _______ the moment I attended the exam. All my _______ didn’t pay off, and I failed somehow. As a result, I became _______ and turned to video games.

My English teacher noticed what I was _______. He suggested I should go to the after-school classes for the kids who needed help. ________ to get a passing grade, I went. And that’s where I met Oliver. ________, he became my best friend and I was back on ________. And little by little, my ________ improved. It seemed that reshaping myself in a new environment wasn’t that terrible as ________.

As the year progressed, I made many friends and won many awards as well. Looking back, I see that my depression (沮丧) slowly disappeared. Having a friend really ________, even more than video games.

2 . It was a sunny but cold winter here in the mountains. I was _________ home along the clear roads. The last_________ had been over a week ago but down the sides of the hills lining the highway there were still _________ walls of ice. As I started to round a sharp turn, I_________ that a large piece of ice had broken off and fallen onto the road. I _________ turned my car to the other lane (车道) to _________ it. After I did it, I noticed a small dog was walking in my former lane just beyond where the ice had _________. If I had still been in that lane, I would have surely _________ him. Slowing down, I honked (按喇叭) and the dog was_________. He looked at me for a moment and then __________ the road and got into the safety of the woods.

I pulled over to a __________ place and parked. Then I walked back to the ice and moved it __________ the road so that no one would hit it. As I walked back to my car, I looked up at the__________. The clouds had just parted again to__________ the sun to shine through. I smiled and__________ fate (命运) for putting that ice just where it needed to be to keep me from hitting that little dog.

As I__________ driving home, I started thinking of all the times that the traffic in my life must have been redirected (重新定向). How many times had I been the small dog walking into traffic only to have the “ice” so I wouldn’t be__________? How many times had fate given me another __________ to find my way back to the right path without being __________?

Fate __________ us all so much. So let’s live wisely and thankfully.

4 . Five-year-old Willard Wigan struggled to tell the difference between an M and a W or a 6 and a 9. Unfortunately, his schoolteacher knew nothing about dyslexia (阅读障碍症), a learning disability that can make letters and numbers ________. She didn’t try to ________ him.

Not ________, Willard didn’t like school. Usually, his mind drifted (游荡) to playing outside, to his dog Maxie, or to the ________ that lived near his family’s garden bed. Willard was especially ________ about those ants. He felt like them-________ and insignificant.

Willard ________ that the ants were coming and going from a hole in the dirt. One ant was carrying a piece of grass, and Willard thought, “He’s trying to build a ________, so I am going to help him!”

Willard constructed a small house for ants. At school, Willard still ________, but now he knew he could do something ________. Maybe he wasn’t a failure after all. Willard later went home and created tiny furniture (家具) for the ant house.

His artistic skill ________, and a love for little things began to grow in his heart. When he showed his mother his carved works, she said, “This is what you do well. You must make ________ to be the best in the world.”

With her ________, Willard continued. When he quit school at age 15 to help support his family, Willard still spent his spare time ________. His confidence grew as more people appreciated his talent.

Because of their beauty and rarity, Willard’s sculptures have made him a(n) ________ man. But he says, “Success isn’t about material things like an expensive watch or a costly ring; it’s about determination and achieving your dreams.”

5 . When I was a kid, if someone told me that I would grow up to become a________author and founder of a youth ________foundation, I would have laughed and kept walking. ________now when I see the title of my latest picture book, My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World, I shake my head, not quite believing that book has my name on it. But the truth is, this story comes from my own personal experience.

It took me a very long time to find my personal reading voice. In Valdosta, Ga., where I grew up, my community ________two pathways to a better life for little boys like me: being an athlete and being an entertainer. I was no different than the other kids, so I did what felt ________: Play football and overlook school. School presented challenges every day and so did football practice, but overcoming ________adversity(逆境) was ________my neighborhood’s culture. Reading books not so much.

Fortunately, I went to college. That’s where my reading difficulties really________. Trips to the grocery store were stressful because there was so much reading ________in the simple act of buying food. I would misread labels and grab the wrong________. Once, I________apple sauce thinking it was apple slices. I didn’t notice my mistake until I got home and realized that it was my________to understand the differences in the wording on the labels that caused the mistake. I realized that I needed to make an important________. If I wanted to be a better version of me, I had to become a stronger reader.

I joined a book club and read every free moment I had. My journey with reading also created a desire in me to inspire others who_________reading. So I started a nonprofit, Share the Magic Foundation, trying to ________the lives of children living in under served communities through literacy.

There was a boy who was walking home from school when he saw a large, tempting (attracting) apple on one of the branches of an apple tree hanging out over a tall fence. The boy wasn’t much of a fruit-eater,_______a bar of chocolate if given the choice,_______, as they say, the forbidden fruit can be tempting. Seeing the apple, the boy wanted it. The more he looked at it, the_______he felt and the more he wanted that apple.

He stood on tiptoe,_______as high as he could, but even at his tallest_______he was unable to touch it. He began to_______up and down, as high as he could, at the_______of each jump stretching his arms to get the apple. Still it remained out of_______

Not giving up, he thought, if only he had something to_______on. His school bag wouldn’t give enough height and he didn’t want to__________the things inside, like his lunch box, pencil box, pencil case, and Gameboy. Looking__________, he hoped he might find an old box, a rock, or,__________luck, even a ladder, but it was a tidy neighborhood and there was nothing he could use.

He had tried everything he could think to do.__________seeing any other choices, he gave up and started to walk__________At first, he felt angry and disappointed thinking about how hungry he had become from his__________, and how he really wanted that apple. The more he__________like this, the more unhappy he became.

__________, the boy of our story was a pretty smart guy, even if he couldn’t get what he wanted. He started to say to himself, “This isn’t__________I don’t have the apple and I’m feeling sad as well. There is__________more I can do to get the apple— that is unchangeable —but we are supposed to be able to__________our feelings. If that is the case, what can I do to feel better?