3 . Iarossi is a 10-year-old softball player from Tampa, FL. She was tired of having her practices canceled because of an _________ between girls and boys sports. Her community has many baseball fields but only one softball field. When baseball teams need more _________, they will often take up the softball field, _________ her team’s practice.

Iarossi said the effect wasn’t just _________. “Many of my teammates seemed less _________. They felt discouraged from continuing and therefore some _________. They thought they didn’t get the practice and thus _________ to be as good.” To change that, she decided to send a _________ to the mayor. “I said it’s not the 1800s anymore, and girls would like to play sports too. Please give girls and boys sports an equal _________,” Iarossi said. “I hope all girls get __________ to softball. It’s just fair for all in sports.”

Her initial goal was to __________ support for the cause, but it did much more. Her action __________ the city’s government to construct multi-use fields __________ for both girls softball and boys baseball teams. Iarossi’s mom said, “ __________, to write to the mayor was all my daughter’s __________ — no one told her to. I feel proud of her __________ to turn to the mayor as a little child and excited by the __________ from the authorities. It is really __________ to see there are other people who __________ this and help enable all of our children to __________ this wonderful game.”

4 . Niu Yu looked remarkable on the catwalk at the concluded Shanghai Fashion Week. This was not just because of her beauty or the clothes she was wearing. She also seemed to show a(n)______strength. She did it with her artificial ______ in full view, and in that single action she ______ beauty with courage.

Thirteen years ago, in the 8.0-magnitude earthquake that ______ Wenchuan then teenaged Niu______ her right leg as well as her young brother and nine close friends. It was a big _____ to her. However, Niu feels that she is ______. “At least, I ______ and I am surrounded by people who love me,” she says, smiling with tears ______ up in her eyes.

“Losing a leg doesn’t mean losing my ______ for life,” she says.

In 2018, at the 10^th ______ of the earthquake, she registered and finished the 21-kilometre marathon in 3 hours and 53 minutes, ______ almost walking.

She even went to remote Tibet Autonomous Region for a volunteer ______ program. Her students surrounded her, looking at her “iron leg”______. She knew it was her ______ to help others and pass on the love and confidence.

Now she works as a photographer in Chengdu. After her one-minute catwalk went ______ on the Internet, some social media users nicknamed her as “Iron Man’s sister”.

Her leg doesn’t discourage her.______, it serves as a reminder that it is not what she is missing that ______ her, but what she has got. She says, “When you accept your flaws, you become free and______.

Everyone has flaws that we want to hide away, whether they are visible or invisible. And we should learn to______our “imperfection” and embrace life with passion and confidence.

6 . As you probably know by now, I have been in Boston helping my wife Kimberly through some difficult medical procedures. ________ my wife’s first 3 days after her delicate 6 hours surgery, in so much discomfort, pain and suffering, woke up my empathy beyond words to the point that I ________ wanted to be able to share some of that ________ if I couldn’t take it all myself.

Then after the first 3 days knowing that Kimberly’s ________ didn’t allow her to eat single morsel (少量) of food, it really ________ me just how long we can go without food and not damage our ________. I decided to give Kimberly some ________ support by not eating for 3 days. Not that she said one word of ________ in that time but I knew it would ________ her — and me—to be in this together. To be honest, I did ________ one small salad each of the 3 days. I did this because I had to ________ myself to some extent to continue to have ________ to be there for her.

The thing is, we’re here and ________ what we really can do for each other. The ________ we can take on for others has got me to ________ about how much we could take on for ourselves. We ________ to avoid pain, discomfort and difficult situations even when we know it would be ________ for us to go through the hard times to get to better place in our lives. So it got me thinking... if we will go through so much because of our love for another ________, couldn’t we do this for the ________ of ourselves?

It’s something to think about the next time you ________ to take on a difficult challenge. Do you love yourself enough to do this to make your life better?

8 . Nearly eight years ago, I was told that I had brain cancer, and this experience changed my attitude about________completely. I thought that I was going to die and that all my adventures were________.

I did not have brain cancer, it________, but rather multiple sclerosis(多发性硬化症), which meant that,________they were not over, the definition of my adventures could have to________.

Each morning that I wake up to is a fresh event, something that I might not have had. Each________that I make carries the weight of uncertainty and demands significant attention: buttoning my shirt, changing a light bulb,________down stairs. In some cases, even with great effort I’m still not able to do them________. If I could not delight in them, they would likely drown me in________and in self-pity.

I admire the________adventures of others. I read about them with interest. With Peter Matthiessen I have hiked across the Himalayas. David Bain has gone with me along the Philippine coast, and Ed Abbey has________me down the Colorado River. I enjoy the adventures of these________figures, who can set out on difficult trips—ready to bear cold and tiredness, indeed not to bear but to________.

But as for me, I can no longer walk very far from the________in which I read. Some days I don’t even make it to the backyard. And yet I’m________to give up the adventurous life, the difficulty of it, even the________, the anxiety and fear, and the sudden brief lift of________that makes a hard journey more attractive.

I________adventure, making it smaller and smaller. And now, whether I am moving on my hands and knees across the dining room to help my cat, lying________in the dark battling another period of sadness, gathering flowers from the garden,________a friend for lunch. I am always having the adventures that are mine to have.

10 . I had a lot on my mind as I picked up the pieces of what had once been my Peppa Pig on the snowiest day last year. Only twenty-four hours before, I had been ________ with it in our farmhouse. How quickly things ________! The house I had lived in disappeared. The fire had ________ all those things with my memories.

I have never known my mother to be ________. In fact, my whole family has always been positive. But ________ picking up my ashen clothing on this cold winter morning, she moved with emptiness. The ________ was so heavy to us.

Days passed and the situation didn’t become ________. After moving to the temporary house, my father told me dealing with this would cost ________ money. It brought about a wave of ________ and life became a struggle.

“Hey, Tony, ” a classmate came up to me at lunchtime with a box in her hands. ________, all my classmates stood up. “Tony, we know what ________ a few days ago. This is not something you have to go through ________. Alex, Phoebe and I started up the Shoebox Fund for you. Almost every student in our school ________. We love you and we want you to have this.” She ________ me with the box. I opened it to find piles of twenty-dollar bills and notes of love.

My eyes were filled with ________, and I had never been so moved. I had felt so lonely for the days after the fire that I became ________, unwilling to communicate with others. But these people looked past the rudeness I had ________ them. They were my true friends and by sharing this ________, they were my family.

Yes, things are getting back to ________. But what I learned from this journey of discovery will ________ with me forever.