1 . The pandemic has greatly changed the landscape of education. But that never _________ one brilliant girl’s resolve to reach for the stars.   

While most teens are tackling the challenges of middle school, Alena Wicker, has already

_________ her high school diploma. After virtually learning in a long-term program, she is   _________ to attend Arizona State University this summer. There, she will major in astronomical science and chemistry to _________ her dream of working at NASA where she hopes to _________ her extraordinary skills to build spacecraft after graduation. _________ she wanted to be an astronomer, but then she switched over to engineering.   

Alena’s space journey began with her early _________ for Lego (乐高), with which she’s always played since she was 4. So far, she’s built _________ of everything from the Taj Mahal to NASA rockets.   

She was always amused at her Lego pieces, and if you _________ her Lego pieces, it would be easy for her to put them together. This genius also had remarkable __________ in other aspects of life. Seeing the __________ of opportunities in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields for women, Alena wanted to make a change. She has __________ a website to encourage other girls with __________ interests to focus on the STEM fields. Alena hopes to set an example for other girls — never let the long-established concept keep us from __________ the course of our own life. “It doesn’t matter what you’re planning to do,” she said. “Go for it, and then __________ it.”

2 . It was our first Thanksgiving in the new house and I wanted everything to be perfect. But my plan for everyone to do some preparation work had been ________ by my husband’s business trip. Even worse, a project for me that week had ________ two days of planned vacation. By Wednesday, my task of a table with fresh flowers, nice drinking glasses and various homemade desserts had already ________, I just hoped that I’d find a clean tablecloth and eight ________ forks.

In my perfect Thanksgiving, there wouldn’t be any orange in my salad because It hadn’t made the grocery list. There would be no perfect family photos to record that day because I hadn’t got the broken camera ________. Someone had brought home the wrong toilet paper, which was the last straw that made me ________.

I don’t remember what my son asked me as he was doing some cleaning, ________ I do remember twisting into that mean-and-tight mom-face before making an ________. This combination of noise and anger is a universal signal to kids everywhere that they might as well ________ me. But he didn’t.

Instead of disappearing from view, my second-grader turned ________ the cleaning machine and walked across the room to face me. He never said a word. He just wrapped his arms around me, making me feel ________ of myself until today.

It turned out a(n) ________ Thanksgiving. The people I loved gathered around my table and dined just one choice of the pie. My dad used a mismatched fork without ________. My daughter drew a picture of us where everyone smiled.

My son took a(n) ________ to teach me that sometimes we need a hug most when we are least huggable. This is the best gift you can give: One size fits all and no one ever minds if you ________.

3 . When I was fifteen, I announced to my English class that I was going to write my own books. Half the students smiled unkindly, _______ nearly fell out of their chairs laughing. “Don’t be _______ , only geniuses can become writers,” the English teacher said, “And you are getting a D this term.” I was so ashamed that I burst into_______ . That night I wrote a short sad poem about broken dreams and mailed it to the newspaper. To my _______, they published it and sent me two dollars. I was a published and paid writer. I showed my teacher and fellow students. They laughed, “Just plain dumb luck,” the teacher said. I _______ success. I’d sold the first thing I’d _______written. That was more than any of them had done and if it was just dumb luck that was fine with me.

During the next two years I sold dozens of poems and letters. By the time I graduated from high school, I had scrapbooks (剪贴簿)_______ my published works. I never _______ my writing to my teachers, friends or my family _______ because they were dream killers.

I had four children at the time. ________ the children slept, I typed on my ancient typewriter. I wrote what I felt. It took nine months. I chose a ________ and mailed it. A month later I received a contract, an advance on payments, and a request to start ________ another book. Crying Wind, became a best seller, was translated into fifteen languages and sold worldwide. My first book also became ________ reading in native American schools in Canada.

The ________ year I ever had as a writer I earned two dollars. In my best year I earned 36,000 dollars. People ask what college I ________ , what degrees I had and what qualifications I have to be a writer. The answer is: “None.” I just write. I’m not a genius. But I’ve written eight books. To all those who dream of writing, I’m shouting at you: “Yes, you can.” Writing is easy, it’s fun and anyone can do it.

4 . Jacquelina used to weigh over 500 pounds. And for years, she refused to wear a bathing suit (泳衣).

She realized her life needed a complete _________ after an unpleasant experience at Dollywood where she got _________ in a turnstile (旋转栅门). Then Jacquelina decided to make a change. She was going to get control of her _________!

Of course, it was no easy task. She spent years in _________ with doctors, eating right, and exercising. And _________ her hard work, Jacquelina lost 350 pounds.

Years later, Jacquelina _________ for Mexico for a vacation. Having lost 350 pounds, she decided she was ready to wear a bathing suit without a cover-up.

“I was _________ to take my cover-up off and walk into the pool. I still felt like that same 500—pound girl.” Jacquelina explained.

But Jacquelina was ready to face her fears. _________, people around her unfriendly pointed and _________ at Jacquelina.

“In the past I would __________ their comments to affect my vacation, and I probably would never go to that pool again.” she said to herself.

But now she’s a changed woman!

Instead of letting their behaviour bring her down, she took a deep breath, then chose to __________ and walk into the pool.

“That was a huge __________ for me,” she said. “I had changed. I was not the __________ girl any more.”

While she’d lost 350 pounds, it wasn’t just Jacquelina’s body that had changed. Her __________ changed, too. Unkind comments still __________, but she realized her worth had nothing to do with what other people thought.

5 . One day a famous painter painted a picture. He put it on exhibition with the title “Not for_______”. However, it was so beautiful a painting that whoever_______that exhibition asked the painter to sell that painting for whatever amount he would_______it. But he said, “I'm extremely sorry but I can’t sell this for any amount. I will sell it to only that person who will understand its_______.” Then, an old man came over and said, “I want to buy this painting and here is the_______in this small box for it.” There was a paint brush and colors in it. Then, he gave that painting to the old man.

All the other people asked the painter with_______, “Why did you sell it for a paint brush and a few colors to this old man? We were_______you a huge amount for this painting.” The painter said, “If you_______the painting, there is a man who is teaching a kid to paint with so much_______. So, the man in the picture is this old man and that kid is me. He is my teacher who taught me to paint and made me become what I am today just thanks to his devotion and________. And, the real value of this painting is just a paint brush which is________by my teacher as this paint brush is more________than your wealth. With this paint brush I can paint many more paintings.”All people understood and________the bonding(情谊) of a teacher and his student.

A teacher always gives his best wealth to his student in the form of knowledge, wisdom and art with a(n)________that his student will________make use of it.

6 . On a cold winter evening, I was walking home, tired and hungry, when suddenly came screams (呼喊声) from behind some trees. _________ , I slowed down to listen, and realized that what I was hearing were the sounds of a fight. A girl was being _________ not far from where I stood.

“Should I go to help her?” I thought. I was worried about my own _________ , and I regretted having suddenly decided to take a new way home that night. “What if I’m hurt too? Shouldn’t I just _________ to the nearest phone and call the police?” But already the girl’s _________ were growing weaker. I knew it was time for me to act fast because I could not _________ to the life of this unknown girl _________ it meant risking my own life.

I am not a _________ man. I didn’t know where I found the courage and physical strength, but once I had finally _________ to help the girl, I became suddenly changed. I ran behind the bushes and ____________ the attacker off the girl. Struggling, we fell to the ground, where we fought for a few minutes until the man jumped up and escaped.

____________ heavily, I stood up and came up to the girl, who was crying behind a tree. In the ____________ , I could not see her clearly, but I could certainly ____________ her shock. Not wanting to frighten her any further, I at first spoke to her from a distance.

“It’s OK,” I said ____________ . “The man ran away. You’re safe now.” There was a long stop and then I heard the words, said in both wonder and surprise, “Dad, is that you?” And then, from behind the tree, stepped out my youngest ____________ , Katherine.

7 . Elsa Desmond knows she is not going to win a medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics, but she is ________ as the first women’s luge(无舵雪橇)Olympian from Ireland. She was the 26th to ________ the line in the first run of the women’s race on Monday night, ________ than none of the other athletes. However, that did not ________ to her and she celebrated with a large smile on her face.

Although she will not win in Beijing, she has already won some ________ . She had been given many reasons why she could not compete: she is too short, she did not start ________ at a young age, and she could not balance a(n) ________ job with competing in a sport. The biggest ________ simply might have been that Ireland did not have a luge organization. So, she ________ one herself; she had to self-fund.

Now, ________ , she is a luge Olympian. “I’m a doctor in general surgery, I have all these really ________ challenges, but I think everyone has worked as hard as they can to be here. ”She is expected to return to work on this Friday because she was given some time ________ to compete in the Olympics, and now she has ________ parts of her job.

Desmond has to balance these two ________ jobs—sliding a few months out of the year and living a life in medicine. There was a(n) ________ last season when she had to take important medical examinations in hotels in Germany where other sliders from different countries were staying. “I had to stick signs on my door saying ‘Do not disturb, exam in ________ , in about six different ________ .”

Desmond got the honor of ________ her country in Beijing, and being one of two people ________ Ireland’s flag during the opening ceremony on Friday. “I don’t think I can ________ words how excited I was to lead out the team. I really hope that I make my country proud.”

8 . Sometimes you may find that you are not happy in your life. Most of the time you have to _________ this kind of unhappy life, since it is really hard to make _________ and move on to a new business. My father, _________ , was quite a different example. From him I learned a great lesson on the value of doing one’s _________ .

My father got into the insurance (保险) industry when he was very young. He was very _________ . Soon he became one of the first independent insurance salesmen in our state. However, he decided to _________ his successful career. The reason is that he liked to do something _________ , something that tested his strength and ability, _________ in a way that is interesting. After leaving the insurance company, he worked in social media and then in IT industry, which really _________ him. Of course he wasn’t successful in everything he __________ but he told me __________ that he did something he liked.

Leaving one’s __________ life is not easy. I’ve learned this from my father, and I can say whether the __________ is good or bad, it is worth doing one’s favourite. When we do something we __________ , it gives us extra motivation (动机) to meet our __________ .

9 . When I decided to leave my home country of Iran to pursue a PhD in Canada, I hadn’t expected that communication would be an issue. In Farsi, I was a(n) _______ speaker. I had taken English lessons in my 20s and scored well on the English test for university _______.

But soon after my _______ in the English-speaking world, I realized how wrong I was. Now I had to be careful and deliberate. I needed to _______ follow the conversation. I needed to _______ it into my native language, reflect and generate thoughts and ideas in _______. Then I needed to find the right English words and put them in the right order to _______. I had a hard time remaining present and focused in _______, because I was constantly thinking about what I would say next. I gradually turned inward and _______, particularly when surrounded by native English speakers. And I worried about my future. After all, effective communication in English is ________ to being included and recognized in many ________ and professional operations.

Later, I ________ to say exactly what I meant in discussions over and over again. Suddenly, a simple idea ________ to me: why not ________ the discussion in writing, in an email to my colleagues? That small adjustment was a game changer, because writing gave me ________ to reflect and comfortably ________ my points in English.

I made a ________ of sitting at my computer and putting my Farsi thoughts into English words, taking my time to ________ clear sentences with accurate vocabulary and ________. With some efforts and a willing heart, I grew more ________ with oral communication, which revived my spirits.