1 . Just before New Year, the principal (校长) called me into his office and asked me to read a poem written by me at the New Year party. “Sure,” I said with a smile, my dreams of being a famous ________ floating in my mind.

For weeks, I worked on my poem, ________ bettering the structure, sound, and voice. I reread my Emily Dickinson and William Wordsworth for ________. I practiced reciting it aloud. I revised, revised, revised. By December 30th, the day of the event, I was ________.

Well, I was confident until I looked around and realized how many people were there. And how big the hall was, and how ________ I felt about myself. How could I ________ a piece of my poetry to 800 people? My heart was beating so hard I thought everyone around me could ________ it. I was nervous. I could feel cool shakes run down my back. I couldn’t remember why I had said yes to the ________. Then the light darkened, the crowd quieted. It was starting.

Suddenly, I was on stage with the bright white lights blinding my view of the audience and the feeling that my ________ was closing up. I leaned in to the microphone and tried out my ________ as I read the title: “Let There Be Light.” My voice boomed (声音低沉洪亮) from the speakers loudly and sounded much more confident than I felt.

The room was ________ as I began my piece, and I tried to focus on the words and ________ the people. The words somehow ________ in the right order, the lines flowed together properly, and I even remembered which words to ________. I finally came to the last line of the poem and breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was over.

The room was dead silent. Maybe no one liked it. I felt like I was going to faint. Then out of the silence there was ________, cheering, and smiling. I had done it. I had shared a piece of my poetry with the world.

2 . It was the old lady’s birthday. She got up early to be ready for the _________. From the second floor flat she could see the postman when he _________ down the street, and the little boy from the ground floor _________her letters on the rare occasions when anything came.

Today she was _________there would be something. Myra wouldn’t forget her mother’s birthday, even if she seldom wrote_________. Of course Myra was busy. Her husband had been _________as Mayor, and Myra herself had got a medal for her work for the aged.

The old lady was eighty today. She had_________her best dress. Perhaps Myra might come. After all, eighty was a_________birthday.

Even if Myra did not come, she would send a(an) _________. The old lady was sure of that.

The little boy, Johnnie, had been up with a packet of mints(薄荷糖), and said he wouldn’t go out to play until __________had come.

“I guess you’ll get lots and lots of presents,” he said. “I __________ last week when I was six.”

She stood by the __________, watching. The postman turned round the corner on his bicycle. Her heart __________ fast. Johnnie had seen him too and ran to the gate.

Soon Johnnie knocked at her door. “Granny, granny,” he __________, “I’ve got your post”. He gave her four __________. Three were unsealed (没密封的) cards from old friends. The fourth was sealed, in Myra’s __________writing. The old lady felt a painful feeling of __________.

“No parcel, Johnnie?”

“No, granny.”

Almost __________, she tore the envelope open. __________ in the card was a piece of paper. Written on the card was a __________ under the printed Happy Birthday— Buy yourself something nice with the cheque, Myra and Harold.

3 . I love the quiet of late autumn afternoons. I just look out at the skyline with the white clouds ________ across the blue sky like cotton candies.

Granny is such a(an) ________ and optimistic person. ________, she lost her hearing decades ago, and her ________   has greatly changed since then. To help her ________   the hard times, I decided to teach her to play the ________   and we often sang in our backyard.

The ________ was our classroom. We ________   ourselves in two old bamboo chairs under the eaves (屋檐). The sun gave light to the old house. The wild ________   that hid in the trees also came to join us, and it ________   that they also enjoyed bathing in the sun.

The old cats ________ their heads up and moved slowly; the ________   cats ran around and played in the yard. The sun ________   on Granny’s grey hair that looked like beautiful vines.

Granny listened to my music attentively，and clapped her hands to the ________. She started to sing an old song gently. It was the most beautiful melody (旋律) in the world. ________，I felt that Granny was recovering from her illness and we both enjoyed the________   time we spent together.

As a student in senior high school, I am now faced with the ________   of schoolwork. I have to ________   my studies and be engaged in busy school life. But those days spent playing the guitar and ________   with Granny are my best memories. The beautiful sunlight is like a small orange lamp that guides me and ________   me to walk forward.

7 . A farmer owned an old mule(骡子) One day the mule _________ into the farmer’s well(井)unluckily   The farmer heard the mule _________ He tried every possible way to save the mule, but _________ .

After carefully thinking about the situation, the farmer _________ that neither the mule nor the well was worth greater efforts _________ , he called his neighbors together, told them what had happened, and asked them to help carry dirt to cover the old mule in the _________ and put him out of his _________ .

At first, the old mule was mad! But as the farmer and the neighbors _________ shoveling(铲土) and the dirt hit his back, an idea _________ to him.   Every time a shovelful of ____________ landed on his back, he would shake it off and step up!

This he did, blow after blow. “Shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up!” He repeated to ____________ himself.   No matter how painful the blows, or how ____________ the situation seemed, the old mule overcame his fear and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up!

It wasn’t long before the old mule, tired out, stepped ____________ over the wall of that well! What seemed to have destroyed him actually ____________ him all because of the way in which he dealt with his adversity(逆境)

That’s life! We should face our problems and respond to them ____________ , and refuse to give in to fear, bitterness, or self-pity.

8 . When Jasmine Benton was just 9 years old, she realized that her love for creating art was more than just a _______ . Each night in her diary she wrote about the _______ she dreamed of starting, bringing it to her mother Jennifer Gormer one Sunday morning to _______ the important news.

“I want to start my own company.” Jasmine told Jennifer. When Jennifer looked at Jasmine’s _______ she was astonished to see the outline of a real, practical business _______ . “She had the name of her business, the _______ she was going to sell, and who her customers were,” said Jennifer. “She had the vision (远见). It was all there.”

Jasmine comes from a long line of _______. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all started their own businesses. And with her family’s _______ , Jasmine started Precious Designs, a company that changes trash into treasure. She spent her adolescence and teen years creating artwork and _______ it at trade shows and art shows. Unfortunately, her friends were not very ________ , and she went through a ________ period when her work wasn’t selling. ________, she just kept trying and never ________ . Jennifer comforted and encouraged Jasmine and told her that sticking to her vision was ________ and asked her to ________ the naysayers (否定者).

Now Jasmine is 18 years old and her company is truly ________. After working part-time at the “Steve Harvev Show ”, Jasmine was tasked with redesigning Steve’s nursery. She recently ________ the Youth Entrepreneurship Shark Tank Challenge and won. Besides, she has also ________ her first bit of investor seed money.

Jasmine continues to excel in her career thanks to her innate business sense and ________ to succeed. We could all take a(an) ________ from this young lady’s vision and hard work! She has proved that if you can dream it, you can do it.

9 . Last month, Koch went to make breakfast and found a(n) ________ guest using his pool. A large moose (驼鹿) was swimming in the deep end, ________ in the solar cover (太阳能覆盖膜).

“I looked out in the backyard and there’s the moose absolutely panicked and ________,” Koch told The Dodo. “She stepped on the solar cover and put her ________ through it and she was ________ trying to get free.”

Koch has noticed more wildlife around his home in Ottawa, ________ he had never seen an animal________impressive before. He rushed outside and pulled the solar cover off the ________ moose, who continued paddling ________ the pool, proving to be a surprisingly skilled swimmer.

The wild moose seemed to be having trouble finding her way out of the pool, so Koch called the police and wildlife services to see if they could ________ a hand. “She looked so pitifully sad out there that my wife said, ‘I want to give her a ________.’”

Workers from wildlife services intended that they would get her to a safer spot, but they couldn’t ________ it until she was out of the water. “The best thing that happened was that after 3.5 hours she climbed out of the shallow end and ________ the fence,” Koch said.

The moose ________ unscratched, but the same can’t be said for Koch’s pool — which now has two hoof-sized ________in the bottom.