1 . When I was a child, I suffered from a disease. It is a ________ condition, which makes it difficult fora person to form relationships and can make one very ________ in one particular thing. One of the biggest ________ I faced was communicating with others. I was shy ________ I loved to recite facts. This sometimes made me a ________ for bullies (欺凌). I didn’t really understand as much about the disease or how it ________ my life.

In my 20s, I ________ to Paris. I was deeply attracted by the city, and I ________ a job in a big hotel right then. As an Eiffel Tower ambassador, I ________ guests and visitors as they took the lift to the top of the hotel’s 46—story tower. There, I liked to ________ the local attractions and helped people find the best ________ for taking photos. ________, I had a problem with changes in everyday life, ________ when talking with people who were different from me. But I liked to memorize facts, and that really ________ in my job because people loved to ________ all of the interesting things about the city. Gradually, when I clocked in every morning, I felt it’s time for me to perform for and ________ the guests. I loved it when I learnt something new because I couldn’t ________ to share the information with others.

Everyone is ________, and everyone has a gift. It takes me more than 50 years to ________ that I am different. Just be yourself, be kind, and try to make a ________ in your life.

2 . Early in my teaching career, I heard countless excuses—most of them amusing—for why students didn’t have their homework. “The dog ate it” was one of them. As time passed, I grew tired of hearing “I don’t have my homework because...” So I stopped accepting any________.

When I was________ to another school, I took my straightforward attitude with me. “No excuses, no extensions!” I________ my eighth graders on the first day. I________ homework at the beginning of each class. When a student didn’t have the homework, I never asked why. ________, I sighed loudly, shook my head in disgust and________ a zero in the grade book. One afternoon, shortly after the________ bell rang, Anthony________ me. “Could I talk to you a minute?” he asked shyly. “I know what you said about our homework, but I don’t want you to think I’m a slacker (懒虫) because I come to school________ mine so often.”

Anthony looked up at me, and I could see his lower lip trembling. “It’s just that...well, my dad moved out, and my mom works at night, so I have to________ my little brothers. Sometimes they cry a lot, which makes it hard to________.” I put my hand on Anthony’s thin shoulder. “Why are you just now telling me…” I stopped in mid-sentence. I knew why. So I________ the question.

“Would it help if you stayed here after school and worked on it?” He swallowed hard and________. The next day, I announced to all my students that I’d be offering an after-school study hall.

Anthony was the first to________. Several days later, Terrell joined him, ________ by twins Sandy and Randy. Before long, I had a room full of eighth graders to work on their lessons. I never asked why any of them was there, but I soon had a large________ of “I don’t have my homework because...” stories. All were very________. None were amusing. The things I learned weren’t________ in college. I discovered not all kids come from homes that are safe and________. Not all kids have a quiet bedroom with a desk and study light. Some don’t have a home where a parent is even around. And some kids do go to bed________. Most importantly, I learned that “I’ll listen” works better than “No excuses”.

3 . He’s an old cobbler (修鞋匠) with a shop in Paris. When I took him my shoes, he at first told me: “I have no _______. Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he’ll _______ them for you right away.”

But I’d had my _______ on his shop for a long time, and knew he was a (an) _______ craftsman (手艺人). “No,” I _______, “the other fellow can’t do it well.”

“The other fellow” was one of those _______ who fix shoes “while-U-wait” — without _______much about mending shoes.

My man saw I wouldn’t _______, and he smiled. He looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one _______ with a piece of chalk and said, “________ in a week.”

I was about to leave ________ he took a pair of soft leather boots off a shelf.

“See what I can do?” he said with ________. “In Paris, only three of us can do this kind of ________.”

When I got back out into the street, the world seemed ________ to me. He was something ________an ancient legend (传说), this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange hat, his funny accent from who-knows-where and, ________, his pride in his craft.

These are times when you can do things any old way as long as it “________”, when, in short, most people merely look on work as a ________ to make money rather than a way to realize their own ________. In such a period it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest ________ from pride in a job well done.

Wang Tianchang and his family moved into the Gobi Desert 22 years ago. They have been fighting with the desert ever since,     1     (become) a symbol of China’s anti-desertification(治荒漠化)campaign.

Wang,     2     native of Gansu Province, grew up with the Gobi Desert. In 1998, Wang’s family moved into the desert. They started planting bushes and sapling. To fund their efforts, they sold most of their farm animals and there were only 6 sheep     3    (leave) to support themselves. To make matters     4     (bad), the trees they had planted in the first two years       5     (blow)away by strong winds, because they weren’t familiar with the environment. Then they learned that adaptable grasses were ideal for holding down the sand. A bush known as the sweet-vetch has an 80 percent survival rate even in severe desert conditions,     6     has become a key part of the Wang’s efforts.

Now, although Wang is suffering from serious health     7     (problem) and is in his late 70s, he has no plans     8     (quit) his mission. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. The Chinese government not only appointed(委任)Wang Tianchang and his sons     9     forest ranchers(大农场主), but also started funding their work. The family’s home is now surrounded by a     10     (beauty) vegetable garden, proving that land can in fact be transformed from the desert.

6 . Beginning to learn gymnastics even before she could barely walk, Svetlana had always dreamed to enter the Olympics scene some day.

However, her ________ ended in the car on the winding road when a lorry appeared out of nowhere. The last thing she ________ was a blinding flash of light. In hospital, when told she would never ________ again, she couldn’t believe it. Three months later, she was ________ out of hospital on a wheelchair. Then a friend came to her house to visit her with an old Child’s storybook. A bookmark in it made her ________ to page 117. The name of the ________ was ‘The Day Clara walked’. She was determined to return to stage whatever it might cost.

________, after a year’s hard exercise, Svetlana ________ and was able to display her gymnastics. While she was sitting on the green bench ________ the Athens Stadium, memories ________: first, the pain and the tears, the book under her pillow, the words of relatives full of advice and comfort, and the pity in those eyes that had once held ________ for her talent. Then followed the trips to the gym where everyone looked on   ________, their disbelief transforming slowly to wonder, ________ she could balance the hoop (健身圈) as well as her teammates. She registered for the Olympic Games and finally she received ________ from the Olympic Committee.

Her ________ was interrupted by the attendant who said, “It’s time”, two words that she had been ________ to hear for so long. Smoothing her dress, she walked into the stadium, each________ firm and steady. Everything was ________, and the applause rang loud in her ears, her heart hammering violently against her chest.

Later that night, Svetlana pulled the gold medal out of her pocket and placed it on the old ________ on the shelf, which opened to page 117, to the chapter ‘The Day Clara Walked’, tears ________ her vision.

9 . What is intelligence anyway? When I was in the army , I _______ an intelligence test that all soldiers took, and, against _______ of 100, scored 160.

I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not _______ have scored more than 80. _______ , when anything went wrong with my car I hurried to him — and he always_______it.

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man _______ questions for some intelligence tests. By every one of them I’d prove myself a_______. In a world where I have to work with my_______, I’d do poorly.

Consider my auto-repair man _______. He had a habit of telling________. One time he said, “Doc, a deaf-and-dumb   man ________ some nails. Having entered a store, he put two fingers together on the counter and made ________   movements with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He ________ his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk ________him some nails. He picked out the right size and left. Well, Doc, the ________ man who came in was blind. He wanted scissors. ________do you suppose he asked for them?” I lifted my right hand and made scissoring movements with my first two fingers. He burst out laughing and said, “Why, you fool, he used his ________   and asked for them. I’ve been________that on all my customers today, but I knew________ I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you are so goddamned educated, Doc. I knew you couldn’t be very ________.”

And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

10 . While Sam Bloom was on a vacation in Thailand, a balcony railing (栏杆) collapsed, sending her falling 20 feet to the ground. The________left her with numerous injuries, including a broken spine. Her life was________changed.

In the many months that followed, she fell into a deep________. Before her accident, she spent her time________her family, surfing, exploring the outdoors, and traveling the world. Her________sense of self disappeared overnight – as she________it in her piece in a Time article, “I was no longer a(n)________woman, and I no longer_______ myself as a wife and mother.”

A few months after returning home, her son Noah________an injured baby magpie that had fallen from high in a tall pine tree. After no veterinarian (兽医) would rather________her in, the family decided to try and________her back to health themselves.

Due to its wobbly (摇晃的) walk and black and white________, Bloom’s three boys decided to________the baby bird Penguin. And so, this________new creature became a member of the Bloom family. This new addition required constant________, needing to be fed every two hours and kept warm constantly. This new________fell on Sam, and soon, Penguin became a form of________in soul to Sam.

“I didn’t feel as____anymore; my instincts as a nurse and mother came to life when I was________to this tiny, feathered soul. I didn’t________it at that time but, in a way, we were keeping each other alive.”