3 . Steve was a seventh grader, a big boy, looking more like a teenager than a 12-year-old. Yet, he went unnoticed — he had been________ every examination since first grade — until Miss Wilma.

In the middle of the first semester of school, the entire seventh grade was________ for basic skills.

“You all did pretty well,” Miss Wilma told the class after going over the________ except for one boy. And it________ my heart to tell you this, but…” she________ , “the smartest boy in the seventh grade is failing my class.” Steve________ his eyes and carefully examined his fingertips.

After that, Steve still wouldn’t do his homework. Even if Miss Wilma________ punished him, he remained________ .     

“Steve, please! I care about you!”________ , Steve got it! “Someone CARES ABOUT ME?!”

One Monday a couple of weeks later, Miss Wilma gave a________ on the weekend homework. Steve________ through the test and was the first to hand in his paper. With a look of________ , Miss Wilma took his paper and began to look it over.

Miss Wilma’s face was in________ shock! She glanced up at Steve, then________ , then up. The smartest boy in the seventh grade had just passed his first test!

From that moment, nothing was the same for Steve. He discovered that not only could he remember and understand________ , but he could translate what he learned into his life. He became________ . After high school, Steve enlisted in the Navy, and he had a(n)________military career. During his naval years, he inspired many young people who might not have________ themselves without him. A________ took place within the heart of a boy all because of one teacher, who________ .

4 . I woke up with only one thing on my mind: what to wear. A billion thoughts_________through my brain as wooden hangers moved back and forth. It was my first day of high school in a new State; first_________are everything, and it was necessary to impress the people who I’d spend the next four years with.

It wasn’t insecurity that_________me to madness but the fact that this was my third time being the new kid._________ moving does something to a child’s development. I_________to find reliable friends. But this time dad’s company_________my starting and finishing high school in the same place. This time mattered, which made me nervous.

I emerged proudly in a patterned dress after riding (扫荡) my closet. I felt just as_________as I stepped off the bus. But my jaw dropped to the floor when I found Mrs. Hutfilz, my English teacher, wearing the exact same_________as I did. I kept my head down and tiptoed to my seat, but the first day meant_________in front of the class, and__________it was my turn. I made it through my minute speech, until Hutfilz stood up,__________ adding she liked my style. All the __________that had accumulated from waking up in the morning surprisingly__________. The students raised heads as I shared my story. My smile__________as I giggled with my peers. After class, I stayed behind, sharing with Mrs. Hutfilz my previous understanding about coming into a new school and state. I was relieved to make a humorous and genuine__________with my first teacher in the coming days.

This incident __________me that these are the times to have fun, work hard, and make memories, not stress about the__________details. Looking back, the ten minutes I spent __________my speech were really not worth it.__________ my first period of high school may not have gone exactly the way I thought it would, Mrs. Hutfilz’s great sense of__________certainly made the day unforgettable in the best way.

5 . Anxious exam candidates’ problem is the run-up or preparation, not the exam itself.

Exams are always tense and worrying, especially for those of an anxious personality. The silence of the hall; the ________ of the clock; the content expression of the person at the neighbouring desk. It therefore seems ________ surprising that those who worry about tests do systematically ________ than those who do not. Unexpectedly, according to a research in Psychological Science by Maria Theobald, it is not the pressure of the exam which causes the problem. It is the ________ pressure.

What Dr Therobald found was that ________ on the day of the test did not predict exam performance at all. What predicted it was the level of knowledge a student ________ in the earlier learning activities and displayed in the mock (模拟) exam. Those who ________ well in these also did well in the real thing, ________ how anxious they were on the day. What actually ________ students were high levels of anxiety during the weeks before the exam took place. The greater a student’s anxiety in the days before the exam, the lower his or her knowledge-gain was during that period, leaving that student with less material to ________ during the exam itself.

This is a positive discovery, ________ it suggests the anxious might achieve better result by adjusting their approach when revising. Dr. Theobald notes that test-anxiety is at its worst when students have low ________ of success and at the same time know that passing the exam is ________ important. To reduce this anxiety, she proposes a ________ for students to consider as they revise. First, they can raise their belief in their own abilities by reminding themselves of just how much they know. Second, they can ________ the significance of the test by reminding themselves that, while it is important, it is not a life or death situation. It really isn’t.

6 . One day, a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. The professor _________ the question papers, with the text facing down as usual. _________ all the students got the papers, he asked them to _________ the page and begin. To everyone’s surprise, there were no _________, just a black dot (点) in the center of the page. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s face, told them the following:

“I want you to write what you _________ there.”

The students, _________, got started on the inexplicable (令人费解的) task.

At the end of the class, the professor _________ all the answer papers and started reading each one of them aloud in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception, _________ the black dot, trying to explain its position in the middle of the sheet, etc. After all had been read, the classroom was silent, and the professor began to explain:

“I’m not going to grade this. I just wanted to give you something to _________. No one wrote about the __________ part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot, and the same happens in our __________. We have a white paper to observe and __________, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a __________ given to us with love and care and we always have __________ to celebrate: nature renewing itself every day, our friends around us, the job that __________ our livelihood and the miracles we see every day.

__________, we insist on focusing only on the dark spots: the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the __________ relationship with coworkers, the __________ with a friend, and etc.

The dark spots are very __________ compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes __________ the black spots in your life.”

7 . As the foreign English teacher at my school in Japan, I have a weekly English _______ broadcast. I try to get the students to _______ songs to me. I usually _______ who recommended the song and then play it for everyone to _______ during lunch time. I give everyone a chance including one _______ student. This student _______ gets into fights with the other students and doesn’t study. Most of the other teachers and students push him away. I _______ , though, that he just needed a friend, or at least someone he can _______ with.

I could tell he was _______ to me over the last year. I told him to think of a song he likes and that I’ll play it on the broadcast for him. He eventually recommended a song. I actually really ________ the song and made sure to announce his ________ , so everyone knew that he ________ such a great song. ________ , the boy was ________ , and he’s been much happier and focused in English class ever since. While everyone else misunderstood him and pushed him away, I saw right through that he just needed someone who ________ him. There’s still a(n) ________ barrier between us, but words aren’t needed, and you can always ________ where you’re at with someone. He recently walked by me and gave me the most ________ smile that I’ve ever seen. My coworker turned to me and said “I’ve never seen him smile like that before. How did you get through to him?” “I gave him a(n) ________ ,” I said, “through just one ________ .”

8 . When I was in primary school, my school had an annual sports day. Usually, girls were _________ in sports like jump rope and boys did the high jump, which I was _________ to take part in. I went to _________ up, but the coach said, “Girls don’t do the high jump.”

I went home and _________ Mom of the coach’s words. She visited the headmaster the next day. “Mr. White, Linda wants to do the high jump.” “Sorry, Mrs. Martinez, but it’s our _________ that girls can’t do it,” he said. “But Mr. White, I have no _________ of any rules saying that.” Finding no such rules, Mr. White, feeling _________, said “I have to consider it” at last.

When we got home, Mom told me something I would always _________: This wasn’t just about me. Other girls _________ wanted to do this, too. A week later, Mom went to Mr. White again. Finally, he __________. As it turned out, I won the high jump competition. To my __________, some of the cheers I got were from boys! My mother was __________ — it wasn’t about me. It was about making people __________ and see what girls could do. Later, I used this __________ in my career as a building contractor — women weren’t __________ to construct buildings. When I first __________ the business, Mom said, “Go ahead. Start small, but think __________.” I started with small projects and now my company can handle large ones.

Those experiences taught me though people wouldn’t always __________ us, we should be brave to jump over __________ and take paths few girls and women would take. And this has really made a __________.