1 . It was the end of the school day, and I was tired. I grabbed a pile of about 130 exam papers to _________ on the train ride home. I’d bring them back the next morning.

My principal (校长) pushed her head into my classroom and said, “Friendly _________! You need to make sure your word wall is _________ by tomorrow morning.” She then moved on to the next classroom to _________ the message. I sighed and thought, “Are you making a(n)_________? What a waste of my time!”

My principal was _________ about making our school beautiful, while my goal was to get my students to pass the Algebra Regents Exam. She wanted every classroom to have a word wall, where student’s works on creative projects would be _________. She brought in beautiful planters (花盆) that _________ the hallways with greenery. However, I assume that school and classroom _________ aren’t important when it comes to learning. To me, spending time and money making our school and classrooms beautiful was just a distraction (使人分心的事). Those things don’t __________ my students with math.

However, after three years of teaching, I went to graduate school in part to study how resources __________ teachers and students. What my research found __________ me: When teachers __________ their classroom environment resources, their students did better on standardized tests. My principal was __________. She was creating more than just a beautiful __________—she was building a welcoming and positive environment for students to learn and teachers to work.

2 . When handball was first introduced to Sri Lankan schools in 2010, I wanted to bring it to my school, St Anthony’s. I _________ it as a golden opportunity for our village school to _________ a place in a sports competition for the first time.

Nevertheless, it was rather a _________ with the only PE teacher incapable of teaching us and many teachers thinking _________ of it. As a deputy principal, I was _________ to start this game at any cost.

The boys were interested and immediately forty students _________ to join the team. Bob, a member of the Air Force handball team, volunteered to _________ the team in his spare time.

Although handball is an indoor game, we trained outdoors for _________ of facilities in our school. Training started early in the morning before class and continued after school _________ it was dark. The boys loved the game and were enthusiastic about training. “This handball craze will ruin your studies!” __________ some of the teachers in an attempt to discourage the game. Beyond expectation, the boys managed to balance their life with earnest ________ for a whole year.

Their perseverance, passion and hard work at last __________ on the all-island school handball tournament held in Colombo. Our boys played wildly and marvelously but was __________ defeated with the score 39-41 in the final.

However, it was a supreme honor and rare __________ in our heart. The following celebrations sent the whole school into carnival mode. A large banner was hung, firecrackers set off everywhere. For boys, they got a valuable life lesson that nothing is impossible to a __________ heart.

3 . In 9th grade, I joined a military training (军训) camp. The special eye-opener forced my friends away, who were _______ to be away from their families while I turned excited at the _______.

In the camp, the _______ was the first challenge. Honestly, I started to be _______ to my parents, who had insisted on doing my part at home. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Not to mention, they had to do everything themselves, from dishes to _______, for us without complaint. But in the camp, we got only 20 minutes during the break to make our beds, sweep the floor and do the washing.

Besides, from the moment I arrived, the camp impressed me most with a sense of _______. The days were long and demanding, filled with _______ designed to push us to our limits. We had a(n)_______ instructor whistling loudly at 5 a.m. Waken up early on cold December mornings, we were _______ to run four laps before breakfast. It was a real ________. If one failed, the whole team got two more laps.

Gradually, the pain ________. Later in the mountain climbing competition with Boy Team, we Girl Team was the champion! After those freezing mornings, we ________ it. Each member of our team worked so hard on our skills. ________, the shared experiences taught us a lesson of ________. We relied on each other for support. Overall, the experience, like the sun in that winter, warms my heart and ________ my way.

7 . Stephanie distinctly remembered watching a basketball movie called “Like Mike” when she was a kid. The movie’s message ________ her, so she showed it to her students while discussing ________ and inclusion (包容).

Over the course of a term, Stephanie did a weeks-long lesson about how our differences make us ________, and how we shouldn’t judge people until we’ve “walked a mile in their shoes”. The movie helped ________ this message to her students’ real lives.

Stephanie had her students measure their feet in class, design their own ________ on paper, and write journals about making ________ about others based on appearances. Since Stephanie collects athletic shoes as a sort of hobby, she began working behind the scenes to make the final lesson in her plan, something her students would never ________.

Without telling them, Stephanie ________ a pair of white sneakers (运动鞋) for every student in her class. She paid for it all out of her own pocket, but as costs ________, she eventually asked her community for donations.

On the day of the big ________, Stephanie opened the boxes of sneakers. The kids went ________ ! Some of them even cried. Each student decorated their ________ shoes with their own sense of style. They had fun making their shoes on their own, and the deeper ________ was not lost on them.

As Stephanie put it, “Differences make everybody special!” This is such a(n) ________ way to teach kids the value of not judging others and creativity. We hope more teachers ________ her path and create significant lessons like this one!

8 . Third graders from Wolfsville Elementary School spent Monday afternoon getting their hands dirty and their shoes wet during an informative trout release (鳟鱼放生).

The trout, which the students had been ________in their classroom since last December, were ________ ready to be released into their natural environment. The students carefully ____ them from a big container to a red plastic cup to the creek (溪). They then ________ the trout fingerlings (仔鱼) they’d been watching over for five months.

Wolfsville Elementary has been doing a trout release ________ spring for the past decade as part of a national________called “Trout in the Classroom”, which provides students with trout eggs to ________and eventually release into water as fish.

Through the partnership, students learn various________such as water pH, animal lifecycles and environmental science, said Rebecca Butler, Wolfsville Elementary’s third grade teacher. “We try to get them outside and away from video games, and hopefully they________ that clean water is important and ________ else is going to take care of our resources, so they learn to care for them,” Butler said.

McKinna Hidalgo, a third grader at Wolfsville, said she________ letting the trout go in the water and seeing them________ away, after first meeting them as ________.

The favorite part for Hidalgo’s classmate Macie Lader, however, was getting to go into the creek. Her socks and shoes were _________, but she didn’t care. Right before moving on to her next station, Macie took off her _________, dumped (倾倒) all the water out and flashed a wide smile.

9 . One day, my 12-year-old daughter participated in a school poetry reading event. All her classmates were invited to write a “lie poem” about how ________ they were and read them aloud. They were supposed to ________ untruths about themselves that made them sound ________ wonderful. As I listened to the poems, I realized that the children were actually ________ the picture of their future. By “lying” to themselves, they were creating a ________ of who they wanted to be in the future.

I couldn’t help admiring the school for ________ the children to dream big in such a special way, even if it might not be the first intention. In fact, most of us are ________ to see the truth of who we could be. My daughter’s school developed an unintended ________ to that difficulty: If it’s hard for you to imagine the ________ in yourself, then you might want to begin by expressing it as a ________, as did the children who wrote the poems.

Think up some stories about who you would like to be. In due course, this ________ exercise would help you build the necessary blueprint for ________ your achievements. Without a picture of your ________ self, you can’t live into that self. So ________ it till you make it. The lie will become the ________ in the end.

10 . It is an honor for me to give this speech as one of the graduating students, and welcome you to this special Graduating Ceremony 2020 in Tsinghua University.

This is a _______ moment. We are stepping up to another period of our lives at a time of great hardship and global _______. Tsinghua keeps in mind its global family, and hopes this ceremony will help _______ sad memories, refresh beautiful ones and _______ more wonderful memories into our lives.

Each of us has different stories to share, of amazing life experiences and challenges. Please allow me to _______ with you the course of my journey which has made me what I am today.

I was born in the middle of war, which caused my family to _______ Serbia for three years. When the war ended, we returned to Bosnia _______ I was unfortunately raised by a single parent. My mother, who is and will ever be my heroine, was the only figure who _______ me, supported me and kept me on the right way. I thanked her so much because only she is _______ for a huge part of my success. I will always remember her teachings, “to complain less and always find solutions at the price of whatever it takes”, which brought me to ________, an ancient land of new hopes.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, I got the best ________ to understand China. I saw millions of people united with one goal—to win the battle ________ this epidemic(流行病). Everyone has a role to ________ against the virus. In Tsinghua, I played a little but necessary role.

Friends, we are now ________ from one of the world’s best universities. Let us accept new ________, think beyond our limits and keep in mind the truth of life.