1 . “Never settle down!” It’s a slogan used by the Houston Astros baseball team. When they won the world championship in 2017, I really admired their _________ and mighty team spirit.

On Nov 7, 21 athletes from my_________ participated in an autumn sports meeting. On the playground, the track(赛道) was newly_________ with white paint. Students wore their class uniforms. Sweat shone on the athletes’ faces in the autumn sunlight. They spared_________ to fight for victory and their determination deeply moved us.

What impressed me most was our team spirit. In the 3,000-meter race, one student suddenly fell and seemed to give up. _________, two other students_________ help him up. Then they ran _________ him to the finish line. In my eyes, it was the courage of our classmates that helped the boy_________ the end.

That might be what the director anticipated(期望). The_________ of this event stated, “the intention for us to host this event is to__________ students’ potential to obtain their goals. It’s a powerful approach to let them understand the importance of devotion and feeling a sense of accomplishment(成就). We believe it can greatly help them __________ and mentally.”

Back to September, as soon as we stepped into the third year of our senior high journey, we__________ our minds to let our college dreams come true. After four months of effort, we have__________ a stage__________ there will be more challenges in the way. We will be__________ in our process to succeed.

2 . Kang Yu, a 24-year-old volunteer teacher in the mountains of Yunnan province, was teaching calligraphy to the eighth graders. Suddenly, the clouds seemed to________ and her students had a new focus of attention.

The electricity also ________, so she couldn’t continue the calligraphic class. Seeing that the students were staring at the rain________, Kang suddenly got a burst of________.

She told them to go outside, under a shelter, to enjoy the rain and come back to write something, short or long, or just several________ like a poem.

Noticing a girl________, Kang approached her and ________ her lines of poetry that impressed her deeply, “I am a selfish child/Expecting that when I am sad/There can be a corner of comfort emptying for me/I am a selfish child/Hoping that mom’s love only belongs to me.” Other students’ works were also really________.

Inspired by that class, Kang later________Enlighten Our Future, a nonprofit organization to help youngsters improve their mental well-being through poetry________and appreciation.

Like many children from remote areas, her students were ________ to express their feelings and opinions. “I realized that they can better their expressions by composing poetry,” she says. The ________ of feelings and opinions via poetry ________ Kang closer to her students.

What’s great about poetry is that it can help one to find a way to________with oneself and others, she says. “What they need is not sympathy, but recognition, which I think will________ their whole life.”

3 . While most high schools have traditions when it comes to supporting their sports teams, not many have support groups for other activities, like choir. Mountain View High School in Orem, Utah is looking to _________ that.

The school has a _________ called “The Bruin Crazies”, which supports the sports teams by _________ during games. Their new group, The Bruin Classies, has just _________ to cheer on the non-athletic student activities—the group has already had more than 90 _________.

“The Bruin Crazies is our student cheering department,” said Caleb Stay, senior at Mountain View High School. “We _________, ‘Why not create something for the _________—choir, band, jewelry showcase, photography and art galleries—to give them some _________ and cheer them on?’”

The students _________ the group “The Bruin Classies” because they __________ to bring a sense of “class” to the performances they __________. The group wears bowties(领结) to each event, and some wear signs walking around school in the days leading up to the events to spread __________.

“The students deserve to be __________ by the student body. This is stuff that they have put their __________ into and it deserves to be admired,” Stay said. “If you worked really hard on something and no one __________, it would be sad. We just want to make sure that no one __________ that way.”

Stay is both the president of The Bruin Classies and vice-president of the school choir, so he __________ how important to support all __________ activities. “We want people to be __________ of the product that they __________,” he said.

4 . We had been practicing for weeks to make our final day special. Last year, our drama teacher had put in lots of effort to ________ us to perform a “ flashmob (快闪) ” on the ________ day of school in front of 400 children and their parents and teachers.

It took us a while to decide the right ________ , and the right moves for the ________ . At the time, everyone ________ the song “ Champagne Showers ” , and we finally decided that was our song. Every Thursday all the year-six classes would gather to ________ the movements and, as it got closer and closer to the final day of school, we got more ________ than we’d ever been.

When the day finally arrived, we were more ________ than newborn pups, and we were also so nervous that our little hearts were beating fast and our stomachs were full of butterflies. Acting ________ we were totally calm in front of the ________ was not easy. ________ “ Champagne Showers ” blared (响) across the great hall. My heart was beating so fast. Everyone got up and started ________ . I think we were more surprised than the audiences that were ________ us. Standing still once again, we got a huge round of applause. It made us feel so ________ on that final day. We got so much ________ afterwards.

At least I don’t have to ________ that anymore. That was the best day I’ve ever had, and the best performance that ________ at our school have ever given on their final day. I will never ________ how I felt on that final day of school, from my stomach being full of butterflies to leaving the stage full of ________ . It was the most ________ final day!

5 . Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “A bird with a broken wing will never fly as high.” I’m sure that T.J. Ware was made to feel this way almost every day in school.

By high school, T.J. was the most celebrated troublemaker in his town. I met him for the first time at a weekend leadership retreat (活动). All the students at school had been invited to _________ ACE training, a program designed to have students become more _________ in their communities.

At the start of the retreat, T. J. was _________ standing outside the circle of students. He didn’t _________ join the discussion groups. But slowly, the interactive games _________ him in. The other students in T. J. group _________ his comments. All of a sudden, T. J. felt like a part of the group, and before long he was being treated like a _________. By the end of the retreat, he had _________ the Homeless Project team. The other students _________ T.J. co-chairman of the team.

When T. J. ____________ at school on Monday morning, he faced a firestorm. A group of teachers were ____________ to the school principal about his being elected co-chairman. The very first communitywide service project was to be a giant food ____________. These teachers couldn’t believe that the principal would allow the important plan to stay in the ____________ hands of T.J. Ware. Mr. Coggshall ____________ them that the purpose of the ACE program was to uncover any positive passion that a student had and reinforce (加强) its practice until true ____________ can take place.

Two weeks later, T.J. and his friends led a group of 70 students in a project to collect ____________. They collected a school ____________: 2854 cans of food in just two hours. The local newspaper covered the ____________ with a full-page article the next day. That newspaper ____________ was posted on the main bulletin board at school.

T. J. reminds us that a bird with a broken wing only needs mending. But once it has ____________, it can fly higher than the rest.

6 . A day I wish to forget. That would be the day when everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

I reached ____________ at the usual time. The first lesson was in the science laboratory. Mr. Kanan ____________ and explained the experiment we were to carry out. My partner Ru Ern and I set to work. Halfway, we noticed a couple of ____________ flying around us. This was the first time we noticed insects in the lab. One of the mosquitoes landed on my arm. Instinctively, Ru Ern smacked my arm hard to ____________ it. It made me drop the bottle of ammonia (氨水) I was holding. The bottle broke and the ____________ smell of ammonia spread all around us making us choke. Everyone dashed out of the lab. The lab assistant had to clean up the mess. Mr. Kanan was quite angry at our ____________. Ru Ern and I wished the ground would open up and swallow us. But no, we had to suffer the killer looks ____________ at us the rest of the day.

With the disaster keeping me preoccupied, I ____________ forgot about the inter-house basketball semi-final in the afternoon. We played against Red House which was a(n) ____________ opponent. We were neck to neck right till the final minute and then the golden ____________ to win was given to my team because of a foul (犯规). Everyone watched ____________ as I took the free throw. As the ball flew towards the hoop, I held my breath. The ball hit the metal ring and bounced away. How could I have ____________ it? But I did. My team members’ ____________ was unbearable to me.

I ____________ home as quickly as I could. I wanted to go to sleep and wake up to a new day, hopefully, a day when everything would ____________.

7 . “Dear students, school will start next week. Tomorrow morning, everyone can sign up voluntarily to clean up and welcome the new term with a clean environment,” the head teacher said in our WeChat group. I didn’t _________ to sign up, because I hadn’t seen my classmates for four months. I wanted to do something for them.

The next morning, I took buckets (桶), cleaning powder and other _________. After a(n)_________ COVID testing routine, I entered the school gate. The campus was full of vitality (生机). In the early summer campus, the tall trees were luxuriant (茂盛的), the air was filled with the light fragrance of flowers, and the _________ grassland had been paved into a green _________.

When I stepped into the classroom, a person _________ me face-to-face. Although he was wearing a mask, I _________ him as head teacher at a glance. He smiled and gave me a warm hug. Then, the other students in the class also arrived one after another. It had been a long _________, and we were very happy to meet again. We smiled and clapped.

Then we _________ tasks and put our enthusiasm into cleaning up the classroom. Some students wiped the blackboard and took out rubbish, and others swept the floor or __________ the tables and chairs. Everything was being put in perfect order. I wiped the glass up and down several times with a piece of __________. The students from the other class also joined our team, helping us to __________ water and mop the floor. Although it was hard, no one __________. Sweat __________ made everyone’s clothes wet, but two hours later, when everyone saw the classroom clean and bright again, we all laughed happily.

Although we’ve experienced many challenges during the pandemic, there is still constant __________ between teachers and students. As long as we work together, we will be able to overcome all kinds of difficulties in the warm family of our school.

8 . As the terrible disease is sweeping the country, a graduation ceremony is impossible during this period. Our volunteer team of five high school teachers ________ a narrow path, driving for four hours and ________ 25 miles. We spent the whole afternoon ________ Congratulations Seniorssigns to the senior students. In this way, we could ________ with the students we’d been teaching remotely, but hadn’t seen ________ since March. As their teachers, we were painfully ________ that we might not see those senior students again after their graduation.

This was what we did at each stop: we ________ the graduated house, appeared from our cars, planted the celebratory sign on the lawn, and shouted our ________. Some students had signs to ________ ours— Thank You Teachers! Their little brothers and sisters ran ________— it was the first time that they had seen anyone outside the family for months. The kids wanted to get out— out of the tiny orbits (活动范围) in their ________, which were full of protective restrictions and anxiety.

But what were ________ were the crying moms and dads. They stood back, giving their kids the ________ to connect with us, and ________ from a distance. Their tears reminded us of what we should do. We ________ the welled-up (涌起的) emotion, and then we asked the ________ enthusiastic questions about their ________ for the summer and beyond. They told us the college they ________ and tried to imagine what that would look like. Then we moved onto the next ________ and put on our cheerful faces.

We are truly ________ of the students’ achievements and any small way we contributed to them. They are excellent seniors and the disease can’t stop them.