It is important to build confidence in whatever we try to do. Let’s just say that cooking has not

   (1)   been my thing. Many of my friends know that I   (2)   a lot of meals. When we invited

 people over they wanted to know if I would be near the kitchen before they would   (3)  .

After one terrible batch of chili,I decided to put some   (4)   into learning how to cook. I began visiting cooking websites but was discouraged by their lack of pictures and felt   (5)  .I borrowed a cook book from the library but didnˈt have any of the food   (6)   to make what they were suggesting.

  (7)  ,I did something that most would think is common sense. I started to read and follow the   (8)   that most foods provide on the package. Who knew that they would be so   (9)  ？I never would have improved my cooking skills without trying to get better. Now as much as I would like to say from that point on everything went   (10)  .Just like learning anything it took a lot of   (11)  .

At first I undercooked the baked chicken. Then I   (12)   the chicken. Finally, after three attempts, it was edible (可吃的) but I forgot to season (调味) it   (13)  .Once I made it through those cooking   (14)  , I can now bake chicken with the best of them.

After I   (15)   chicken l was on to my next dish, spaghetti. I followed the ways to cook the noodles and got them just right. I added the meat and sauce blend to the noodles and was   (16)   by how watery everything came out. Oops，I forgot to   (17)   the noodles. Spaghetti only took   (18)   tries to get it right. My trial and error helped me start building confidence.

When it comes to building confidence there is a rule that one should   (19)  . Building confidence in life is just like cooking. You have to take the time to learn the   (20)   before you become successful at it.

James sat outside the office waiting for the interview. He felt so   (1)   that he didn’t know what to do with    (2)   .The person who had gone in   (3)   him had been there for nearly an hour. And she looked so confident when she went in.   (4)  James. He felt   (5)    that she had already got the   (6)   . The problem was that he wanted this job   (7)    .It meant   (8)     to him. He had   (9)   it such a lot before the day of the interview. He had imagined himself   (10)     brilliantly at the interview and    (11)       the job immediately. But now here he was feeling      (12)     .He couldn’t   (13)      all those things he had   (14)     to say. At that moment, he almost decided to get up and   (15)   .But no—he had to do this. He had spent so much time considering it that he couldn’t    (16)     like that. His hands were hot and sticky and his mouth felt dry. At last the door of the office opened. The woman who had gone in an hour earlier came out looking very   (17)   with herself. She smiled sympathetically at James. At that moment James   (18)    her. The managing director then appeared at the office door. “Would you like to come in now, Mr Davis? I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.” James suddenly   (19)  that he had gone home after all. He got up, legs  (20)   and forehead sweating and wondered whether he looked as terrified as he felt.

Life can seem very unfair，even in the land of opportunity. You have a dream but find yourself   (1)   without any hope. You are depressed(沮丧的)，and in your depression you cannot get the   (2)   to pull yourself up. You become unwilling to believe that there   (3)   is a“cure(措施)”for your failure.

Bernie Kopell was a   (4)   as a vacuum cleaner(真空吸尘器) salesman. He had come to California to be a(n)   (5)  ，but for even the few parts he was able to   (6)  ，he received no pay. He   (7)   that was what he deserved. Then，one day as Bernie was cleaning in the back room of the vacuum cleaner store，the owner put on a record. “What a(n)   (8)   job，”Bernie thought. But he heard the sentences   (9)   as he was trying to ignore the   (10)  ，“Your mind is like the   (11)  . Whatever you plant in it   (12)  . If you plant potatoes you get potatoes. If you plant roses you get roses.”Bernie began to   (13)  .

Soon he was paying attention to the record，  (14)   it wasnˈt long before he began reading and attending lectures(演讲). Bernie began to   (15)  that he was given talent，and he became   (16)   to be who he was and considered himself worthy of success. Acting parts and paying roles began to   (17)  his way. He got his first public television show in 1961 on The Brighter Day. He   (18)  on Get Smart，That Girl，and on other television comedy programs. His big   (19)   came when he was   (20)   the role of Dr. Adam Bricker on The Love Boat. The popular show aired(播放) from 1977 until 1986 and made Bernie Kopell a well-known star.

A few months ago, I was picking up the children at school. Emily, another mother that I knew well, rushed up to me. She was full of __  (1)  __.

“Do you know __42__ you and I are?” she asked. __  (2)  __ I could answer, she gave out the reason for her question. She had just returned from renewing her  driver’s permit at a government office. The woman __  (3)  __ desk asked her what her “occupation” was. Emily hesitated, __  (4)  __ how to answer it. “What I mean is,” explained the woman, “do you have a job, or are you just a ...?” “Of course I have a job,” answered Emily. “I’m a (a n) __46__.” “We don’t __  (5)  __ ‘mother’ as an occupation ----‘housewife’ covers it,” she said.

I forgot all about her story __  (6)  __ one day I found myself in the same situation. This time it was at our own Town Hall. The clerk was a woman.

“And what is your occupation?” she asked. What __49__ me say it, I do not know. The words simply jumped out. “I’m ... a (an) ___  (7)  ___ in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”

The clerk stopped, her ball-point pen ___  (8)  __ in mid-air. She looked up __  (9)  __ she had not heard right. I repeated the title(头衔) slowly.

“Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “just what you do in your ___  (10)  __?” Coolly, I heard myself ___  (11)  __  , “I have a continuing program of research in the laboratory and in the field I’m working for my masters (the whole family) and already have __  (12)  __  credits (令人增光的人或事物) (all daughters). I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). The job is more challenging than most jobs and the __  (13)  __ are in satisfaction rather than just money.”

There was increasing __  (14)  __ in the clerk’s voice as she __  (15)  __ in the form. As I drove into our driveway(私家车道), I was __  (16)  __ by my lab assistants — ages 13   , 7, and 3   Inside the house I could hear our new experimental model (six months) in the child-development program.

I felt successful. Motherhood...what a great __  (17)  __.

I was born with a heart disease. As I grew up, parts of my heart started to   (1)   and I was often out of breath. So when I was eight, the doctors opened my chest to   (2)   it. When they saw the state of my heart, they told my parents, “We don’t expect him to   (3)   the night.” I was in and out of a coma (昏迷) for three months. Every day the fact that I wasn’t   (4)   was a good thing.

Finally, the doctors   (5)   I’d be better off at home — saying that I wasn’t going to live long. But I   (6)   and had something close to a   (7)   childhood. As a teenager, I began to   (8)   heart failure again. But I was   (9)   to go to college, become a manager and get married to Jo.

I started my own   (10)   so I could work flexible (灵活的) hours,   (11)   Jo and I had two children: Josh and Liam. I   (12)   to keep a good standard of life for everyone, even when I was waking up feeling sick every morning. By January last year, my heart failure was so   (13)   I often couldn’t walk more than a few years.

I was worried about not being around for my   (14)  . I had to explain to Josh that the   (15)   telling me an organ (器官) had been found could come any time and I’d be rushed to hospital, perhaps   (16)   I could say goodbye. A few days later, the phone rang and Josh said, “Is that the doctor with your new   (17)  ?” However it was   (18)   a salesman.

May 4 was the day a transplant (移植) match was found. I was out of hospital within five weeks and, within a few   (19)  , feeling much better. By October, I was taking part in a 30-mile bike ride.

These days I spend a lot of time talking to kids with heart   (20)  . I want to support others who’ve had a hard time.

Dark clouds in the sky　41　one thing and only one thing：there was going to be heavy rain.　42　of us had brought an umbrella. So when Jack　43　we should go to a　44　,we all　45　immediately, as we had been shopping all morning and were now feeling　46　.It would be a pleasure　47　.We　48　and got to the museum just　49　large drops of rain were beginning to fall.

The museum was　 50 　a peaceful place. We sat down in the hall and listened to the rain 51 　against the windows. Suddenly　52 alarge crowd of children shouting and talking 53　the entrance. Then　54　school boys were　55 　in by a teacher. The poor museum watchman was trying to　56　them quiet but they did not seem to　57　him. Apologizing for causing such a noise, the teacher said that the boys were　58　excited to see so many strange things. But in the end the noise proved too much for us and we decided to leave.　59　,we thought the children had come on an "educational(教育) visit"　60　we had simply waited to stay off rain.

I remember believing in Santa when I was a very young girl. However, as I grew older, I learned many   41  that “proved” his nonexistence. Always   42  by nature, I was determined to use   43  to decide whether Santa Claus was   44 .

   The first year of tests   45  when I was 5. I decided that if I   46  all night on Christmas Eve, I could see if Santa really came down the chimney.   47 , that was a useless    48 . I fell asleep that year, and when I woke up, I saw a   49  wrapped present under the  50 .

At age 7, I came up with another test to see if Santa was real. That year, I didn’t send out my Christmas letter to Santa because I wanted   51  for Christmas, but this turned into a plot. By then, I   52  knew Santa wasn’t real, but I wanted enough   53  to support this. That year was   54 , because on Christmas Eve, my mother dragged me to our local Wal-Mart and led me around the toy section. I   55  to say a word, but did let my eyes   56  on a ballet set. I    57  that “Santa” wouldn’t know what I wanted because he shouldn’t be able to read my   58 . However, mother would know everything that caught my eyes in the store. If I got the ballet set the next morning, I would have my evidence. Christmas morning, there was the ballet set, sitting under the tree again.   59  I didn’t use it much, mother ended up returning it a few days later. She   60  Santa was generous enough to leave a receipt. That was the end to my task to discover the existence of Santa.

When I was 17 years old, I left my comfortable home in a wealthy Midwestern suburb to live as a foreign exchange student in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in a foreign country. I   (1)    in an apartment with no elevators, no dishwashers and one washer for 300   (2)   . The tile(瓷砖）floors were always   (3)   and the rainy winter days there seemed endless. I   (4)   to wash my clothes by hand in the bathtub and   (5)   water was so costly, I trained myself to   (6)    my waist-length hair in less than five minutes.

At that time there were no cell phones and the Internet didn’t exist so far six months I had no    (7)   at all with my family or friends in the US. I had no relatives there so I   (8)    to face the fact that my   (9)   to adapt and create a life for   (10)   , was one hundred percent up to me. At age seventeen my need for friends was   (11)   and not knowing a soul was, needless to say, a bit stressful.

To   (12)   to my stress, I didn’t speak the   (13)    and had no familiarity with the monetary（货币的）system nor the transportation system. One more   (14)   that created stress was my   (15)   family. Of all the families in the city I lived, I was   (16)   with the ones who spoke the least (or worst) English.

Living abroad and developing   (17)   in a foreign language required persistence and determination. I made many mistakes   (18)   the way. Now I’ve transformed my    (19)    memories into my medals of honor (荣誉勋章). They’re the treasured stories that offer wisdom, provide me with insights into friends and family and provide me with the   (20)   that I can surpass future challenges.

An elderly woman told the police that, as she entered a restroom, she was slightly pushed by a woman behind her. A few minutes later, as she was about to  41   for a moustache remover at a nearby store, she discovered that her wallet was  42  from her purse. Apparently the woman who had   43  her had cleverly stolen her wallet. This type of  44   is called pick-pocketing.

    Perhaps an even more personal kind of theft is known a housebreaking, or   45   . After such an accident, the victims often report a feeling of   46  . They seldom regain the comfort and   47   they used to have in their home. They   48    feel like they are being watched; they feel that if they go out, the burglars will again  49  . They feel uncomfortable when they are home, and they also feel uncomfortable when they  50  .

   Burglars get lucky or make their own luck. Sometimes homeowners forget to  51   all their windows or doors. Sometimes burglars will break a window, cut through a screen door, or force  52   a side door.

   Thieves have no  53  .They will steal from anyone that they think is vulnerable(脆弱的），and that means the  54  are their frequent victims. Some thieves are very clever, some are very lucky, but all of  55   make an honest person’s life more    56  . It’s too bad that all of them can’t be caught and   57   into honest people.

     Imagine that: a world with no thief, a world where you can  58  your bicycle unsecured on the sidewalk, or leave your purse  59  in your shopping cart. Is this only a(n)  60   ? Some say that if you can dream about it, it can be realized.

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A, B, C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并将答案写在相应的答题栏中。

I put my sunglasses on and took a deep breath. We started walking down the street on her first day of    41 with her hand held tightly in mine. I knew she would be   42   ina few minutes, because she always did that when she was    43  about a new environment.

On the way to school, I told her repeatedly how   44    her new school life would be and expected she would feel    45  .  However, when she saw the massive group of   46 everywhere, her face    47    fell and the tears welled up in her eyes. “You can do this, sweetie. Everyone has a  48   inline; let 's go to find yours.

We  49  to enter the school. Just as she was about to hold on to my leg, her friend from preschool   50   next to her. Sudden1y, she became active and reached out for her friend's hand. And as the teacher began to   51  them all into the school, she wasn't crying, but smiling.

Frankly, I was   52  to say goodbye when I saw those little feet walk into that big building. I hid the tears behind my   53    and waved my hand as she walked inside.

All day I   54   what she was doing. As I waited to pick her up, I felt like a child standing in line to   55   Santa. She came out with her hand   56  and her arms outstretched(张开的).“I didn't cry again, Mommy,”she said,   57   hugging me and showing me her backpack full of goodies.

During two hours of   58   to the details (细节) of her day, we laughed and talked about all the   59   she had. And just like her, I didn't cry again either. I knew my   60   has grown up.