Amanda Clement was sixteen years old. She sat _______ in the grandstand（大看台）with her mother but she _______ herself right out there on the baseball diamond（棒球场）with the players. Back home in Hudson, South Dakota, her brother Hank and his friends often _______ her to umpire（给……当裁判）games.

Mandy, as she was called, could only sit and watch Hank play. The year was 1904, and girls were not _______ to take part in the sport. But when the umpire for the preliminary（预赛）between two local teams didn't arrive, Hank asked Mandy to make the calls.

Mrs. Clement didn't _______ her daughter to umpire a public event, but at last Hank and Mandy persuaded her to agree. Mandy _______ took her position.

She did so _______ that the players for the big game asked her to umpire for them-with pay！Mrs. Clement was _______ at that idea. But Mandy finally persuaded her _______ to allow her to do it. Amanda Clement became the first ________ woman baseball umpire on record and could live a better life.

Mandy's fame ________ quickly. Before long, she was umpiring games in other states. Flyers（传单）, sent out to announce upcoming ________, called Mandy the "World Champion Woman Umpire". Her uniform was a long blue skirt, a black necktie, ________ a white blouse with UMPS marked across the front. Mandy ________ her long dark hair inside a cap.

Mandy's earnings for her work ________ an umpire came in especially handy. She put ________ through college and ________ a teacher and coach. Mandy died in 1971. People who knew her ________ her for her work as an umpire, teacher, and coach, and ________ she loved helping people ________ she loved the sport career.

Having lost my job, I was feeling a little blue. While walking on the street one day, I heard piano music and singing 【小题1】 ( rise) above the noise of the people. I walked up the street to find out 【小题2】 it was coming from. Then I saw a young lady sitting at a piano.

She was singing songs about love, having 【小题3】 (confident) and keeping on trying,【小题4】 made me a little comfortable. I stood there 【小题5】 ( quiet), watching her playing at such a crowded square. I thought she must be brave enough 【小题6】 ( perform) before so many people. I walked over and told her how good her music sounded. “ I’ve gone through a hard time recently, but you’ve made me 【小题7】 ( hope) again. Thank you,” I said to her. She replied, “ I’m glad that I could help you. I’ve seen lots of unhappy people around and I wish to cheer 【小题8】 (they) up by playing music. You should smile more and lift your head up.” She added, “ Opportunity 【小题9】 (come) in different ways and if your head is down, you might not see it.”

I smiled at her, realizing that no difficulties could keep me 【小题10】 going on.

When Elizabeth married Joseph Fry, it seemed as if her life would be 【小题1】 (comfort) and peaceful. However, Elizabeth was not content with her easy life. One day Elizabeth Fry visited 【小题2】 prison. At first the prison officers did not want her to visit the women prisoners because they feared the prisoners would attack her, but Elizabeth was not afraid. She found that the prisoners behaved 【小题3】 (bad) because they were being treated like animals. So the first thing that Elizabeth 【小题4】 (do) was provide food, clean clothes and straw for beds. Her 【小题5】 (kind) helped her gain the friendship of the prisoners. Later Elizabeth 【小题6】 (ask) by the government to see the leaders of Britain to discuss how 【小题7】 (improve) the conditions for prisoners. Of course she did not do all the work 【小题8】 her own. Other women helped her and went around the country, 【小题9】 (raise) money for her work. Some people did not like her ideas and quarreled with her. Other people said she enjoyed being famous too much. However, her husband, Joseph, supported and encouraged her, so she continued working to help improve the lives of prisoners 【小题10】 she died.

   A ten-year-old boy from Howell, Michigan is being praised as a hero thanks to his persistence (坚持) that led to saving the life of an elderly neighbor. The event happened late in an evening when Danny DiPietro was being driven home from hockey practice by his mom.

That’s when the young boy noticed an open garage (车库) and a figure that he believed was a dog outside an apartment building near his house. Given the freezing weather, the young boy got a feeling that something was not right. But instead of dismissing it like most kids at his age, he insisted that his mother, Dawn, find out what was going on. Dawn tried to make Danny believe that no one would leave a dog out in such cold weather, but he refused to take no for an answer.

Dawn finally gave in and decided to drive to the area with the family dog and see if there was any truth in Danny’ s hunch (直觉). Sure enough, as she got closer to the apartment building she noticed a garage that was wide open and someone waving madly for help. Upon getting there, she realized that it was not a dog the young boy had seen, but Kathleen St. Onge. The 80-year-old woman had fallen down on some ice in front of her garage and had been lying there for two hours, unable to get up.

Dawn rushed home to get her husband to help and called 911. The two then returned with some blankets to cover Ms. St. Onge, while they were waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Though still in hospital, the elderly woman is recovering well and forever grateful to Danny for following his hunch!

   Several years ago，we planned to move out of the city and buy a country house. The first ___________ was finding a suitable country house that we could afford. We started to ___________ the real estate（房地产）listings online and thought we had found a really ___________ one. My wife Catherine went to look at it. I was expecting a positive result. ___________，my wife told me the house wasn't suitable for us at all. While this was not the ___________ of the world，it prevented us from carrying out our plans as we had expected. So，what did we do？Could we ___________ and decide to stay where we were？No. We decided to ___________ looking.

To make a long story ___________，it took us two years of weekly visits to the real estate listings before we ___________ found three houses that might be suitable. The next ____________ seemed obvious-we had to take some time off work and drive down to ____________ these houses. So，off we went and after 15 hours of steady driving，we ____________.The next three days were tight-looking，then looking again and then finally making an ____________. The final story has a ____________ ending-we found our house，and ____________ several months later.

Sometimes, ____________ show up out of nowhere to destroy the best of plans, and some of these difficulties can be the final play. ____________, if you adopt the philosophy that every obstacle has a solution, then you can find your ____________ through. Obstacles will appear no matter who you are or what you are trying to ____________, but it is only those who know there is a solution and keep digging until they find it that will ____________ one day.