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.

   Your peers are people your age or close to it who have experiences and interests similar to yours. You and your friends make dozens of decisions every day，and you influence each other’s choices and behavior. This is often ______ —it’s human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group.

Sometimes，though，the stresses in your life can actually come from your peers. They may pressure you into doing something you’re uncomfortable with，such as shoplifting，doing drugs or drinking，or taking dangerous risks when you are driving a car.

The pressure to conform（随潮流）can be powerful and hard to resist. A person might feel pressure to do something just because others are doing it. Peer pressure can influence a person to do something that is relatively harmless—or something that has more serious consequences. People may feel pressure to conform，so they fit in or are accepted，and they don’t feel awkward or uncomfortable. When people are unsure of what to do in a social situation，they naturally look to others for cues（暗示）about what is and isn’t acceptable.

The people who are most easily influenced will follow someone else’s lead first. Then others may go along，too—so it can be easy to think，“It must be OK. Everyone else is doing it. They must know what they’re doing.”Before you know it，many people are going along with the crowd—perhaps on something they might not otherwise do.

Responding to peer pressure is part of human nature—but some people are more likely to give in，and others are better able to resist and stand their ground.

It’s not always easy to resist negative peer pressure. But when you do，it is easy to feel good about it afterwards. And you may even be a positive influence on your peers who feel the same way—often it just takes one person to speak out or take a different action to change a situation.