For 26 years，Tess Heidelberger's wedding dress was sitting in a dusty box in her basement next to her Christmas decorations. She felt it was 【小题1】 waste of money，and then thought of her plain Christmas tree skirt on the top of the Christmas decorations. So she came up 【小题2】 an idea of putting the two of 【小题3】（they）together，and wanted to turn part of her wedding dress into a tree skirt.

Tess，【小题4】（live）in Mauldin，bought the wedding dress in 1989，【小题5】 had all the features（特色）of 80s bridal style. She got married the following year. Her daughters had no interest in wearing it as they felt it was 【小题6】（complete）out-of-date. So Tess made a 【小题7】（decide）to make the dress an art project.

She got a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue and got to work. All she needed to buy were some pretty ribbons to cover the glue, because she prepared 【小题8】 (put) the plain Christmas tree skirt under the wedding dress. When everything was ready she pinned the wedding dress skirt on the plain Christmas tree skirt until it was the way she liked. Then she 【小题9】 (decorate) the dress skirt.

In all, Tess only spent an hour completing it. She was very pleased with the 【小题10】 (finish) product.

   Just like everyone，I have experienced ups and downs in my life. I am an aerospace engineer（航空工程师）from India. I was told by my relatives，close friends and others that it was _________ for a non-IT student to pursue（继续进行）a master's degree in IT and graduate from a US university.

I had never taken courses _________ to computers or programming. I was never interested in being a _________，but things changed. Computers became my companion and I _________ how dependent on them I was. I _________ imagining the backend processes happening inside the CPU and they amazed me. That's why I _________ to pursue a master's degree in IT.

At first，it was too _________. Coming from a middle-class family，the huge cost was a big _________. My English accent was terrible. Most _________，the course seemed impossible at first. But I never __________.

I got a few offers，but I decided to choose my university __________ it promises students to help them learn practically. During my first month，it was difficult to understand the American's __________ and finish my assignments. But I never gave up. I walked two miles to the __________ every day so that I could use my travel money to buy a meal. I started looking for __________ and I got an offer to work as a student assistant.

I took it as a __________, and I believed that hard work was my strength. Right now I am graduating with good grades and a job offer from a company that has asked me to start right after ________.

If you want to achieve something, you need to __________ yourself and start working on your __________.

Hard work always pays off. To be __________, you need to start from somewhere and always question yourself about the limits of how far you would go to __________ your goals.

   When she was just 17 years old，Liz crashed into the back of a truck that was waiting to turn in a left-turn lane（车道）. The crash is a life-changing one for her. Because of the crash，she's blind in one eye，loses her sense of smell，loses some of her hearing，loses the ability to create tears，and she cannot fall asleep naturally.

“Initially，I thought I would not be defeated but clearly I was completely wrong. Apart from the medical problems，the hardest part about my life after the car accident was the fact that I was alone，”Liz said.“Everyone was away at college，but I wasn't. I couldn't drive or go to college. My friends who used to hang around with me were there for me at first，but after a while they stopped coming by.”

“I viewed her Facebook page，and she said on there: Can anybody please hang out with me today？I don't have any friends，”recalled Liz's mother，Betty.

In time, Liz and her mother teamed up with the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to make a video. They wanted to get the point across that texting and driving can have life-transforming consequences.

In the video Liz appealed to drivers not to text when driving. She admitted she was checking and sending messages via her phone when she crashed her car into the back of the truck.

“Don't text your loved ones when you know they' re driving,”said Liz's mother.“It can change their lives forever.”

“If you get a text, don't look at it,”Liz said.“It's not worth it.”

When I was in high school, most of my friends had bicycle. I hoped I could also have it. One day I saw a second-hand bicycle, that was only one hundred yuan. I asked my father the money, and he said he could only give me half of the money. I should earn the other half by myself. So I went to sell newspapers after the school. My father was pleasing when I showed him the money a month late. He gave me the other fifty. You can imagine how happily I felt when I ride to school on my own bicycle.