A little girl studied at her desk in the purple bedroom of her childhood home. The girl’s homework was to _______ a true story. Simple. Yet there she was, _______ it for a long time for better past her bedtime.

So attentive was the girl — changing words to _______ the mood (语气), erasing passages to move the story along, reading out loud to _______ the rhyme — that she jumped when she _______ her father’s hand on her shoulder. Dad was a business manager. He liked to _______ and watch TV at night. It was not his _______ to check up on her.

“Daddy?” she said, looking up at him. “I think I just decided what kind of job I want when I grow up. I like to write about things that really _______. I like to move the words around.” “I’m glad to see you take your schoolwork so _______,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”________ he kissed the top of her head.

Decades later, the girl made great efforts in writing, which ________ her a top job at Reader’s Digest, a ________ that has for nearly a century told true stories of ________ interest. As she walked out of the office that afternoon, she ________ the night in her purple bedroom and decided that for every issue (期刊), she would write her editor’s note as a story. That way, she would honor the ________ of the magazine. She ________ her mom with the news of her job. “Oh, honey, I wish your father were ________,” her mom wrote. “He would be so proud.”

“As an ________, I am doing the work I love, writing about people of interest doing things that matter. It’s been a (n)________ to connect with the thousands of you who have ________ to me. Let’s continue to do so,” the girl said.

   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.

Yours，

Li Hua