While many excellent men and women don't have college diplomas, their achievements often speak for themselves. Still, having access to higher education can be an essential steppingstone on the path to ______. In 1961, Calvin Tyler was ______ as a student of business administration at Morgan State College. Unfortunately, he had to abandon his own college dreams in 1963, just a year before his graduation, because he couldn't ______ his education. He took a job as a UPS driver.

Tyler's lack of a college diploma didn't ______ him from steadily rising in the ranks. By the time he______in 1998, Tyler was Senior Vice President of the ______. His hard work and perseverance ______,but he believed that in the business world, his story was the ______ rather than the rule. In 2002, he and his wife ______ the Calvin and Tina Tyler Endowed Scholarship Fund at the university he once ______.

In 2016, the Tylers donated $5 million to the fund. He ______, “We want to have more scholarships offered to young people so that they can ______ from college and enter the next stage of their life out of debt.” That the Tylers have been ______ over the years is a remarkable example of ______ with great purpose.

They might not have a college diploma, but he has earned a more ______ degree, a course all of us can learn from.

The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon that positive expectations lead to better performance and negative expectations lead to worse performance. I taught algebra (代数) at a summer school. There I_________a student who taught me a lot more than what I could have_________taught him. Let’s call him Joey.

While he_________with his math at first, his enthusiasm and_________never changed. I quickly_________him as a star pupil. Joey shared with me one day that his mother passed away when he was young. Neither of his parents finished high school, so his mom’s dream was to see him_________. His dad was a plumber (水暖工) who worked long hours for low wages. Joey said he wanted to get his_________so that he could get a better job because he_________to see his dad happy.

From that day forward, I_________myself to ensuring he would pass. I taught him how to understand some of the____________topics in algebra. On the last day of the class, Joey____________ the final test. After all the students left, I____________ behind to help clean up. The head teacher____________ told me that he was amazed at Joey’s____________ in the test in spite of his disabilities.

The teacher went on to explain that Joey was____________with learning disabilities and that some “experts” said he would never be able to do math. I was____________to hear this, because I had never found it when I worked with him!

If he had learning disabilities, then how was he able to solve the problems____________to difficult algebra concepts with____________after some lessons? This question has____________me for some time. After spending____________hours searching, I’ve found the best explanation is the concept of the Pygmalion effect.

I was in my mid-forties when I bought my house in a quiet, old neighbourhood. I soon became _______ that most of my neighbors were decades older than me. Within the first few weeks, most neighbors wandered over to _______ me. However, my next-door neighbour Kay, who was said to be deaf, was a (n) _______.

When I arrived home from work one evening a month later, Kay signaled me to _______ her house. She’d made roasted chicken and wanted me to _______ her for supper. The supper was delicious, but her squealing (发出尖叫声) hearing aid was very _______. I pointed to her to indicate that her hearing aid was squealing. She removed it, and the squealing stopped _______.

Then she put her hand on top of mine and said, “Dear, do you ever _______ why I wear a hearing aid even though I’m deaf?” I nodded, and she began to _______. “Every once in a while, if I turn my ________, and the wind happens to come from the right direction, my hearing aid squeals. And there are times when I can hear that squeal. In a life where deafness has become my ________, I love the moments when, even for a few seconds, I can hear again. It’s the most wonderful ________. The next time you hear an annoying noise like the neighbor’s dog barking, don’t be annoyed. Count it as a (n) ________. Like me, the day may come when you would give anything to be able to ________ those noises again.”

I’m so ________ to Kay, who helped me develop a better attitude towards life.