I used to be a very self­centered person, but in the past two years I have really changed. I have started to think about other people _______ I think about myself. I am happy that I am becoming a different person.

I think my _______ started when I was at Palomar College. At first, I just wanted to get my _______ and be left alone. I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so I hardly ever _______ to anyone in my classes. By the end of my first semester (学期), I was really _______. It seemed as if everyone but me had made friends and was having fun. So I tried a(n) _______. I started asking people around me how they were doing, and if they were having trouble, I _______ to help. That was really a big step for me. By the end of the year, I had several new friends, and two of _______ are still my best friends today.

A bigger cause of my new _______, however, came when I took a part­time job at a Vista Nursing Home. One old lady there who had Alzheimer's disease became my ________. Every time I came into her room, she was so happy because she thought I was her daughter. Her real daughter never________ her, so I took her place. She let me see that making others feel good make me feel good, too. When she died, I was ________, but I was very grateful to her.

I think I am a much better person today than I used to be, and I hope I will not ________these experiences. They have ________ me to care about other people more than about myself. I ________ who I am today, and I could not say that a few years ago.

Göran Kropp was a Swedish adventurer and mountaineer.In 1972,at the age of six,with his father’s help,he _____ Galdhopiggen,the highest mountain in Northern Europe.Twenty­four years later,he stood on the highest peak in the world,Mount Everest.His journey to the _____ shows just how independent,persistent(坚持的),and determined this _____ man is.

Kropp bicycled 8,000 miles and arrived at the foothills of Mount Everest.Traveling by bike was not _____.He stopped many times to _____ his bike because rough roads caused mechanical problems for him.

Kropp _____ to climb Mount Everest the same way he traveled to the mountain:without the _____ of a guide and without modern conveniences.He did not _____ bottled oxygen to help him _____ at high altitudes,and he carried all of his ______himself in a pack that weighed about 140 pounds.

It took Kropp ______ tries to reach the top of Mount Everest.The first time,he had to ______ only 350 feet from the top because of the dangerous weather.Just a few days earlier,at the same level eight climbers had died because of a sudden snowstorm in the mountain.He felt deep sorrow for them,but became more ______．The mountaineer waited out the storm,______, and tried again a few days later.This time,he was ______．After he walked down the mountain,he got back on his bike and rode the 8,000 miles back to Sweden.

It was my last class before summer break, and I was finishing up the first year of a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in poetry. Unsure if I deserved a ______ in the program, I worried I wasn’t as

______ as my peers. When the professor asked about our summer ______, I panicked. I didn’t want to appear idle (闲散的)，so without much ______, I burst out “gardening”. Surprisingly, my professor nodded and mentioned Emily Dickinson loved gardening. Emily Dickinson, a great American poet, studied plants as a ______. But I was in my twenties and had no gardening ______.

A few days later, I ______ some seedlings in a store. I thought I should get some. At least I could say I had ______ gardening. Wait, was that a jalapeno (墨西哥辣椒)? I ______ it up.

Over the summer, the plant grew, not big but ______. I was proud. Maybe I didn’t have ______. But then I had to move out of my apartment for some reason. I ______ with my friends. It was December when I found my new apartment, and my jalapeno was suffering: its ______ had fallen off. I set it next to a window by the kitchen sink, and ______ for the best.

I ______ to work hard in school. Then spring came. My plant grew with new leaves. And it flowered when I ______ my graduate paper, a book of ______, in May.

I was washing dishes one day when my professor called. “Your poems are strong...” he said. I’d done it! I went back to the dishes, but suddenly I found the flowers ______ my jalapeno were gone. Had I done something ______?   I looked closer. Where a flower had been, a tiny green fruit ______through.