Dr. Mantri is an India-born British woman. As she grew up, a teacher used an abacus (算盘) to help her _______ understand mathematics. She applied this _______ tool to turn her son, Dhruv, into a maths genius. She thinks a bit of abacus instruction might help today’s kids _______ a modern problem.

Dhruv was in fifth-grade when his mother started to notice he was _______ with simple arithmetic (算术). She would ask him something like 35 minus 13 and he couldn’t do it. After realizing her son’s poor _______ in maths, she started _______ the same tool to help him after school.

In just six days he started to show _______ with the abacus and would go on to become an expert in numbers. So sudden the _______ was that school staff asked him to perform with the abacus at a meeting, with some parents even coming to ask for _______ on using it for their kids.

Now Dr. Mantri is using the abacus to ________ thousands of kids around the world. Kids enjoy learning on an abacus ________ it’s like a game where they can touch and feel it.

“Seeing Dhruv’s ________ with maths, I decided to change the way he looked at numbers,” said Dr. Mantri. “Abacuses are a tried and tested method.”

Dhruv has ________ an apprenticeship (学徒期) at international firm Diageo and is now ________ a career in data science. He is ________ about his future career and owes his success to his mother.

I suffered a serious head injury as a kid. It led to a constant _________ even in a special reading class. When I met my teacher Jill for the first time, I felt _________ because I’d never known anyone who was _________. She was young but was in a wheelchair. We were _________ to ask our new teacher why. Only Jon asked directly the reason.

The question didn’t seem to _________ her at all. She answered it with honesty and dignity. “While qualifying for the Olympics, I _________ during a race and injured my spinal cord (脊椎).” My first reaction was “Wow!” It _________ me she didn’t talk about how much her life had changed since the _________ Actually, she never acted like she felt _________ for herself. Instead, she __________ us with a big smile at the beginning of every class.

She taught us __________ through reading cards, spelling lessons and writing practices. I was a slow reader, but she showed me it was okay to take my __________ .I remember the day when I was ready to __________. To other teachers, spelling the word “furniture” might be a __________ matter, but she treated it as a significant __________. “You did it, Sandy !” she smiled. “You spelled a difficult word and __________ the tests. Now you can return to a __________ classroom!”

She __________ me and changed my world forever. Looking back, I wish I’d thanked her for making such a big __________ in my life. I’ll always remember what she __________ me: With persistence (毅力) and love, no mountain is too high to climb.

One Bite at a Time

Stephen was on campus to register when I first met him.

One summer day _______ I was heading for the administration building, I heard someone call my name. I _______ around and saw Philip, one of my colleagues standing with another young man. As Philip introduced me to the young man, named Stephen, he reminded him that he would be taking one of my _______, Introduction to Literature. With a somewhat _______ expression, Stephen asked if my class was going to be “hard”. Would he be able to pass? I _______ he was concerned about failing before the _______ day of classes. We talked about what the class would _______ and I saw Stephen’s eyes getting big with _______.

Then I remembered a bit of classical dialog:

Question: “How do you eat an elephant?”

Answer: “One bite at a time.”

I told him to _______ his work that way. To do his assignment, all of them, and to get them in on time. I added that most ________ students I knew made a timetable of all the assignment so they could ________ their workload.

As time went on, I learned more of Stephen’s story. He had ________ in middle school. It had taken him longer to finish than most young people. Family members, including his mother, kept reminding him that he was a ________. Now, in the face of their negative-saying he had been admitted into college. He told me that before coming to our campus no one had believed he had much ________.

Stephen didn’t become an “A” student. He didn’t make any honor rolls. Still, he managed to ________ most of his courses by being in class every day, turning in all of his assignment on time and breaking down his studying into ________ digestible parts. By passing course after course he began to gain a measure of self-respect. He was a great singer and he was ________ the school’s cross-country team.

Every time I saw him on campus, he would brighten up and say, “One bite at a time.” Whenever he introduced me to his friends, he would tell them that he was ________ when he was supposed to be failing. His ________, he said, was that he was ________ what I taught him before classes ever started: “Take it one bite at a time.”