Sometimes, it is really difficult for a teacher during his first week writing classes. I’m unfamiliar _________ the students, most of whom trying to adapt to their new environment and _________ on their study. When Serlina _________ me with a question on the second day, I was _________ for the opportunity to connect at least one name with a face.

Although her writing wasn’t perfect, she still tried her best. She worked hard and pushed herself to achieve. She was excited to learn, _________ made me enjoy teaching her. I didn’t realize then how much she would also teach me at that time.

Serlina stopped by after class, one Thursday afternoon. She wasn’t asking a question about a paper I’d returned. _________, she said quietly: “I didn’t attend classes yesterday. I was at the health center the whole day.” I gave her a sideways look, _________. “It was just a virus. I’m fine now.” she _________ me. Then she was away.

However, three nights later, her father called to tell me that Serlina would be missing a few classes. She had been in hospital with meningitis (脑膜炎). I heard from him again a few days later, and again after that. Her condition grew _________. We made trips to the hospital room. I was __________ frightened when I saw the pale, thin and weak girl who, only ten days earlier, had showed life and warmth in my classroom.

A week later, Serlina herself called me to tell me she was on the road to __________. “I’ll be back to school one day,” she said. “You must have a/an __________ to be with us,” I told her, __________ tears. I remembered what her father had said in his first phone call: “school __________ everything to Serlina.”

Then four weeks later, I walked into my classroom to find Serlina in her seat, smiling. She __________ all of her missed homework, completed with thought and excellence. The strength of her will to overcome shone out of her pale, weak, eighteen-year-old face.