While high school does not generally encourage students to explore new aspects of life, college sets the stage for that exploration. I myself went through this _______ process and found something that has changed my _______ at college for the better: I discovered ASL-American Sign Language.

I never felt an urge to _______ any sign language before. My entire family is hearing, and so are all my friends. The _______ language were enough in all my interactions(交往). Little did I know that I would discover my _______ for ASL.

The _______ began during my first week at college. I watched as the ASL Club _______ their translation of a song. Both the hand movements and the very _______ of communicating without speaking _______ me. What I saw was completely unlike anything I had experienced in the ________. This newness just left me ________ more.

After that, feeling the need to ________ further, I decided to drop in on one of ASL club’s meetings. I only learned how to ________ the alphabet that day. Yet instead of being discouraged by my ________ progress, I was excited. I then made it a point to ________ those meetings and learn all I could.

The following term, I ________ an ASL class. The professor was deaf and any talking was ________. I soon realized that the silence was not unpleasant. ________, if there had been any talking, it would have ________ us to learn less. Now, I appreciate the silence and the ________ way of communication it opens.

One year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms (习语), though my teacher told me about them again and again. But soon, the _________ of English idioms was shown in an amusing experience.

One day, I _________ to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the _________ seemed to be surprised. Gently shaking his _________ , shrugging (耸) his shoulders, he said, “You don’t say!” I was _________. I thought perhaps this was not a proper _________. I had better change it. So I said to him, “Have you ever been to the Great Wall?” “Certainly! It was amazing. Everyone back home will _________ me if I leave China without seeing it.” I continued, “The Great Wall is one of the _________ in the world. We are very proud of it.” But soon, “You don’t say!” came to my ears again. I couldn’t _________ asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?” “Well, I didn’t ask you to do so,” he answered, __________ surprised. I said, “Didn’t you say ‘You don’t say!’?” __________ this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to __________, “‘You don’t say!’ actually means ‘Really’! It is a (n) __________ of surprise. Perhaps you don’t pay attention to English idioms.” Only then did I know I had made a __________ of myself. Since then I have been more __________ with idiomatic expressions.

I will be the first to admit that my German skills are quite poor. I decided to minor in German because I _________ the language. However, I was not particularly good at_________it. The grammar and word order confused me. All the nouns have genders, and it is hard to_________which noun is which. After two years of study, I still communicated in _________German, so I signed up to_________in Germany to complete my degree. It was the_________term I would ever have.

Once in Germany, I found the German I’d learned in university wasn’t _________for everyday conversation. My book knowledge fell by the wayside and I was always on edge at school and _________whether the professors would call on me in class. I only relaxed a little around my eight roommates, who were willing to speak German_________ to me and didn’t seem to __________my mistakes.

All the classes were in German and__________, and history was the worst. The professor spoke rather __________ . I sat in the front, took notes and even recorded the lectures, but nothing__________ I had no idea what the class was about.

At the end of the term, it took all of my__________to ask my history professor for a form saying I’d attended the class. He said yes and told me to__________at his office at a certain time. I’d like to say I got the form and took it back to my university to get my credit , __________I didn’t. I was too afraid to be in his office and let him see how __________ I could really understand. I was sure I was the only one in the class at such a__________level. So I gave up the meeting. Years have passed, but I still remember how it felt to__________so hard to learn another language. I think my __________ that term taught me just as much as my successes.