In the eighth grade, I was student-body president of Erwin Middle School in Asheville. I considered this quite an ________ since there were over 1,000 students in the school. At the end of the year, I was asked to make a speech at the ceremony where my class was ________ to high school. I knew this had to be more than just the brief comments a   student might ________ give. We're the class of Millennium , ________ I wanted my speech to be as special as we were.

I spent several nights lying in bed, ________ about what to say. Many things crossed my mind, but none of them ________ all my classmates. Then one night, it ________ me.   Erwin High School has the highest ________ rate of any high school in our country. What better goal could we have than for every single one of us to ________ ?

The speech I gave on graduation day was only 12 minutes long, but what it started was ________ . When I announced the challenge to my classmates, the entire audience, including the parents and teachers, broke into applause. As I showed the personalized certificates and signs each student would get, I could ________ they were really excited. I'd had no idea my challenge would bring this kind of ________.

Throughout the summer, I worked on developing a program to carry our ________ into high school. I gave speeches to local clubs and groups. I also ________ a “Dropout Patrol”, made up of students who would be willing to help and support other students during bad times.

Then word began to ________ about our challenge. I appeared on local television, and calls started coming in from everywhere. Businesses are throwing their ________ behind us. We have banks, furniture stores, restaurants and more where we can get discounts for our entire family when we show our “Dropout Patrol” ID cards.

All this was ________ , because we are just starting a difficult four-year journey, but we have already made a significant ________. Last year, 13 kids dropped out of the freshman class. So far this year, not a single person who signed the commitment has ________, and the “Dropout Patrol” has become the largest organized group in the school.

The Erwin High “Committed Class of Millennium” would like to encourage your class to start a ________ like ours. Wouldn't it be great if the entire class of Millennium, nationwide, had a 100 percent graduation rate?

When I was 7 years old, my mother enjoyed reading books. She _________ask my father to bring many books from the town _________.When my father brought many books, my mother _________her housework and spared much time to read. She would not want anyone to _________her.

One day, my father managed to get a popular novel from the library._________the way home he brought some _________snacks because he thought it was great to enjoy the snacks during family chats. My mother _________handed out the snacks and got lost in the _________. My father thought it was _________for her not to join in the family chats.

It was time to change ____________in our family life. It was the festival season and some guests ____________us at our home.My sister and I were happy to see them.We had a great time to enjoy the food and a great family get-together.____________,something was worrying my father and that was the ____________of my mother for the novel. She would ____________reading her novel for hours without talking with others. My aunt noticed the ____________of my mother and decided to ____________the problem in her own way.

My aunt took my mother’s novel away and did not give it to her ____________she promised that she would never get crazy for reading novels in her life. Now my sister and I enjoy our ____________home life. My father is____________active after retirement. My mother also remains ____________to read books when she is alone.

A little library was built in our neighborhood to encourage people to “take a book, leave a book”. While taking a walk, Ayla, my eight-year-old daughter, was _________ and asked many questions about it.

Long after we got home, I found her in her bedroom, seated on the floor, surrounded by her _________, all of them. She _________ expressed that she was trying to find a（n）_________ book for the tiny library. Not much later, I saw Ayla standing at the front door, holding a book in one hand and a little _________ in the other, which she _________ in the bathroom when she brushed her teeth. She needed it to look into the _________.

I was _________ to know what book Ayla had picked. When we reached the library, she carefully set down the chair and _________ up. She opened the glass door slowly, with too much __________. Then she paused（暂停）, looked down at the book in her hand, and slid it inside. It was her __________ book. The “take it” part took Ayla a long time to look through the children’s books one by one and carefully examined them, like a jeweler（宝石匠）__________ the perfect stone. At last, she found what she __________.

Once we got home, I asked Ayla why she put that book in the little library. She __________ if every kid left their favorite book, there would be plenty of favorite books to __________.