In June 1985, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were the first people to successfully climb the west face of 21,000 foot snow-covered Siula Grande mountain in Peru. They _______ to reach the top, but on their way back the conditions were so _______ that Joe fell and broke one of his legs. They both knew that if Simon continued alone, he would probably get back _______. But Simon decided to take a risk and try to lower Joe down the mountain by a rope.

As they went down, the weather got _______. Then another trouble happened. They couldn't see or hear each other, and by mistake, Simon lowered his friend over the edge of a precipice(峭壁). It was _______ for Joe to climb back or for Simon to pull him up. Joe's _______ was pulling Simon slowly towards the precipice. Finally, Simon had to make a _______ and cut the rope in tears. Joe fell into a large crevasse(裂缝)in the ice below. He couldn't walk, _______ he got out of the crevasse successfully and started to move towards their camp.

Simon had returned to the camp at the foot of the mountain. He thought that Joe must be _______, but he didn't want to leave immediately. Three days later, at the middle of the night, he heard Joe's voice. He couldn't ________ it. Joe was there, a few meters from their tent, still alive.

“It is never too late and you are never too old to start something new!” said Ellen Rema. She began to learn ________ at the age of fifty. In just a few years she has made great progress.

________ no evening classes were offered in the area Ellen lived in, she ________ to study online. She took an English course on the internet.

Ellen began with easy courses and studied hard. “My son always said, ‘Mom, you are a bit ________ .’ He couldn’t understand why I spent so many hours ________ , but I love it,” she said. “Maybe I wanted to do too much in a short time. I ________ all my courses after two years, but I found I still had difficulties with grammar.”

Instead of ________ , she chose to continue. After another two years, she’s still studying in the online classroom. But now to make her English better, she has set new goals(目标) for herself.

“Studying online is sometimes boring, so you need self-discipline(自律),” said Ellen, “If you ________ want to learn, never give up when you face difficulties and when you think you haven’t made any ________ .”

Ellen said studying English wasn’t all about hard work, “It was ________ I have learned so much about other cultures and traditions,” she said.

Ellen has been able to put her English to use by visiting England five times. “I’m very thankful to the Internet. My life has changed a lot,” said Ellen.