When Susan was a high school student, her English teacher, Fred DiMeo, asked her to carry out a task: Recite (背诵) a poem in front of the whole class.
"I had a mild stutter (口吃), which tried the 1 of my classmates," Susan said. The thought of 2 in front of the class and stuttering through the 3 was too much to bear. When the day of the recitation came, Susan, painfully shy and 4 , recited the poem. Once she was done, DiMeo said something she'd never 5 before: that he liked listening to her voice. For the first time, she 6 that public speaking didn't have to be a source of 7 . "I think in his mind he just wanted me to 8 I have nothing to be afraid of," Susan said.
Susan went on to graduate from high school and go to college. She never got to 9 thank DiMeo. Sometime after college, she managed to 10 a job as a trainer. The work made her know how big an 11 DiMeo had had on her confidence. "It's so 12 to stand up in front of people and speak with them. And I do it all the time," she said.
Susan recently found a way to 13 her teacher, and sent him a letter expressing her 14 . " You played a big role in my life," she wrote. "I don't know where I would've gone if I felt like I had to keep my voice 15 because I was afraid of embarrassing (使尴尬) myself. "
