Life became hard when I was 14. My mother and I moved to New York to 36 my father, who’d moved there to find  37  work when I was three years old. He had a job at a restaurant and only visited us  38  every couple of years.
Before I moved, I knew that people in the US spoke English. But honestly, I didn’t stop to analyze the  39  when I was  40  to leave. Just like I assumed I could easily become a doctor or a lawyer. I assumed that I had the skills to learn English in a few weeks. 
When I  41  in the US and started 8^th grade at Ditmas Middle School in Brooklyn, everyone was speaking a(n)  42  language I couldn’t understand. I  43  that life had subtitles, like in foreign movies. School was such a serious place here. Sometimes I felt like I was in a geek（呆子） class. The teachers were always  44  my moves so I couldn’t even throw a paper ball at a classmate’s head. And the worst thing was having to read  45
46  after almost seven months of complaining about everything, I realized that complaining didn’t change things.  47  just made my life worse. If I was going to  48  in this new concrete jungle, I had to  49  . I began to learn English by reading newspapers on my own  50 school. After about four months, I started enjoying reading the crime and sports stories. After six months of studying, my teachers  51  my improvement and moved me into a more  52  English class. I could go to the store and ask for things that I wanted to buy without  53  frustration. For the first time I felt like I was living on earth again  54  .I didn’t hear foreign talk. I  55  understand people.