Vocabulary Test 13

[passage-header]Read the following passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:
[/passage-header]       In a way, one of the greatest gifts any teacher can give a student, I think, is to inculcate a curiosity to learn.
       I've been incredibly lucky to have at least one such teacher at every stage in my life. The first was Mrs. Rowlands who taught me in primary school. She taught me to read without ever pushing me. She made me want to read more by giving me some of the most interesting children's books available. And although I still love to go back to those books from time to time, it was only because of her that I was able to read Shakespeare by the time I was ten, and Chaucer a year later.
      In later years, it was Mr. A. N. Patil, my Marathi, and Hindi teacher who made a huge impression on me. Every lesson he took was spiced with half a dozen or more of anecdotes from a wide variety of subjects: among them history, politics, religion, and sociology. I was and still am in awe of his knowledge, I doubt I'll ever be able to match it.
     There have also been other teachers who helped me to try to become independent to think and act for myself using my own judgment, which to my mind has been just as, if not more important, than actually learning anything. After all, it's much too easy to become a completely useless repository of facts and little else.
    Two teachers whom I remember in particular are Mrs. Cynthia Nesamani and Sister Monica, both taught me in school. The former, by and large, gave me a free rein to do what I wanted to do. I, being one of those people who dislikes instructions, she helped me to produce a much better result than I'd have otherwise done.