Devoted to their study , many high school students ______ little importance to sports.

I＿＿ my father into giving up smoking but he didn’t listen to me.

Mr．Smith is a good teacher except that he          some of his students by criticizing tbem whenever they make a mistake．

As a writer, he used to go deep into life to __________ materials for his creation.

The computer was one of the greatest______ in the 20th century.