【推荐1】A week ago, my daughter said, “Mom, I don’t think I’m very athletic.”

I’ve observed her in various sports, and she is just like me: two left feet. But even knowing it, my first instinct (本能) was to snow her with some________ “Oh, you’re actnally good at sports!”

I held back, however, and after thinking twice, I told her the________: “No, you’re kind of not.”

And I could see it hurt a bit. So I________: “Dear, everyone may have a natural talent for something. Like you and________: You’re a 5^th grader and read Charles Dickens. But we also have things we are not________. If we want to reach a satisfactory level at those things, we have to________twice the effort and if we want to________we need to try even harder.”

She was nodding. She totally________it. Why? Because it’s the truth. Sometimes I wonder why we run around telling our kids some rubbish that don’t even________when they can actually accept the truth. Besides, when they realize we are lying, we________our credibility.

I want my kids to have a_______understanding of themselves so they won’t be________when things get tough. They can be Olympians, but nobody is going to band it to them and________may work against them. They will understand that many things________a nearly huge amount of WORK. They can’t just expect something to happen. They________it happen.

【推荐3】I survey the pile of dirty dishes jamming the sink after the party. With no working _______ except my two hands, the task is huge.

Hot water _______ the sink, I plunge (猛扎) my hands into the _______. Then it occurs to me that every dish and spoon brings back memories. I bring up a tiny spoon, still covered with applesauce. I smile as I _______   the eleven-month-old eating it with wild abandon. I pick up a _______ and I remember my oldest daughter’s trying to cut meat for the four-year-old sister while correcting the eight-year-old’s rude table _______. A bowl with bits of lettuce (生菜) stuck like glue reminds me of countless discussions among daughters about diet food and losing _______. Eating delicious food and keeping a perfect figure is an endless _________ for girls.

My three daughters, now, are _______ and have their own families. They get along as well as they did when they were ________. My grandsons seem to be ________ like their mothers. The two oldest wanted their bikes brought out to ________ together. The youngest delighted us when he, feeling the soft carpet, erupted with bursts of laughter. All memories ________. My three daughters did the same thing years ago — riding bikes, feeling the soft carpet...

The dishes are done, and the sink is ________. But my life is full. It is full of happy children and grandsons. I thank the dishes for ________ me.

【推荐3】On a bright afternoon, Jordan, Mahir and Mahir’s father gathered at the foot of a mountain. “Hey, Jordan, over here!” Jordan’s best friend, Mahir, waved his hand, pointing to a crack in the side of the mountain. “We could ________ this!”

Jordan tied his safety harness (系带) and checked his rope. He weighed one of them in his hand, determining its weight. Then he looked for ________ locations, considering the difficulty of the task. “That crack is ________ narrow. I don’t think we’d get up very high.”

“At the time of a test, a person rises or falls.” said Ghanim, Mahir’s dad. Shaking his head in ________ over the foreign proverb (谚语), Jordan examined the crack. It was nothing more than a sliver in the solid face of the cliff. He shifted in his harness as Mahir gave the proverb his own explaination: “If you’re not reaching the ________, you’re not trying hard enough.” Jordan recognized the bit of advice from a previous climbing lesson.

His own father’s voice resounded in his thoughts, as if in a half-forgotten dream. “Climb a mountain, son, and you climb the insecurity in your own life. You climb over your shadow, climb over your ________.” That was five years ago, before the automobile ________ that took his dad’s life. Jordan’s father swiftly turned his car and effectively ________ a car from going over a cliff. The sudden move had saved the people in that car. But his father’s car went off a cliff. ________ with the difficult situation, Jordan’s dad had never hesitated before making the decision.

And now Jordan wouldn’t either. ________ on his balance, he took a deep breath and began to climb. Finally, they made it to the peak of the mountain.

【推荐1】Harvey Sutton spent several months hiking with his parents, walking the thousands of miles that make up the complete Appalachian Trail (路线). Harvey, or “Little Man”, was just 4 years old when he started, and _______ his 5th birthday on the trail.

The Trail is a 3, 530 kilometer hiking trail that _______ through the forests of the Appalachian Mountains, from Georgia to Maine. The trail, which many people call _______ the “AT”, passes through 14 states in all.

Because hiking the AT is _______, only one out of every four hikers completes all the sections of the trail. But that didn’t stop Harvey Sutton and his _______ from conquering the AT.

Harvey’s parents, Alice and Mike, have been _______ with Harvey since he was two years old. They prepared him for hiking the AT by starting out with lots of shorter _______ and hikes.

It took Harvey and his family a very long time to _______ the whole AT. Every day the family would wake up around 5:30 in the morning. In general, the family hiked about 16 kilometers a day before stopping to _______ camp again.

Completing the AT taught Harvey and his parents how to work as a ________ and how to take on challenges together. Harvey’s mom says that because of the experience, “We’re closer than ever before.”

【推荐2】In 2016, Deepa Maurya was diagnosed (诊断) with lung cancer. After an operation, she was officially ________ cancer free, only to become sick again the following year.

In her ________ against cancer, she has ________ several operations, along with chemotherapy (化疗), and radiation therapy.

The 51-year-old said in an interview “My life has ________ completely. It has been a long time since I enjoyed the North Indian ________ that I grew up with because of oral ulcers (溃疡), a side-effect of chemotherapy. I really ________ the taste of it.”

“My work, in which I take much ________ and pride, had to be reduced as I needed the time to ________ after my treatment. Even worse, I ________ some long-time friends over the years as well.”

Yet despite all her ________— both physical and emotional — Deepa continues to ________ her cheerfulness and engagement in work and life, ________ participating in various platforms. Most of all, she has become a(n) ________ for regular check-ups to get timely diagnosis.

Instead of being ________ by her condition, such as not being able to use her left arm due to neuropathic (神经性的) pain, she is ________ that she can still use the computer to work.

During an interview, she said, “Work makes me happy and keeps me busy.”