【推荐1】Be Happy

Twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. To my _______ I was driving a school bus to make ends meet although I had a Masters degree. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day they called to say I did not get the job. I went to the bus bay like a zombie (僵尸) of _______ .

Later that afternoon, I had an inner wave, like a scream, “why has my life become so _______ ?” Immediately after the scream I pulled the bus over to _______a little girl who handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody got back for it. The earring_______“BE HAPPY”

I got angry but then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right. I should be grateful for what I had. I decided to make a list of 50 things I was _______ for.

At first it was hard, then it got _______ . One night there was a phone call for me from a _______ who was a manager at a large _______ . She asked me if I would do a one-day lesson for her 200 hospital workers. I said yes and ________ my job as a driver.

My day with the hospital workers went very ________ . I got a standing ovation (热烈鼓掌) and many more days of ________ . To this day I know that it was because I changed attitude ________ gratitude.

I spent the next year conducting training workshops and then decided to go back to Scotland where I had lived ________ . One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful cottage.

“The only attitude is gratitude” has been my motto for ________ now and yes, it completely changed my life.

【推荐3】In 1991, I went to visit my grandma in an old folks’ home. At the time, she was 89, and I was 28. I felt a bit _______, because the place was full of people at the last stage of their life. I didn’t know how to _______ that.

When I saw Grandma, they were having a _______ in the hall. After she introduced me, a woman in a wheelchair beside told me how much she _______ dancing. So I asked her to dance and she _______ accepted my invitation with a big smile. I _______ her to the open area, and I lifted her arm up and spun her wheelchair around, and we laughed a lot. When I wheeled her back, I _______ a lot of little old ladies smiling at me. So I _______ with them and we snowballed the party into a great dancing ball.

Of course, I danced with Grandma. While dancing, I asked how she dealt with _______. She said: “Just accept the number of candles on the cake. Life won’t stay the same. So accept the ________ and make every day count. There’s a ________ that golden years are a time to celebrate accomplishments and ________ gained from experience.” Then I realized how ________ it was for me to see the old as they saw themselves. They weren’t thinking that much about growing older. ________, they lived at the moment and ________ that room like stars.

【推荐1】I was born well and complete.Now, _________ ,I became an"alien"with bulging（隆起的） eyes.That must have made my parents extremely _________ .Because of this,my father often found it hard to stay close to me and began to keep a _________ —.I believed that he no longer _________ me, when in fact his heart felt greatest pain.

Things _________ when I was three.An eye doctor suggested an eyelid transplant（眼睑移植）. My parents _________ to donate their eyelids and the doctor picked my father after examination.

So began our family's _________ wandering between darkness and light for the next five years. My dad was first taken to the operating room. When this was completed, it was my turn.I_________ remember the acid smell,filling me with _________ . Knowing that my parents were waiting just outside __________ my fear. I soon fell sleep.

My eyes had been so badly damaged.To __________ the damage, the doctor had to cut some eyelid tissue from my dad and transplant it to me so that my eyes could regain a rounded look.

It’s __________ that, since then,dad and I have shared something together.This __________ will continue to flow in my blood and __________ in my life for years to come.I'm sure my parents won’t forget the scene where the doctor removed the gauze （纱布）from my eyes.That __________ moment has stayed with me since I started my journey between darkness and light.

【推荐2】Sometimes people around you can change your values. My elder brother Steve, in the_______ of my father who died when I was six, gave me important lessons in _______ that helped me grow into an adult. Once when I returned _______from a baseball game, it was Steve _______ took the time to ask me what had happened. When I explained that my baseball had _______ through Mrs. Holt’s basement window, breaking the glass, Steve encouraged me to _______to her. After all, I should have played in the park and not in the path_______ buildings. Although my _______ trembled as I stood explaining, I offered to _______ the window if she would return my ball. I also learned that personal property is a ________ thing.

After I found a shiny silver pen in my fifth-grade classroom, I wanted to keep it, but Steve explained that it might be important to someone else ________ the fact that it had little value. He reminded me of how much I’d hate to lose to someone else the small dog my father ________ from a piece of cheap wood. I returned the pen to my teacher, and ________ remembered the smell of her perfume(香水) as she patted me on my shoulder. Yet of all the ________ Steve gave me, his respect for life is the most ________ in my mind.

At twelve I killed a sparrow with a gun. Excited with my ________, I screamed to Steve to take a look. I shall never forget the way he stood for a long moment and ________ the bird on the ground. Then in a dead, quiet voice, he asked, “Did it hurt you first, Mark?” I didn’t know what to answer. He continued with his eyes ________ “The only time you should even think of hurting a living thing is________ it hurts you first. And then you think a long, long time.” I really felt terrible then, but that moment ________ as the most important lesson my brother has taught me.

【推荐3】It happens every day, everywhere l go. At the supermarket and the post office, people keep telling me to enjoy my kids while they are ______. I spend my days taking care of them and answering ______ questions about everything from why we have two eyes but one nose to _____there are toilets in the heaven. They ______ me from eating a full meal or getting a full night's___________

Yet, the other day, when I took my kids to a children's museum, I began to ______ what people were trying to tell me. It was the_______time we had gone there without diaper（纸尿片）bag, baby bottle or stroller. As l watched-my sons paint there,1 was suddenly_______by a wave of ____ .My babies weren't babies any more.

Now I'm paying more attention to the ______ that won't happen when my kids are ___I'm enjoying the minute when Christ looked up the sky and _______excitedly: "Wow! The moon!" In a few _______，it will take rare Shrek card or something else to get him that excited. I'm treasuring the moment when Nicholas put down his fork at dinner and asked，‘‘Mommy, how are you doing?" About ten years from now, he might not _______ me. When they're in primary school, they won't want to hold my ______ any more. In junior high school, they won't hug me and say，‘‘I love you, too." In high school, they won't even want to be______.together with me.

Pretty ______ they'll both be gone. And I'll ______ through the supermarket and the post office alone, ______ young mothers to enjoy their kids while they are little. Hope they'll______．

【推荐2】Hello! It’s me, the woman you robbed on Lepage Avenue. You might not remember me. But I will never forget you or your _______, which woke me up from a deep sleep.

“_______ and give me your money and jewelry!” you yelled. You told Walter, my 80-year-old husband, to take the drawers and _______ them on the bed. You told me to _______ the earrings and the necklace I was wearing. We had to obey. Your voice trembled. You had a gun, _______ it was pointed at the floor. I could tell you were new at this. When you were busy examining what you could get, I saw my chance. I immediately grabbed my phone and called 911.

“Help! There’s been a robbery...” You _______ the phone from my hand. My legs shook. In the distance, I heard sirens (警笛). Thank heavens! Then I blacked out.

I woke up in an all-white room in the hospital. The physician shook his head at the _______ of my heart. “Madame, when was the last time you had your heart examined?”

“My heart?” I said. “Never. Why?”

“I can hardly believe how blocked your arteries (动脉)are,” he said. “I’ve scheduled a (n)_______ operation for you. A few more days like this, Madame, and you might not have been so lucky.”

What he said _______ me a lot. I had never had any chest pain or shortness of breath. There was no ________ that I was a ticking time bomb, ________ feeling tired sometimes.

________, we didn’t have the nicest lawn or the fanciest car in the driveway. Still, young man, you did ________ us. Thus, thank you. Without you, I’d be a ________. I wouldn’t have had an operation. I wouldn’t have recovered.

Sir, I would like you to know you are ________. You saved my life. I pray you’ve started a new life. It’s never too late.

【推荐3】When my sister Diane began playing the violin, she was seven. How did she sound? Terrible. But she didn’t _________. At twelve, she asked our parents if she could _________ a full-time music school. They said no. Actually, everyone agreed that my sister didn’t have talent.

I was better at my _________. My teacher had told my parents that I had great potential. So my parents found the best piano teacher in the area to _________ me. But the only time when he was available was Saturday at 3 pm. Back then, I was _________ by the British TV show The Avengers, which was _________ every Saturday at 3 pm. I let nothing take up my The Avengers hour. So I _________ this amazing opportunity. Today, I don’t even have a _________ in my house.

My sister became an engineer, but she _________ stopped making music. When she was in her 40s, she changed her career. She went back to college, got a __________ in music education, and became a music teacher. She starts kids off on their first instrument and gives them all the encouragement and support she never __________

Recently, she and a pianist pal put on a recital (音乐演奏会). A big crowd of friends and family __________ for her. As she played, I looked around at the __________ . Everyone was obviously enjoying the music. It occurred to me that I was the only person who remembered that 7-year-old kid making those __________ sounds and knew how far she had come, despite everything.

Talent is __________. But enthusiasm is even more important.