【推荐2】Jerry Grey, an Australian who has lived in China for over 16 years, is amazed by the positive changes in the country and is becoming ________ to China as he knows more about it.

Admitting that he was not ________ to the life here when he first came to China, Grey said he was unable to communicate with people because of the language ________. Later, he met his Chinese wife, Liang Yuhua, with whose help he has ________ settled down.

Now Grey has taken ________ in Zhongshan. In fact, he just planned to stay in China for a year or so at first, but unexpectedly, the time period has been ________ to over 16 years. “The more I know about China, the more I like her,” he said.

Over the past few years, Grey has ________ across over 20 cities in China. He has been amazed by the positive changes ________ in China during his trips. Back in 2014, bumpy roads were ________ in poor areas of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region when Grey made the trip there; there were even local villager still living in cave dwelling (窑洞).

________, there were positive changes along the same ________ of his second cycling trip in 2019. “The cave dwellings along the road were still there, but no one lived there. New schools, cinemas, shopping malls, restaurants and hotels have been ________.” Grey said.

In a short period of five years, Ningxia had ________ a completely new look. From Grey's point of ________, the Chinese government should be praised for the ________ changes.

【推荐3】As I began 2021, I planned to give a gift a day for the entire year. I also intended to keep _________ of the gifts in a journal.

I wanted to be _________ with my giving. Some gifts would take time to prepare and _________, such as the quilt I _________ for months into a sleeping bag for a homeless person. Other gifts came about more _________, such as helping a man read a (n)_________ on an item at a store when he’d forgotten his reading glasses. I always tried to look for an opportunity to _________.

Many of my gifts in 2021 _________ reading to my two sons, especially at night. Good stories make great gifts, and reading aloud to my children _________ beautiful memories.

One of my most __________ gifts throughout the year involved letting other customers go ahead of me in line at the grocery store. When I __________ a person standing in line behind me with little shopping, I spotted a chance to put another’s   __________ before my own.

Throughout the year, my children enjoyed hearing my __________ about my gift-giving. Sometimes my boys would make __________ about my gift when we __________ for bedtime at night.

When my sons and I stood in line one day at the store, my older son __________ his little hand and whispered that we could let the man behind to check out first. __________ stretched across my face as I realized that my boy had shared the joy of __________.

Although this act of giving didn’t qualify as something __________ or surprising, it remains one of my favorite gifts of 2021, and all because I saw how my __________ to give had become part of my children’s lives as well.

【推荐2】This was my first experience with one who was able to “read” the children, and teach effectively. Miss Pratt _________ herself to teaching. Moreover, she made us feel that we were important.

I was only three when a serious car accident happened, thus leaving a _________ below my nose. Then I was called “Scarface” by many children. Meanwhile, I didn’t put the effort required, which _________ my teacher. Those made my confidence _________. Years of treatment cured everything without any after-effects _________, but my emotions stayed scarred. Although my parents and relatives considered me as _________, I did not see myself that way.

One day, after school, I _________ in the classroom, waiting for my mother to pick me up. Miss Pratt and a fellow teacher kept me company while _________.

I glanced at the clock, saying _________ to the teachers. Suddenly, approaching the door, I happened to hear, “She really is polite and cute.” My teacher responded, “__________ ! Bernice is lovely.”

Polite! Cute! Lovely! The words __________ me. A delicious warmth surrounded me with a new sense of awareness. Teachers never lie. I felt quite __________.

At that moment, I was determined to make an effort to __________. About one week later, Miss Pratt announced that she was proud of my progress. The class smiled and __________. For the first time, I felt truly good about myself. What a(n) __________ one special teacher can make!

【推荐3】Uminur Kuchukova of Russia could have retired years ago. Yet the 61-year-old teacher ______ working at a school in the Siberian village of Sibilyakovo. She continues to teach for one ______: the school’s one and only student, a nine-year-old boy. ______ Kuchukova leaves next year, the school will ______.

Sibilyakovo is like thousands of villages across Russia. Many people have ______ cities.

In the 1970s, the village had a ______ of 550 and a primary school with four classes. Each class had about 18 children. Today the number of villagers has ______ to 39.

Uminur Kuchukova has taught at the school for 42 years. She ______ to retire there at the end of the school year. By then, she hopes, her only student will be ______ to travel to a neighboring village for classes. But the ______ school needs a 30-minute ______ ride across the Irtysh River ______ by a 20-minute ride on a school bus. Kuchukova does not think her student, Ravil Izhmukhametov, is ______ yet for making such a trip every school day.

“I feel sorry for him,” she says. “His parents don’t want to leave Sibilyakovo yet and it’s _______to send a little boy like him over the Irtysh. There are such big waves on the river.”

Izhmukhametov’s parents are farmers and ______ many farm animals. However, they do not want their son to stay in the village when he ______. Ravil says he has no interest ______ moving into the city, but that he knows one day he will have no ______.

When asked what he thought about being the only student at the school, Ravil said, “Of course I’d like to have friends so I’m looking forward to going to a ______ school.”

Kuchukova is ______ that the school where she worked for more than forty years will soon close its doors for good.

【推荐1】Tom and I found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We each got six thousand dollars. It was an awful _________ of money when it was piled up. Judge Thatcher kept it in his house, and _________ us a dollar a day. The widow (寡妇), Douglas, took me for her son, and _________ she would civilize me but it was _________ living in the house all the time. Considering how miserably regular and decent the widow was in all her ways and so when I could stand it no longer, I _________ .

I got into my old rags again, and felt _________. But Tom Sawyer came up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be _________. So I went back. The widow cried over me, called me a poor lost lamb, and _________ me a lot of other names, too, but she _________ no harm by it. She put me in the new clothes again, and I felt so nervous that I __________ all over.

With night approaching, I went up to my room with a candle. After a long time, I heard the clock __________ twelve and all was quiet again. Pretty soon I heard a branch break in the dark. I sat still and listened attentively. I could __________ hear a faint “me-yow! me-yow!” down there. That was good! I said “me-yow! me-yow!” as __________ as I could, and then I put out the__________, climbed out of the window and __________ down to the ground. Sure enough, there was Tom Sawyer waiting for me.

【推荐3】I arrived in Idaho from California on my 28th birthday for my first Ironman triathlon (铁人三项), dreaming of this moment for years. When I was picking up my race ______ in the registration (登记) tent, Deborah Silva, a ______ volunteer, was quick to start a ______, asking if I had family to cheer me on. “No, came here ______,” I replied, and admitted my ______ in running and swimming. We talked a while, and I thought she was a wonderful volunteer.

The next day, on my way to the swimming pool, I heard, “Felix!” It was Deborah. It was such a surprise that she ______ me and said she would support me during tomorrow’s race, showing me a big handmade sign: “Go #176” — my race number.

On race day, Deborah and her family were at Mile 50 of the bicycle race, holding the ______ and cheering me on. It really lifted my spirits, ______ as I was one of the last athletes to complete the swim and was now dealing with 90-degree heat on the bike.

As if her being out there all afternoon wasn’t ______, after darkness had fallen and I was just finishing the race, there she was! “You did it!” she said. It was almost 15 hours since the race had begun. Yet she waited at the finish line to ______ me, give me a hug, and take photos so I’d never forget this day — the day I ______ the dream of doing my first Ironman.

Deborah made a complete ______ from a distant place feel welcome and she made this day memorable by going far beyond her ______ as a race volunteer, offering ______ to a young Californian. And sure enough, weeks later, I received my ______ in the mail.