【推荐1】That morning, I got the train as always. I was a publishing director and was looking forward to embracing a new day of work, as usual. I would always turn to the crossword (纵横字谜游戏), but that day it didn’t make sense. I’d been doing it for 30-old years, but trying to read this one was like walking through syrup (糖浆): ________ slow and hard. I thought I must be tired.

I said to my assistant. The ________ colleague contacted my wife, Beth, and she drove me straight to hospital. There, confirmation came that I’d had a stroke in the part of my brain that ________ communication. I was now in a condition that means it’s difficult or ________ to receive and produce language. It was the only time I cried.

I was back at home a week later, and my goal was to get better and returned to work in a couple of months. The way to ________ my language ability was rough. I’d look at simple pictures and try to describe them as my mind ________ round and round in the darkness, looking for words.

As the months passed, it became self-evident that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to my old job. For 25 years, I had ________ myself as a publisher. I was used to a busy day of meetings. I didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to my old self. There were times when I felt incredibly ________.

In the darkest months, I devoted myself to ________. I couldn’t manage novels or newspapers, ________ I tried reading poetry, and found the shorter lines less overwhelming. My speech came back, and I learned how to read again, though much more slowly. I also learned the ________ to keep up. I allowed myself to slow down, and started to enjoy it.

________, I get rid of my old skin. I grieved the past, its passing and its absence, and started to come to terms with it. Now, 10 years later, I look after my grandson a day a week, and my ________ with my family is deeper than ever. If you’d asked me 15 years ago to ________ the importance of the things in my life I might have said work, but now I’m no longer a high-achieving publisher or someone who reads 10 books a week. I’m a ________ man, and if I read 10 books a year, that’s pretty good.

【推荐1】Roman McCormick is just a 15-year-old teenager, but he’s already been through more _________ than some people ever experience. He was born with a rare _________, which causes kidney (肾) failure over time.

Faced with dialysis (透析), Roman and his parents anxiously _________ their community to get tested to see if they were a match for Roman on TV. But they were not positive about anyone _________ to help. They had no idea that someone who _________ knows Roman happened to be watching the _________ that night.

Eddie McCarthy taught Roman maths last school year. He _________ the teen right away, and as a parent himself, Eddie couldn’t help but take pity on him. So he took the _________ and got his blood tested, When the result came out five months later, he _________ he was a perfect match. All that was left to do was tell the McCormick family that their nightmare (噩梦) was about to __________. “When he called me, I was just too __________,” Roman’s mother, Jamie said.

Both Eddie and Roman’s parents were __________ that a new kidney would give Roman a fresh chance at life. Roman’s been __________ so much from his illness over the years. Jamie hoped the surgery would give her son “his teenage years back”.

On July 19, Roman and Eddie __________ the surgery. It was a success, and both are __________ now. Let’s wish them the best of health.

【推荐2】Sara Kays, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Indiana, US, is a(n) ________ star on online video-sharing platforms. She not only uses TikTok to ________ her music but also posts partially-finished snippets (片段) of songs to get ________ from her followers.

“It’s been cool to engage with people that way, and sometimes I’ll ________ to a comment of someone asking me if I could write a song about an idea they suggested,” said Kays.

Kays has been using online platforms to pursue her music dream to ________ effect. Now, she is a TikTok celebrity with about 1.3 million followers. She released her breakup song Remember That Night? in November 2020. The post ________, getting almost three million views. Kays has ________ singing since she was young. At 11, she got a guitar from her mother and then started to ________ while playing. Two years later, she began busking (街头卖艺) on the streets in her hometown,   which she had been doing throughout high school. ________, people started asking her to play at restaurants and she also started to ________ some live videos on YouTube, gaining her more and more followers.

Different from other content creators who update their content ________, Kays updates on a weekly basis and only posts videos about her songs and ________ stories, such as singing, playing the guitar or ukelele, recording in the studio and shooting music videos.

Now, Kays has ________ with a music company. She hopes to sing live and go on tour. In Kays’ eyes, people like her songs and videos ________ she shows the ideal package for a TikToker: relatable (易产生共鸣的), authentic (真实的) and youthful. “I just sing and share my feelings about divorced parents, body image, loneliness and mental health,” said Kays. “I want more people to know they’re not alone with the ________ in their lives.”

【推荐3】This past summer was really special for Jaequan Faulkner, a 13-year-old boy living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He set up a hot dog ________ outside his home to make some extra money. The boy took care to make sure that all food was fresh and clean. People in the neighborhood ________ the boy’s spirit, but there was only one ________: he didn’t have a permit.

When the Department of Health received a complaint, instead of shutting down Jaequan’s stand, they did something ________. They helped the teenager get a permit so that his business could ________.

Daniel Huff, director of the department, said they were ________ to help a young man with such a sense of ________. The health inspectors helped to pay for his first permit. Then, Huff took another step and helped ________ Jaequan with the Economic Opportunity Network, which gave the young businessman tips on ________ a small business.

“I was kind of ________ and so grateful,” Jaequan said about all the ________.

“Because usually I would have one person at a time doing me a ________, but there proved to be so many kind people at once.”

The food stand now operates with a ________ and is open four hours daily from 11 am to 3 pm. Jaequan handles 90 percent of the business, and he is also planning to ________ to organizations that help teenagers in need. With such an experience, the boy surely is going to have a ________ future.