【推荐1】I live in a house built by Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that helps families build homes. It was through the process of building my house that I came to believe the _________ of the strangers who put in their time to help others _________ .

I am a single mother, always struggling to juggle（兼顾）home and _________.I had managed to _________ for a small down payment（首付）on a house. But very soon the price _________ to an amount that I couldn't afford. Luckily, the opportunity to _________ for a Habitat home came to me during this time. After months of application process, my family was _________ for one of the eighteen homes which would be _________ in my city that year!

Each Habitat applicant must _________ four hundred hours of "building time” before his family can move into the new __________. These hours are spent on Saturday __________ other home owners' houses. Building a Habitat house takes __________ sixteen Saturdays.

During the days of building my house I __________ many volunteers. They were all strangers to me, who came from __________walks of life, including lawyers, shopkeepers, cleaners and so on. Most of them had no training and house building __________, but they worked together well. When the framing （框架）of my house was ________ my favourite Habitat ceremony took place. Each worker __________ a message on the new walls. Living in a home with the handwritten inspirations from the ________ has always been a comfort to me.

__________ the devotion of the strangers, these homes have become possible. Their willingness to________ one Saturday a week has made such an incredible difference in so many lives

【推荐2】After my mother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, the plants in our house began to die. In years past, I remember the deep, earthy smell that would _________ in our house after my mother had made her weekly watering rounds. Back then, I never _________ it with the care that was at the foundation of everything she did.

But now, leaves were _________, some dry and edged with brown, and many of the stems bare. It was a mark of how my mother can no longer attend to all the things that she lovingly cared for. I was so focused on the increasing _________ of her own care that her beloved plants had escaped my _________.

I began her old rounds, pouring water into the thirsty soil, and soon the plants _________. That’s the thing about houseplants: They demand nothing. They wait quietly, no matter how _________ they are. But even after my best _________, some of the plants couldn’t survive. My mother’s kind caregivers have since brought new ones to add to her _________, and my father buys fresh flowers every week.

Though Alzheimer’s disease __________ so much of her memory, her desire to care is still there. I would guide her down the steps to water the plants herself. I watched as her shaking hands picked the brown leaves. Each time, she smiled up at me with __________ satisfaction because being able to __________ something is still what brings her the greatest joy.

I look at plants __________ these days. I see them as my mother does: __________ reminders of the need for kindness toward all living things. It is clear to me that the things we spend a lifetime __________ are never truly lost and the love she has planted in me still blooms.

【推荐1】When I was a young boy, our whole family lived beside a set of railroad tracks. I can remember the whole house would _______ when the trains went past. These trains were few and far between, however, so I often spent my summer afternoons _______ down the tracks.

I can remember the first time I tried to _______ myself and walk on a single rail. The rails were very narrow so I didn’t have much _______. First I tried holding my arms out and _______ my feet as I walked. This _______ made me fall off after a few steps. Then I _______ to walk backwards once but quickly slipped off (滑落) again. It was only when I _______ looking ahead and being calm that I was able to walk the rails (轨道). Keeping my _______ forward, I put one foot in front of the other and soon could walk without any ________.

Looking back on this experience, I now ________ that it also gave me an important lesson about living. We can’t indulge in (沉溺于) watching and ________ every step we take. This just leads to second-guessing ourselves and we soon go off the rails.

Looking at something behind us is even ________. With our eyes on the past we can’t see the way ahead. We can only stand still and stay stuck in our regrets ________. So what we should do is to learn something from the past and then ________ it. It is only when we let go of the past and look ahead that we can really move forward.

【推荐2】For me, two of the loveliest words in English are “Life persists”.

I ________   them years ago as a college student, sitting in the library, ________, working on a paper. Out of nowhere, those words came ________ off the page in a quote, “In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of ________ truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.”

Suddenly I wasn’t unhappy and impatient any more. Then I ________ my granddad. I loved to talk with him. And I was ________ to hear what he’d think of it. He had poor hearing, so I had to ________ it a few times, but once he ________ it, he laughed. “All I can say to that is totally ________,”he said on the phone. I told him how glad I was, after a long winter, to finally see spring and ________ to find that quote. “Why is that?” he asked. “Well, spring is a sure _________ that life persists. And it just makes me________. ”

He laughed again, and then ______ his lovely voice, he recited for me his________“spring time” words, “The desert shall rejoice(高兴) and blossom(开花) like the rose … even with_________ and singing.”

Many years later, ________ my husband and I drove across a desert with many wildflowers and blooming cactuses (仙人掌), I could _________ hear my granddad laughing, “The desert shall rejoice.”

Life persists, and so do we, in the silence of _________ and the blooming of cactuses; and in the dead of   _________   and the green of spring. Spring _________   us that we’re alive forever.

【推荐3】When I was nine years old, I loved to go fishing with my dad. But the only thing that wasn’t very ________ about it was that he could catch many fish while I couldn’t. I usually got ________and kept asking him why. He always answered, “Son, if you want to be catch a fish, you have to think like a fish.” I remember being even more disappointing than because “I’m not a fish!” I didn’t know how to ________ the same thought. Besides, I ________ that what I thought could never influence what a fish did.

As I got a little older I began to understand what my dad really ________. So I read some books on fish. And I even joined the local fishing club and started attending their meetings ________. I learned that a fish is a cold--blooded animal and therefore is very sensitive(敏感的)to water ________. That is why fish ________ shallow water to deep water because the former is warmer. Besides, water is usually warmer in direct sunlight than in the shade. Yet, fish don’t have any eyelids(眼皮)and the sun ________ their eyes. The more I understood fish, the more I became effective at finding and ________ them.

When I grow up and entered the ________ circles, I remember hearing my first boss say, “We all need to think like ________.” But it didn’t completely ________. My dad never once said, “If you want to catch a fish you need to think like a fisherman.” Years later, with great efforts to provide long--term ________ for customers much older and richer than me, I came to realize what we all need to think more like the group that we ________.

【推荐1】What is intelligence anyway? When I was in the army I _______   an intelligence test that all soldiers took, and, against a (an) _______ of 100, scored 160.

I had a car-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not   _______ have scored more than 80. _______ , when anything went wrong with my car I hurried to him — and he always _______   it.

Well, then suppose (如果) my car-repair man _______   questions for some intelligence test. By every one of them I’d prove myself a   _______ . In a world where I have to work with my _______ , I’d do poorly.

Consider my car-repair man _______ . He had a habit of telling ____________ . One time he said, “Doc, a deaf-and-dumb (聋哑) man ____________ some nails (钉子). Having entered a store, he put two fingers together on the counter and made ____________ movements with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He ____________ his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk ____________ him some nails. He picked out the right size and left. Well, Doc, the ____________ man who came in was blind. He wanted scissors (剪刀). ____________   do you suppose he asked for them?” I lifted my right hand and made scissoring movements with my first two fingers. He burst out laughing and said, “Why, you fool, he used his ____________ and asked for them. I’ve been ____________   that on all my customers today, but I knew ____________ I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you are so goddamned educated, Doc. I knew you couldn’t be very ____________ .”And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

【推荐2】Last Saturday evening, Mike, who has autism (自闭症), attended a concert with his grandfather, Stephen Mattin at Boston Symphony Hall. As the orchestra (交响乐队) _________ playing, they expected to hear polite applause after a brief _________.

The music was over and there was no sound, but it suddenly was _________ by the “Wow!” heard around the hall. A child’s _________ expressed simple, refreshing amazement at the performance. The elder Mattin felt _________ and turned to people around them, _________ that Mike actually did not _________ to make noise and that he has autism and often expresses himself _________ from other people.

The moment _________ the orchestra so that they released the audio recording of the “Wow!” moment, hoping to __________ the child. Not long after the audio clip (片段) hit the Internet, it became extremely __________, getting thousands of shares across several platforms. Later, David Snead, the president and CEO of the orchestra, gave out his email address, wishing to get a (n) __________ from the parents of the child and __________ them to meet the musician Harry Christophers. It took less than a week for the kid to come forward. His family and the orchestra planned to __________ a date for him to meet the musician.

Mattin expressed his __________ that the society has become more tolerant and understanding of the differences between people.

【推荐3】We had our son Wesley checked out because of his indifference to communicate with people. To our ______, he was diagnosed with autism(自闭症).

Out of everything the doctor had said, the only word I could ______ was socialization — key for Wesley to develop ______ skills. The instant we got on the car, we ______ brainstormed ways to make his world more social. It suddenly ______ me that we were in need of a dog. Soon, we brought the dog Josie home. Wesley didn’t seem that ______ her, no matter how adorable she was. But then I began to ______ Wesley petting her when he thought no one was looking.

Four months after we’d gotten Josie, I ______ the two of them out for a long play. By the end, they were both ______. As soon as I put Wesley in his car seat, he fell asleep, with Josie ______ her head on his shoulder. That’s when I knew they had ______ bonded. One of our biggest ______ was that Wesley had no sense of danger and didn’t ______ what a moving car meant. He would dart out in the street. I was ______ he would get hit by a car. Luckily, Josie was able to ______ keep him on the sidewalk with us.

The best thing about having a ______ is that kids come to you. ______ the daily walk to the bus stop provides an opportunity for Wesley to socialize with other children. Kids surround him with ______ about Josie and we practice his answers at home so he is more comfortable talking ______. I finally learned how to make peace with autism while so ______ it.