【推荐1】Courtesy(礼貌)wasn’t really optional in my childhood home. I grew up with two sisters just older than me. If I wasn’t ________ to them, they would strike me hard.

Kathy, my youngest sister, was crazy about my ________ habits. Whenever we traveled and Dad bought ________ for us to have on the way, Kathy would ________ wait until I had hungrily wolfed mine down ________ she would start eating her burger slowly and happily. She said it was ________. Wanda Lynne, on the other hand, was ________ to make me a courteous gentleman. Never mind that I was still years away from actually ________. Wanda Lynne wanted to make sure I would treat the girls I dated better than the boys she was dating were treating her. So she made me ________ doors for her every day and ________ me to walk on the inside closest to the road. She said it was courteous for me to do this.

Years later I went away to ________, and I remembered the things my ________ had taught me. One day in the university library, I ________ an older woman walking behind me, and I held the ________ open for her. “What’s the matter?” she asked, glaring at me. “Do you think that because I’m a woman, I’m not ________ enough to open a door for myself?” She rolled her ________ and shook her head. “Freshman,” she whispered, ________ past me. I decided that there would be no more door opening or chair holding or closest-to-the-traffic walking for me.

As I stood there, however, another upperclassman ________ the library door, her arms overloaded with textbooks. Instinctively I reached to open the door for her. “Thanks!” she said ________. “It’s nice to see we still have a few gentlemen around here!”

Three years later I met a beautiful freshman who actually ________ my courtesy to her, and for 35 years we’ve been trying to out-nice each other.

【推荐2】One day, I went to my favorite café for lunch. I ______ a hamburger and went to the outdoor seats. While waiting for my meal, a homeless man on a bicycle stopped to ask if there was a grocery store nearby. After I gave him ______, seeing me wearing a SCU T-shirt, he asked if I had ______ from Santa Clara University. I told him, yes. Little did I know that this _____ response would lead to a 90-minute conversation. The man, Michael, told me he was very intelligent. ______, drug use had ruined both his formal education and his pursuit of ______ in his work. He switched from one topic to another, ______ the fact that I was ready for my lunch.

He clearly had more of a ______ to talk than I did. I made every ______ to give him my full attention, never _______ our talk would go on and on.... Eventually, I did eat my meal, bite by bite between ______ in our conversation. Michael was a bit strange. ______ his interests and viewpoints, we had little in ______, but he was fascinated with talking with, as he ______ it, “intelligent people.” I have to admit, I wish our conversation had been ______ to ten or fifteen minutes, but when Michael finally ______ off, he thanked me for listening so ______ to him as well as for my ______ to talk with him for so long. It was then that I ______ that, just maybe, that was my purpose in life for today… to be there, in that place, at that time, to ______ that conversation.

【推荐3】“You have two ears and one mouth. Remember to listen more and speak less.” That was the advice I ____ from a communications expert before, which got me thinking about listening. It’s not ______ that most of us are good at. Even those of us who write for a living and are supposed to ______ how to do an interview and listen, often get it wrong and miss the rule: “Don’t interrupt or try to ______ other people’s sentences” and the rule: “Focus fully on the person speaking _____ focusing on your next comment.”

I found this out recently after following that communications expert’s ____. I was part of a group lobbying (游说) politicians about the importance of old buildings and main streets. One gentleman ______ a very large district made up of small towns complained that the main street was too ______ and there wasn’t enough parking and there was no ______ to widen the roads, which is exactly what our organization ______ for. We want walkable streets, not parking spaces. Instead of arguing the point, I just ______ for a change and let him talk. Before our time was up he was ______ how his son is a carpenter restoring a church, and how ______ building preservation was to him and his family. Had I not ______ practiced listening, we might have left his office earlier.

It has taken me a very long time to learn how to ______. I might have been more ______ had I listened more. Now that I write and teach, I have ______ often about how important hearing is to our connection with others, and what a ______ my hearing has made in my life. ______, hearing is different from listening, and, interestingly, there isn’t any hardware that can help you listen; you just have to sit down, shut up and ______ it.

【推荐1】September 22, 2018 will be World Car-Free Day, a day on which people across the globe are encouraged to find______methods to meet their transportation needs and re-discover buses, bikes, and their own______.

On this day, people get together in the streets, intersections, and neighborhood blocks to______the world that we don’t have to accept our car-controlled society.

While______along these lines had taken place from time to time starting______the 1973 oil crisis, it was only in October, 1994______a structured call for such projects was______in a keynote speech by Eric Britton at the International Accessible Cities Conference held in Toledo (Spain).

The first national campaign was launched in Britain in 1997, and the French followed suit in 1998. In 2000, car Busters issued an open______for a “World Car-Free Day” to______with Europe’s Car-Free Day on September 22.______then, we have begun to call for citizens to organize______on or near this day.

However, we do not want______one day of celebrations and then return to______life. World Car-Free Day is the______time to remind city planners and politicians to______cycling, walking and public transport. It is up to us, cities and governments to help______permanent changes to______pedestrians, cyclists and other people who do not drive cars.

While______accomplishment has been achieved in terms of media coverage, these events______to be difficult to achieve real success and even a decade later there is considerable uncertainty about the usefulness of this approach. Broad public support and______to change is needed for successful implementation (执行).

【推荐2】I’d never been crazy about Christmas. My husband John and the kids had always done their best to infuse(使充满) me with the holiday ___ , but this Christmas their efforts would be especially ___ .

My salary had reduced and John’s government salary was _______, too. There wasn’t much money to go around, and _______ were just impossible. John was _______ a brave face as usual. But for me our financial hardship brought back ___   memories of my childhood.

“I got a Make and Bake set for Christmas!” one girl shouted. “I got clothes!” another girl said. “What did you get, Lori?” someone asked. “So many presents.” I lied. My parents gave me plenty of love, but love was the ____     thing I had. Mom and Dad always had trouble making ends meet. I’d long since ____   Christmas just wasn’t for me.

John was ______ the tree for just the right branch to ______ the red glass bulb with the “Merry Christmas” writing. It was a precious _______ of his childhood, and he took great pleasure in hanging it on our tree every year. A few days earlier, the tree _______ and several ornaments( 装 饰 物 ) broke, but this one was unique because of the memories it held for him. It was fine if I didn’t have any Christmas spirit, but it was a different ____ for John. He took a step back to admire the replacement I’d finally found after endless searching on foot and surfing the Internet.

I worked hard to make things right for John because I loved to see my Christmas-loving husband full of holiday joy. I _______ one of the tree lights so it shone directly on John’s beloved ornament. The words on it sparkled(闪烁). After all this time, I finally understood its ______ . Christmas was the season to show my love for my family. How could anyone not like Christmas?

【推荐2】A pet Doberman sniffed (嗅) out a “perfect” kidney donor for its 44-year-old dying owner.

44-year-old Lucy was told she had 5 years to ________ by doctors. They said the ________ of her finding a donor was 1 in 20 million. Lucy spent years on the ________ until she found her saviour by total coincidence on a Welsh beach.

She and her partner, Cenydd, had taken their dogs Jake and Indie to Barry Island Beach and Indie kept running off to a ________ about 100 yards away and would not leave her alone. Indie went over like three times, back and forward to her. Cenydd thought it was not ________ of their dog to ________ a woman they didn’t know. ________, Cenydd went over to apologize, and ________ her over to their barbecue.

The three started chatting and eating. The stranger Indie was bothering ________ to be Katie, 40, from Barry. When Lucy mentioned she couldn’t drink alcohol as she was on dialysis, Katie said she had recently joined the kidney donation register to make a(n) ________ donation. They ________ telephone numbers, and to be honest Lucy didn’t think anything else would come of it. After blood ________ and scans, the result came back: Katie was a perfect ________. Lucy was so ________ that she couldn’t believe it. The transplant ________ in October 2022 and it was a total success. Katie, Lucy and Cenydd have remained friends since the donation and have a group chat which they’ve called “the Kidney Gang”.

【推荐3】I used to be fit. But _____ a mounting list of injuries, the most active workout I do these days is _____ in front of the TV. But when I _____ a big European study on the benefits of chair yoga in the newspaper, I made up my mind to try it. Chair yoga _____ poses like twists and bends that are changed to be done while sitting on a chair.

I choose a chair yoga video on YouTube. The 10-minute _____ is a combination of slow movements every day. In each _____ my body remembers all that yoga I used to do 15 years ago. That isn’t to _____ it’s not challenging. And _____ I probably couldn’t get through a regular yoga class anymore, this way I still get to experience some of the sense of focus and _____ of being in that yoga   “flow”. Because it doesn’t need too much _____ I can even do it in that _____ dead time in the evenings when I’m too worn out to work but I can’t settle into a TV show because my kid isn’t in bed yet.

Chair yoga probably isn’t going to turn me into a _____ gym girl, but I notice that my neck and shoulders— _____ sore from staring at a computer too much—become less tight, and it’s also useful for helping my _____. It’s almost like mentally changing the channel—even for such a short period of time. It _____ my brain-from a state of great anger to one of just breathing. I’ll take it.