【推荐1】Years ago, a neighbour kid kicked a football and broke a small ______ of our house. We were a family living on a small ______ at the time, so I boarded it up, thinking I’d get to it someday.

Over the years, I’d sometimes ask some advice from window companies. The plan was to upgrade to energy-efficient windows for the whole house, an ______ process—$ 15, 000. It was simply out of ______ and I turned it down again.

______ the thought of that window ate at me for years. Every time I went down there, it kept ______ me. I knew I needed to deal with it, but I had built up the ______ so much in my mind that I put it off again and again.

Then my wife had a job ______ , and we needed to move. A ______ buyer couldn’t get a loan on the house if there was a ______ window. So I pulled off the boards to face this thing. It had already been for at least 5 years.

I used some rust remover(除锈剂), sprayed all around the rusted frame, and gave it a ______ pull. To my ______ , it easily moved. I pulled the window out and took it downtown. It was a 12 fix.

I could have fixed the problem for 12 the ______ day when it happened. But I let it worry me for years.

______ , this isn’t just about my window. Many of us tend to live with broken windows of one type or another for years. We suffer more in ______ than in reality. Step forward, and you’ll find a solution.

【推荐2】William is one of my students. He is very _________. Each child in our school should plant sunflowers as a class project. Planting sunflowers is _________ for many students. _________, the growing part is much less exciting. It takes too long to see results from daily watering and most children have little _________ for it. They soon lost interest and forgot to _________ their sunflowers, but William not.

Even though he _________ with his reading, he never once complained. Still, I couldn’t help but _________. Despite his strong determination, William’s grades were _________. I wondered if he’d be able to pass the exam. _________, to my joy, William entered the third grade. And though I was happy for him, the worry __________. Would the third grade be too tough for him? About a month into the summer vacation, I __________ to drive by the school and I went to see how the sunflowers were growing. I saw William’s sunflowers were at least 12 feet tall, they were __________ and they faced the sun.

This is what it __________ to be a teacher. Trust our children and do our best to work for them. At that moment, I knew I didn’t have to worry about William. I’d seen that special __________ planted inside him. One day, he’d bloom and __________ - just like his sunflowers.

【推荐3】A brave ICU nurse, who suffered a breakdown after working through the pandemic(疫情), is running the London Marathon for charity dressed in a pint of beer costume on October 3.

Joan Laplana, a dad of three kids, ______ running after he was diagnosed(诊断)with post-traumatic stress disorder(创伤后应激障碍). He had been a nurse for 23 years and was ______ as a lead nurse. His mental health ______ when he lost a patient, who was the same age as him, with daughters the same age as his and had no underlying(潜在的)health conditions. Despite suffering from panic attacks and anxiety, Joan still wanted to ______ his work in ICU when the second wave ______ the country.

But he went to pieces during it and was diagnosed with PTSD. His mood would often change quickly and he couldn’t slept through the night. He started getting counselling. Since his new fitness plan, Joan said he wasn’t ______ medicine anymore, and for the first time in 18 months he had ______ slept through the night. He said,“ In March I joined a running ______ and on days when I can’t motivate myself, my friends from the club will message me. I knew I had to get ______ about my running when I got an email saying I got a ______ for the London Marathon. I am very proud of myself after everything that I have been through. Running has ______ my mental health. It helped with my ______ , reduced my panic attacks and improved my mood changes.”

In July 2021, Joan ______ to the top of Mount Snowdon dressed as a pint of beer also for ______ and he now hopes to beat the Guinness World Records for the ______ man to run a marathon dressed as a pint of beer.

【推荐1】William: Hi everyone, welcome to Ask About Britain. I'm William Kremer.

Yang: Hello, everyone, my name is Yang Li. Today, our topic is _____ plastic surgery. You know, it is becoming more and more popular in Asia. Many Chinese people want to know: what is British people's attitude _____ plastic surgery?

William: It's a good question for debate but I think we have to _____ that people understand the difference between plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery.

Yang: That's a good _____. I always thought that they were interchangeable. Are they or are they not?

William: Well, _____ speaking they're not. Plastic surgery is when someone changes the way they look through surgery. That might be because of a（n） _____ in your body or an injury; in short, something that's medically necessary. Alternatively, it might be that someone doesn't have anything wrong with them but wants to try and look _____ better. Now we call that second kind of plastic surgery cosmetic surgery.

Yang: I see; that's very _____ now.

William: Now back to the question. What do people in Britain think of cosmetic surgery? Let me speak to Helen.

Helen: I think it's _____ the individual really. It's normally not about the way you look; it's about the way you feel about yourself, guess.

William: It seems that Helen is ______. Then are you for it or are you against it?

Yang: Well, I've seen some ______ examples. I am very positive about it I must say because I think it is human ______ to want to appear attractive and pretty, so why not?

William: I totally ______ you, I'll have to say. I think it's really sad that people feel they need to undergo surgery ______ they can look more like, you know, pretty women in magazines or whatever. So I'm against it actually.

Yang: Mmm...

William: Anyway I hope that this programme has been both ______ and enjoyable. Finally, if you have any questions just drop us an email at chinaelt @ bbc. co. uk. Bye for now.

【推荐2】Culture influences an individual’s health beliefs, behaviours, activities and medical treatment outcomes. ___________ the significant influence of culture upon health and related outcomes, health care ___________ should be culturally competent in order to provide ___________ health care to patients. Cultural competency means considering many options and being more careful about making judgments. For example, scars and bruises that suggest abuse in western culture could ___________ be symbols of accepted healing methods or sacred rituals. ___________, different parts of the body are considered sacred in different cultures.

Cultural competency in healthcare ___________ four major challenges for providers. The first is the straightforward challenge of recognizing clinical ___________ among people of different ethnic and racial groups, e. g. , higher ___________ of hypertension in African Americans and of diabetes in certain Native American groups.

The second, and far more complicated, challenge is ___________. This deals with everything from the need for interpreters to nuances of words in various languages. Many patients, even in western cultures, are ____________to talk with their doctors about such personal matters as sexual activity or chemical use. How do we overcome this ____________ among more restricted cultures?

The third challenge is ethics. ____________ western medicine is among the best in the world, we do not have all the ____________. Respect for the belief systems of others and the effects of those beliefs on well-being are critically important to competent care.

The final challenge involves ____________. For some patients, authority figures are immediately mistrusted, sometimes for good reason. Having seen or been victims of atrocities (暴行) at the hands of authorities in their homelands, many people are as ____________ of caregivers themselves as they are of the care.

【推荐3】Until a few years ago, I had what most people would call a good life. I wanted to live brightly and make sharp memories instead of the _______ ones of everyday life. But I was _______. I had never had any _______ in myself. As a child, even buying something in a shop caused me a great deal of _______, and even though I did get better as I got older, I never quite _______ that childhood shyness.

And I tried everything, _______ none of them really helped.

So I _______ that the small steps weren't enough. I signed up for an internship of teaching English in Vietnam, an _______ huge step, one that _______ me as much as it excited me. I was alone in a country where the food was __________ and the streets were unfamiliar. I had no idea whether I would be able to __________ everything that this very strange environment would __________ at me.

I spent five months in Vietnam, teaching, exploring and laughing. I'd learned to __________ myself, my skills, my abilities and my decisions. I returned home __________, even to myself, let alone to others. The fear that had controlled my life and the self-doubt were __________.