【推荐1】In 1991, I went to visit my grandma in an old folks’ home. At the time, she was 89, and I was 28. I felt a bit _______, because the place was full of people at the last stage of their life. I didn’t know how to ________ that.

When I saw Grandma, they were having a ________ in the hall. After she introduced me, a woman in a wheelchair beside told me how much she ________ dancing. So I asked her to dance and she ________ accepted my invitation with a big smile. I ________ her to the open area, and I lifted her arm up and spun her wheelchair around, and we laughed a lot. When I wheeled her back, I ________ a lot of little old ladies smiling at me. So I ________ with them and we snowballed the party into a great dancing ball.

Of course, I danced with Grandma. While dancing, I asked how she dealt with ________. She said: “Just accept the number of candles on the cake. Life won’t stay the same. So accept the ________ and make every day count. There’s a ________ that golden years are a time to celebrate accomplishments and ________ gained from experience.” Then I realized how ________ it was for me to see the old as they saw themselves. They weren’t thinking that much about growing older. ________, they lived at the moment and ________ that room like stars.

【推荐3】It was the Greek shopkeeper in a small corner shop in London that taught me about the power of an act of ______, which has motivated me to give. I was a student, ______ and very poor. I would work early morning and late nights to pay for my ______, and I was tired—really tired—all the time.

On the day I went to that shop for the first time, I was ______ with a very high fever. I had been ______ work for a few days, and run out of ______. Having been working so hard since I moved to town, I had no ______ nearby who could help. Normally, I would have gone to the ______, but on this occasion, I went into the Greek shop because it was ______.

I ______ a few items, from the looks of which revealed the ______ that I lived alone. Then I handed them to the shopkeeper, who told me, “You are unwell.” She pointed at the salami and bread I was buying and ______, “ I can make you a sandwich, so you don’t have to do it yourself.” I nodded, rather timidly. So , she made the ______ and asked me to ______ a moment. She went in the back room and returned with a container of hot soup.

“ I will ______ you up,” she said with a broad, genuine ______.

What really warmed me up, ______, was not the soup. It was her smile and kindness that made me feel ______ when I was particularly lonely. I had been quite ______, but, from that day on, I did not let shyness prevent me from ______ random acts of kindness.

【推荐2】Many Americans have felt lonely and afraid this year. The Weber family in South Dakota, is no different.

The 11-year-old Emerson Weber has a _______ — She writes lots of letters. One day last spring, she _______ wrote to her mail carrier. “I wanted to thank you for taking my _________ and delivering them. You are very _______to me.”

In no time, Em’s simple thank-you note was _______ around the United States Postal Service (USPS). Many of the workers there who _______ her thank-you note wrote her one back.

Em has a serious letter-writing habit. She _______ active correspondence （联系） with her favorite people. And if you’ve been lucky enough to receive Em’s _______ letters and envelopes, then you have a pretty good idea of the _______ they bring.

A letter from Em is likely to ________ some art, a joke or two, a mention of her younger brother and her love for Taylor Swift. So when she decided to thank the mail carrier for the ________ he provides her, she left ________ out. In went Taylor Swift, in went the little brother, in went the jokes.

Em also wrote, “I’m Emerson. You may know me as the person that writes lots of letters and decorates the envelopes. I want to thank you. The ________ why you are very important in my life is that I don’t have a phone, so how can I ________ my friends? You make it ________ !”

Her local mail carrier, Doug and his co-workers were all so ________ that they shared Em’s note ________ a “Token (信物) of Thanks” inside USPS and they wanted to write back to thank her.

Today, Em got two BOXES of letters from around the country. They are ________ with a sense of kindness. ________ there was something more in these letters. People felt ________ ---some for the first time in a longtime. It was a beautiful moment of silent exchange of love.

【推荐3】Alice is a student who came to my class last year. Though she has already turned 60, Alice looks so fit and ________, with a bright smile and an enthusiastic attitude. I am Alice’s teacher in class, but I feel she is my teacher in life.

For my 2-hour class every Saturday morning, Alice has to take a 3-hour round-trip on the road. But she is never ________ for class. Alice is very passionate about learning English. She often says, “Don’t ________ me as a 60-year-old. I am just a new beginner who wants to learn anything ________. You know, I am very excited to come to the class! ” So I feel a strong sense of ________ to make sure what I teach makes sense to her.

Alice came to me with very ________ English skills, but she turns out to be a very fast learner because she always puts English ________ on a daily basis. I _______ her homework before every class. Her homework is usually not what I ________ for the class, rather it is something that she ________ to put together. She makes various sentences using the important words and phrases she learned from our ________ class. I am always ________ by the quality of her work.

I feel fortunate to have a student like Alice. She has ________ me so much. Our ________ is a great learning experience for both of us. Though I have no idea why she learns English, I hope I can help her ________ her dream, whatever it is.

【推荐1】Whatever misfortune you face, just hold up your head and face it with a smile! I got to know this from a musical soul.

The other day I was feeling quite _________, having just been laid off from my job. With so many _________ to pay, I was wondering what was going to happen to my family.

I got off the bus when I heard piano music and singing rising above the noise of the traffic. I walked a bit slower, trying to find out where it was coming from. Through the _________ I saw a young lady sitting at a piano with a box next to her.

She was singing songs about love and her sweet voice _________me a bit. Then I stood there watching her playing, thinking that it must take _________to perform on her own in front of hundreds of people she didn’t know.

She might have felt my _________ for she occasionally looked in my direction.

By now I was telling myself that I could at least tell her how good she sounded. I walked _________ and put some money in her box and she expressed her thanks with a smile on her face.

I asked her _________, “Why are you playing the piano in the middle of this crowded place?”

She explained to me that she sees so many negative people in the world that she is trying to relieve the pain by _________motivational (激励的) music.

Instead of continuing my way home, I said to her, “I have been going through a __________time lately, but you’ve made me hopeful again.”

“I’m happy that I could be __________to you,” she replied. “Why are you so sad?”

I told her my story and said, “I’m not so __________about what to do….”

“You see, here’s the problem,” she responded. “When you were walking, your head was down.” She looked me in the eyes and went on, “Don’t look defeated, because __________comes in different ways and if your head is down you might never see it. You should __________more …lift your head up.”

I was really __________by what she said! I did hold my head up and soon got through the difficult time.

So whenever in trouble, just face it bravely and you are sure to overcome your difficulty sooner or later.

【推荐3】For the past 17 years, Tess Trojan has competed in the Special Olympics, with no intentions of slowing down anytime soon.

Tess Trojan has been living with Down Syndrome (唐氏综合症), a ________ in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child ________, both mentally and physically. ________ her disease, the 26-year-old woman from Canada won the gold medal in golf at the 2014 National Games. Soon, she ________ to Los Angeles for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games, which attracted roughly 7,000athletes from 177 countries.

In 2000, she ________ as a bowling athlete. And today, she ________ plays baseball, basketball, tennis and golf with her primary ________ on being a golf athlete. She trains hard with the help of her golf coaches and understands that golf is mostly a game of ________ your mental ability. “For golf, you have to be mentally prepared,” she said. Not only is she an extremely talented golfer, but Trojan has also won awards for swimming and tennis. “I love doing ________ sports. So when I was young I used to jump from one sport to another,” she said.

Being a multi-sport athlete is something she recommends to kids. “Be ________ to learning new sports and you will have many fresh ________,” Trojan often tells kids.

Her positive attitude is influential and evidently making a ________ to a young girl that she coaches. For the past year, Trojan has ________ Emi, a six-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, learn about different sports. They, of course, also make time for fun things like arts rafts. Emi, who used to be fat, ill and depressed, has now become ________, healthy and positive. Trojan says she loves working with kids and hopes to do more in the future. She thinks that it’s a way of ________.