【推荐1】Everyone in Excelsior, Minnesota, is too busy rushing to work to notice the lone figure climbing up to old Oak Hill Cemetery. Gary Marquardt ______ a tomb with an American flag on it, raises his trumpet, and ______ .“I am doing something for these guys”, he says. “It is kind of like being among ______.”

Gary will ______ do his job over the next 45 minutes: finding a soldier, saying his ______ and then playing taps.“I always think about the funeral, people ______ around here, so sad about the loss of their ______ one, and then it is ______ and you are left with this,”Gary says, looking down at a grave.

The graveyard visits started three years ago, ______ Gary attended the funeral of a friend's father, who had ______ during World War II. It ______ Gary that not a trumpet was being used for taps but a recording. “It just seemed that after what they have given, a(n) ______ person playing taps was not much to ask for,”he says.

There was only one ______ that Gary had never played a trumpet. He ______ Bugles Across America (BAA), an organization that provides trumpets for army funerals.They told him he would need to ______ so he walked into a ______ and bought a trumpet. Then he started to practice.

“It was awful,”said Gary's wife, Joanie Marquardt, with a laugh.

“I would have ______.”adds Gary. Instead, he took lessons. “We were all hoping he would get ______”says Joanie. “And then he did.”

Through BAA, Gary ______ at funerals roughly a hundred times a year. “I do not play perfect every time,”he says, “but it ______ the heart.”

【推荐2】NEST4US, a charity organization, was born when 17-year-old Amanda realized how much food waste there is, how many _________ people there are, and how simple it would be to use the food waste to help the people in need. “There was a _________ man standing on a corner and he was holding a _________ that said “Hungry Need Food,” she remembers. “So I gave him my _________. It was so _________, it only took me 30 seconds, and it really _________ him.”

Hunger is just one of the many serious problems of living on the streets. But the ease of this small act _________ her to find a way to get food to the people who need it the most. She didn’t think too much about it and decided to just _________.

How would she _________ this huge task? Many kids have difficulty talking on the phone but talking to strangers is not a problem for Amanda, who says she emails, calls, and __________ to business owners to ask for money. From there, she and other volunteers __________ enough food.

“We have 1.5 times the amount of food we need to __________ every person on the planet, it’s just a matter of how to hand it out,” she says matter-of-factly, “__________ there are so many people who want to help the hungry people all you have to do is to ask them.”

She thinks running NEST4US has __________ her life skills like time management, public speaking and leadership. “What it’s really given me is this viewpoint, of putting other people __________.” she says.

【推荐3】I was sitting at a table eating a sandwich. I wasn't really hungry but I was supposed to sit a bit and eat something to_________my strength before heading home. I had left early to be first_________at a blood drive being held 15 miles away from my home. I knew that the_________due to COVID-19 would make the donation_________even longer than before. I stood at the door with my face mask on and had my temperature_________even before going in the room. Once I was_________it was checked a second time. Then I had to_________a long list of questions making sure I would be_________to donate.

_______, it all went well and I was soon lying on a table with a__________in my arm and my blood__________flowing into a pint sized bag. I chatted and joked with the lady__________my blood and found out that they had traveled 2 hours__________the 20 minutes I had driven. They were in for a 16-hour day too. Still, they had almost 50 people__________to donate that day and were happy to do it because each pint of blood could save a life.

I took another__________of my sandwich and looked down at the paper lying next to my face mask. On it was a(n)__________56 days from now. It was the first day I would be able to donate again. I smiled because this word needs all the__________it can get.

With disease, violence and economic uncertainty right now it seems easy to be__________and withdraw into ourselves. But we can__________our fear with faith and thankfulness and remember that every act of kindness__________.

Fill all your days with love and all your hours with kindness.

【推荐1】They are the sort of friends who are so _______ , trust each other with their lives. If one _______ , the other is there to catch him.

They are Wellman, _______ legs were permanently injured nine years ago in a rock-climbing accident, and Corbett, an experienced rock climber. _______ , they climbed up Half Dome, the famous 2,000-foot rock in the Yosemite National Park, through one of the most difficult routes (路线).

During the climb, Corbett _______ , hit in the metal spikes (尖状物) that guided the _______ and climbed up. Then, after Wellman _______ the rope, Corbett went down to remove the spikes and climbed up again. This process was _______ time and again, inch by inch, for 13 days. Wellman’s job was not easy either. He got himself up the rope through upper body strength alone.

_______ , Wellman figured that he had done 5,000 pull-ups up the rope on the climb.

However, ________ the two men first met, they never talked about climbing. “He knew that was how I got injured.” Wellman said. Until one day Wellman decided that he wanted to climb again and they started ________ .

Their climb of Half Dome did not ________. At one point, pieces of rock gave way (坍塌) and Corbett ________ quickly. Wellman locked their rope in place,   ________ the fall at 20 feet. His quick action probably saved his friend’s life.

“Your partner can save your life — you can save your Partner’s life.” Wellman said as the pair received congratulations from ________ . “There are real close ties.”

【推荐2】I was preparing for an important exam in the library and people kept disturbing me. I was getting increasingly _______ and of course, the more upset I got, the less I was able to _______. The last straw (稻草) was when I heard someone singing _______me. I turned around and saw a girl _______seemed very interested in what she was reading. The fact that she looked like a friendly girl didn’t _______. If anything, it made me even angrier. I _______ my books, glared (瞪) at her and whispered angrily, “_______ your noise, I’ve been unable to study. You’re so _______!”

I left the library in _______a hurry that I left my most important textbook behind. It was only when I got home two hours later ________I realized it. I was so ________that I almost cried. Just then, the phone rang. A gentle ________introduced the speaker as Jenny. Jenny said that she had ________I’d left my book in the library and ________my name was in it, she’d asked a ________to get my phone number from their files (档案). She said that she could bring it around for me.

Of course you’ve ________who Jenny was. She was the girl I had shouted at for ________. When I recognized her in the street, I was filled with ________and apologized several times for my rude behavior. Jenny just laughed and told me she was glad to see that I’d ________left my glare in the library! I couldn’t help ________at this and invited her back to my apartment for a cup of tea.

We got along really well and ever since then we’ve been best friends.