【推荐2】I must have been asked a hundred times about my messed-up timing for my two-month journey back to Canada， and then ______ back to China just as the weather is turning nice in Toronto.

Well it was not for the weather, I could have satisfied any ______ for winter scenery with a quick trip to Harbin. I must ______ I did enjoy getting out snowshoeing with my siblings but the real reason was to ______ my Mom’s 90th birthday in early March. I also ______a brother’s 60^thbirthday as well as several______ with friends and family.

Why did I ______? Simply put stubborn determination, good friends and a ______ desire to enjoy more of the sights and culture of China. ______ I still cannot have a conversation in Chinese, I am ______ to continue with my studies until such time that I can. While that is a long way off I do ______ continued improvement in both the way I study and the progress that I make.

May 10, I ______ out in a gym for the first time in China. It is a small place but we had a(n) ______ enjoyable visit including the use of enough exercise ______. It feels good to be back into a ______ again. At my age working out is designed to ______ good health and maintain the ______ to travel and enjoy life. I already have two social ______ on my schedule, plus I am excited about the ______ to watch part of the Xiamen Dragon Boat Race on May 25 & 26. Life in China is good to me ______, what can I say.

【推荐3】When Freddie arrived to perform in the hospital room, Pam worried it was already too late. Her 88-year-old stepfather, Strobel, had just been moved to the palliative (姑息治疗) care unit. Pam could   ________ that something had changed in him. A nurse told her Strobel’s   ________ was near.

“You’re probably wasting your time,” Pam told Freddie. But Freddie shared with her what medical professionals had told him: ________ may be the last sense to go.

“Let me go in and ________”, Freddie said. “It’s as much for you as it is for him.”

Freddie is a country and folk musician. When he was in his childhood, his mother encouraged her young son’s   ________ talent. When she was dying of cancer, he put their ________ of songs to its greatest use. He would creep into her hospital bed with his guitar and ________ her favorites. His mother seemed to relax, a peaceful look crossing her face.

“That moment allowed her and me to ________ like we used to when I was singing as a kid,” Freddie recalled. It emphasized to him the ________ of music. When he ________ a non-profit organization called Swan Songs which arranged free musical last wishes, Freddie signed up for the ________.

That was the case with Pam’s stepfather who enjoyed ________ music, and Swan Songs sent Freddie. That’s why Freddie arrived at the hospital that day, when Strobel seemed ready to say ________. Freddie played some songs and after 45 minutes, Pam asked for just one more song. Freddie ________ Love Me. He sang the last note and Strobel took his last breath.

“Oh my, we just experienced one of the most ________ moments in our lives. It was a gift for us all. At a really sad time, it was beautiful,” says Pam.

【推荐1】When I was a boy, we lived right next to a forest. I spent a lot of time ________ alone. I would spend hours every day playing in the ________ with the oak trees (橡树).

That was why it was so hard for me ________ I worked in a lumber mill (木材厂) as a young man.It wasn’t just the ________ work and the low pay. It was also seeing day after day beautiful oak trees being ________ and made into flooring (地板). I thought they looked more ________ as living trees reaching up to the sky than as dead flooring lying under my feet.

One afternoon after a long day’s work, I was feeling particularly ________, thinking I should be out somewhere. I then decided to take a ________ in the forest in the hope of lifting my spirits.As I walked along with my aching body I longed for those ________ days again. Suddenly, I saw a single acorn (橡子) that had somehow ________ the hungry squirrels all winter long. A ________ flashed through my mind, “Eventually an acorn becomes a forest!” I smiled, bent down, dug up a handful of dirt, and ________ that little acorn. My heart was filled with joy.

In this life we all start out as an acorn, but whether we ________ a forest or not is up to us. We have the ______ to grow, learn, laugh, love, smile... Don’t just be an acorn. Embrace this gift of life.________ it to your everyday life to stretch your soul towards the sky and create a large forest of love.

【推荐3】What did we do to deserve cats and dogs? Not only are they super cute and make us smile on a daily basis, scientists from Washington State University have now proved that touching our favorite _______ friends gently for just ten minutes is an effective way to reduce stress levels.

In findings published in AERA Open—an open access journal published by the American Educational Research Association — last month, scientists showed that the general _______ of students improves quickly, with even those who are highly stressed showing “significant” reduction in cortisol (皮质醇) levels — a chemical produced by our bodies in times of stress.

Many universities have adopted “Pet Your Stress Away” programs where students can _______ cats or dogs and it appears to be showing both psychological and physiological benefits now.

The research, conducted by Washington State University (WSU), shows that pets improve students’ moods, and their _______ has stress-relieving physiological benefits. “Just 10 minutes can have a significant _______,” said Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development.

This is the first study that has demonstrated reductions in students’ cortisol levels during a _______ intervention (介入).

The team chose 249 college students and put them into tour random groups and compared the effects of different _______ to animals. The first group were provided 10 minutes of actual interaction with dogs and cats. The second group waited in line while _______ others petting the animals. The third group watched a slide-show of the same animals, while the fourth group had to _______ and was told they would be allowed to see the animals after 10 minutes.

Salivary (唾液的) cortisol ________ were collected from each participant starting from the moment they woke up in the morning. There was significantly less cortisol in the saliva of students who had ________ interaction with the pets.

Many universities have started these ________ where students can interact with cats or dogs to help ________ the pressures of higher education. “We already knew that students enjoy interacting with animals, and that it helps them experience more ________ emotions,” Dr Pendry said. “What we wanted to learn was whether this exposure would help students reduce their stress in a less subjective way. And it did, which is ________ because the reduction of stress chemicals may, over time, have significant benefits for physical and mental health.”

【推荐1】I always carry a Rubik’s Cube (魔方) in my backpack. Solving it quickly is a start of a(n) _________. I’ve been asked to solve the cube on the subway of New York and at a cafe in Paris. And learning to solve it is a start to _________ the biggest problem of my life.

Holding a Cube, people usually don’t know where to begin. That’s _________ what it was like for me to learn how to read. Letters and words were out of order and mixed together. Nothing made _________ because I’m dyslexic (阅读困难的). It’s _________ to admit this, but I still couldn’t make a consistent spelling of my full name when I had to leave public school after the fourth grade.

It was at that time that I taught myself to solve the cube, which made me _________ that sometimes you have to take a few steps back in order to move _________. This was a _________ of my own life. As a fifth-grader at a new school that is especially founded for those who have language-processing disorder, I had to _________ from memorizing symbols for letters. I spent another four years learning how to learn and finding __________ that allowed me to return to my district’s normal public school with the ability to express my ideas.

The Rubik’s Cube taught me that to__________ something big, it helps to __________ the big matter into smaller pieces. Things can often look like an unreasonable mess before you suddenly hit upon a way to untangle the mess. I believe that there are surprises around the corner. Like a(n) __________ text or sometimes like life itself, the Rubik’s Cube can be a frustrating puzzle. So I carry one in my backpack to __________ myself that I can attain my goals, __________ what obstacle I may face.