【推荐1】Mr. Jackson was blind from birth. He owned a fruit _______ on a very busy street. _______ he was visually disabled, he ran his business pretty handsomely. He could see nothing and he could only _______ the things within his reach. _______, he was able to handle it and was content with everything he had.

One day his son came to him. He told Mr. Jackson in _______ that he read in the newspaper of a _______ who could operate on his eyes and allow him to see. The father and the son traveled to the doctor and paid for the _______.

After the operation, the doctor asked Mr. Jackson, “What is the first thing you are _______ to see when I take the bandages off?” He replied, “I really want to see my beautiful _______ on my stand!”

The doctor and the son __________ Mr. Jackson down to the busy street where his fruit stand had been located for so many years. The doctor __________ unwrapped the bandages __________ he could lay his eyes on the beautiful fruit! Mr. Jackson was so full of __________ that he could finally see his life’s work — taking care of his fruit! After a few hours of __________ his beautiful fruit stand, he looked down the street both ways and saw there were quite a few fruit stands in both directions. He looked __________ the street and saw many other fruit stands. He spent so much time looking at other people’s fruit stands and __________ the competition that soon his own business __________.

From Mr. Jackson’s failure, we should know that everyone is a __________ individual with different fingerprints, DNA and thinking. What we need to do is just be ourselves and __________ everyone else to be who they are. Mind our own business and we should never be afraid of __________.

【推荐2】In life, we will succeed and fail often for reasons that are entirely out of our ________. We can work harder than anyone else in the office and still not be________. We can be incredibly nice and love someone deeply, and they may not love us________.

The bottom line is that life is not ________.

That is a bitter ________for many of us to swallow. As a result, some people________after being hit by even one unfair blow from life. But if we let life’s unfairness________us, we will never receive the beautiful blessings that life has________for us.

My first________marriage felt very unfair to me. No matter how hard I had tried to be a good wife, I could not make the relationship________. I could have been________ by that experience. But I believed that I could be ________married one day________I always wanted to experience traditional family life. And then, I met this kind, thoughtful and generous man.

What I’ve learned over the years is that we can do all the things that________ a good outcome, but get________ things in return instead.

When we are faced with life’s seeming unfairness, our________needs to jump in. When life doesn’t go________plan, we have to let go of the outcome that we have been________and keep trying, and doing the right thing.________that life is neither fair nor straightforward, And by knowing that if we remain confident, we can drive our unfair experiences away and use them for our________.

【推荐3】An incident that happened last month has always made me think deeply.

One day our eleven-year-old son came back home from school _________. A couple of the older kids had _______ him at the bus stop. Rob wanted to stay home from school so he wouldn’t have to_________ the boys.

We called the school. We were told, “We’ll be_________ to call the boys’ parents, and you should call the_______. ”

“We don’t know what we will do yet.” I said.

I felt that calling the police was a_______ to be used when everything else failed, and I wanted first to_______ other ways of dealing with the situation. I asked him to put off calling the boys’ parents.

The next day was Saturday. Rob happened to look out of the window and said in_______, “There are the boys who_________ me up!” Two older boys were standing in front of our ____________, as if they were waiting for Rob to step outside.

My wife Bev opened the door and said with a smile, “Hi guys. Would you like some ice cream?” They looked at each other in__________. But they were teenagers after all, so one of them said, “Sure. Why not?”

Bev quickly introduced herself, Rob’s younger brothers and me. She even introduced Rusty, the__________.     “And I think you’ve already ____________   Rob,” she said. Her idea was to help them to see that Rob was a person, not a target. He had a family and____________ owned a family pet.

Bev________ the boys into chat while we ate ice cream. After a few minutes, she said, “I know there’s been     some trouble at the bus stop. I think there may be a misunderstanding. ” They nodded that there had__________ been trouble at the bus stop. She continued, “Maybe we can talk about the misunderstanding, so you can be friends.” We talked until the ice cream was finished. Finally the boys____________.

Understanding is a__________ task. It may be easier to control conflict by force than to find a way to__________.

Force can calm a situation. But understanding leads to__________ .

【推荐1】When I was young, one of my fondest memories is going by the river and sitting leisurely on the _______. There I would enjoy the peace and quiet, _______ the water rush downstream and listen to the chirps of birds and the rustling of leaves in the trees. I would also watch the bamboos _______ under the pressure of wind and watch them return _______ to their upright or original position after the wind had _______.

_______ I think about the bamboos’ ability to bounce back or return to its _______ position, the word “resilience” (恢复力) comes to mind. When used _______ a person, this word means the ability to readily _______ shock, depression or any other situation that ________ a person’s emotions to the limit.

Have you ever felt like you are about to ________? Have you ever felt like you are at your breaking point? Thankfully, you have ________ the experience to live to talk about it. During the experience you probably felt a mix of ________ that threatened your health. You felt emotionally drained, mentally ________ and you most likely endured unpleasant physical symptoms.

Life is a ________ of good times and bad times, happy moments and unhappy moments. The next time you ________ one of those bad times or unhappy moments ________ take you close to your breaking point, bend, but don’t break. Try your best not to let the situation get the best of you.

A measure of hope will take you ________ the unpleasant torture. With hope for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as bad as they seem to be. The unpleasant torture may be easier to ________ if the end result is worth having. When the going gets tough and you are at your breaking ________, Show resilience. Like the bamboo tree, bend, but don’t break!

【推荐3】I was 17 years old. Along with a dozen other boys I had made a long ________ to Iowa in order to see a college that I was thinking of ________. While the trip had been ________ for the most part, now that I was there I was feeling down, ________, and isolated（孤独的）.I was missing my ________ and I was also missing the Appalachian mountains and the ________ of my home. I loved how the leaves turned a thousand shades of green in the spring and then ________ a sea of red, gold, and orange m the Fall.

Here in Iowa everything was ________. The grass looked burnt and brown. All that I could smell was a ________ of corn, mud and pigs. I ________ outside the dormitory of the college and sat on an old stump. I closed my eyes and ________ being back home again. When I ________ opened them, however, I saw something that touched my ________, It was a Prairie Sunset. It seemed to ________ the sky everywhere. Gold, red, purple and pink clouds all ________ together in a picture painted by Heaven's own hand. It was so huge that it took my ________ away. It made our mountain sunsets seem ________ by comparison. I realized that this place too had its own special beauty. This place too was a part of nature's ________.

Over the years to come I learned something else. In fact each of us also has a special ________. Each of us has our own ________ talents and abilities.

【推荐1】“New Recruits Wanted.” This ________ caught my eye and revived (重新唤起) the dream I had since my childhood. But, just as ________, I reminded myself that I was getting close to sixty. Hesitating for a while, I finally entered the hall and filled out a(n)________.

My dream of becoming a firefighter began when I watched the television show Rescue 8, ________ with the cooperation of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Unfortunately, a career in construction and a family to ________ got in the way of working for the local fire department. Now, ________ retirement, my wife and I had just relocated to a beautiful village near Seattle. I had time to give.

To my delight, I was accepted for ________. Yes, I was the oldest recruit, and it was so ________ that I was ready to drop out one day. When I got home from practice that day, a friend came over. I was about to say I could ________ do it anymore when he passed me a beautifully-illustrated book of firefighters in ________, with a personalized message of inspiration, encouraging me to follow my dream. As I looked through the ________, I felt amazed at the courage and devotion of these brave ________. It gave me the strength I needed to carry on.

Over the next few weeks, the training continued to be tough, but I never lost ________ again. I lost twenty pounds, but eventually I was certificated as a firefighter. And now I can drive the big red trucks and ________ my community. When most of my friends are retiring, I’m ________ a new career I love. And I know that you’re never too old to take on new challenges; never too old to follow your dreams.

【推荐2】A new family moved in next door and I got to meet the mother of the family, Lydia. Lydia is a (an) _______. We started talking，and she was _______ about how bad her English was, but I didn’t care. I knew how hard it was to _______ a second language. I _______ chatting with Lydia as we watched our kids play.

It was what came next that _______ me: Lydia asked if I’d be _______ to help her with her English.

Now, I am not a teacher. But I _______ teachers, and I’m grateful to teachers，and it’s because I admire what they do so much that I was very, very _______ that I couldn’t do it myself.

But Lydia was sure that she _______ my help. I was doubtful. I wasn’t sure my “help” was even ________  of being called by that name. Yet because she asked me, I said “yes”. 

And that was the beginning of our friendship. Lydia and I spent afternoons sitting together and reading newspapers and as we did, she ________ me questions when she had them—questions about ________, yes, but also questions about the new culture she found herself in. ________, I asked my own questions, growing ________ about her home country and culture. We ________ over our shared faith and our struggles as mothers of kids with special needs. When I complimented her ________，she began to teach me about Korean food, ________ leading to a shared trip to explore the Korean grocery stores in our city.

Because of Lydia, I learned more about my own hometown than I could ________ have learned by myself.

I’m still not sure that I’m any good as a ________. But I’m grateful I said “yes” when my neighbor asked me to help her with her English. That meant spending extra time with my neighbor, and that extra time meant she didn’t ________ just my neighbor. She became my friend.