【推荐1】Stephen was on campus to register when I first met him.

One summer day ______ I was heading for the administration building, I heard someone call my name. I ______ around and saw Philip, one of my colleagues standing with another young man. As Philip introduced me to the young man, named Stephen, he reminded him that he would be taking one of my ______, Introduction to Literature. With a somewhat ______ expression, Stephen asked if my class was going to be “hard”. Would he be able to pass? I ______ he was concerned about failing before the ______ day of classes. We talked about what the class would ______ and I saw Stephen’s eyes getting big with ______.

Then I remembered a bit of classical dialogue:

Question: “How do you eat an elephant?”

Answer: “One bite at a time.”

I told him to ______ his work that way. Do his assignments, all of them, and get them in on time. I ______ that most successful students I knew made a timetable of all the assignments so they could ______ their workload in advance.

As time went on, I learned more of Stephen’s story. He had ______ in middle school. It had taken him longer to finish than most young people. Family members, including his mother, kept reminding him that he was a ______. Now, in the face of their negative-saying he had been admitted into college. He told me that before coming to our campus no one had believed he had much ______.

Stephen didn’t become an “A” student. He didn’t make any honor rolls. ______, he managed to pass most of his courses by being in class every day, turning in all of his assignments on time and ______ his studying into bite-sized digestible parts. By passing course after course he began to gain a measure of self-respect. He was a great singer and he was ______ the school’s cross-country team.

Every time I saw him on campus, he would brighten up and say, “One bite at a time.” Whenever he introduced me to his friends, he would tell them that he was ______ when he was supposed to be failing. His ______, he said, was that he was ______ what I taught him before classes ever started: “Take it one bite at a time.”

【推荐3】Each of us fails from time to time. If we are wise, we accept these failures as a _________ part of the learning process. But all too often as parents and teachers we _________ this same right to our children. Donnie was my youngest third-grader. He was a shy, nervous boy. His fear of _________ kept him from classroom games that other children played with joy. He _________ answered questions — he _________ be wrong. I tried my best to build him self-confidence. But _________ changed until midterm, _________ Mary Anne, a student teacher, was assigned (指派、分配) to our classroom.

She was young and pretty, and she loved children. My pupils, Donnie _________, admired her. Then one morning we were working on _________ problems on the blackboard. Donnie had copied the problems and filled in answers. ____________ with his progress, I left the children with Mary Anne and went for art materials. When I returned, Donnie was in tears. He’d missed the third maths problem. My student teacher looked at me ____________. Suddenly her face brightened. From the desk we ____________, she got a canister (小筒) filled with ____________.

“Look, Donnie,” she said, kneeling beside him and ____________ lifting the tear-stained face from his arms. “I’ve got something to show you.” She removed the pencils, one ____________, and placed them on his desk. “See these pencils, Donnie?” she continued. “They belong to Mrs. Lindstrom and me. See how the erasers are worn? That’s because we make mistakes too. Lots of them. But we erase the mistakes and try again. That’s what you must learn to do, too.”

【推荐1】As I head down the narrow hallway of my high school, my ears are filled with the sounds of complaints. The _________ around me are constantly complaining about school. These complaints fill the _________ and make it hard to breathe. I try to mention the _________ side of our current situation in high school but meet with criticism. The feeling of _________ school has become widespread among students worldwide. This can create a _________ educational environment. In my opinion, school is and should be fun.

I don’t want to enter such a negative environment. We should enjoy school! As students, we are so _________ to have the opportunity to attend school while millions of children around the world still do not have that opportunity. We should feel grateful that we are given the _________ to learn. School allows us to _________ some of the most interesting topics from science to foreign languages. High school allows students to find their whether they are physics or European history. _______, school has allowed me to find my love for debate, history, English and computers. High school has shaped me into a person of __________ interests and ambitions, even though I must __________ at 6 o’ clock in the morning.

As students, we should __________ all the wonderful opportunities we are given in school social events, meeting new friends, and learning. I have met so many __________ people in school. There is so much to be __________ in school.

Lighten up and find the positive aspects of school. __________ school and everything it has offered.

【推荐3】My son struggles with his writing. He finds writing _______, particularly how to hold his pencil. Trying to get my son to _______ it serves as another reminder of how many complex things we make kids learn so young.

“I can’t,” he says, proving that his father’s _______ to give up the moment things get difficult is an genetic feature. I can’t _______ him. I have been talking about how to hold a pencil for so long that I’m _______ about how to do so myself. Also, since he’s left-handed, I’m doing all my _______ with my left hand to make it easier for him to imitate. But as I’m right-handed, it just means my writing _______ out all twisted and strange.

We’re writing his letter to Santa. I tell him I’ll write the first part and he can _______ the toys he wants, and his signature. He’s doing great, me not so much. My letters are badly formed. _______, my left hand gets tired easily. So no matter how carefully I form the first few letters, within minutes I’m ________ to write even the simplest word without it looking like chicken scratch (抓痕). From that point on, the ________ are truly leading the blind and you would need an FBI agent specialized in handwriting, who can ________ which section of unsteady text was written by me, and which was done by a four-year-old who has been writing for nine weeks.

And then we’re ________, and the letter we’ve written to Santa is on the fridge.

“Wow,” says my wife, “he did that all by himself?” I don’t ________ her. “He’s definitely getting better,” she says, and I don’t know if I’m ________ of him or myself.