【推荐1】In our backyard there is a big pond with lots of trees and bushes. Both my grandparents were fond of our so-called garden.

One morning our new neighbor, an aggressively ambitious businessman, saw my grandfather _______two rare deodar tree saplings on both sides of our gate._______he said he had planted the same tree saplings in his garden. My grandfather gave his plants _______   adequate amount of water and didn't give them full _______, while our neighbor interested in better _______looked after them too well. His plants were much_______and greener.

Normally in summer, we have fierce thunderstorms. _______ the extreme damage, these storms also bring a welcome sudden_______ from the terribly hot climate. After a thunderstorm, we came out to _______ the damage to our garden and saw the neighbor in his garden, too, but looked__________as his plants had been uprooted. Ours were standing__________ on the ground. Surprised to see this, he came up to us and said with embarrassment," My trees __________ from the roots while yours didn't. Why?”

My grandfather said, "You gave your plants more attention, water and manure(肥料），__________ they didn't need to work for anything. I gave mine just an adequate amount, letting their roots do the__________; thus their roots went deeper and became stronger. "Our neighbor nodded in__________ Hearing the words, I realized that anything easily given can be taken away much more easily and we will not understand the hard work it takes to earn those things.

【推荐3】One day, I drove into a service station to get some gas. It was a beautiful day and I was feeling ______ . As I paid for the gas, the attendant said, “How do you feel?” That seemed like a ______ question, but I felt fine and told him so. “You don't look ______.” he replied and continued to tell me my skin appeared ______.

By the time I left, I was a little ______ . About a block away, I ______ to the side of the road to look at my face ______ the mirror. Was everything all right? Had I picked up ______ rare disease? By the time I got home, I was beginning to feel a slight ______ somewhere in my body.

The next time I went into that gas station, I ______ what had happened: The place had recently been painted a bright yellow, and the light reflecting off the walls made everyone inside ___________ as though they were sick! That was the truth. ______ , I let that short conversation change my attitude for an entire day. His _____ observation affected the way I felt and acted.

This experience made me think a lot. It is the same with life, in which attitude ________ . The way we look at life determines how we feel and how we _______. If we expect something to turn out _______ , it probably will. But the _______ also works in reverse. If we expect good things to happen, they ________ do. An optimistic attitude, I believe, is not a luxury but a(an) ________. So after that, I chose to highlight the _______ throughout the rest of my life.

【推荐2】Darcy, the daughter of my brother, is a sweet child. She always wishes to _______ others. She is three years old now and she is of course very _______ of her little elder cousin Jo-Jo.

Recently the two girls were _______ in the bedroom together. Suddenly, Darcy ran out of the bedroom with a burning look of _______, saying, “Jo-Jo hit me in the _______.” And I could see that she had a red place on her very pale cheek. _______, Jo-Jo followed her saying, “I did not do _______. Darcy knocked her head on me and I knew she did _______ to do it.”

I love both little girls, but I knew Darcy did not do it _______. She just felt so excited that she knocked her head on Jo-Jo’s nose ________. For Jo-Jo, the sudden ________ made her get very angry and I knew Darcy had hit her without ________. We had a little talk about it and Jo-Jo ________ admitted that she had ________ her hand and hit on Darcy’s cheek. I asked her to say “sorry” to Darcy because she had hit Darcy on the cheek. She ________ and said, “No. I did not do anything.” Then to everyone’s ________, Darcy said, “Jo-Jo, I am sorry that my cheek hit your hand.” I have never seen anybody ________situations like this any better.

Luckily, we did not make a storm in a teacup about it right then, but a few days later we had a little ________ with Jo-Jo about ________ the anger that she often shows out suddenly. And I’ve suffered a lot from the same problem in my life. But in our daily life, it is much ________ to identify (感同身受) with Jo-Jo’s angry behavior than with the amazing kindness of little Darcy. But, Jo-Jo will perhaps have a hard way to go in life while little Darcy will go through her life happily in her future.

【推荐3】As the saying goes, roses given, fragrance in hand. I am always in the _____________ of giving money to every beggar or homeless person I pass by. My friends say it is not good to _____________. We may come across beggars or homeless people begging every day and all beggars have their ability to survive. It _____________ them that I always take a deaf ear.

On a rainy day, my friend and I were walking to the bus stop _____________ I passed a beggar lady. I had seen her several times before and had always given her a few _____________. That day, I gave her 2 Euros. Then I was waiting for the bus and reading a book when I _____________ to see that lady standing in front of me, who _____________ me a piece of paper covered in a plastic bag to prevent it from getting _____________. She just stood there, looking at me _____________. Putting away my book, I took the paper, which ______________ she and her family had to leave their country because of floods, and she was ______________ to support them. She had got a bit of money, but she needed five ____________ Euros to get home. I ______________ into my pockets and only found 20 cents. My friend took out a 5 Euro note. I asked her to give it to the lady, and said that I would pay back the next day. When she got the money, the lady hugged us and said thanks again and again, and went on her way.

Later on the bus, I ______________ where her home was and how she had gotten to this country. In her story, I felt that my friend and I would always remain part of it as the strangers, who helped her get home on a rainy day. But for me, helping a stranger did bring me happiness, giving me ______________.

【推荐3】In my 40s, I received a call from my father. He’d been _________ an old shelf and accidentally discovered _________ from a great-great-uncle, Charles Kelley. They dated to 1922, when Charles was told that he had got Type 1 diabetes (糖尿病). At that time, the diagnosis was a deadly _________.

Somehow my uncle, an insurance man from Huron, South Dakota, made his way to the Mayo Hospital in Minnesota, where doctors were _________ a new drug. Charles was accepted as one of the guinea pigs. He noted down that each day’s injection (注射) cost him a small fortune, though luckily he could _________ it.

By the time the University of Toronto team of doctors, who invented insulin (胰岛素), won a Nobel Prize in 1923, Uncle Charles had been back in Huron. The _________ gave him 20 more years of life.

Undoubtedly, this family _________ was helpful to me.

One day when I was in my 20s, I returned home from college, _________, so I went to see my doctor. He called the next day to _________ me that I had Type 1 diabetes. It was a big __________, totally out of the blue. There was no known history of diabetes in my family.

For 20 years, I __________ my insulin and took care of myself, but still I felt orphaned because of my illness. I couldn’t explain why I had such kind of illness, the only one in my family. Charles’s story changed that __________, which brought the once-hidden imperfection in my genes to __________. Now I’m __________ for the mysteries they have solved — and for my uncle Charles’s late messages across generations that I wasn’t __________.