【推荐1】When Pizza Saved a Life

Almost every night for over ten years, Kirk Alexander, 48, ordered dinner from his local Domino's pizzeria(披萨店).Sometimes he'd _______ a salad, sometimes a pie, sometimes chicken wings._______ one day, he stopped calling.

"It has been 11 days," store general manager Sarah Fuller said, "which is not like _______."

Sarah had _______ Kirk since 2009.Many delivery drivers regularly made the _______ trip to Kirk's house, about six minutes away.She knew he _______ at home and that he rarely ventured(冒险) outside.She also knew that he had suffered _______ issues in the past.Something, Sarah _______, was wrong.

Around 1 a.m.on Sunday, May 8, Sarah _______ delivery driver Tracey Hamblen to Kirk's home.Tracey approached the door and knocked.She could only see the TV set and lights were on, __________ after several minutes, Kirk still hadn’t answered the door.Tracey called Kirk's __________.The call went straight to voice mail.

Tracey rushed back to the __________, where 911 was called, and soon officers were on their way.

__________ deputies arrived at Kirk's house, they heard a man calling for help from inside. They __________ the door and found Kirk on the floor __________ immediate medical attention after __________ what Sarah said was a stroke.

Kirk was rushed to Salem Hospital, where he was listed in stable __________.Sarah and her __________ recently visited him at a health centre, where he's doing "well".

So is keeping an eye on __________ customers part of Domino's business plan? "Not really, Kirk is part of our family here", she said, "We __________ we needed to do something."

【推荐2】We think of teenage video gamers as being in a sort of solitary confinement(单独禁闭），shut in their darkened bedrooms.In _______,they are usually communicating with other gamers, via audio or text, about the action on the screen. And sometimes their conversations change from the world of fantasy to _______

That's what happened to 14-year-old Reilly Howard from East Hampton,Connecticut, last October. While playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, he _______ that a 13-year-old from Florida, was not his normal self. Reilly's feeling was _______ when the friend messaged him,"Yo, we need to talk. "Reilly _______ called him.

＂He starts to _______about what's going on in his life: 'I have nothing to live _______ ;I'm going to kill myself,'" Reilly told nbcconnecticut.com."He couldn't even talk. He was crying so much."_______ to express his inner pain in speech, the 13-year-old _______ out,"Tonight is going to be the night."

＂He's my ________.I didn't want him to die," he told WFSB.

For two hours, Reilly said everything he could think of to ________ the 13-year-old to embrace(拥抱）life.“I just kept comforting him," says Reilly. “I said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.I'm going to be playing with you tomorrow.You promise, ________ is going to happen tonight.'"

About that time,Reilly's parents came home from work.He________ them of what was happening,and they called Florida police, who tracked down the boy.

The troubled teen is doing ________now,thanks to a gamer-one he'd never met in person-who was willing to put down the keyboard and lend a(n)________,Reilly's mother, Sheila Reilly,says,"You just have to show up and talk to people.And listen."

【推荐3】I have neighbors whose adult son has been living with them since he lost his job. He is the fifth one of ________ of his parents. He had no job but still enjoyed himself because he had a dog staying together with him.

________， his dog died in July last year. That ________ hit him deeply, which was understandable, because he had spent most of his time walking the dog; Besides, he had made friends in the neighborhood with other dog ________.

His parents didn't ________ his idea of buying another dog because they wanted him to find work. It was a(n) ________ time for him; I could see he was lonely ________ his dog. All he could do was help his mom with cooking or ________ at home.

I wanted to help him get rid of the bad feelings, so I invited him to ________ the dog with me. We also ________ in some picnic activities together. Then I thought maybe something else would help.

It was volunteering (自愿做) at the local humane society (动物保护协会), not far from where we live. It took only several ________ for us to get there by bike. At first, he refused to volunteer to love the ________ there. However, after only one week, he began to ________ me excitedly how happy he was. Now he seems to have purposes to return to school to learn zoology (动物学) and study animals in the future. I feel happy that he has ________. I am more pleased that he feels ________ and valued. And that is so important to all of us.

【推荐1】Kids often put posters of their favorite musicians, movie stars and athletes on their bedroom walls. But a young person _______ gets to meet or talk to their idol (偶像). For one young girl ----Cori “Coco” Gauff--- her chance to do just that happened in an _______ way!

Gauff developed an interest in _______ at 4 after watching matches on TV. She began playing at 7 and showed a real _______ for the sport, so her parents _______ their jobs to devote full-time attention to Gauff’s education and training. When Gauff turned 10, she began training at a tennis center run by Patrick Mouratoglou, who was _______ by her determination and fighting spirit.

_______ of her talent, Mouratoglou sponsored Gauff to _______ his academy in France. While she was preparing to go to the academy, she received a call that would _______ her plans and her life. Wimbledon organizers called and ________ Gauff entry to the tournament. This made the 15-year-old girl one of the youngest players to ________ qualify. After arriving in London, she received another ________. She would be   ________ her lifelong hero, Venus Williams!

The world watched with ________ as Gauff beat Williams in two straight sets! Afterwards, Gauff shook Williams’s hand and thanked her. Even in celebration of her ________，it was important for Gauff to show her ________. The young player said, “I try to stay modest and just ________training and getting better.”

After the match, Williams said of Gauff, “I feel ________ that I was on her wall as a ________. Soon she’ll be on other girls' walls. It’s ________ , because it’ll keep it going from the next generation to the next generation.”

【推荐2】A mom makes mini-me toys as unique as the children who embrace them.

Asa ________ worker using play therapy to help children through their cancer treatment, Amy wished she could ________ her patients with dolls that bore their all-too-familiar hair loss and surgery scars.

________ Amy left welfare work in 2011 to start a family, she still often thought of the kids. She said, “These kids need something that looks like they do.” This idea had always ________   in her mind.

Then in 2020, a mom whose daughter lost a leg to amputation (截肢) asked Amy, who was ________ with a sewing machine, if she could make a mini-me dol for the girl.

After Amy ________ a photo of the legless doll on Facebook,   ________ poured in for likeness with everything from albinism (白化病) to birthmarks. “ ________ make kids feel isolated and judged,” she says, “With the doll, a child sees ‘I am not the only one who looks this way and I’m also ________ enough to be a doll.’ ”

Amy _________ nearly 400 custom dolls at her dining-room table, with donors often covering the 100 cost through Amy’s nonprofit A Doll Like Me. The mom of three ________ making each doll herself with help from her mother and a friend.

For Keagan. 2, whose rare skin condition has ________ him in birthmarks, Amy matched the doll’s ________ exactly. “That was the most amazing thing,” says Keagan’s mom. A farther says, “I ________ like a baby when a doll came in the mail for my daughter, who was born without her lower left arm. Seeing my daughter with her doll, it makes me think about her future, not her ________ .”

【推荐3】My wife and I usually don’t keep houseplants. But after having cancer, I _______ to be around some life. When my friend Mitch gave me a lucky bamboo plant in a bowl, I told Hannah I would _______ the plant myself.

When it didn’t immediately turn brown or lose all of its leaves, I was pleasantly _______. Over the next few months, I recovered from surgery and completed the first round of _______. It nearly doubled in height and its leaves were _______ and thick. Both the bamboo and I were thriving (茁壮成长).

Then, surprisingly, it began to show _______ of illness. Whatever I did, the leaves kept _______ and dropping. I grew increasingly frustrated and _______. Once I even yelled, “I can’t even care for a simple plant! I’m failing!” Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had _______ associated my devoted care of the plant — something over which I had some control — with my own ________— something over which I had little control.

If my tumor (肿瘤) returned, it would not be because of any ________ on my part.

As my anxiety decreased, I began to research how to ________ the plant. And we both began to thrive again. Whenever I look at the ________, I think of Mitch and all the people who have supported me. If the plant ________ me, I hope it will comfort Hannah and remind her that our large community will continue to ________ her after I am gone.