【推荐1】I had lived in the United States for 30 years or so. I couldn’t fully _________ how the concept of “the pursuit of happiness” _________ into a super busy life. It was not until I started to grow plants on the balcony of my house on a quiet street in Boston that I had a(n) _________ Gardening does not come, _________ to me. I was not _________ to it as a child. I grew up in a city. My fellow people didn’t seem to _________ the absence of green. They lived in apartments and grew flowers in concrete courtyards, or on balconies to satisfy their gardening needs. No one grew herbs or vegetables. Why _________? Fresh produce was a plentiful _________ in daily markets nearby. Garlic and ginger were given away as a sign of thanks with the _________ of meat.

The first spring after I moved into my Boston apartment, I grew my own food. I developed a deeper appreciation for the tending of plants. There were __________ along the way: pests, sometimes too much heat, other times not adequate sun. For several seasons. I had tomato troubles. I’d find half-eaten fruit __________ I made a habit, night after night, of moving plants indoors, so I would be the one to, __________, not some creature with four paws.

In the __________ of seeding, growing, tending, harvesting and cooking, I came to understand a(n) __________ version of happiness. It can be a matter of the heart’s __________ small steps of satisfaction, resulting from “neither wealth nor greatness” in Thomas Jefferson’s words. “but calmness and occupation.”

【推荐2】Forgiving My Father

I grew up on a small farm. My father worked in the city as a welder (焊工). He was quiet, distant. He was a man made of leather and chewing tobacco who tried to teach me useful things, including respect. He also had a _______. I did not like him very much.

One day I came home from school. Once inside, I was told by my mother that he didn't feel well. His back hurt. Multiple myeloma, I _______, is a type of blood cancer. For the last year of my father's life, his entire day consisted of rising from his hospital bed in the living room and walking to his _______to sit and think. He was _______in that chair when I came home one day during the ninth grade. I do not remember where my mother and brother were, but the two of us were alone. He asked me to sit down.

What followed still _______me these decades later. He told me about his _______: his family growing up, what it was like in the Pacific during World War II, his loves, his heartbreaks. It was as if a pipe had _______, his inner self rushing out to me in a great flood. He had been speaking for maybe an hour or more when I realized that he was doing more than _______. He was asking to be _______. All it took was understanding that that was what he________, and I forgave everything, immediately.

When he died, I didn't ________to school for a few days. My biggest ________going back was gym class. It was poorly ________, and bullies ran the show. On my first day, I was standing there when a (an) ________voice yelled, ''Lensch! '' It was a guy who had given many of us a few lumps (包，肿块) over the years. I turned to face him and said, ''What do you want? '' The other boys didn’t say a word as they waited for the ________.

''I heard your dad died, '' he said. ''Is that true? ''

I quietly replied, ''Yes. ''

He didn't ________me. He didn't even move. Instead, he said, ''I'm sorry. ''

I was________. I'm sure I cried. Those two words are how I have remembered that kid ever since. What do you do when your ''enemies'' reveal that they are also ________? I think you either forgive and move ________or hold on to resentment (怨恨)and live in the past. I'm certainly not glad that my father got________, but at the same time, I realize that if he hadn't, I might never have come to love him.

【推荐1】The books in David’s schoolbag felt like bricks as he ran down the street. What he wanted to do was play basketball with Eric, _________ his mother told him he would have to return his sister’s books to the library first.

He had _________ set foot in a library and he wasn’t about to do so today. He would just _______ the books in the outside return box. But there was a _________: it was locked.

He went into the building, only a few minutes _______ closing time. He put the books into the return box. And after a brief _________ in the toilet, he would be on his way to the playground to _________ Eric.

David stepped out of the toilet and stopped in _______— the library lights were off. The place was _______. The doors had been shut. They __________ be opened from the inside; he was trapped — in a library!

He tried to__________a telephone call, but was unable to ________. What’s more, the pay phones were on the outside of the building. __________ the sun began to set, he searched for a light and found it.

________ he could see. David wrote on a piece of paper: “____________! I’m TRAPPED inside!” and stuck it to the glass door.__________, someone passing by would see it.

He was surprised to discover that this place was not so unpleasant, __________. Rows and rows of shelves held books, videos and music. He saw a book about Michael Jordan and took it off the shelf. He settled into a chair and started to __________.

He knew he had to __________, but now, that didn’t seem to be such a __________ thing.

【推荐3】Even armed with a Ph.D.in developmental psychology, I remember the____first moments after bringing my newborn daughter home from the hospital.I wasn't sure what to do-and not at all____that I was capable of being the parent she____me to be.

Popular accounts of parenting and child development research were not particularly____,either.I feared that my daughter's formula milk powder would____lower IQ.And, since she started elementary school, I have,many times,called her“____”instead of more appropriately praising her effort, as so many articles advise.

My personal experiences as a parent are in part why I study the experiences of other parents.I have tried to____this"parenting perfectionism".

So what does a“good"parent look like? Good parenting has a lot more to do____the“how”than the “what".Good parents are those____are sensitive to their children's needs, and able to adjust their parenting as children grow up and desire greater____.Children develop when their parents hold high ___for children's behavior, explain the reasons behind their rules and negotiate when necessary.

Greater stress about parenting further consumes parents' psychological resources,which may____affect their ability to adapt to the changing needs of their children and regulate their own emotions and behavior when parenting their children.In other words, when you lack confidence and feel constantly stressed about parenting, it is hard to be____,warm and consistent.

So don't sweat the small stuff.Remember, the best ___you can give yourself and your children may be permission to be___

【推荐1】NASA   scientists have found evidence of flowing water on Mars. This opens up the possibility of _______ and wonders we cannot begin to imagine. The _______ undoubtedly is an astonishing achievement.

We may be excited by the thought of living things on another _______, but we seem to have lost _______ in our own. In the past four decades, the world has_______ 50% of its vertebrate(脊椎动物)wildlife. But across the latter half of this period, there has been a steep _______ in media coverage of the subject.

Think of what would change if we valued _______ on the earth as much as we value the possibility of water on Mars. _______3% of the water on this planet is fresh and of that, two-thirds is frozen. Yet we lay waste to the _______ part. Sixty per-cent of the water used in farming is ________ by careless irrigation. Rivers, lakes and aquifers (地下蓄水层)are sucked dry, while what remains is often so bad that it ________ the lives of those who drink it. As for salty water, which so interests us ________apparently detected on Mars, on Earth we express our ________ by destroying it. A new report suggests fish numbers have halved since 1970. Coral reefs are under such ________ that most could be gone by 2050.

A couple of weeks ago, I launched a column(专栏) focusing on extreme consumption, and ________ suggestions. They have flooded in. here are just a few of the ________. Wigs(假发)for babies, to allow “baby girls” with little or no __________ at all the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic hair style”. The iPotty, which ________ little children to keep playing while toilet training. A smartphone for dogs to take pictures of themselves…

As clever new ways of wasting stuff are continually ________, we become more used to the ________ consumption of the world’s precious resources. Isn’t it time for us to have seconds thoughts about our lifestyle?

【推荐2】Technological life is and will be a series of upgrades and the rate of advancement is increasing. If we are honest, we must admit that one aspect of the ______ upgrades and eternal becoming of the technium (技术元素) is to make holes in our heart. One day not too long ago we（all of us）decided that we could not live another day ______ we had a smart phone; a dozen years earlier this need would have ______ us. Now we get angry if the network is slow, but before, when we were ______ , we had no thoughts of the network at all. We keep inventing new things that make new ______ , new holes that must be filled.

Some people are furious that our hearts are pierced (刺穿) ______ by the things we make. They see this ever-neediness as a devaluing of human nobility, the source of our ______ discontent. I agree that technology is the source. The momentum of technologies pushes us to chase the ______ , which are always disappearing beneath the arrival of the next newer thing, so satisfaction continues to retreat from our ______ .

But I celebrate the never-ending discontent that technology brings. We are different from our animal ancestors in that we are not ______ to merely survive, but have been incredibly busy ______ new itches that we have to scratch, new desires we've never had before. This is the trigger for our ingenuity and growth.

We cannot expand our self, and our collective self, ______ making holes in our heart. We are ______ our boundaries and widening the small container that holds our identity. It can be painful. Of course, there will be rips and tears. Late-night infomercials (信息广告) and endless web pages of about-to-be-out-of-date gizmos(新玩意儿)are hardly uplifting techniques, and the path to our ______ is very boring, and everyday. When we imagine a better future, we should factor in this constant ______ .

【推荐3】Many years ago, I bumped into an old friend of mine. He had devoted his life to acting but had never been quite successful. In his middle age, he seemed_________ and sad.

I thought of his dogged（顽强的）_________. Was it smart or foolish? What could he have achieved had he quit his dream of acting and moved on? Our culture does not look_________ upon quitting. Failure is perfectly acceptable as long as it eventually_________in success.

We chant（反复喊着）“Winners never quit” and “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.” We _________stories of persistence, of the author who_________ stories for years before her novels were published or of the athlete who trained since childhood to win gold at the Olympics.

Persistence_________when it is rewarded with success, but it does not reward every person. For every JK Rowling, there are thousands of_________writers who will never get published. For every Olympic athlete, there are innumerable（无数的）others who trained every day of their lives and never _________.

We all agree that doing the same things and expecting a different result is__________. So why do we believe that persevering through failure after__________is a good idea?

We consider quitting in the face of failure to be __________. We believe that perseverance is the key to success. Perseverance is only one part of success. You need talent or skill, as well as passion and drive. Luck and timing are also key to any great success.

Our society believes that anything is possible, as long as you “believe”. But not everyone can make it. Quitting when you’re not __________is sometimes the smartest thing to do.

Obviously, if you enjoy a __________, regardless of its outcome, you should continue. If you knew your novel would never be published, would you want to write? If you could never be a champion swimmer, would you__________train? Sometimes, it is wise to put your energy into something else.

Failure is not always the path to success. Sometimes, failure is the door to something new.