【推荐1】My father used to like drinking. Every time when he got ______, he would shout loudly and beat my ______,who left my father and me when I was seven.

I went to a boarding(寄宿的)______when I was thirteen，and I finally didn’t have to see my father drunk every day. However, I didn’t talk to anybody and spent all my spare time alone in school because of the pain in my heart. When other boys were ______on the playground, I would sit there alone. This lasted for several weeks until a new______who was about forty came to our class.She, of course, ______I was different. She asked me to answer her question in her first class.I stood up and answered her question in a very ______voice, with my head down.That noon, after lunch, she found me and had a ______with me. She asked me if I needed any help. Nobody had ever cared about me like that. I ______told her everything about my family.

“Things won’t get ______,” she said.

From that day on, every time when she saw me, she would give me a ______. She often asked me to answer her questions in class, and she helped me with my ______after class. As time went by, I didn’t feel so lonely as before.

The day I left that school, I ______her why she did all that for me.

“My mother died when I was ten. I know how hard it is ______a mother,” she said.

I will never______her—my dearest teacher.

The Hand

Thanksgiving Day was coming. The first grade teacher gave her class a fun assignment—to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful.

Douglas was the teacher’s true child of misery, frail (脆弱的) and unhappy. While other children _______ at the playground, Douglas would like _______ close by her side. When _______ to draw a picture of something for which Douglas was thankful, he drew a hand. Nothing else. Just an empty hand.

His abstract image (抽象图) _______ the imagination of his classmates. _______ hand could it be? One child guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because farmers raise turkeys. _______ suggested a police officer, because the police protect and care for people. Still others guessed it was the hand of God, _______ God feeds us.

When the children _______ on to other assignments, the teacher paused _______ Douglas’ desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was.

The little boy looked away and muttered, “It’s…”

________ aside a tear, the teacher went on with her work.

【推荐3】One Monday morning, while the children were enjoying “free play”, I stepped to the doorway of the classroom to take a _______. Suddenly, I _______ a movement of the heavy wooden door. This was the very door I _______ guided the children through to ensure their safety from the bitter cold. I felt a chill go through my body.

My legs carried me to that door, and I pushed it open. It was one of my kindergarteners who I thought was _______ that day. He had been dropped off at school late and was _______ to open the door.

He must have been _______ there for quite a while! Without a word, I _______ him to the hospital. He was treated for frostbite on his hands. He’d need time to _______, and wouldn’t come for class the next day, I thought.

The next morning, one of the first to _______ was my little frostbitten boy. Not only did he run in with ________, but his ________ could be heard as loud as ever! I gave him a warm hug and told him how ________ I was to see him. His words have stayed with me all these years, “I knew you would open the door.”

That cold Monday morning, he waited a long, long while for adults to ________. To a child, every minute feels like forever. He didn’t ________ to walk back home; he waited and trusted. This five-year-old taught me a powerful lesson in ________.

【推荐1】Many people say their most painful moments are saying goodbye to those they love. After watching Cheryl, my daughter-in-law, through the six long months her mother suffered towards death, I think the most painful _______ can be in the waiting to say goodbye.

Cheryl made the two-hour trip over and over to be with her mother. They spent the long afternoons praying, comforting, and retelling their _______ memories.

As her mother was getting _______, Cheryl always sat for hours _______ watching her mother sleeping. Each time she kissed her mother before leaving, her mother would say in _______, “I’m sorry you drove so far and sat for so long and I didn’t even _______ up to talk with you.”

Cheryl would tell her it didn’t matter, still her mother felt _______ and apologized at each goodbye _______ the day Cheryl found a way to give her mother the same reassurance(安慰) her _______ had given to her so many times.

“Mom, do you __________ when I made the high school basketball team?” Cheryl’s mother nodded. “For every game you’d __________ so far and sit for so long and I never even left the bench to play. Each time I felt __________ and apologized to you for wasting your time.” Cheryl __________ took her mother’s hand.

“Do you remember what you would say to me?”

“I would say I didn’t come to see you __________, I came to see you.”

“And you __________ those words, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I really did.”

“Well, now I say the __________ words to you. I didn’t come to see you __________. I came to see you.”

Her mother understood and smiled as she floated back into sleep.

Their __________ together passed quietly into days, weeks, and months. To the last day they cared each other in the __________, love given and received just by seeing each other.

A love so strong that, __________ in this deepened silence that followed their last goodbye, Cheryl can still hear her mother’s love.

【推荐2】In casual conversations, there is a seemingly simple question I can never answer without hesitating — “Where are you from?”

I could say I am from Thailand, where I was born. Or I am from Mexico, where I _________ majority of my childhood. Or I am from the US, whose language is _________ in my life. In my mind, none of these answers are satisfying enough. _________, to be from somewhere carries _________ of understanding “your” culture and “your” home.

I feel _________ whenever my friends say they’re “going home” for school breaks. As a student who frequently moves, I have never seen my living space as “home”, but “_________”, another location to stay in before I unavoidably move again.

So, does this mean I do not have, and will never have, a home? I _________ living with this sense of sadness, until very recently.

Inside my dorm drawer is a never-used white towel that I brought from my parents’ house. One day, I took it out, but stopped after _________ the soft, sweet detergent (洗衣粉), the one my parents used back in Thailand. I felt my eyes _________ as that smell fired up my mixed emotions: sadness and nostalgia (念旧), a strong feeling of missing home. I still avoid using that towel until now because I don’t want to __________ the smell of nostalgia with my newly-bought detergent.

Sadly, even with this new discovery, I will still __________ when answering where I am from, and I will always feel a sense of loss in not having a(n) __________ home to “go back to”. __________ in random moments, when a smell __________ me with the memories it brings, I like to believe that the things I feel then are things people feel when they are home. And if these moments can make me smile, even with a sense of __________, what better home can I ask for?

【推荐3】As a child ,I hated going to the store with my mom. Whenever my mom asked if I wanted to go______, I would say , “No, mom!’Who wants to get car sick and walk near the frozen section(冷 冻区)? That’s the______ part --- the freezers and smell of seafood. Why would any mom____their only child this way? I hated it. _____ , I did get cookies, French fries, and chocolate. This____ treatment went on until I left for Culver Academies.

Here at Culver, I had no chance to walk around with my mom and get snacks I wanted. I found myself stuck(被困住) at the _____ whose store had high prices for a slice of cheese. I ___walking near the frozen sections with my mom.

My first vacation home, my mom asked what I wanted from the _____ , knowing I wouldn’t go.

“Can I ___？”I asked with a look of _____ because I wanted to spend time with her. I also felt sad while asking _____ I took all those _____for granted in my childhood.

I ____ come home now. But when I do, I ____ to go with her every time. If not, I always say, “Love you mom. Drive safe!” I run to the gate and watch her______.I wave ,smile, and ____ that I stay home.

As a child , I hated going shopping with my mom, but now I ____ it. I like walking near the frozen sections of stores now--- it gives me a(an)______to stay with her. When I go with her, I really______ every detail in our trips. Now I’m eighteen and will be in college soon. I hope she knows how much those eight minutes’______ to the store meant to me .Thanks mom.

【推荐2】Yesterday I went to the nursing home to visit my grandma. We hugged, kissed and _______ greetings. Then I heard a woman crying. It was my grandma’s _______. The curtain was drawn so I could not _______ her. She started calling out a _______ that wasn’t mine but she was _______ talking to me, begging me to go to her side of the room.

I took no _______ of her at first then she said, “Please, come to see me!” When I drew the _______ back, she looked so old and _______ but flashed me the biggest smile! She opened her arms wide so I bent low and gave her a _______. I talked with her for a few minutes. She kept calling me by the other name but I did not ________ her. She told me ________ as if I had been there when they happened. Then I went back to visit my grandma. But the woman started ________ again, saying, “Please, come back.”

I stopped by the nurse’s station and the nurse told me that the lady ________ Alzheimer’s (阿尔兹罕默氏症). I ________ the name she had called me. The nurse told me it was the lady’s daughter’s name. Then I understood ________ she wanted me to visit her.

We will all get ________ someday. Some of us will break ________, like my grandma’s roommate and some of us will break bodies like my grandma. But what is ________ is the fact that both ladies haven’t broken spirits.

As I was leaving, I ________ I would go back and visit the lady, ________ after my grandma moves back to her home.