【推荐1】Jenifer Mauer has needed more willpower than the typical college student to pursue her goal of earning a nursing degree. That willpower bore fruit when Jennifer graduated from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and became the first in her large family to earn a bachelor's degree.

Mauer, of Edgar, Wisconsin, grew up on a farm in a family of 10 children. Her dad worked at a job away from the farm, and her mother ran the farm with the kids. After high school, Jennifer attended a local technical college, working to pay her tuition, because there was no extra money set aside for a college education. After graduation, she worked to help her sisters and brothers pay for their schooling.

Jennifer now is married and has three children of her own. She decided to go back to college to advance her career and to be able to better support her family while doing something she loves: nursing. She chose the UW-Eau Claire program at Ministry Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield because she was able to pursue her four-year degree close to home. She could drive to class and be home in the evening to help with her kids. Jenifer received great support from her family as she worked to car her degree: Her husband worked two jobs to cover the bills, and her 68-year-old mother helped take care of the children at times.

Through it all, she remained in good academic standing and graduated with honors. Jennifer sacrificed to achieve her goal, giving up many nights with her kids and missing important events to study. “Some nights my heart was breaking to have to pick between my kids and studying for exams or papers,” she says. However, her children have learned an important lesson witnessing their mother earn her degree. Jennifer is a first-generation graduate and an inspiration to her family-and that's pretty powerful.

【推荐3】John was waiting for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose. Thirteen months ago, in a Florida library he took a book off the shelf and found himself attracted by the notes in the margin (页边). The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.

In front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort, he located her address. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. During the next year and one month, the two grew to know each other through the mail. A romance was developing. John requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like. Later they scheduled their first meeting - 7:00 p.m. at Grand Central Station in New York.

“You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my coat.” So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for the girl with the red rose.

A young woman in a green suit was coming towards him, her figure long and slim and her eyes were blue as flowers. Almost uncontrollably he made one step closer to her, and just at this moment he saw Hollis Maynell - a woman well past 40. The girl was walking quickly away. He felt as though he was at a loss, so eager was his desire to follow her, and yet so deep was his longing for the woman whose spirit had truly accompanied him and upheld his own.

He did not hesitate. He squared his shoulders and said, “I’m John, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?”

The woman smiled, “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you she is waiting for you in the restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”

It’s not difficult to admire wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive.

【推荐1】This was the first communication that had come from her aunt in Jessie’s lifetime.

“I think your aunt has forgiven me at last,” her father said as he passed the letter across the table.

Jessie looked first at the autograph(签名). It seemed strange to see her own name there. There was a likeness between her aunt’s autograph and her own, a hint of the same decisiveness and precision. If Jessie had been educated fifty years earlier, she might have written her name in just that manner.

“You’re very like her in some ways,” her father said, as she still stared at the autograph.

“I should think you must almost have forgotten what Aunt Jessie was like, dear,” she said. “How many years is it since you last saw her?”

“More than forty,” her father said. “We disagreed. We invariably disagreed. Jessie always prided herself on being so modern. She read Darwin and things like that. Altogether beyond me, I admit.”

“And so it seems that she wants to see me.” Jessie straightened her shoulders and lifted her head. She was excited at the thought of meeting this mythical aunt whom she had so often heard about. Sometimes she had wondered if the personality of this remarkable relative had not been a figment(虚构) of her father’s imagination.

But this letter of hers that now lay on the breakfast table was admirable in character. There was something of intolerance expressed in its tone. It was just like what her father had told her.

Mr. Deane came out of his past memories with a sigh.

“Yes, yes; she wants to see you, my dear,” he said. “I’ve heard she has set up a school and helped many youngsters. I think you had better accept this invitation to stay with her. If she took a fancy to you, you could get a better education…”

He sighed again, and Jessie knew that for the hundredth time he was regretting his own past weakness...

【推荐3】When I was 9, we packed up our home in Los Angeles and arrived at Heathrow, London on a gray January morning. Everyone in the family settled quickly into the city except me. Without my beloved beaches and endless blue—sky days, I felt at a loss and out of place. Until I made a discovery.

Southbank, at an eastern bend in the Thames, is the center of British skateboarding, where the continuous crashing of skateboards left your head ringing .I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language. And my favorite: Safe. Safe meant cool. It meant hello. It meant don't worry about it. Once, when trying a certain trick on the beam（横杆）, I fell onto the stones, damaging a nerve in my hand, and Toby came over, helping me up: Safe, man. Safe. A few minutes later, when I landed the trick, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting: “ Safe! Safe! Safe!” And that's what mattered—landing tricks, being a good skater.

When I was 15, my family moved to Washington. I tried skateboarding there, but the locals were far less welcoming. Within a couple of years, I'd given it up.

When I returned to London in 2004, I found myself wandering down to Southbank, spending hours there. I've traveled back several times since, most recently this past spring. The day was cold but clear: tourists and Londoners stopped to watch the skaters. Weaving（穿梭）among the kids who rushed by on their boards, I found my way to the beam. Then a rail—thin teenager, in a baggy white T—shirt, skidded（滑）up to the beam. He sat next to me. He seemed not to notice the man next to him. But soon I caught a few of his glances. “I was a local here 20 years ago,” I told him. Then, slowly, he began to nod his head. “Safe, man. Safe.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Safe.”

What message does the author seem to convey in the text?