【推荐1】My fifth graders are Latino. Tm always impressed by what they know, what they don’t know and what _________ them up.

St. Patrick s Day approaching, I want them to have a _________ about it. What is St. Patrick’s Day about?” I ask.

A voice blurts, “The ones who _________ over cans.”

“What?” I question.

A girl _________ him. “Maybe he means the ‘duendes’, ” she says, _________ gnomes (地精） in Spanish folktale. “Like   ‘leprechauns’ in English! ‘Lep’ equals ‘ leap’, ‘re’ equals ‘over’ and ‘chauns’ equal ‘ cans.’” She is cautious and protective in her _________ But I have to laugh. Leap-over-cans, It’s a _________. These kids make me laugh a lot.

I _________ myself and continue. “Right, leprechauns are fairies the _________ believe in. You made a correct __________ about Ireland, ’’

I tell them St. Patrick was a kid, __________ older than they are. He was kidnapped to Ireland and made to watch sheep for six years, all __________ in the middle of nowhere. He __________ a lot, not much else to do.

The kids are totally __________, big-eyed.

“He decided to escape. He walked about 200 miles and __________ a captain of a boat to bring him back to England. More __________, he went back to Ireland later and converted the Irish people into Christianity. __________ that, he’s called a saint.”

A hand __________ up. I figure here's a critical-thinking question. So I __________.

“St. Patrick left the sheep all alone. What happened to them?”

How am I __________ to know? Class moments like this are what keep teachers going.

【推荐2】A number of customers crowded around Justin’s hot dog stand (货摊) at the local park. He was busy ________ to serve them. Someone ordered 3 hot dogs and requested extra sauces (调味汁). While he quickly ________ the three hot dogs and added a very ________ amount of sauces on top, he noticed an old woman pushing through the crowd to ________ his stand.

“How much would a hot dog be?” she asked.

“From $ 3 to $ 7 ________ what you order, madam,” he replied.

“That’s a touch expensive for me,” she whispered. “I was just ________ about how much they cost,” she added before walking away. Justin noticed she went sitting alone on a bench looking in his ________ across his stand. He ________ she wanted a hot dog hungrily but couldn’t ________ one. He quickly got one and brought it to her.

Justin ________ to the old lady saying he was in such a ________ that he forgot to tell her that she was his 50th customer and that she should get a free hot dog!

“Oh, is that so?” the old lady asked, “I really ________ it. I’m Emily, by the way.”

“I’m Justin,” he ________ himself, offering the hot dog. She tasted it ________.

The next day, when Emily returned to the park, Justin treated her to a hot dog again. Emily refused. She felt bad that Justin was feeding her because she couldn’t afford the hot dog. But Justin explained he was so ________ that there was someone trying out his sauces, and her feedback mattered to him so he could improve his business. Eventually, he kept feeding her every day.

Sometimes, we don’t have to be rich to help someone.

【推荐3】It was Jennifer Williams’s mother who got her hooked on books. When Williams, now 54, became an elementary school teacher in Danville, Virginia, she wanted her ________ to fall in love with ________ just as she had. But early on, she realized that some kids had ________ access to books.

“At the end of the first day of school, it’s very ________ to teachers which kids are read to and which kids are not,” she said. To Williams, the ________ was simple: Give kids books. In 2017, as part of a charity event called Engage Danville, she ________ 900 used children’s books over three days. “I just ________ to do something that’s going to stretch my faith.” she said.

So she set a new ________ for herself: Donate one million books. It sounds like an ________ number, but as Williams posted on Facebook: “Don’t complain in the bleachers (露天看台) if you aren’t ________ to work hard out on the field.”

So she got to work, first by ________ friends to donate books or money to buy books. Before long, as news of Williams’s project ________, strangers started ________ bundles of books on her front porch. As ________ as the books come in, Williams ________ them to local schools and little free libraries around the city.       By 2021, in the four ________ she’s been doing all this, the Book Lady, as Williams has come to be known, has given away more than 78,000 books—only 922,000 more to ________ her goal! And she’s not ________. It’s too important for kids with few ________.

“Reading can take you anywhere,” she told CNN. “You can travel in time and space. If you can read, there’s nothing you can’t ________.”