【推荐3】If you think your woman would never lie to you, guess again. From little ____ lies to the more serious variety, most women will hold back the ____ at some point in a relationship. Her motivation ____ lying can stem (起源于) from wanting to protect your feelings or, sure enough, to save her own butt (抵触).

One day, when a seamstress（女裁缝师）was sewing ____ sitting close to a river, her thimble（顶针）fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord ____ and asked, ‘My dear child, why are you crying?’ The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and ________ she needed it to help her husband in making a living for their family. The Lord dipped his hand into the water and ____ a golden thimble set with sapphires(蓝宝石).

‘Is this your thimble?’ the Lord asked. The seamstress replied, ‘No.’The Lord again dipped into the river. He ____ a silver thimble.

‘Is this your thimble?’ the Lord asked. Again, the seamstress replied, ‘No.’

The Lord ____ down again and came up with a leather thimble.

‘Is this your thimble?’ the Lord asked. The seamstress replied, ‘Yes.’ The Lord was pleased with the woman’s ____ and gave her all three thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home, much ___ .

Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the ___ , and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the water. ____ she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked her, ‘Why are you crying?’ ‘Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!’

The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney. ‘Is this your husband?’ the Lord asked.

‘Yes,’ cried the seamstress. The Lord was ___. ‘You lied! That is a(n) ___ !’ The seamstress replied, ‘Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a ___. You see, if I had said ‘no’ to George Clooney, you would have come up with Brad Pitt. Then if I said ‘no’ to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said ‘yes,’ you would have given me ____. Lord, I’m not in the best of health and ____ be able to take care of all three husbands, ___ THAT’S why I said ‘yes’ to George Clooney.’

The ____ of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it’s for a good and honorable reason, and in the best interest of others.

【推荐1】One day I took an orange — and — white cat home, which I called Splash. However, I had one concern with __ her to my dog, Bee, which had a distinct __ for cats. My own cats were wise enough to ___themselves in the barn（谷仓）and fields. I was _____ that Splash didn't understand this and would be a victim.

I took Splash to the barn, but soon she __ the house and was curious about it. She made a straight line for the door. Bee enjoyed the ___ at the door, so when Splash showed up, Bee came up in ____ But Splash faced her threatener ___ and swiped at（(猛击）the approaching dog. Then something ___ happened： Bee pulled to a sudden stop. He __ and went back to the back door slowly.

Every day for the next few weeks, Splash would walk to the___ in the morning, and Bee would come and try to drive her away, only to find a____enemy. Over the next few months, I watched an aggressive dislike turn into a playful __ between the two. They began to share the back-door space and sometimes the __ especially for the faithful dog.

One day, seeing the two companions playing together, I ____ this dog and cat were almost the same as the nations of this world. Actually, some of us are like Bee, who started a fight with the intention of____ an unwanted invasion（入侵），and some of us are like Splash, just wanting someone to __ life with. Bee and Splash are two different animals with the natural tendency that should put them in _______. Yet they've come to a place where all the ______ are set aside, and they_______ each other fully. Why can't we?

【推荐2】At the age of 16, Einstein _________ in several exams because he often played with some bad kids. One weekend morning, Einstein carried a fishing net and prepared to go fishing with those kids. His father stopped him and said to him _________, “Einstein, you were spending too much time playing, so I’m _________ about your future with your mother.”

“What are you worrying about? Jack and Robert didn’t pass the exams, either, but they went fishing as usual.”

“My boy, you can’t think so.” _________ at Einstein, his father said lovingly. “There is a _________ in our hometown. I hope you can listen to it carefully.”

“There were two cats playing on the roof. _________, they fell into the chimney. When they climbed out of the chimney, one cat’s face was dirty _________ the other’s was clean. Seeing the dirty-faced cat, the clean-faced one thought its own face was also dirty, so it quickly ran to the riverside and washed its _________. The dirty-faced cat saw the clean-faced one, thinking its own face was clean as well, so it still walked happily in the street.”

“Einstein, _________ can be your mirror. Only you are your own mirror. Some of the kids are not strict with themselves. If you take them to be your mirror, even a __________ person may become stupid.” Hearing this, Einstein’s face turned red. He __________ his fishing net and returned to his small room.

After that, Einstein often took himself as a mirror to be strict with himself, and kept telling himself, “I am special, so I needn’t be as common as others.” This was why Einstein __________ in his career.

1,000 people have 1,000 kinds of wishes in life. Different wishes will produce different __________ about life. You can learn from other people, but you can never follow others __________.

You must see yourself clearly, and know what you want to get. Your future doesn’t __________ how others act, but on how you are going to act.

【推荐1】For the longest time, I had always wanted a cat. _______, my parents did not share the same_______. Every year, I would ask for a cat, but I always got the same answer “No”.

So I _______ year after year, hoping they would _______agree. Right when I was about to give up, my seventeenth birthday rolled around. My parents were _______against the cat, but my friends were a different story. On my birthday, they _______ with a wide- eyed ,_______cat named Bandit. At that moment, I was _______ with joy. My lifelong wish had finally come true! I knew my life was about to_______

To my surprise, Bandit is the most timid(胆小的）cat I’ve ever met. I didn’t know how to deal with his actions. Upset and angry, I________him loudly. But that didn’t ________ So then I tried, I regret to say this, forceful ________. Carrying him to the outside world as he meowed(喵喵叫）________ didn’t work, either. During all of this, he was closer to my mom. I felt angry. How could the one thing I loved most love my mom more? I thought over many ________ including: maybe she would speak the language of cats, or she was luring (引诱）him with a secret ________. I went to talk with her about it, excited and ________.

“I didn’t have a secret treat, dear. What I do have is ________,” my mom replied. Ever since then, Bandit has been ________ me to be more and more patient.

He has taught me to grow up. He has also brought my family________by leading me to talk with my parents. We eat dinner together at the table more often now, usually with a Bandit as the________.

【推荐2】My father was a self-taught mandolin player. He was one of the best string instrument players in our town. He could not ______ music, but if he heard a tune a few times, he could play it.

Occasionally, Dad would get out his mandolin and play for the family. We three children: Trisha, Monte and I, George Jr, would often sing ______ the tunes. He seemed to ______ when he was playing. He was always there,   ______ his time and efforts to see that his family had enough in their life. I had to mature into a man and have children of my own ______ I realized how much he had sacrificed.

When Dad was younger, he once worked for Todd Steel in Point of Rocks, Maryland. One day, while working at Todd Steel, he was ______ in an accident. He got the third index finger of his left hand mashed between two pieces of steel and ______ having the tip of the finger amputated. He didn’t lose enough of the finger where it would stop him picking up anything, but it did ______ his ability to play the mandolin.

After the accident, Dad was ______ to play the mandolin. He felt that he could not play as well as he had before the accident. Whenever I asked him to play he would make ______ . Eventually, we would wear him ______ and he would say “Okay, but remember, I can’t hold down on the strings the way I used to.” When he played the old mandolin it would ______ us to a cheerful, happier time in our lives.

In August of 1993 my father was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. About a week before his death, we asked Dad if he would play the mandolin for us. He made excuses as usual but said “okay”. He tuned up the old mandolin and played a few notes. We listened quietly, tears blurring our ______ . We felt at the time that he wouldn’t have enough ______ to play, and that made the memory of that day even stronger. Dad was doing something he had done all his life— ______ . Sick though he was, he was still pleasing others. Dad sure could play that Mandolin!