【推荐1】Sharing a sense of style

When I woke up on Aug 4, 2016, there was only one thing on my mind: what to wear. A billion _______        raced through my brain in the closet. I didn't want to come off as trying too hard, but I also didn't want to be seen as a lazy and _______ girl. Not only was it my first day of high school, but it was my first. day of school in a new state; first impressions are _______ and it was important for me to _______ the people who I would spend the next four years with..

This was my third time being the _______ kid. But this time was _______ because my dad promised that I would start and _______ high school in the same place. This time mattered, and that made me _______ .       

After carefully _______ my closet, I proudly came out in a ________ from Target. The soft cotton was ________ and the ruffled shoulders added a hint of fun. Yes, this outfit was the one. An hour later, I felt powerful as I ________ toward room 1136. But as I entered class, my jaw ________to the floor.

Sitting at her desk was Mrs Hutfilz, my English teacher, ________ exactly the same dress as me. I kept my head ________ and walked to my seat silently. I made it through my brief introduction ________ until Mrs Hutfilz stood up, jokingly adding that she liked my style. Although this was the moment I had been ________ from the moment I walked in, all my anxiety surprisingly ________ , and the students paid attention as I shared my story. My smile grew as I laughed with the students. After class, I stayed behind and talked to Mrs Hutfilz, relieved to make a humorous and real connection.

Looking back four years later, the ten minutes I spent afraid of giving my speech were really not worth it. My first period of high school certainly made the day ________ in the best way and taught me that Mrs Hutfilz has an awesome sense of ________ !

【推荐2】Jenna, a popular girl from Westwood Middle School, had graduated first in her class and was ready for new _________ in high school.

_________, high school was different. In the first week, Jenna went to tryouts (选拔赛) for cheerleaders (拉拉队队员). She was _________ against very talented girls, and she knew it would be _________ for her to be selected. Two hours later, the _________ read a list of the girls for a second tryout. Her heart sank as the list ended without her name. Feeling _________, she walked home carrying her schoolbag full of homework.

Arriving home, she started with math. She had always been a good math student, but now she was _________. She moved on to English and history, and was relieved to find that she didn’t have any _________ with those subjects. Feeling better, she decided not to _________ math for the time being.

The next day Jenna went to see Mrs. Biden about being on the school __________. Mrs. Biden wasn’t as enthusiastic (热情的) as Jenna. “I’m sorry, but we have enough ________ for the newspaper already. Come back next year and we’ll talk then.” Jenna smiled __________ and left. “Why is high school so __________?” she sighed.

Later in __________ class, Jenna applied herself to figuring out the problems that had given her so much trouble. By the end of class, she __________ how to get them right. As she gathered her books, Jenna decided she’d __________ to try to fit in at her new school. She wasn’t __________ whether she’d succeed, but she knew she had to __________.

High school was just as her mom had said, “You will feel like a small fish in a big pond __________ a big fish in a small pond. The challenge is to become the __________ fish you can be.”

【推荐3】Growing up in Kenya was amazing because I learned so much, though the poverty and lack of resources were sometimes frustrating. I knew I didn’t have much, but I was ________.

There was only one thing I wasn’t happy with: ________. I wanted to go to high school and university. I had the drive, the will and the grades, ________ I didn’t have the resources. Even ________ things like food, water and shelter weren’t readily available. Young people in poverty have little or no   ________ to high schools and universities. Where I lived, it was challenging ________ someone helped. When I left primary school, I was in the same ________ as many other poor disadvantaged youth. ________, during that year, a charitable high school for girls, Starehe Girls Centre, was ________ and I received a scholarship. Today, I am ________ record as being the first student to be enrolled in this school.

In 2006, my school __________ The Global Give Back Circle, a not-for-profit organization for ________ disadvantaged girls to complete their education and gain ________ skills. After graduating from high school, I was given access to a nine-month IT course. ________, its give-back attitude had taught us to not only care about ourselves but other people. With this in mind, 10 of us created a website called “Hey Sister, Get Clued-Up”. Through this educational website, aimed at networking 10,000 African ________ worldwide, all Sisters commit to sending information to their villages. This can be to ________ financial freedom, advance information   ________   to health issues and provide knowledge about social networking behavior.

“Hey Sister, Get Clued-Up” is only ________   to those girls who can access the Internet, which highlights the huge challenge in ________ the divide between the haves and have-nots. But our plan is that these girls will   ________ what they learn to other girls through the “power of their voice”.

【推荐1】My story is about love and loss.

I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I _______Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in 10 years Apple had _______from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 _______.

We just released our finest creation—the Macintosh a year earlier. And I had just turned 30 and then I got fired. How can you get _______ from a company you started. Well as Apple grew we hired someone ,who I thought was very _______, to run the company with me. And for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge(分歧). And _______we had a   _______. When we did, our Board of Directors _______ with him. So at 30, I was out and very _______out. What had been the ________of my entire adult life was gone. And it was destructive. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt I was a very public ________ and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved ________I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been ________ but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then. But it________ that getting fired from Apple, was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the ________of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It ________me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next 5 years, I started a company named NeXT and created the world's first computer animated feature film "Toy Story". And it is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable ________of events, Apple bought NeXT. And I returned to Apple.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened, if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was ________ tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's gonna hit you in the head ________a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm ________that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.

【推荐2】In June 2019, Curtis Whitson and his family decided to go backpacking along central California's Arroyo Seco River. Things went _______ for the first two days. On June 16, Whitson, who was _______ with the area, led the trip to a waterfall in the Arroyo Seco narrows (峡谷).

Whitson had _______ to rappel (绕绳而下) down the side of a waterfall along the river. _______,when they reached the waterfall, Whitson realized that _______ his previous trip through the area, the water currents (水流) were too strong to pass. “My heart _______ when I realized that.” Whitson told CNN. To make matters worse, the rope was missing. Since going back the way they had arrived was _______ as well, they tried to _______other routes to get around it. But their _______ proved fruitless. With food running low and no cellphone reception to ________ help, he decided to carve a “GET HELP” message on the side of his water bottle and threw it across the waterfall in the ________ that someone would find it. Then they went back up the river to a small beach to ________ out for the night.

Sometime after midnight, the three adventurers were ________ by a welcome sound — a helicopter flying overhead. Since it was too dark to conduct a(n) ________, the officials asked them to stay warm for the night, and promised to ________ a team the following day.

Shortly after being ________, Whitson discovered that two hikers had tripped upon their water bottle and, upon seeing the urgent ________, reported the issue to the officials. Whitson says, “They didn’t ________ their name or phone number. They just did what was right in their heart, and most importantly they took it ________. The Whitsons hope the two good hikers will reveal their ________ so that they can express their gratitude in person.”

【推荐3】I took a job as a receptionist for a pet doctor almost five decades ago. As an eager animal lover, I accepted the _______ on condition that I wouldn’t have to assist with any wounded animals. I couldn’t bear to see any creature in _______.

At the end of my first week, we were closing the office for the day when a young man ran up to us holding a severely _______ Doberman pinscher puppy (杜宾犬) in his arms and _______ us to save his life. The four-month-old puppy had been hit by a car. The doctor and I ran back into the _______ room. The doctor worked _______ for what seemed like hours, stitching (缝合) him back together again. That was the _______ part. The puppy had broken multiple bones, including his backbone. Even if he _______ the next few days, we were quite sure he would never walk again.

That day forever _______ my life. The doctor guided me, and I became his ________ in all things medical. One of my first jobs was to give that Doberman puppy daily physical treatment. I remember moving his ________ legs to try to keep his muscles from weakening. Weeks went by until one day, I felt this little ________ push back ever so slightly. And he continued to push back till he could finally use his legs.

Fast-forward about a year. I walked into the clinic’s crowded waiting room and called the name of the next client. ________, a huge Doberman standing quietly with his owner on the opposite side of the room ________ and dashed toward me. I found myself pressed against the wall with this magnificent dog ________ on his back legs, his front paws on my shoulders, ________ my face with countless and ________ kisses!

I still tear up in ________ at the display of love and ________ the dog had for me that day all those years ago. I went on to be a pet doctor for 14 years until retirement. In all the time that has passed and all the experiences I have had, I’ve ________ met a dog who didn’t know it had been rescued in one way or another.