【推荐2】Love Is Blind: The Magic of Tabby

In October, 2003 I started my work at my local animal shelter’s Adoption Department. Over the years, more than 50,000 animals have ______ the doors of the shelter. Most of them, I do not remember. But occasionally there are ______ animals, who touch me so deeply that I could never possibly ______ them. Tabby was one such animal.     Tabby was an ancient Cocker Spaniel, probably 14 years old. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s chances at adoption seemed ______ at best. After all, we didn’t have many adopters coming in ______, “Can you show me all of your really old dogs who are also ______ ?” We had all thought that Tabby would live out the rest of her life at the ______.

One day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, had ______ Tabby’s picture and stories on the shelter’s website at home. They were interested in meeting her! It was the only ______ we ever received about Tabby. What could a young child possibly see in a 14-year-old dog who was both blind and deaf? Most boys would want a dog who could grow with them and ______ through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would ______ be able to do that. But after meeting her, Loretta and Gary decided that she was the right dog for their family. They adopted Tabby!   If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her ______ adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed. ______, it was what happened after her adoption that people might regard as “magic”. Gary _____ from seizures(癫痫). Since Gary and Tabby met they became ______. They did everything together. They became so “in tune” with one another that Tabby began to telegraph Gary’s seizures ______ they occurred, giving his family ______ that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s ______.

How could it be? Nobody could explain _____ Tabby did it. But those of us who were fortunate enough to know her and her family had ______ the magic, the kind that has its roots in love.

【推荐3】I was 17 years old. Along with a dozen other boys, I made the long trip to Iowa in order to see a _________ that I was thinking of attending.

Although the trip had been fun for the most part, now that I was there l was feeling _________. I was missing my family and _________ that I wouldn’t be seeing them very much if I went to school here. I was also missing the Appalachian Mountains where I grew up. I _________ walking in the forests of maple (枫树) and pine trees. I loved how the _________ turned a thousand shades (树荫) of green in the spring and then became a sea of red, gold, and orange in the fall. I loved the smell of countless wild flowers that grew in our garden. These things were a _________of me.

Here in low a everything was _________. The grass looked burnt and _________. All that I could smell was a _________ of corn, mud and pigs. I walked outside the dormitory and sat under a tree. I closed my eyes, __________ being back home again.

When I finally __________ the eyes, however, I saw something that touched my soul. It was the __________. It seemed to __________ the sky. Gold, red, purple and pink clouds flowed together like a picture. It was so huge and I was __________ in the beautiful scenery. It made our mountain sunsets seem __________ by comparison. I was filled with __________. I realized that I had been __________ and judgmental (妄下结论的). This place had its own special __________.

Over the years to come I __________ something else. Each of us also has a special beauty. We all have our own unique (独特的) talents and abilities. We all have a beautiful, powerful love that __________ we can share.

【推荐1】A lot of people fear getting old, because ageing is often linked to loneliness. But Terry, 75, in Green Bay, knows _______ what to do to keep sadness from seeping (渗入) into his _______.

Terry, an animal lover whose heart has a very soft spot for cats, _______ drops by the animal shelter in Green Bay to hold the _______ cats close and take a short nap with them.

The pleasant _______ of the old man taking a short sleep while surrounded with cats _______ the workers. It had such a beautiful _______ that the workers always found themselves taking _______ of Terry and all the cats and posted them on the Facebook page.

_______ one photo with the cat, Lois, attracted the followers of the page, and ________ over 47 thousand likes and was shared by about 25 thousand! In fact, in less than a day, Lois was ________ by a new family.

Terry has become popular on the Internet. But more than the ________, the old man is very happy to know that his love for cats is bringing a lot of help to the animal shelter by ________ a lot of people to contribute to the shelter.

Terry is happy, the ________ behind which is not difficult to understand. His story just goes to show how a small ________ can make a big difference.

【推荐2】I have reached the turning point of the day’s kayaking (划独木舟) trip. I attempt a shoulder stretch and look around. It’s just me, a couple of seagulls, and shining freshwater to the horizon. This, I whisper to myself, is so ________.

Sole (单独的) outings had never ________ my mind before because I used to have a friend willing to accompany me. But three years ago, I moved to Cleveland. Meeting friends in a new city is ________. And a worldwide health crisis made face-to-face ________ difficult.

In October 2020,I decided to take an adventure on a solo hiking trip. I went to Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP)to ________ the autumn leaves. Four miles in, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so alive. I was more aware of my ________ than I had ever been while hiking that day. I focused my ears on each forest sound and every sentence in my mind pointed to a newfound ________—solo hiking is my happy experience.

I followed that feeling of alertness throughout CVNP during that autumn and eventually added the amazing feeling of frozen winter outings in December. Cold temperatures meant I’d need to be more focused. Heavy snow turned my ________ into a winter wonderland.

When spring arrived, I decided to ________ the final solo sport on my list: kayaking. I felt so proud when I first launched my kayak from the shore. My chest, ________ tightened by nerves (神经), was ________ happiness when I finally reached the middle of the river that I had long admired back on ________.

From that first sunny paddle to many winter hikes, ________ alone seems like a good medicine for me. It’s also pushes me to go beyond my comfort zone and to meet new people. Through meetups and social ________, my adventure-friend circle has increased rapidly. But at least once per month, I scheduled time to ________ nature with my favorite friend: me.

【推荐3】The dawn of a new school year is often full of exciting-and occasionally overwhelming-”firsts”for students. That perhaps explains why a “beautiful”_______of a school bus driver, Isabel Izzy Lane,_________a crying 4-year-old boy on his first day of school has gone viral(疯传)online.

Last Monday, Amy Johnson’s young son Axel_______to preschool in their hometown, and felt “super_________” for the big day-until it was time to get on the_______that morning. As soon as the bus_______the corner, her youngster fell silent_______bursting into tears when the bus doors_______. His mother got him on the bus. As the youngster got_______in his seat directly behind Lane, tears rolling down his face, the merciful driver________to offer a hand for the boy to________, which Amy immediately caught on camera.

The small act of kindness________a whole lot to Axel, who finally calmed down and felt       ________enough to take the bus on his own the next day. “ I didn’t think it was that big of a deal__________, just I guess, but it’s just something that I would do.” Lane later told WEAU.

“The day after that, he was waiting at the bus stop all by himself.” Lane said.

In a larger________, Lane hopes the simple________reminds others that the smallest acts of kindness can often have the biggest effects on other people’s lives. “ You don’t have to say anything, but just to________someone you are there,” she said. “That makes a big________to someone’s day.”

In the days since, Johnson’s photo of the________back-to -school moment has been shared by social media, receiving more than 1,200 likes and more than 220________on Facebook.

【推荐1】As Gwen Erickson approached 97, she began raising one of America’s most popular, yet endangered butterflies—the monarch butterfly (帝王蝶). She managed to _________ 27 butterflies last year and this year the _________ has gone up to 61.

Though some might say that nature should be left to _________itself, the butterflies’ population is _________ rapidly. They need a little extra help. _________, the devotion is exactly what the 97-year-old is able to _________ for her little winged friends.

The whole process is a little _________, beginning with collecting eggs from the milkweed leaves that grow in her backyard. Four days after Erickson placed the eggs in jars on her living room table, the caterpillar (毛毛虫) appeared, and then, within several weeks, formed a chrysalis s(蛹). Two weeks later the beautiful butterflies _________. Erickson then released the butterflies into the wild, but a couple seemed a little _________ to leave their loving home and __________ the senior by flying around the house.

Erickson remembered her first attempt to raise the __________ and said she hoped it could enable her grandchildren to __________ an interest in these beautiful insects. However, it’s she who has found the __________ in raising butterflies in the end.

Erickson doesn’t like to talk about herself and what she does, but she does so this time as she wants to __________ others to care for this endangered species. Happily, a friend and her son have joined her in her new- found __________. Hopefully, we will see a(n) __________ in those decreasing numbers.

This new __________ is a fine example of people __________ the smaller things in life. It __________ us that it’s never too late to be __________ in life.

【推荐2】The 8-year-old boy across the street stormed in and out of his own house very often. A neighbor, William Dunn,_________ what was going on in his life. So Dunn asked him.

“He told me that he didn’t have a_________, ” says Dunn, now 58, “and I realized there was_________I could do for him. That something was_________, a passion Dunn’s father had shared with him.”

Dunn has taken groups of kids out almost every _________ to fish. Most didn’t have father figures in their lives and had never fished. “They’d been through a lot, and their lives were_________, ” Dunn says. “But when they were fishing, all of that_________Out on the boat, they’d be smiling, and even_________.”

Jayden, now 13, has become a devoted fisherman and _________Dunn with helping him mature. “I hope he knows I mean it when I say thank you,” he says.

Just as_________as the fishing are the _________Dunn forms with the kids. “When Jayden was going through a_________ period recently in study — I let Dunn know that his grades were suffering and he had a little talk with Jayden, ”Jayden’s mother says. To her delight, Jayden’s grades _________improved in the next exam.“There is nothing like seeing a kid _________ with a smile,”Dunn says. “I feel lucky to _________ that every weekend.”

【推荐3】Haven by the Bus Stop

After Ranga, my husband, was transferred to Delhi in 2013, a big problem concerned our eight-year-old son Siddart’t schooling. The school bus would ____ him a couple of kilometers from our home. Since I also ____ a toddler (学步的孩子), I couldn’t go over to the bus stop to fetch Siddart.

So my navy officer husband got ____ from his office to leave work, pick Siddart up on his motorbike, drop him home and return to ____. In those days, road construction work caused long traffic jams nearby, making school bus timings ____. Reaching the stop in time wasn’t easy for Ranga as well.

The Delhi heat was ____, but Siddart would get off the bus and wait for his dad until the day an elderly man who ____ close to the bus stop came to him. “Come and sit inside my home,” he asked.

“Dad will come here to ____ me,” Siddart told the man.

Anyhow, the man smiled and ____ him home. His daughter gave Siddart a snack and asked him to be ____ while the man went out and waited just where Siddart stood.

When Ranga rode there, he became worried. “Your son is ____ us,” the man told him and took my husband into his ____. The elderly man then asked Ranga to sit down and have a glass of water. “Sir, this ____ of your son waiting for you on the pavement is not a suitable one,” he told my husband. “There are many ____ facing a small child out there alone. It’s also so hot.”

My husband listened patiently wondering what to do, ____ we had no other choice. “Let your son come to our house every day,” the man went on. “This will ensure he is ____ and you won’t have to worry.”

Ranga nodded in ____. The man noted down his office phone number as well as a few others to contact, just in ____. His only condition was that we should ____ him in advance if on any day Siddart was not ____ school. This worked for the four months we were in Delhi. We became close to the family.